Ozark Winter Weather: Uncle Cran and Cousin Bill

Uncle Cran in Ozark Snow

The Ozarks have been getting some snow recently, and as you see, Uncle Cran has sent the above photo. Here's another:

Cranless Snow

That extra blue tint makes the scene look even colder! Uncle Cran offered a few words along with these photos, beginning with a brief geography lesson:

This is not Alaska . . . . Just the frozen fields of Arkansas . . . . You have to bundle up, and even wear a ski type mask when you go out.

[These photos were] taken from the South side of the house . . . . You can see that I haven't been able to clear the snow with the tractor or snow shovel. It took a lot of shoveling to just get tracks cleared for the tractor to get to the barn and out to the field. Even then it took a lot of tries to finally get to get the hay bales in the barn area. The snow was so powdery, with ice underneath, that the tractor would just spin and not move anywhere, until I finally was able to get a path cleared.

You can't see my pet dog Buddy [in my arms in the first photo], just the tip of his tail, but every morning after breakfast I have to carry him to the tractor shed so he can unload his breakfast. The only way he can navigate is to follow the tractor tracks and where I shoveled a path. I carry him down, but make him follow me back.

That was Uncle Cran's report from North Central Arkansas -- though I'm still a bit unclear on how the tractor's spinning wheels are connected to the cleared path since Uncle Cran hadn't been able to clear the snow with tractor or shovel, but somehow shoveled a path for the tractor to move upon. Well, there's always a bit of ambiguity in a weather report. Anyway, more snow has fallen since Uncle Cran's email, and Cousin Bill now offers a somewhat ironic report on the weather situation in Northwestern Arkansas:

It's cold here, 29 [degrees fahrenheit] at typing time. We've had mostly lousy weather here all week. Sunshine and blue skies made an appearance twice, otherwise it's been gray and dreary.

Sunday past Scott and Morgan arrived at Buena Vista's Town Center intersection from Olathe[, Kansas] in less than three hours . . . from there to our house required only one hour and fifteen minutes . . . what? . . . yep the roads were so bad here they had a few necessary re-routes. We gave them just enough time to get over the shakes and the road horror stories before I announced "Well guys and gals, I've called Crystal Bridges [Museum,] and they're open, so let's get headed that way." I hadn't driven a half mile when I questioned my sanity (silently), all the while my optimistic mindset telling me the next curve of the road would offer a summer like Arkansas highway view . . . that didn't happen . . . the roads were snow packed and icy all the way to Bentonville's J St and Museum Way . . . the final quarter mile looking like the Arkansas summer highway I'd envisioned.

The best part of the Crystal Bridges visit was the staff's undivided attention . . . answering any questions we asked and offering answers to questions we didn't ask . . . "Did you know . . . the ceiling beams were cut from Arkansas pine?, the benches are made from trees cut right here on the grounds and Rosie the Riveter's pose is exactly as that of Michelangelo's painting of Isaiah". Our answers "Nope, nope and nope". We did observe (on our own) that Rockwell's included a halo above Rosie's head . . . I hadn't noticed that in previous viewings, perhaps the nearby nude bronze female figure got me distracted. I might add the personalized tour wasn't account my esteemed status in the Benton County community, but rather the fact that we were but four of maybe twenty people crazy enough to risk life or limb to visit in inclement weather.

Cousin Bill didn't supply any photos, though I'd like to see one of that Rockwell painting of Rosie the Riveter and compare it to Michelangelo's painting of Isaiah.

Fascinating . . . for me. Seeing the familiar winter snow but reading about an unfamiliar, important art museum in the Ozarks . . .