I can't complain about the cold today, for sure. It's about 43 degrees this morning and looks like any minute we may get that rain they forecast. I was thinking about the winter rains we used to get when I was a kid - the ones that left a hard, shiny crust on the snow. We loved that. There was a sloping bank at the end of our house on Cabot Plain that was a great sliding place. We didn't use sleds - those were better suited to the unsanded roads. Instead, we used big sheets of cardboard. Any cardboard box would do, but we liked the pieces large enough so we could grab onto either side so it wouldn't slip out from under us. The cardboard lasted surprisingly well.

I remember once taking my mother's big wooden burl bowl out. It was about 24 inches across and she used it to chop vegetables in to make pickle relish. I expect she didn't know I had it and no doubt would have objected, but it didn't work very well for me. It was fun sitting in it scooting sideways and twirling around down the hill, but it was heavy and I got tired of carrying it back up after each ride. There was no place to attach a rope, so I had to carry it. Sometimes we got out the toboggan, but that was more fun after a few inches of snow covered the crust so when we hit a dip or little drift, snow came flying back at us as we careened down the hill. Great fun, and although we sometimes took a spill, but nobody got seriously hurt. We were all tired at the end of the day.

I've enjoyed a good firm crust on the snow in more recent years, too. Especially when there is a lot of snow on the ground - then a crust makes snowshoe travel a lot easier. There have been times when we could walk just about anywhere, in the woods or in the open, without breaking through, and that is a joy for getting around in the woods. I remember being out in the woods years ago and meeting our neighbor, Don Encarnacion. He was working on his wood lot or something, and Fred and I happened to be up on our lot above him. He hailed us and wanted to show us something that required him to go into the woods with us. Don was short, and wherever we were was protected enough so the crust didn't hold us up well. Fred and I managed pretty well, but when Don broke through, his legs were short enough so he didn't really touch solid ground. It was a really bad situation for him, and we tried to "break trail" for him to make it easier, but it was still hard for him. We cut that expedition short and decided to inspect whatever Don wanted to show us another time. After we were all on solid ground again, we went our separate ways. We were all wet and tired from wallowing in the soft snow. There's nothing more frustrating than walking along on solid crust and suddenly one foot breaks through and goes deep into the snow. I call it getting cast. Not quite the same as a horse cast in its stall, but close enough.

I remember breaking through one time in the woods when we were snowshoeing. I went over a hummock that turned out to be snow piled over a big fallen tree. My snowshoes both went into a deep hole and were wedged among tree branches. Fred was some distance away from me and came back to help, but he had to be careful to not get into the same predicament as he hauled me out of the hole. It took some time to untangle the snowshoes so I was able to lift my feet up out of the hole and roll away. It would have been easier if I hadn't been laughing so hard. It was a silly situation, but if I'd been alone, it could have been pretty serious. I suppose I could have eventually worked my way out, but it would not have been easy. We haven't been snowshoeing for several years. Maybe this will be the year! It's always great to get up into our woods to see what's changed.