What do you hate most about winter?

[Guest]

-MISERY UPDATE-
You know what they say about misery liking company? Well, I had lots to spare and no-one to share it with. Mother nature hid her heavenly face behind smudged skies, while ol' misery guts me pushed cement snow around. It was like I was talking to myself or something. While struggling with my 150' city sidewalk a lovely neighbour with her lovely little dog and her lovely little daughter walked past. We exchanged pleasantries. The dog was wisely mute. She might be in a miserable mood too, but who knows? The friendly smiles and cute munchkin snow boots which lit up with every step, put a smile on my face. The lovely little pooch even had little booties on. I begrudged my quiet friend another smile, while Ms M. Nature wasn't looking.
She: "I don't know why you're shovelling again tonight. It calls for rain later. It might wash it all away."
Me: " Hm. Promises like pie crust. Easily broken."
I'm not sure if the pang I felt hearing the promise of rain was for my old friend winter, or my missed friend spring.
-UPDATE #2-
Just got off the phone.
Mrs. Her: "The roads are really bad. I can't get through. I'm stuck at K's. Did you get my message?"
Mr. Me: "Is that laughing I hear in the background?"
Her: "(Ha!) Um. What? So, we're just opening a bottle of wine before dinner. Is everything okay honey?
Me: "Yup, that was definitely laughing I heard. Sounds like a kitchen party going on. Just how many girls are stuck at K's? Did you say wine?"
She: "Guess what? You know that cooking show I love? Well, K loves it too! We're gonna have a girls night watching TV! Too bad about the snow storm."
Misery Me:" I've gotta go sweetheart. Take care. There's somebody I've gotta give a good talk'n to."

 

[yellowcanoe]

Today was a bluebird winter day. We have had some 18 inches over two days but the sunrise was awesome. We went backcountry skiing in the warmth of 40 degree temps, which we have not had locally here for a long time. ( admittedly we were in FL for part of that long time). We coulda skied naked and worked up a mighty sweat. Got about 3-4 feet on the ground. The weatherman mentioned that nasty word Rain.. for tomorrow. I hope not. It will be time for some roofs to give way. ( Ours is metal. 7.5 on 12 pitch so it sheds..( yep on my head sometimes))

Natures snowballs formed in mini avalanches



New snow before the wind kicks up



Sunrise pink



The driveway.. ( its driveable)



Waiting for summer and getting kicked around by that shovel guy

 

[yellowcanoe]

For those in withdrawal, I offer a sampling trip of Northern Florida streams and GA swamps in March. I will be in FL Mar 14 and the route includes Homosassa Springs, Three Sister, Chassahowitzka, Silver, Rock Springs Run , and two of the sides of Okefenokee NWR and a day in Sparkleberry. I do have a permit for three days backcountry in Okefenokee as well.

Any escapees from winter welcome. Its not hard to rewrite the permits I have.

PM for details if interested.

 

[Seeker]

To start, Waterdog, you need to go over to Bushcraftusa and post that EPIC ice beard (yeah, there's a thread...)

I grew up in Syracuse, NY. It wasn't until I went to school in western NY that I realized just how bad life was in the Snowbelt. Winters in the Genesee Valley were actually FUN! It's really the endless days of overcast, low light, long shadows, and shoveling that get you down. However, by that point in my life, I was bound for the Army, and off I went... KY, GA, Germany, AZ, and back to NY (Fort Drum). Up till Drum, I was thinking "ok, when I get out, where should I go?" Drum clinched it... specifically the winters of 1991/92 (living outside in -30s+ sub-zero temps for a couple weeks in Jan/Feb with experimental cold weather gear) and 1993/94 (18 feet of snowfall). And one of those years, I think it was the "summer" of 1991, we had what we called the year without a summer... high temp that year was 72, and it occurred over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. I lost tomato plants to a late frost in early June that year. It rained all 4 days of the 4th of July long-weekends three of the four years I spent there. I had a crazy commanding general from VA who thought we could "Attack the Winter!" which included doing vigorous PT in temps well below zero. I don't miss hacking up bloody frost-nipped lung tissue from that... I disliked the door handle that snapped off in my hand, brittle due to the extreme cold that night (-35?ish). I disliked having to plug the engine warmer in, and having to warm the car up for awhile before going anywhere. Misery abounded at Drum, and I remembered better days in the South... so I moved to TN, and now live in LA (where I will admit, it is too darned hot from June-Oct).

