The middle of winter in Lake Almanor
I have a few friends that all left for the winter for 4 month stints. We call them snow birds the snow comes they leave. I get it, if I could, I would too. For the first time in years I felt jealous. I didn’t really want to face another winter it’s hard and long and takes a lot of courage and determination to care for myself and my family and for the most part there aren’t many fun parts. I don’t like it when sonny days end. Summer is my favorite season.
I have found joy in the snow but I am jaded, finicky about the snow. It needs to be a certain way for me to ski on it. So I wait for optimal conditions. Like yesterday, perfection , but I waited too long to get out on it and I didn’t want to contend with a pack of very hungry coyotes in freshly made snow mobile tracks that gave them the freedom to fly their dens and come for us, me and my 3 dogs. We went out just before dusk, not smart on this wild meadow.
Winters are extra long at 5000 ft. We don’t get to see spring till May. We are buried in snow till mid April at times. I can’t plant gardens till June 1st for fear of hard frosts and they have knocked out all my tomatoes sometimes in mid June. Winters are really long here and they are dark too and I suffer from sluggishness, lethargy and apathy (winter depression) I have to fight hard with exercise, sunlight, ott lights, keeping moving, yoga and vitamins, fish oil, flax oil and D-3 are key and added to my daily vitamin regimen. Because we are in a remote area there is not much socializing. The closest movie theater is an hour away. I have learned after 16 winters to adapt to my environment. Making myself ski, cooking well, Netflix. I always have plenty to do, but during long dark days I do it, I just don’t feel as enthusiastic as I am accustomed to feeling.
And so, the snow finally came and along with it days of no electricity. We adapted. Our house is heated with wood heat and we have propane stove and hot water heater. I have a huge porch that faces the meadow with ice chests on it. Because of the precariousness of where we live I have always kept pretty hefty supplies and set our home up to live without electricity if need be. We have land lines for phones as well. We are never behind a day on vacuuming, dishes or laundry and we keep tons of frozen blue icies in the freezer so we can keep the fridge cold too. It was a small hiccup to lose electricity. I only kept out one camping lantern so I cleaned the kitchen with my 8 hour battery pack video light I use for weddings. I had enough charge to cook and clean by it for 4 days. We have fans that circulate the heat all over our house so when we lost electricity I put giant pots of water on the stove and let the hot vapor heat the house and it was faster and permeated every room.
We went winter camping. 6 Of us worked and ate together. We read and saved battery charged computers for a family movie 500 days (I hated it). We have a giant generator that will run our whole spread, but I wanted my children to adapt and excel. Roll with it, like the whole town had to. We did set up the generator for the freezer just in case.
On day 3 the complaining started and I am one for a good bitch but not about winter, it’s too hard already, a car ride has never been shortened or made easier by complaining and pushing my will about when are we going ot get their. I won’t allow it and I assume like gallbladders, natural childbirth and appendixes there is a purpose to winter maybe for the regeneration and rejuvenation of my soul. I never came out of a winter not wanting to face sunny day in fact I come out grateful. I am grateful for electricity and snow on the meadow and winter because I am always relieved when it’s over and grateful we made it through. I am grateful for snow and winter and husbands and children and dogs and woodstoves and propane and skis and paints and kindles and planning and the fact I am Boy Scout and prepared. I am grateful we all got along. I am grateful it’s almost February and winters will be over in a few months. It’s half over and I am grateful!!!!