Snow Day, Snow Play

Justine came down with his tractor and cleared the driveway and the little turn around. He said his wife and kids were going skiing.
I thanked him and ran inside to change my clothes and grab my dad's old skies.

I did a very quick change and re-dressed from doing chores into a face hoody thingy, goggles, knit gloves, and snow pants!

I got up to the ridge and put on my father's old skies and took off across the crop field. I caught up to Lauren and the kids out in the wide open.
By the way, Dad's skies were awesome. I literally felt like I was flying. I guess I can't help but smile knowing that I am using his skies. Feels like he is with me in a way.

I suggested we go up towards the woods where we could get out of the wicked winds that had Sno-nadoes whipping up all around us.
Lauren agreed and then stopped for a moment.

"I have an Up-day Gift for you!" she said reaching down inside of her coat.
I smiled at that. Up-Day was giving someone a gift for reason other than making them feel 'Up'.
She handed me a package of extra long socks that had little wiener dogs on them! The package had three sets of socks. The socks will go up to my knees and are thin enough to wear under a pair of my wooly socks.

We played for a while and then headed back to our places.

I can say that my neighbor's kids are no strangers to outdoor activities. They take cross country ski lessons in the winter and do indoor soccer.

I did some indoor crafts yesterday. I experimented with polymer clay. I've never worked with the stuff before, but decided to have some fun. I watched some tutorials on making a fairy house and little mini mushrooms and thought I'd try it with the air dry stuff before actually making the home made material I'd seen being used in the videos.

These can be painted after they dry.
I tried making a fairy house which used things I had around the house.

Don't laugh:
Peanut butter jar
Foil
craft sticks

So. Overnight the tiny 'mushrooms' I made have dried out nicely. The lady in the video I watched had said that air dry clay would crack as it dried if used on the project she was doing.

Um. Yep, she was right. This morning I have a cracked up gnome looking house.

I don't see it as a failure as I can let it dry and then fill in the cracks....or I can leave the cracks and paint it so it looks cracked and gnarly!

The materials for making a air dry paper mache clay with household items is pretty neat. It involves toilet paper, oil, glue, and patching plaster. Who knew?
I can see making that and trying it on one of these wicked awful cold and blustery days.

Then again.  I would probably have to take a walk to the creek to see what has frozen over also.

Oh. One last thing. I was feeling so crafty the other day I bought some felt pieces. When we were kids we made clothes for our trolls out of felt.

I made LIL Bear a jacket, hat, and scarf. After all, LIL Bear needs to be protected in this cold weather too!

One must bundle up properly while walking your dog!

What about the Weather Alert?

I looked at the text message and before I replied I check the weather to see what sort of alert we were going to have.

Severe Weather Alert I got one on my smart phone: Wind Chill Alert. Shall we stay in or go? What do you think? The text was from my neighbor. We had a night hike planned. She is still learning the ins and outs of dressing for our rural winter weather.

I checked the air temperature and it was 3 degrees. The light 'breeze' ... can you call it a breeze in the winter? ... the breeze felt light and from the west.

The winds would have to pick up to nearly 40 mph for the Wind Chill Alert of the expected -25 to -30.
I didn't see that happening in the next hour or so. I stood outside on the porch for a little bit in my stocking feet and sweatshirt. It was chilly but dressing correctly would make our night hike comfortable.

I stepped back inside. I texted her back.
I can keep us out of the winds rather easily by taking some deep woods trails and following the valley. Your call.

She texted me back with what she thought she would wear and I told her to check her email.
I wrote out an easy system of layering for the cold hike, keeping in mind that a good healthy pace would keep us warm.

As it happened it did drop to zero degrees and it was chilly. But we headed out across the night landscape and ducked immediately out of the light wind and onto a forest trail.
We climbed the steep bank down into the creek bottom and both of us loosened up our coveralls a bit.
It felt much warmer near the running water.

We found some beautiful ice formations where the water splashed over rocks and onto grasses to make the neatest shapes.

I got this with my cell phone and the added light from our headlamps really helped.

Lauren obliged and took my phone so I could kneel near the formations.

I was sneaky, I nabbed a shot of her too.

We walked to the end of the valley which involved some tricky climbing up and down the banks of the creek. I showed her the Big Spring and the hoar frost that had built up on the mossy rocks was incredible.
I should have taken more photos, but moving was keeping us warm.

We made another stop at a part of the creek that had branches across it.

We dawdled on our way back admiring more of the frost on the grasses and the rocks that formed because of the air temperature difference between the running creek and the cold air.
Neither of us were eager to end this 'bone chilling' hike. Well actually it was not bone chilling.
We were not cold at all.

We were warm despite the weather alert.
However let me say that yes wind chills are nasty and one should be careful.
Yet a person should dress for the weather and not for style when going out in very cold temperatures.

Layering is essential. Hats, gloves, mittens, scarves....well you get the point.

Indeed the Weather Alert was still on Lauren's phone. And we laughed about it as we came to my lighted porch to part ways for the night.

Lauren said that she'd never in her life had been so comfortable in the winter. I'd opened up her perceptions of winter. Winter could indeed be enjoyed better now that she'd learned a bit about 'dressing for the elements'.

And there she was eager to do it again soon. Despite wind chill alerts.
Of course we would be smart enough not to challenge a really bad day.

And there you go, another night adventure.