Trying to put winter weather into perspective

With all of the talk about cold and snow this winter, me included, it a has got me thinking. (scary thought, I know). Seeing how this is my 55th winter in North Dakota, I surly had ought to know by now what to expect every year between November and March. A person could probably find a lot of "repeat posts" year after year on this forum every winter since the forum"s beginning, all pertaining to trash talking snow and cold. Now being how it's a free country, why do folks like myself continue to live up here in the great white north...…? Must be because we are creatures of habit. I guess, because our ancestors lived here, by God we are going to live here too. Why our ancestors settled here is still a mystery though. To be totally honest, when I was young, snow was a lot of fun. I think maybe winter weather builds character, probably using the term loosely. Now that I am a little bit older, it's not so much fun anymore, but it goes back to the "creature of habit" thing. Been here and survived this long; no need to leave now. And winter weather definitely does make a topic for good conversation. Seems no one fesses up to liking snow, but we all try to brag that we got more of it then the next guy. If the neighbor got a foot of it, we darn sure got 15 inches over here. Go figure. LOL! But ,......I will certainly take winter weather over earth quakes, volcanoes, dust storms, tsunamis, and most of all, I'll take this weather over huge populations of people a hundred times over! I like my space! And it really makes spring a very special time of the year. How can a person look forward to spring coming, when you have spring weather year around...?
   And getting back to our ancestors settling here, they had had to be some tough hombres. The place I grew up on was not homesteaded by my ancestors, but we did refer to the lady we rented it from (and later bought it from) as a grandma. Her and her husband had homesteaded the place. The husband was long gone before my time, but I have some pretty precious memories of the lady. I have an idea that she was probably tougher than the average bear in her day. I remember playing in this one little old building as a kid. It was probably about 8 feet wide and 12 feet long; maybe 8 feet tall at the front, with a single sloped roof to about 5 feet high at the back. No insulation in it. But this building is what they lived in for the first couple years on the place, until they moved a "big" house out there from town. And I can't for the life of me figure out how they moved houses back in them days with only horses. And as for the "big" house that I grew up in; well when my folks sold the place to a young couple a few years ago, they turned up their noses at that little dinky house and put up a new "bigger" house. Old house got pushed into the basement and burned. Enough rambling for now. Darrel

I remember when we used to have a spring, now a days it jump straight from winter to blazing hot summer. You know they were better than we are as there was no insulation in them old houses they just chopped fire wood and kept warm fires burning, had to carry water to all the animals cause they didn't have running water.

have lived in nw iowa for 63 years, the last 15 out in the country. if my health wasn't bad i would stay as i love this area. this summer we are going to move to southern mo to be nearer my wifes people as mine are all gone here. look at it as a new adventure, only time i ever lived somewhere else was two years in cedar rapids iowa (college) about 200 miles se of here. will have more to do (family) there. won't miss pushin snow drifts, power going out and just the extra work that comes with an acreage. will get a part time job and travel a little to fill in the gaps.

Edited by trace - 26 Feb 2019 at 3:42pm

DaveKamp wrote: Y'know how to tell when it's REALLY cold up here? Politicians put their hands in THEIR OWN POCKETS...

Yes Dmiller if we could just get rid of them robo calls we'd have it made.