I have horrid childhood memories of shoveling a long gravel driveway that we didn't plow because my father was building character in my brother and me.... I froze a metal spud to my left hand in the winter of 80/81, and the patch of skin that was damaged STILL turns red and scaly in the winter, 33 years later... I disliked the daily misery of shoveling the sidewalks and doorways, even with a snowblower to assist. I disliked "the hump" the snowplow left at the end of the newly shoveled driveway. I disliked not being able to see the muskrat runs under the ice, causing me to fall through the thin spots up to my neck into an icy cold pond almost every winter, the long frozen walk back home on skates, or the pain of my feet finally thawing out in the bathtub (though mom was nice enough to have run the bath, and made some cocoa, when she saw one of us coming up the hill like that!) I gained the utterly useless knowledge that when your boogers freeze inside your nose when you breathe in, it's exactly 11*F out, or colder.

I don't mind the driving or slush in the parking lots. I don't mind banging your feet together to knock the snow off them before you get in the car. I don't mind the pretty snow in the trees pictures, from inside a fireplace-warmed house while holding a cup of hot cocoa... I miss sledding down a hardpacked-snow covered hillside on a Flexible Flyer runner sled. I miss winter camping. I miss fires on cold days. I miss snowshoeing on a MILD winter's day, when the temp came up into the 20s after a week below zero, and the sky was bluer than you can imagine... I miss the squeak of the snow as you walked across it... I miss the chickadees (exuberant little buggers, aren't they?) and jays and cardinals providing the only color in an otherwise entirely black/white/grey landscape... (I have them here too, but it's not the same). I miss smoke rising straight up into the air, or the smell of someone's fireplace/stove going. I miss the rebirth of Spring, and going around collecting maple sap with my cousin (Spring is about a week long here in LA... one day the trees are bare... the next, they look a little pink/budding, and a day later, they have full-blown leaves.) I miss the redwing blackbirds in the marshes I used to tromp through as the winter released its hold on the area...

The "I miss" doesn't outweigh the "OMG, that sucked!". Mostly, I live in LA because there's work here... I'd rather be up around Arkansas/TN/VA/MD/OH/PA, where the winters are relatively mild but you still get four seasons. But I don't see myself moving back to NY any time soon (though, curiously, what I do in LA is actually done at a sister facility at Fort Drum... now watch me get promoted and have to go there!) I keep telling myself, as my parents age and my children (who both live in Western NY now) mature, get married, and have their own kids, that maybe Drum wouldn't be so bad... The Adirondacks are right there, I could be paddling clean water every weekend, etc... but my wife unfortunately ALSO lived through the Drum years, and reminds me of how bad the weather was... time will tell, and the Creator has a sense of humor... we'll see.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Seeker , you youngster, that would be Camp Drum for us ole fogies. Lived there circa 1969

 

[Mihun09]

YC- Thanks for the photo's, I was wondering what your place looked like and I imagine it would be a wonderful place to live.

Yknpdlr - They don't use salt here, it is too cold for it to work effectively so we live with ice all Winter. In the city in December the roads were rutted 6" deep with ice and accident claims topped 17,000 for the month.

We had a brief few days of thaw this past week, which of course included more snow. Now, the next week is again -20c day time highs, but, it is still February after all.

Winter here starts in October and ends when it feels like it wants to, last year was May. I don't like the constant dark, I head to work and again home in the dark for 4 months, it gets depressing for sure. Finally I get to drive home in the light and actually still have light when I get home, which is a 45 minute drive. It has been an excessively long, cold Winter this year and I will be happy when it is over, but as with any year, it really makes one appreciate Summer that much more.

