Prairie Sledding

It's been snowy country around here lately. We are not always fortunate to have a blanket of snow that hasn't blown away into one monstrous drift across the fenceline, so Danish Cowboy and I felt the urge to share a wintery childhood memory with our kids -- sledding! At first, the kids didn't find it so interesting.

Going.

Going.
Gone.
To be fair, we took our first run at sledding right after chores and so we were slightly exhausted (considering that me and the kids had to do the hard work of pitching down hay, caking the cows, checking water, and opening gates -- Danish Cowboy just sat in a tractor). C just couldn't handle it and collapsed on his sister's back, so we headed for the house with promises to try again after naptime.

And try we did! Notice the rope on the sled? Actually, first you should notice the sled. I highly recommend it. It is a heavy duty sled used for pulling newly born calves to the barn on cold stormy nights in March. Mama Cow is more likely to follow it and also not kill us if we put the calf in the sled instead of our arms and drag the sled using a 4-wheeler or pick-up. But seeing as how Mama Cows have two and a half months to go before using this, we took advantage of it. And it works quite nicely, I must say. My hips were almost too large for it, but not quite.
Danish Cowboy's hips were also almost too large for it, but not quite.

And then we remembered that we didn't really have any hills suitable for sledding. The hills we do have are covered in sharp rocks or hard cow pies, so they weren't really ideal for a first childhood sled ride. So we did what any good flatlander would do with access to most mechanized vehicles -- hooked it up to the 4-wheeler. And for the record, we didn't go more than 4 or 5 miles per hour. Honest, Mom.

The kids (and their hokey big-hipped parents I might add) thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was a wonderful afternoon of family time that we will not soon forget. I have visions of someday training my wonder horse, Argo, to pull a sled behind him, but for now the modern day rancher's "horse" will have to do.

I hope that winter is being kind to you and that you are making as many fun memories as we are with our family. These two little people are pretty amazing. So innocent and so adventurous, all at the same time. We can only wonder at what our future adventures with them will be like.