March 9^th, 2003:

The temperature moderated a bit yesterday, but there was a high southwest wind all day. It still got down to –30° at night, and with that wind, it was perishing cold. I went to Kelvington yesterday afternoon to meet Bryan and Laurie Grimson and kids, and out in the open the ground-drift was bad. A few finger drifts were forming, and they were pretty hard.

I went to Swan River with Grimsons; the east-west stretches weren’t too bad, but visibility got down to nil on some stretches of north-south highways. There is a bit more snow in Manitoba and some of the driveways look as if they could be a problem.

We went over there to watch our grandson, Dave, play hockey. Mike and Marg, Aaron and Danny came down from Hudson Bay, too. This was the third play-off game against Portage, and Portage had won the first two.

It took me the first period to realize that these kids didn’t really get killed when they hit the boards; once I relaxed, it was a great, hard-hitting game. Portage got two goals right off the bat, but by the end of the third period they were tied, 2 - 2.

Seven minutes into the overtime period, there was a pileup in front of the Portage goal. The puck was loose, and Dave zipped in and flipped it into the Portage goal, to win the game.

He was mobbed by his own teammates, of course - they all piled onto him! He told us afterwards that he almost suffocated. What a game for Grandpa to watch!

Some information you didn’t really know you needed: In January, we recorded 13 days when the temperature was –30° or colder, and 7 where it was between –20° and –30°. In February, there were 7 days –30° or below, and 8 days –20° to –30°. So far, in March, we have had six days of –30° or lower. Was it the Old Farmers’ Almanac that predicted a warm, dry winter?

The closer we get to the end of winter, the colder it seems! I went for a walk Friday evening; it was –30° and only a very gentle wind. Yet I felt colder than when it was –38°. I walked down to the boat launch; the round trip is just about a mile and I do it in fifteen to twenty minutes. A car drove by me at the boat launch, made a U turn and broke through the snow. It was a young couple and the driver said something about digging himself out, so I went home.

This evening, it was only –21° and the wind had died. I went for a walk wearing my cold weather clothing but still found it uncomfortable. Strange!

I went back again with the car thinking I could at least offer them a ride to somewhere warm, and they had worked themselves in deeper. It turned out all he had to dig with was a hockey stick! I lent him the spade I keep in the trunk, but about then a friend of his came along in a half-ton. They went to find a towrope, so I came home.

Ah, to be young and hot-blooded again! Neither of them seemed to be all that well dressed, but they were handling the cold a lot better than me!

Doreen hung a bird feeder outside our office window. All afternoon, the chickadees, redpolls and red-breasted nuthatches have been having a feeding frenzy, and I have been having a tough time finishing this report! Today was the first time this winter that we have seen the red-breasted nuthatches, though they have been visitors other years. Such a pretty bird! I wish we could see some boreal chickadees, too - they are slightly smaller, dark brown where the black-capped variety are black, and pale, warm brown on the breast.