Gas Pains

Tom grew up in Milwaukee, bartended in Wauwatosa in the '70s and moved here in 1984.

Commentary, observations and musings about the outdoors, life in general and maybe Tosa politics and personalities will be the order of the day. He savors a lively debate as much as terrific cooking.

Surviving Winter

Survival, Whitetail Deer, Winter Sports, Ice Drinking

I'd be willing to bet that most of you reading this have had enough of Old Man Winter. 

More snow yesterday making this one of the snowiest winters on record.  December and January were among the coldest on record with no relief in sight for February.  The snow, the persistent cold, the salt on the car that gets on your work clothes, the slop you tramp into the house and the heating bills.  Adding insult to thinning patience is the dog poop.  Yup - that would be correct.  The poop.  It gets covered by the snow almost instantaneously.  It's now lurking beneath the drifts like stinky land mines that will be revealed when everything melts.

Nevertheless, my overall disposition is positive.  Truth be told I rather like winter.  First-off there are no bugs.  Secondly, Jill has killed all of the mice that found their way into our leaky old Tosa bungalow.  So no rodents either.  Moreover, there are winter sports such as curling over at the Wauwatosa Curling Club.  And snowshoeing up on the farm.  This has been a record winter for snowshoe mileage.

My pals Lawyer and Sid keep trying to lure me out on the frozen surface of Green Bay to go ice drinking.  I'll pass on that until such time as they starting slaying the fish.  For the present I hear it has been slim pick'ns on the whitefish catch.  It is rumored that something called Smooth as Silk is more popular. 

That aside I'm trying to make the most of winter.  So you could say I'm not just surviving.  I'm thriving.

On the other hand the snow is getting deeper up north and the cold has been in the single digits during daylight and dipping seriously below zero overnight.

Check out this very short video clip I captured of a whitetail deer.  As soon as it steps-off of the main trail you can see how seriously deep the snow is. 

That Winter Severity Index looms large.  I think the critters definitely have survival on their minds...

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