Weather 1/25: Cold, Cold, Cold, Wind, Wind, Wind, Wind

Gamma1214 said:

Good grief, why? Just like people, deer don't tend to look up so 10-12 feet is the norm around here. Sure they didn't say "16"?

I won't (usually) pass up a mature buck but I shoot mostly does. They're better eating and you thin the herd that way (deer eat the same food as cows so the farms around here love doe hunters).

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I'm pretty sure that 60 feet was an exaggeration. I did spend some time looking for it and found one that was pretty high and way out on a branch. It definitely looked scary, especially for old man. It was about a ten minute walk from the fire pit. It was probably high enough that it gave him a good view of the beaver meadow. Most of the years he hunted were before antler restrictions, so not as great of a feat as it would be today. Years back there weren't as many deer as there are today and doe permits were limited. In some circles it was frowned upon to shoot does.

clemency said:

Very nice. All the old and abandoned firepits I find are circles, and there are many of them on the island I usually paddle to. I should start rebuilding at least some of them to be more useful, and keep this idea in mind when I come across others that are in out of the way places.

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It looked like the current pit may have been built over a circular one. If it wasn't made by local deer hunters it may be much older than I think. It sits about 50' from a trail. The trail is an old railroad bed built about a hundred years ago to haul ice to a local brewery so they could ship their beer to New York City.

lowangle al said:

Tell me about it. I had to do some errands yesterday. I was wearing a light weight long sleeve wool T shirt with a medium weight wool sweater and a wool Pendelton shirt over that. It was all tucked into a pair of Eddie Bauer lined pants with insulated Red Wing Elk Hunter boots. As I was doing my shopping at the supermarket I felt sick and thought I might go down. I finished up and got out of there into that Arctic blast. It felt fantastic, I think I was getting heat stroke. If I had my scarf on I might have died. I drove home with the window open.

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I should have mentioned that the reason I was so bundled up was to stay warm inside, not necessarily outside. My cottage is poorly insulated and very drafty when it's windy, especially near the big windows where my rocking chair is. I regularly wear a hat and scarf for comfort inside.

It was cold here last week, we get a few days break before it freezes next week. I took the chance to get out.

I was surprised the pond was froze over. The river was ice free. This is where the Eno River meets a small pond for the water plant.

It looks like somebody tried to paddle something through the ice.

The water was kind of odd, very silty but not as muddy as normal after a rain. Maybe it's this ice and freezing weather we've had.

Just wrapped a snowshoe backpack with my wife in the Allegheny national forest. Gorgeous conditions.

Lake Michigan today

Lake Michigan today

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Forgive my Great Lake ignorance but what are we looking at? Looks like open water in the distance of the 3rd pic but surely the waves didn't freeze in waves... are those snowdrifts? If so, I wonder what created the windbreak for the snow to start piling up?

PS: this time of year, open water is open water but what's in the distance of that 3rd pic doesn't look inviting.

^ I'll never forget the first footage of Bill Mason I saw, him out fighting through waves on Superior in that red Prospector. I couldn't figure out if he was brave as heck or dumb as a rock.

We're in the negatives here in Vermont, my first time being that cold. It's quiet, still, and the snow is awfully squeaky.

Gamma1214 said:

Forgive my Great Lake ignorance but what are we looking at? Looks like open water in the distance of the 3rd pic but surely the waves didn't freeze in waves... are those snowdrifts? If so, I wonder what created the windbreak for the snow to start piling up?

PS: this time of year, open water is open water but what's in the distance of that 3rd pic doesn't look inviting.

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I think they’re ice dunes! I’ve seen them up there a few times. So cool! Worth a trip.

I was talking with a customer yesterday and said I wasn’t going to go to the post office because I had to deal with the fresh snow storm we had. He is in Brazil and wrote back that he had no concept of snow but it sounds terrible. I had a good laugh at that as I love the snow. I didn’t tell him the temperatures last night hovered near zero, that is another concept he would have a hard time visualizing/feeling.
It’s another beautiful day here in Maine.
Jim

For many years I worked at a company that had offices is Michigan/Indiana and Mexico. It wasn't unusual to have to loan jackets, gloves, and hats to engineers visiting from Mexico. They simply didn't own any and had no concept of cold. I had to rescue more than one who put a rental car in a ditch because they'd never seen, let alone driven in snow. I remember visiting one plant in Mexico when it was 48 degrees and eating my lunch at an outdoor picnic table in short sleeves while the locals wouldn't even traverse the 25 yards between the office and factory for fear of frostbite.

But it's not just people who've never seen the cold and snow. We had a lot of engineers move from Michigan to Mexico and in a few short years they became every bit as wimpy in the cold as the natives. I'm in Florida at the moment and it's "only" 65 degrees. On my morning dog walk I constantly hear people with New England or Wisconsin accents complaining about how cold it is.

Gamma1214 said:

Forgive my Great Lake ignorance but what are we looking at? Looks like open water in the distance of the 3rd pic but surely the waves didn't freeze in waves... are those snowdrifts? If so, I wonder what created the windbreak for the snow to start piling up?

PS: this time of year, open water is open water but what's in the distance of that 3rd pic doesn't look inviting.

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You're looking at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, perhaps the warmest part of the Great Lakes. The first pic is most revealing since you can see sand so the beach looks normal. Then the ice starts right where it would be shoreline if warmer. The ice goes out about maybe 1/4 mile. It's surface ice. The prevailing winds blow from west to east so that usually pushes the ice towards Michigan. Occasionally the winds change snd most of the ice you see gets pushed to Illinois/Wisconsin. Some years the Great Lakes have been almost 100% iced over so a couple hundred meters of ice is not unusual and may be less than average. It's amazing (to me) to watch the freezing process. First the surface gets slushy but you can still see some wave action. As the slush hardens the wave action gets more and more subtle until it stops. Last pic taken at higher elevation so it's easier to see the open water. You couldn't pay me enough to get onto that open water!