winter fun

The first winter after moving to Oklahoma, when the girls were just kids, I bought them a sled. There was no good hill nearby to slide down, and besides, it might be great fun for kids to barrel down the hillside but for the guy (me) who had to pull it back up it wasn't such a great deal. So I tied the sled to the rear bumper of my truck with a length of rope and towed them behind. That solution was less than perfect; the snow was often thin and frozen and what a bone jarring event when they hit a frozen cow turd. I acquired an inner tube from the tire of an 18-wheeler. I pumped it full of air, laid it horizontal, strapped the sled to it, then connected it to the truck with a 30ft length of rope. Now we're talkin'! What a ride! I did figure eights in our 5-acre pasture, and every time I went into a curve the inner tube/sled would be whipped out at great speed almost overtaking the truck. Now when they hit those frozen cow turds, they took flight. What a comic sight it was; an old yellow truck followed by a huge black donut with two kids hanging on for dear life, and Rachel's pinto pony, two cows, and two goats chasing along behind. Those were good times.