skating rink/driveway...

Are you thinking of entering the next winter olympics Lori? It wouldn’t surprise me! Curling or Ice Skating...you choose! ;)

Figure skating!... twirls and jumps... all unintentional! lol....

:)

Brrr......Lori, I think you need to hibernate till spring..like the locals..:))

Hi Janey! I have every intention...every winter... of being circumspect and patient. ..but ...but...but! It's sugaring weather already and we're still a week away from March! This is not normal. would be great if we could have an abnormally warm spring for a change, alas, the temps have been going up and down like a carrousel! Makes me nervous when I see GoY friends in the UK talking about the "abnormally cold" weather you're expecting. I you're all bracing for a cold period, what can I hope for? Bah Humbug.

Oh Lori...now tell me what sugaring weather is? So yours has been fluctuating...here it's been grey, cold wet dark damp and gloomy and now the weather is coming from the east, Siberia Russia etc. I'm right on the east side, so snow today and bitter winds..
I really feel for you out there in the wilderness with such harsh winters and collecting your wood as you do. Soon be spring, then the magic starts again and you remember how wonderful it is...:))

The Inuit People have hundreds of words for the texture of snow, Janey, not that I am suggesting Lori is an Eskimo.
Sugar is when it transforms to granules like sugar, due to melting and freezing. Corn is another word that is used.

That's true, Siris! and at the time of the sugar snow..there are days above zero and night just below...that's when the trees start to run sap from the roots up to the buds. Sugaring can also be that period of time...maple syrup and maple sugar making time. I wanted to tap this year because I have not done it for the last two. I'm worried by this early warmth..afraid I'll tap and it will go into the deep freeze for a week or more. Not good for the trees.. water seeping into the grain ofthe wood from a branch crotch (or in my case, a drilled hole) can freeze and with expansion and contraction of the water, split or crack the trunk of a mature tree. what to do? I think I'll give it another week, perhaps by then we'll have a better long range forecast picture.

That's so interesting about the maple syrup. As a skier, that's the reason I know about snow. Skied in Lake Louise in about 1995, exceptionally cold when we were there, went down to -42 one night.

It's hard, even for those of us who regularly experience minus 40 something every winter at some point, to explain it to those who have never experienced it. at minus 40 the foam in car seats freezes solid...it's like sitting on a bench. also...gas lines can freeze and cars won't start... or the engine block can freeze and that's a real disaster. Tires freeze flat on one side...clump! clomp! Clump! If someone stops you on the street and tells you to "watch your nose!"...don't be offended. They're telling you that your nose is turning white and to get it into a warm place as soon as you can or it will be frost bitten. Unprotected digits will freeze if exposed: That's why the native people in the north make their moosehide mitts with "idiot strings"... because if you lose a mit..you lose your hand!
Serious cold is very dangerous to us puny humans... you can credit the preparations nature makes for animals..like tiny birds, in temps like that. I have pics of birds at my feeder at minus 30-40 with water crystals around their beaks and eyes but their spindly little legs are still working. They perch and fluff their feathers drawing them around the perch and their feet. They look so miserable I can hardly stand to watch them.

Lori, you've reminded me of the cold experiences we saw in Lake Louise. Sunny, with no wind but boy was it cold just moving. A wave of cold air visibly rolling into the motel room when the door was opened. Heating points for cars to plug into to keep the engine block from freezing, Moose and steaming rivers. My ski boot buckles exploding and shattering.

Yes, Siris. there comes a point where it's better to remain inside, preferably near a warm fire, and wait out the bitterness. Visible air... yes, the cold rolling in at floor level when a door is opened. I remember a lady who was a War Bride (English woman) who came to Canada after the second world war, following her husband to his home in Moosonee. That lady told me of spending her first winter in a tent on the banks of the Moose River. Just imagine? At times like that simple survival takes place of office routines or business ventures. Like stepping back into a different era. Now that's culture shock!
i remember my first pair of uni-boot skiboots with liners that were like boots themselves. the first time I wore them I realized how completely unserviceable they were...I nearly froze my toes! need room for wooly socks! never had the buckles go on me though. Breathing at that temperature is dangerous too! Need goggles with an air chamber.