Hey, got our first snow and icy roads today. I was going around a corner when out of instinct I pulled the e-brake to slide around the corner. I was a lil rusty since I hadn't done it since last February. after a few more corners I was less concerned with going into the ditch and more concerned with playing around. Then I imagined there will come when I won't play around and have fun in the snow. I remembered that I always liked snow and winter but I really liked it once I had a warm house/bed to sleep in. thanks to burning wood, prior to that I hated winter cause my bedroom was so cold that if you put a glass of water on the window sill it would freeze at night. but now I love playing in the snow/snow days. I'm almost 40 and I still love snow. I love the look, challenges, cold, inability to connect with the outside world, peace. etc. . . The question is; when did you stop enjoying the winter? or did you? maybe you still like playing in the snow? What age were you when you stopped enjoying it? and for what reasons?
I still would be playing in the snow if I could, quit in my late 30's when I got 3rd degree frostbite on a sunny calm 40* day. Odyssey into health issues, I still can't go play in the snow but I absolutely would if I could!
I have always loved winter, which for us is often half the year. I love the holidays, heightened appreciation of carefully prepared firewood, deer season through ice fishing season, deep blue skies, bright snow, the low sun angle and lighting on the trees - especially at dawn and early evening, and the clear air that comes with cold high pressure systems, as well as being holed up in my warm spear shack, warm home, or being in our cabin by the wood stove during big or small snow storms. Like you said Felter it is also about the challenge, peace, introspection, slowing down, and insulation from the outside world.
I'll admit to hanging the azz end of the Bronco waaaaay too far out around corners, or just anywhere in the snow really. I've had 1 ton ramp trucks full sideways back in my youth. I'll never grow up.
After working all day in the outdoors or outdoors temps (new construction) there wasn't much desire to go back into the cold on my time off. I will still go snowshoeing (sometimes just to try finding the car after a snowstorm....) and so far have still taken my morning walks, but stuff like skiing, snowmobiling, sledding and etc just don't have the appeal they had back in the 60's. Yup, I'm old and retired!
Soon: Viewing in the spear shack of a nice northern pike coming in from under my feet. But first: Deer camp in our winter wonderland up north with fresh snow. Our oldest boy and I with some good eating size deer before going out on another tracking and still hunt. We don't like it warm for our hunting. Both activities offer extended periods of careful preparation, followed by extended periods of quiet time alone outdoors for contemplation, the perception of indescribable beauty, punctuated by times of relatively brief but intense concentration and exhilaration, then gratitude. This is winter to me. Our winter bird feeding is also a source of great joy for us. They love picking clean 1 or 2 of our deer carcasses wired up in the tree above the feeders. We also get pine martin coming into them.
Haven't quit yet...closer to 50 than not. But gotta say that I am not as fond of winter as I used to be since I have to work out in the worst of the cold sometimes but that is not usually the temps that bring the best play snow either!
For me, there's nothing quite like being down in the woods during a heavy snow flake dump. Love it. Only parts of winter I dislike is having to move the snow and avoiding ice under it. I'm 65 and when I grow up I'm still gonna love winter...
wow!!! thanks for the replies!!! I thought for sure i was alone in enjoying winter. seems most ppl just complain about it.
Theres definitely nothing better than being in the woods when its snowing. Growing up in the suburbs/cities, I always enjoyed the silence that heavy snow brings. Now I get that all the time living in the woods.
Im 58 4 more years of plowing roads for township in this area I loved the snow when I used to have the oppurtunity to enjoy the woods but the day job of clearing roads in the era of impatient arrogant people is a miserable job years ago plowing people were thankful now most of the younger ones you are a problem to them I am looking foward to the end of my sentence so I can play in the snow again and enjoy it JB
Plowing surface roads was the worst! I've done it all from Jeeps doing drive throughs, to dump trucks with 11' blades on the highway. City streets were by far the worst. I enjoyed plowing driveways the most. I hand picked a small, but very profitable route of people that were grateful for my services. Then I would backfill with people on CL during the real big storms. I'd charge them double or triple, so if they sucked, I didnt care.
I enjoyed plowing driveways as well, and had the same deal through the 90s. I recall that snow plowing driveways was either relatively easy money, or much harder, depending on the conditions. My route was along Lake Superior, and parts inland a mile or two, with lake enhanced snow, so after the gravy plowing conditions in December, there would be numerous years when by January through March there was nowhere to put the snow, no matter how wide I started. Did a lot of shoveling and getting unstuck those years. Several years I subcontracted out my neighbor with his bobcat to push between the trees to make more room for my truck plowing.
