The silence of a snowy morning…..

Something awakened me around 5am. I was lying there, listening, wondering what it was. Slowly I began to realize it was the absence of sound that woke me. I knew immediately that everything was covered with snow.
They have been predicting snow for days, giving us fair warning, time to go to the grocery store. From the lack of sounds, I knew the snow had arrived. It became obvious my drive down to my studio in Paola was no longer part of my day. Now what do I do……..

First, I put on a pot of beef soup bones, nothing fancy, just making stock. And now, several hours later, the house smells wonderful with the rich beefy aroma wafting throughout. A cup of steaming beef broth sounds inviting on a cold snowy day.

No, I am not going to give you a recipe for beef stock; I didn’t roast veggies to be added. I simply took out a Dutch oven, added a little olive oil and when it was hot, I added the bones with salt and pepper. That is it folks, plain and simple. When they were nice and brown (see, I don’t even think of it as “caramelized” with this simple method!), I added water and popped the covered pan in the oven.

My home smells divine! By noontime, ahhhhh, lunch!

Okay, next on my short list of things to do on this wintery day, is work on the genealogy. A third cousin of my sweet Arch sent me an email requesting any information I might have on the Tucker family. I use the Family Tree software and have a membership with Ancestry.com, but Arch was never able to give me much information on distant generations. His cousin will be given what I have, and I can send some accounts of events that Arch spoke of, but sadly, that is it. One story I am anxious to pass on to “Cuz” is of Arch’s great grandfather. He fought in the Civil War, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Arch had been told he died there of pneumonia and was buried in the National Cemetery at Fort Smith, Arkansas.

One day, we loaded up the car and headed south. I had visited other National Cemeteries, but you can never get over those overwhelming and contradictory feelings of grief and joy, pride and embarrassment, glory and defeat. Standing among the thousands of white grave markers of the men and women who have fought for our country makes you feel terribly insignificant. It also makes you stand tall and proud to be an American. I can think of a few “entertainers” (and I use the term loosely) and politicians (certainly not Statesmen) that I would like to drag into the National Cemetery at Fort Leavenworth and give them a good talking to. 

We found his great grandfather Private David Tucker's grave there at Ft Smith. It was in the front row of a section, tucked between two Confederate soldier’s graves. At Fort Smith, the Civil War soldiers were buried in that fashion, one Confederate, one Union, one Confederate, one Union and so forth. We also drove to the scene of the Battle at Pea Ridge, which is now a National Park. On March 7 & 8, 1862, 26,000 soldiers fought here to decide the fate of Missouri. The 4,300-acre park honors those who fought for their way of life. Pea Ridge was one of the most pivotal Civil War battles, and is the most intact Civil War battlefield in the country.

It was a large open field, flat and well manicured, and surprisingly covered by a herd of deer that morning. They were peacefully grazing, occasionally glancing towards us, and the leader of the herd keeping a watchful eye on us. Once again, silence was the theme. It was difficult to imagine the sounds of carnage that once filled that now passive park.

The snow is still coming down; it doesn’t look like I will be getting the new car out of the garage today!

Next on my list of things to do today…..pull that pot of beef out of the oven and proceed with the broth for lunch! And maybe I will bake something this afternoon…after all, the oven is already warmed up.