The snow blower threw the rod a month ago, so we hired a local guy with a Bobcat to clear the driveway, but we have so much snow we need to have someone truck it out before it melts to cut down on flooding. I have a 16 foot boat on a trailer in the backyard that we cannot see any more.

Seasons here are Winter, 4-6 months, Flooding (aka Spring), 2-4 months, Summer, 2 months and Autumn 1 month, 2 if we are lucky.

Come spend a few Winters in Manitoba to really appreciate how good you have it where you are.

The time change is in 2 weeks! Spring is only 26 days away. Just one day at a time...

 

[yknpdlr]

Seeker , you youngster, that would be Camp Drum for us ole fogies. Lived there circa 1969

Ha, when I was growing up my folks and everyone else always referred to it as Pine Camp, which was the name before it became Camp Drum before it became Fort Drum. So who is the old fogie?

 

[Seeker]

Yeah. we called it Camp Drum until they put a permanent garrison up there in 1984. Anyone remember that wacko reporter who thought we were getting ready to invade Canada? I remember a lot of summer trips along the Thruway and I-81 as a kid, passing NG convoys on their way to/from training there. When I was in college (and in the Guard, '84-'86), we still had maps that were labeled "Pine Camp".

 

[yknpdlr]

Milhun09 - You are surely colder on average than we are here in northern NY, but I keep hearing folks say that "we don't use salt because it doesn't work below 20F". Around here, certainly this winter including just days ago, I often find myself driving on roads with visible water at 0F degrees and lower. I think the myth comes from marginal areas where the road superintendent just doesn't want to bother with or spend the money for salt that does work at low temps. I actually prefer a nice hard pack snow with fresh sand without the wetness, but city drivers want roads heavily salted and scraped bare.

Seeker - sorry you never learned to appreciate the snows of Syracuse. Syracuse doesn't really get that much, averaging around 100 inches a year. But being in a city it gets dirty quickly and is just nasty. Then it melts off and you have to start all over again. What fun is that?

Fort drum gets some lake effect, but is really on the northern edge of the good stuff. For the real fun you need to be about 30-45 miles north of Syracuse where the snows of the Tug Hill Plateau rule. I grew up in an area that regularly gets 300+ inches, as much as 450 inches in one season. I remember the gigantic Oshkosh snowplows "bucking" the drifts in the road - they would get a running start and disappear in a cloud of white until they couldn't go further, then back up and get another run to go a few more feet. Then the big rotary snowblowers would come. More than one poor car that was completely buried in the snow was known to be (partially) chewed up by them. This youtube video shows the idea from 1939, a little before my time and with smaller trucks than the much larger ones that existed when I was a lad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZR2WbD3Hz0

Just yesterday I made the ski into my cabin to shovel snow off the roof for the 4th time this season. The photo below is my first visit to shovel off the roof, just a light snowfall back in early December, so there is not much on the ground. Sorry I don't have a photo from yesterday, but now the pile of snow shoveled off the roof is exactly level with the edge of the roof, enough so I can simply step off the roof onto the snow piled from the ground up. The problem is without snowshoes or skis I sink up to my waist and have to swim out of it. Kind of like this youtube guy (he is not me).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9njcIEt52eg

 

[Guest]

Mihun, you have sympathy, admiration, and envy, all rolled up into one packing- snow snowball coming from me, lofted to you (in a friendly neighbourly way). I've been in Manitoba in every season except in springtime. Visiting is one thing, living there is an entirely different thing altogether of course. I try to reminisce with my now moved brother and family. He's too busy trying to readjust to life back east here, to walk down memory lane with me. His better half is only too happy to revisit the little LaSalle River area they called home for a decade, even if only in conversation. The floods, mosquitoes, and winter driving are still fresh in her mind, but so also are the bright fields of flax and canola under endless skies. What she misses most about your environs is the winter sunshine. She says "Gawd. It's so grey here. I step outside here in winter, and I might as well be inside my bedroom closet." It seems I might not be the only one pondering a trip back your way. Just checking out my kitchen window here...yup. How about that? My skies are grey again. Imagine that. Here I'm sulking about my dreary winter days, and am thinking about travelling deeper into winter for a holiday. I better make another muddy coffee, and give this some more thought. Till my plane touches down in the 'Peg (that's a big if), or I lob another friendly snowball, keep well and wait for the signs of spring.

