Sometimes I wonder…How can someone not like snow?! I get the fact that is has to be cold for it to occur and cold weather is not a lot of fun to a certain amount of our population. However, snow makes everything so beautiful. Not just when it covers everything in a magnificent white frosting, but as it falls from the sky in an icy dance. It quiets the noises of the day and the night, it helps to light your way on a cloudless night and most importantly, it makes the cold FUN!
When we were kids, almost all of us loved the snow. Not just for the chance that school might be cancelled, but for the new canvas it gave us to play on (and in) while outside. If you were like me, you stayed out and played in the snow until you were soaked through on every square inch of your body. Gloves were probably the first to become soaked and by the time you went inside, the outside of them would be frozen solid. Your feet were frozen from the base to the tip of every toe and your cheeks would be as red as an apple and they and your nose would sting when they started warming up once inside.
Somewhere between then and now, many started to feel different. At first snow was something you were just indifferent about, then as time progressed, it became a nuisance. Finally, it became a disliked thing, something that brought sadness or anger, rather than joy and excitement. Perhaps it was the fact that as you grew older, snow also brought some work with it. You shoveling the driveway for your parents and/or your elderly neighbor. Perhaps you were involved in an accident brought on by the slipper nature of snow, or you are worried about an accident happening while on a snowy sidewalk or road.
However, most of these things are just an attitude change that we allowed to happen. If you shoveled your driveway and maybe that of your elderly neighbors, then you probably had to cut those grasses as well (your parents should be commended by the way). Accidents will happen with or without snow. The trick with snow is to just slow things down. You do not have to crawl across the parking lot or across a frozen sidewalk, but just slow your pace by a half or so. Don’t lift your feet so high, so you can catch yourself if you need to, buy a pair of ice cleats for your shoes/boots. If you get cold easily and are wearing jackets and boots and base layers that are more than 10-15 years old, time to upgrade! Do not wear cotton! Especially in a shirt(s), socks or base layer (the item of clothing nearest your skin. Cotton absorbs moisture and hangs onto it. Even if it does not feel wet, it will be damp enough to speed up the drawing of heat from your body. Synthetics are the way to go in the winter, especially when going outside.
I guess the point I am rambling on about, is there are ways to turn every reason for your dislike of snow back into a love for it. The cold and snow is not going to change its ways, so you must do the changing to be happy! Unfortunately I have no idea how long it takes or how hard it is, as I have not had to do it, but I have had to turn other things in my life that I saw as a negative into a positive and it took some months, while others were almost right away.
So where did this thought evolve? Well, to be honest, I have always wondered that! I have always loved the snow and loved to play in it, so when I would see others complain about the snow, I always thought: “how sad”. However, as I sat inside and watched the flakes fall all through the day yesterday and coat everything in a layer of white. It hit me again, how can someone not think this is one of the most beautiful sights in the world? The same thing happened when I woke up this morning and looked out to see it still snowing and a fresh 4″ on top of the 2″ that fell yesterday!
I almost, ALMOST fired up the new ride and took it for a spin, but even though I was planning to stay on our own land, I did not want to bother any hunters who still might be trying for their buck these last 3 days of the season. Plus, I was not 100% sure that there was enough snow down to keep me from risking doing any damage to the sled. We’re getting ever close to the sledding season. T-58 hours. So I can wait a bit longer!
The weather has been very early winter-like this past week. The snows of last Sunday gave us about 2-3, but we had some very strong winds Sunday, so getting an exact measurement was hard. The strong winds caused the big boys to take shelter in the lee of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Monday morning saw three taking shelter in Keweenaw Bay and at least 3 up north in Bete Grise Bay. One of the ships in Keweenaw Bay was just off the coast of “downtown” Jacobsville, while the other two were further away. Two of them were 1000 footers and the other was a slightly shorter “salty”.
Tuesday was quiet, but cold, with a high of around 24. A bit of light snow fell Wednesday, just enough to coat the ground and give us a White Thanksgiving (our White Christmas is pretty much a given). Friday was quiet, but cool and then we had the light snows yesterday and again early this morning. I don’t know what the monthly total is for Houghton County, but Keweenaw County looks like it will be a bit behind the 24.5″ average for the November, long term average.
The forecast is looking good. Not great, we do not have any big storms seen until possibly the first half of next week. However, it does look like we will see a couple of light snow events this week and temps do not look to melt off much of what we have on the ground. So this may be the snow that sticks around for the rest of the season! Speaking of snow and snowmobiling, the Keweenaw Convention and Visitors Bureau had a video done to highlight and advertise snowmobiling in the Keweenaw. This is kind of late news, as the video hit the web about two weeks ago, but I thought I would mention it in this part of my site as many that come here might not view the other avenues it was being talked about since it was released. So even if you are not into snowmobiling, check it out, because it has some beautiful footage in it and you can see my contribution to it as well!
My final item to share is a picture of Grace decorating the Christmas tree. It was a little later in going up this year, but Grace really wanted to be the one that did the setting up of the tree and putting the lights on it and she has a VERY busy schedule with extracurricular activities, so it took some time for her schedule to be free! It was worth it though, it’s nice to sit and watch most of the work being done after doing most of the work for the past 25 years or so! Nora did most of the other decorating and I did help Grace a little, but mostly watched!
Have a great week everyone!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
