As I am just about to leave for Florida, I'm finally getting around to publishing stuff I wrote about my trip to Michigan,which I returned from 3 weeks ago.
Jan 21st 2014
It was clear blue sky and just below zero when I left my dad's place this morning. The drive to detroit had more sun than I've seen all week, but that's fine as the clouds kept the temperature mostly I the 20's. I have really enjoyed my one-week winter in Michigan this year. This is the way I remember winters here as a child. Snow on snow on snow, river frozen, 2 feet of ice on the lakes. The river would've been excellent skating (if I wasn't afraid I'd kill myself doing it), as a thaw and some rain a couple of weeks ago refroze to create a surface like a mirror. One year when I was a kid I remember skating up the river on a moonlit night, smooth ice under 2 inches of fluffy new white snow. Bonfires on the river. My dad clearing a skating rink for me with the tractor. Snowmobiles buzzing up and down the river at all hours.
I did go for a short walk on the river this year, but turned around when I fell. Too slippery for an old lady to walk safely. But I did plenty of walking in the woods. 8+ inches of snow (and no snowshoes) makes for a good workout. I bought a great Cabela's down coat (at my thrift store, for $15) to bring back here, but I got too hot wearing it when doing any activity outdoors. Most days, near the midpoint of my woods walk, I had do shed my coat entirely.
My poor old dad, who can barely walk anymore, had managed to use his snowblower to clear paths to the garage, trash barrel, and bird feeders. Unfortunately the remaining snow on the sidewalk to the garage had hardened into nasty, bumpy ice. I spent about an hour per day salting, picking at it with various shovels, re-salting, until I finally got down to mostly bare pavement, so hopefully he can get out to the car safely.
The trash and the bird feeders are another story. I bought him 3 big garbage cans to sit right next to his door, one each for trash, junk, and garbage. These, for you city folk, are three totally different animals. "Trash": Anything that will burn; "Garbage": Anything that will either compost or, more likely, be eaten by various critters; and "Junk": tin cans, stuff too toxic to burn,and anything else that will eventually get hauled to the dump. My dad will literally burn anything that can burn, including all kinds of plastic, old polyester blankets, old radios. I've begun to veto a few of those but really have little hope of changing his mind on cottage cheese cartons and the like. At least he does save his newspapers for recycling, and Michigan's "bottle bill" has him returning most drink bottles to the store for money. The birds will likely have to forage for their own food until there's a thaw. Traditionally we have the "January thaw" but I think that's come and gone this year without much effect on the snow level.
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