 

[Guest]

Yknpdlr - They don't use salt here, it is too cold for it to work effectively so we live with ice all Winter. In the city in December the roads were rutted 6" deep with ice and accident claims topped 17,000 for the month.

I seem to remember salt losing effectiveness at -20C? I dunno, I've never tested it myself. I can testify to the fact that Manitoban road crews pretty much give up on roads in the deepfreeze months. That's just my opinion though. I learned/unlearned/adapted to drive in Quebec, where drivers have a disreputable reputation for making Delhi drivers look like they're sedately driving Miss Daisy. I've never been more frightened than when driving in Mihun's province, and especially the big city. There, it's not the drivers who're scary, it's the driving conditions. The crews seem to begrudge even spreading sand. Here in the east, we have occasional patches of black ice, here and there. It seems as though Manitoba has lumps, bumps, and complete highways of the slick stuff, from border to border. It won't stop me from going back, but I'll be white knuckling every Manitoban mile.

 

[Robin]

Great Thread, I enjoyedreading everyones posts

Great Thread, I enjoyedreading everyones posts

I liked the pictures, Canoedogs beard is something, Mikes truck covered, YC's pics are excellent, nice place and I like the colors. ykpdlr's cabin is neat, not only the snow cover, but the cabin in general, how about a picture tour, inside and out? Seekers post was a good read, you have some memory Seeker, lots of that stuff brought back my own memories.I expected Mihun's response, tough winters, but the price you have to pay to have world class tripping in your back yard.

We average 100" of snow here in the NW hills of Connecticut, and now being retired, it's been pretty easy keeping up with it. The cold sure bothers me more than it used to, climbing up on the second floor dormer to shovel the snow off took it's toll on my body this past week, the evening walk with the dogs on these narrow snow banked roads is on hold, but I have diversions and they help.

Working on Bob's "therapy" canoe and my own Chestnut Bob's has helped speed up the winter. I have watched my 4 year old Grandson since he was 4 months old every Monday and yesterday I took 2 of my Granddaughters to Micky D's for a happy meal and back here for cards and Barbies (I was Ken in the pink jeep). I see them often and the children help move the winter along.
But this year we finally got high speed internet, well high speed for us. We had the Dishnet (satellite internet) installed and it's been great. It's not like cable, not nearly as fast, but being so rural, I won't see the day there will be a better option. That and a lap top with wifi, living large over here in the land of steady habits.
Plus I have this web site and a bunch of others I follow, youtube is something I was never able to watch here at home with the old dial up connection, and now I have "subscribed" to just about anyone who ever stepped in front of a GoPro with a paddle in hand or toboggan in tow.

Winter can be a drag, but I'm in a pretty good situation, and spring is just around the corner. I enjoy the four seasons and try to make the best out of which one I'm in.

 

[Mihun09]

Winnipeg/Manitoba is famous in Canada for bitter cold. We don't usually get a lot of snow, which I generally do like and miss from Southern Ontario. This year, on our way to 5 feet, is exceptional snowfall. The long period of continuous days in the -30's and wind chills close to -60f is what made this area famous. Now they are saying the deep freeze will last through March.

The worst part of this winter is the fact I cannot work on the canoes, but next winter we should have heat and power in the shop and it will go better/faster for us I'm sure.

Robin; Yes, we have some of the best wilderness canoeing within a short drive, where you might not see another person for a week, I just wish we could get out more than 2 weeks a year to visit it. Retirement for me is still 12 years away.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Seeker - sorry you never learned to appreciate the snows of Syracuse. Syracuse doesn't really get that much, averaging around 100 inches a year. But being in a city it gets dirty quickly and is just nasty. Then it melts off and you have to start all over again. What fun is that?

