Skip to content

Just An Observation: Putting the cold into some bitter perspective

Facing the biting facts on frozen severe temperatures on daily life
9968451_web1_170628-BAS-jordie-editorial_1

With much of the province, and western Canada for that matter, experiencing the big deep freeze effect last week, I was reminded of all the past times dealing with the exceptional cold in various places.

My first memory, and likely for many readers 40 and over, is of being on the farm and bundling up simply to run around outside collecting wood or to go between the house and the barn or other out-buildings, only to strip off the big winter coat, mittens, ski pants and sweaters so a person could get some work done in wood-heated warmth.

At times, it took longer to get dressed to go out in the 30 or 40 below temperatures than it did walking outside. However, if you ever thought about attempting to get by without putting everything on, you’d hear about it before reaching for the doorknob. And for those of you that grew up on a rural property, at least some of you will sympathize when I mention the word — outhouse.

To go along with that memory, I especially remember hooking the draft horses to the sled in order to take down some trees and buck up so we could stoke the wood stove to heat the house. Sometimes it would get so warm that you couldn’t sit close to it or risk getting a burn. However, it also meant the family congregated in the same room and chatted, played games or music, or spent time together watching television — usually hockey on a Saturday night.

As I got older, the experience with the cold weather changed, though not always for the better.

Often times, it usually meant trying to fix something or get machinery started so the snow could be cleared, someone could drive somewhere or making sure the frozen or broken water line was repaired. It can be quite the pain wearing bulky clothing and gloves while working on things that require manual dexterity in order to get operational. I can’t tell you how often I got frozen fingers from having to take off the gloves or frozen feet from either lying oddly or wearing poor fitting boots and socks.

On other occasions, I would have to walk somewhere and my ears, face, nose, hands and legs would get so cold that I’d have to sit over the heat register for 15 minutes just to get some feeling back in my body.

Another memory is the times where the temperatures would dip into the low and mid minus-40s and last for two to three weeks, something I haven’t witnessed in a number of years.

Finding ways to keep equipment and vehicles warm along with figuring out how to not go stir crazy from being housebound were the greatest challenges, and really remain a challenge today when the temperatures fall.

Which brings me to one more memory — wind chill.

Growing up in northern Alberta, there were lots of trees and people actually wore scarves (for you younger folks, those were pieces of material people wrapped around their face to keep the cold from affecting them) regardless of there being any wind.

Then I made the move to Saskatchewan, and wow was I in for a shock.

Even a small 10 or 15 km wind could churn the temperature down to the minus-40s or take that drive down the road into the ditch due to some whiteout conditions.

One vivid memory is I had to make the normal 2.5 hour drive home from a hockey game with the air temperature around minus-35. Instead, it took more than four hours since I had to drive over half the distance at 50 km/h through ice fog dealing with wind-driven snow squalls for the final 100 kms.

So, while I might not like this latest chill, it certainly could be worse.

But that is…just an observation.