Winter and Snow

This has been an odd winter.  We had more snow and cold weather in late October and early November than for almost all of December.  In fact we had much colder weather and more snow for Halloween, than for Christmas.  On Friday to Saturday morning, Jan 17-18, 2020, we had about 5 to 6" of snow, the first big snow since early November.  This mid January was followed by a few days of cold weather. The storm began in cold weather making for a nice light snow, but the temperature rose over night making it a heavy wet snow to clear Saturday morning.

Sidewalk I cleared on Monday, Jan 20

Snow, whether dry or wet, can be very pretty.  I recall years ago cross country skiing alone in a woods while snowing.  It brings a peacefulness that is hard to replicate in the mind.  On Thursday morning my wife and I snowshoed in a location not far from our house during a light snow fall.  That too was peaceful.  Snowshoeing, however, makes more noise though than the light swish of cross country skiing.

Ice Skating Rink, notice tractor in background

Snow is not always nice.  Ask those who get hurt in crashes due in part to snow or ice.  I do have some pet peeves about the lack of adequate snow removal--but not on streets.  First, there are persons who fail to shovel their sidewalks.  The Jan 18 storm dropped snow where persons had failed to clear the sidewalk from earlier small amount snows and was now ice.  Yet, I found walking in the newer snow was more difficult due to variation of depth of footprints when it froze in place.   Some places took three days to clear the heavy snow, some clearing a path of only a foot or so wide. Then they leave the heavy snow by the street so no handicap access or baby strollers allowed.

Sidewalk on my walking route

 At the end of the street on which I live there is a connection to another street.  This is on my walking route.  Years ago the village used to clear the path, but now they do not undertake that chore.  One person is pretty good about clearing the snow next to his property, but two others have not been so good.   Close to my street, each landowner has a large snow blower, but neither cleared the path last week (although they cleared it after the storm this weekend). After walking the path three days in the snow, I decided, on Monday afternoon to try to clear the sidewalk.  It was a cold day, with strong winds.  My wife, asked if I was stupid.  I of course, responded that "Yes, I am."  I don't think she was surprised.  She still tried to dissuade me saying I will break the snow shovel.  As I arrived I noted that the path by the landowners by the other street, so it left the half closest to my street.  It was difficult due to the packed snow, but I got it to the earlier ice layer.  I know some do not like the ice, but it will only get worse if not cleared.  With high temperatures in the 30's anticipated for a week, I thought perhaps some melting may occur to be able to clear the ice. In fact, most of that ice is now gone due to the melting and clearing of the snow after this weekends storm.

Sidewalk cleared and snow plow came for another pass

While ice may be hard to walk on, it is unfortunately not uncommon for persons to blow or shovel their snow in the street.   As cars compact the snow to the street it can form ice.  Even the school is guilty.  A school employee was using a bobcat and bucket to widen some drive aisles at the elementary school, and as I was driving by I noticed him shake snow out of his bucket right at the curb cut.  He could have turned 90 degrees to empty the snow, but no, he did it right at the curb.  He pulled out on the street and followed us down to street.  Once, over ten years ago, leaving work  a heavy storm was still in progress, it was a February and the interstate was shut down.  I was driving on Lacy Road not far from the Fitchburg city hall and a man was clearing hs drive with a large snow blower.  Smack a large amount of snow hit my windshield.  As it was still snowing, my windshield wipers were on, and one broke due to the large amount of snow.  All he had to do was turn the chute to the side.  Too lazy.  Much easier to shoot it in the street.

Ice and snow at street entry.  Sidewalk at this residence
is only partially cleared with one shovel width, and was not cleared on
my Tuesday morning walk.

Many of those examples are pure laziness.  Although, the next story combines both ingenuity and laziness.  On the way back from my walk on Saturday, January 18, I was walking past a village parking  lot that had already been cleared of snow.  A pickup truck, with just enough snow cleared from the windshield to see out the driver side pulled in and stopped.  He got out with a large snow brush and cleared the pickup of snow, right in the parking lot.  It was the hood, the cabin top, rest of teh windshield,and the tonneau cover.  Ingenious to do it some where else, lazy to not do it in his own driveway and shovel the snow off.

