Snow Bound

I don't think I ever read all of Whittier's "Snow Bound" but last week I had time to do it. Our family was snow bound in, of all places, Louisville, KY. We were far more fortunate than many of our friends and neighbors who had no electric power, heat, and sometime no water. We shared our home with our son James and his family for 3 days and spent a lot of time finding things to do. The kids got out grandma's sewing stuff and we even started putting together a 500 piece puzzle. We had not done that for years. Even the kids enjoyed it.
During our years in Africa, we almost always had a puzzle going on a table in the living room and there was always a kerosene lamp ready to go. For over a year, Greta and I lived in a rural village with no electricity. We had solar pannels and deep cycle 12 vold batteries for our ham radio and travel trailor lighting at night. Our kerosene refrigerator worked well and we had no need of heat. I even built Greta a charcole stove with an oven. It seemed fun in those days, but it is much different to be snow bound.