Thursday, February 23, 2012

Snow: Embrace It or Fight It

       My last post was on the snow fall that we had the previous day. Some of the comments made me think about things again. I know that I have some valued southern followers. One comment went something like this..."I rarely see snow and never have enough for a shovel."


       The shovel got me off on a tangent(Whatever they are.) We have many things designed to fight snow starting with the shovel that I use to move snow out of places I don't want it. I have snow boots, snow tires, warm jacket and tuque. All of these things and more I use to fight snow. Our culture despises snow. We spend millions on snow removal. So there we are fighting snow.


      We should embrace snow...love it! Ski, snowshoe, walk ...just get outdoors in the snow. We should discover ways to use snow. Snow is great stuff for sculptures. Snow is easy to move and carve. Snow was used to lean against the outside of a house for wind protection and insulation. My parents melted snow for water to do all washing .Instead of moving snow out of the way do some research on how to make a safe road surface with snow.
My private ski trail
Neighbor Alf and his snowmen
Red and his wonderful skis
Skating at Bower Ponds
Sliding at Bower Ponds


     The Inuit for thousands of years have embraced show. They use snow to aid their survival. Snow is so important to them that they have many different words for snow...drifting snow, slushy snow, powdery snow, snow banks, snow drifts, snow suitable for building houses...the list goes on. As an aside there is some debate over the whether there are actually many different words for snow in Inuit languages. For igloos they looked around the area for some very hard snow that was fairly deep. They used a hand saw to cut blocks and a large knife to shape the blocks so that they had the correct bevel. Small chunks of snow were used to plug cracks or where the blocks didn't quite fit. In twenty minutes they had a nice snow house. The snow house completely stopped the wind and has insulation value as they would have the temperature just above freezing. Now they slept with no clothes on...just lots of skins above and below. Clothing was hung up to dry over night. I've been in snow houses and they were light and comfortable. Now that's embracing snow that I can admire.


      Now I know I could change snow for heat. I'm sure that in desert  or tropical areas people have learned to embrace the heat and use it to advantage for their life.


     For my choice I'll stick with the snow. I use a combination of fighting and embracing. I enjoy snow enough to to put up with the not so fun stuff.

18 comments:

  1. Yes in the far south where I live we don't see snow every year and then 2 inch is a blizzard. When I was young my dad made snow ice cream. That was a treat.

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  2. I feel the same way about the humidity of Louisiana! Some fight it, I love it. It keeps me feeling moisturized! My husband, children and I traveled to a conference out in the mid-west desert. When I got west of Dallas I started breaking out in a rash. Got better when I got back in the Louisiana HUMIDITY. Guess I'm part gator! Got to have it...

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    1. I think we can become accustomed to where we live. Some here don't like cold and they are just miserable. I spent 5 years in the Arctic and only remember being cold once.

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  3. Give me cold over hot any day. Love to be cold and put on more layers to be warm. Heat, however, I can't take. Of course living in south western BC I've never experienced REAL cold. Still, I think I'd like it better than stifling, insufferable heat!

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    1. Layers..that's the ticket. In my ski picture I am layered up. Spent 10 days in Chicago this July and I'm still whining about the heat.

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  4. You reminded me that once long ago I went on an overnight survival field trip in the winter, where we learned to make an igloo, snow pits, stuff like that. I slept inside a small igloo with another person. I hated it, because I also learned that all night long, as we slept, the walls moved in towards us. It was scary! But now I can look back and appreciate it. Thanks for the memory, Red! :-)

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    1. You've had some very interesting experiences. The test for a good igloo is that you can stand on the top of it. Did you make quinzees?

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  5. I prefer snow to desert anyday. I must confess I absolutely love snow and the white landscape beauty that it creates, even the slushy snow inspite of slipping every time I get out :) Also, it gives a convenient reason to work from home. Cheers, Ruby

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    1. Now you are going to have to tell me approximately where you live so that I can understand the snow. I guess I should look on the map. Right? Right now we've had some thawing so when it freezes it gets very icy.

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    2. Only Himalayan regions have snow in India. But I enjoyed these perks when I went to other countries for work.

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    3. I didn't think India had snow except for the mountains. Thanks.

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  6. I guess I must have a love hate relationship with snow..I like it when it is fresh..but hate it when it gets dirty or starts to melt and turns to ice. It must be all perspective:)

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  7. A very practical way to look at snow. Dirty old snow isn't very nice.

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  8. I'm trying to remember whether I was embracing the heat last summer...when the humidity was higher than the temperature! I'n not sure I was doing to much embracing...to hot to embrace...maybe a quick high five! no such thing as crisply ironed clothes or a stylish hairdo...gone in one second in the humidity...I'll be begging for your cold and snow when we're deep in the embrace of summer!

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  9. Funny thing the cold does the same to hairdos and clothes. We call it "tuque rot."

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  10. Hi Red. When it snows over here ... everything comes to a standstill!
    When I was a youngster you could guarantee there would be snow every winter and whilst it might have been inconvenient for travel we embraced the challenge. I even recall spending a night or two out in the snow with a hiking friend holed up in a bivi-bag ... great fun. Life seemed so much simpler 50 - 60 years ago but now anything that hinders normal daily life is seen as a damned nuisance to many folk.
    Personally I enjoy the cooler climates. FAB.

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  11. Well....I guess I need to enjoy it...for we are having snow again. All the farmers who got in a hurry will now have to wait until the soil, dries back out. Sigh!


    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
    http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

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  12. Isn't that just the way. We start to think winter is really over and then wham it hits us again. I'm sure your crops will be seeded and no harm done.

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