Library lot.  Sidewalk runs here, but due to design of boulders
it would have to be cleared by hand or snowblower
not by the trucks used by village

On Tuesday, January 21, my wife finally read the blog post about me falling through the ice.  I am not sure what took her so long since she demanded that I do the blog post.  She read the part where I regularly slide on the ice and her not uncommon head shake was accompanied by a statement underlined with incredulity, "Do you really do that?"  After finding out what "that" was (sliding on the ice regularly), I said yes.   She then asked if I had slid on the ice today on my walk and I said no as the ice has not been cleared since the small snow fall, and so I have not been able to slide on the ice.  Although I told her on Monday some boys were clearing a small part of the hockey rink area to play hockey (the hockey boards are not up).    The remainder of the rink had yet to be cleared.  To my surprise, when I went for my walk on Wednesday the ice had been mostly cleared, but for the ara in which I fell in on Jan 3, and a large industrial tractor was parked nearby.  Whatever was clearing the ice must have fallen though since the area where I fell was a gaping hole in the ice.  That part of the rink was not cleared.  I suspect a garden tractor was used as tire chain marks were evident.  Perhaps the large tractor was used to pull the smaller one out.  Last year, I noticed men often using snow blowers to clear the ice.  The village used to clear the ice with the tractor that school used and that tractor had a water tank to distribute new water on the ice.

Village plows snow onto sidewalk, to clear angled
parking area

The ice rink is now clear, but the broken ice makes the ability to slide more difficult since as not much room is available; it hardly makes it worth it since it takes several steps to and then  for me to now slide.  To slide, I would have to go further from the path, but my main intent is my walk not sliding.   Winter can be nice, but the trials of walking in the winter are exacerbated by improper snow removal/clearing.  Even today, while many sidewalks were cleared, or partially cleared, there was a think layer of ice that was difficult to determine--I guess like black ice on roadways.  The village, and many of its citizens do not seem really care about the condition of sidewalks. People would not put up with their roads and streets being in the condition of sidewalks. And for some reason, I feel that those with bad sidewalks would be the first to complain if the streets were left like they leave their sidewalk.

Stephens' Fall

Hore frost, I noticed Tuesday morning on my early morning walk, had formed on the trees and shrubs within about a third of mile of the Yahara River and Lower Mud Lake.  With the low angle of the early morning sun shining on the frost sparkles it was, at some points, as if the sun was shining through a prism.  It made for an enchanting brisk morning.  The moving water of the Yahara was filled with ducks who looked right at home in the two degree temperature.  Their feather structure also helped protect them from the negative wind chill.  As I walked it made me think of water falls and how they may or may not freeze.  On that morning walk I thought today would be a good day to visit Stephens' Fall at Governor Dodge State Park. The falls, fed by a small creek that originates from a spring not far up stream, runs over ancient limestone rock exposed by  erosion much earlier in time.  Part of the driftless area, this land area remained untouched by the glaciers of 12,000 years ago that formed much of Wisconsin.  My wife and I made the trip and took the short hike to the falls.  But for the water noise of the fall, which drowned out the wind noise, it was essentially silent. A scene well captured by the video that my wife took, which you can see below.   Rock outcroppings, to the sides of the falls that in the other seasons are rather common in appearance, but now were transformed by ice flows down the escarpment face.  We thought we would be protected from the biting wind, but in the gorge the wind seems to have been amplified funneling through its walls

Limestone face covered with ice flow, near Stephens' Fall

 Ice can be both magical and harrowing depending upon what one desires. We can curse at the snow as it drags into April (or May), but we also marvel at the beauty it creates, preferably while sitting by a fire drinking hot chocolate.

 The video my wife took can be seen below: