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   When a person sticks their head out of the door early in the morning, takes a deep breath, and the hairs in their nose freeze, it is cold outside. Though it is part of living in the Midwest, we don’t have to like it. Billie, the poodle, roused me from a deep sleep this morning at his usual time. When I opened the door for him, he poked his head out and turned around to go back inside. I tried to convince him to go out until I stepped out. It was then I realized how cold it was out there. If he could wait, I was not going to force him. It was too cold for anything other than an emergency. He apparently was not to the emergency point and was ready to go back to bed and check it out later.

   Billie apparently is a lot tougher than I am as it was a couple of hours later before he wanted out again. I stepped out and decided the temperature had not risen dramatically. Billy did what needed to be done and ran back to be let in. On his way back to house, the ice boomed as a giant fissure cracked across the lake. Billie thought someone was shooting at him which hurried him along. Last week, with the temperatures above freezing, we had open water with geese and swans enjoying a swim. When the temperatures drop rapidly, the forming ice expands rapidly causing frequent booming. The sound can be a bit disconcerting to people that understand what is causing the sudden loud sound. For Billie, and I imagine any wildlife in the area, the sound would be terrifying. The geese and the swans that were procrastinating about going south have departed. Open patches of water got smaller and smaller until even large numbers of swans and geese swimming in circles could not maintain any ice-free areas.

   One outdoor activity I have been anticipating is tapping my walnut trees to make syrup. This process is very similar to making maple syrup but requires very specific temperatures in order to catch the sap when it is flowing. Daytime temperatures must be above freezing, and nighttime temperatures must be below freezing. If it is too cold or too warm, the sap does not move up and down the trees. If a person taps the trees too soon, the trees can seal over the taps before the flow starts. Last weekend, when the weather was fairly pleasant for January, I thought about running my taps. I fortunately reconsidered as we are not forecast to have ideal weather conditions for sap runs for quite some time.

   About next August when the temperature is hovering around one hundred degrees, there will be people complaining about the miserable weather. I will not be one of those complainers. I can tolerate much more heat than I can cold. When it gets hot outside, I can always cool off. When it is this cold, serious effort is required to get warm again. Even the dog agrees with me. He has never refused to go outside because it is hot but knows better than to go out when it is this cold unless and until it is absolutely necessary.

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