I lived there for five years..married a Cusan and pre marriage spent lots of time with his family.. I hated the mud from frequent melts. While Syracuse gets a fair share of snow it melts frequently.

Here I look at the bottom layer of snow and say "Hey Miss November is still here"'

Hubby in Army 67-69. Spent 13 months in Korea. He asked for Colorado or Germany for second deployment. In all its wisdom the Army decided to send him close to home Camp Drum.

We both attended school at St Lawrence in Canton NY and for four years had to see if we could get by Adams to get to his house in Syracuse on weekends. Often the answer was no.. and we went to Ottawa instead ( much closer anyway..and much more cultural....ahemm...) Those pesky snow belts north and south of Syracuse..( but not over it quite)

I do remember practicing skiing at Drumlins and our local hangout was the St Lawrence Snow Bowl. Now both gone.

Down memory laned.

 

[snapper]

Seeker - I learned a little about the Syracuse area and it's weather a few years ago from a meteorologist here at the college. It seems that Syracuse is at the fringe of what is called the "Black Triangle." It's one of 3 areas not suited for solar power here in the USA due to the weather that rolls through. The triangle pretty much follows major roads and goes from Binghamton up to Albany (think of I-88 as the border), west along the NYS Thruway to Syracuse and then drops back south to Binghamton following Rt. 81. I work in Oneonta and live nearer to Cooperstown (heck, I went to school in Cortland) so I've been in this triangle most of my adult life. According to the folks in the know, we actually get as much rain and cloudy days as Seattle, WA. Anyway, I guess that may be why some folks seek out other areas to live. One thing I will say though, when we finally do get a nice sunny day, it seems like everyone really enjoys it.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...Be well.

snapper

 

[Seeker]

We had one of those snowblower trucks at Drum in that 18' winter... I saw it hit a fire hydrant... it cut the end cap off and threw it into the woods about 30 yards... pretty funny.

My uncle loved the Tug Hill and Five Ponds area. He has a picture of himself standing on a piece of wood in the snow... when you look more closely at it, there are these spindle things on the wood, and long pieces of rope or wire extending from the spindles forward and backward... It was taken on Tug Hill one winter... it's him, standing on the crosspiece/arm of a telephone pole, with the insulators and a little bit of the wire showing... all the rest is buried under probably 15'-20' of snow.

Didn't know the area was called the Black Triangle... my mom gets SADD pretty regularly (but she's from Brazil, so I'd imagine it's rough.) Said she liked seeing her first snow, but cried for sun before that first winter was over (around 1960). She says that if my dad ever dies first, she's moving down here with us!

I think what I hated most is the gloom, not the snow or cold...

 

[yellowcanoe]

The Black Triangle is east and south of Syracuse and Tug Hill an hour north. Not the same area.

When I lived in Ithaca we actually used the noun "ithicate" to describe the usual cloudy dreary weather.

 

[memaquay]

HUge snow storm last couple of days has added to the large amount of snow we already have. I'm just getting prepared to go outside and take the roof rake to the house, there is about 5 feet on the roof. This old log house has been here since 1932, but I don't want to take any chances. We haven't had a winter like this since 1996…lots of snow and a deepfreeze since early December.

I'm in agreement with some of the other people int his thread, I hate the wind. -30 is tolerable, but a strong wind makes even -20 a demon. We've had bad winds most of the winter, and today is no different. I'm going to force myself to got outside and work, it's only gonna be -14, or -25 with the windchill, whatever, this long winter has turned me into a fat hibernating hermit. Most trips outside only involve hauling wood in from the wood pile and stoking the stove up hot.

 

[Guest]

My daughter hates winter. So she took a teaching job at SUNY-Cortland, not far from Syracuse and Ithaca.

 

[yellowcanoe]

My daughter hates winter. So she took a teaching job at SUNY-Cortland, not far from Syracuse and Ithaca.

Did she start yet?? O drear.. Maybe she will like teaching so much she won't notice!