Surviving Cold Winters–Prepare First!

By Patricia Shelton

Hiking in a Michigan Forest...

Taking the ½ mile hike to our woods and back is a real workout in the snow, especially when the wind is biting into your face.  It’s a good lesson in preparing to survive the winter.  Grousing about the weather only makes it more unbearable.  Better to find something that you can do to make it more interesting.  It sure isn’t going to go away any time soon.

So…what did I do to prepare? And what do I do to prepare for emergencies?  For the walk, I put on longjohns and jeans.  Insulated snowpants or something similar would be better if I was really thinking about spending a lot of time outside but this was a short walk.  I had a sweatshirt and fleece shirt under my down filled jacket.  That was almost too warm!  The jacket has a hood so I put that on also.  Under the hood I had a knit hat.  A scarf tied around my neck kept the hood in place and protected part of my face and neck.  My insulated gloves kept my hands very warm and my insulated, waterproof boots kept my feet toasty warm.  Well…having heavy socks on helped too.

Grandma and Scooby take a break...

I put two bottles of water in a backpack.  Normally I would also pack some crackers and/or trail mix but I knew we had to get back quickly so I didn’t pack those this time.

The walk out was almost too warm.  I thought I’d be sweating before we got there–and sweating is a no-no!  The wind was at our back so I knew the walk back would be more challenging. 

I was right…the walk back was harder because we were walking into the wind.  My eyes had started to water and the wind made my right eye feel like ice was in it.  It was quite painful.  I walked backward for a while and tried to close my eye and get it to stop watering.  I wear glasses and even that did not help keep the wind out of my eyes.  By the way, my eyes were the only part of me that got cold.

My glasses darken in sunlight, so they reduce glare from snow.  That is good because  I do not need to get snowblindness (who will feed the chickens?), which can be a real hazard when I am a long way from shelter. 

I’ll have to research goggles that fit over my glasses if I’m going to be out in the weather for any length of time, especially in the wind!

–Grandma, Grandma’s Thought for the Day

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