There have been some years of my life when I just couldn’t wait for snow. I am a person who enjoys winter and I used to do a lot more skiing than I do these days. It takes several good snowstorms to build up the base on a ski hill and even cross-country skiing takes quite a bit of snow. The best snow for skiing is light powder - the kind that falls when it is quite cold outside. During the decade that we lived in Idaho, the Boise front, where relatively dry air from the great basin met with the clouds blowing in from the Pacific, was a great place for power snow. Bogus Basin Ski resort in those days had enough lights to support 12 hours per day of skiing and season passes were within my reach. When you have a season pass, you don’t mind skiing for a half day or even for just a couple of hours if that is all the time you have. And a season pass is something that you buy before the season starts, so you never know how good the snow will be when you purchase the pass. Late fall, as the snow begins to fly is a good time for ski swaps and other events to pick up a bit of new equipment.

For whatever reasons, I’m not doing as much skiing these days. I have a different set of friends and skiing is something that is best when not pursued alone. Susan enjoys cross country skiing, but she never got into downhill, so I’ve drifted into other adventures and ways of getting my exercise.

Having said that, the snow that we have been getting in the past week has been perfect for skiing. It is light and powdery and just right. I can’t help but enjoy it and marvel at its beauty. At night it sparkles as it falls.

Having said that, I know that the snow is an inconvenience for many. We have a friend up at Eagle Butte who took a fall on the ice and broke her leg. Yesterday, I watched as a person got out of a car and had trouble making it from the car to the sidewalk due to a large berm of snow left by the plow. The cold can make it hard for some people to get out and others struggle to get their snow shoveled.

You don’t have to go far to find someone who is willing to complain about the snow and cold.

November is a bit early for such cold weather for us. On the other hand, the forecast calls for rising temperatures next week. It should be above freezing by a week from now. As usual for the hills, we have a good chance of having our snow melt off before we get too much more.

I’m not minding the snow too much because I don’t have too much need to travel these days. We do have some firewood deliveries to make and we are checking the road reports this morning because today’s delivery is one of our longest ones - about 250 miles one way. We’ll have to make the call on whether or not we go today soon. We have another important delivery scheduled for a week from today.

Other than that and possible visits to family for the holidays, we don’t have to go very far. Running back and forth to the church isn’t a big problem. We have dependable cars and the roads are kept in pretty good shape.

Beyond that, I have a project in my garage that makes it really fun for me to stay home. I’ve decided to build a new kayak this winter. It will be a cedar strip kayak, built to a design by Nick Schade. I’ve made one other kayak to his designs and I really like the cedar strips. The wood smells good and working with a knife and a block plane to fit each strip carefully is very satisfying work. I have a large kerosene space heater that makes the garage into a suitable shop and a small electric heater under the boat will keep it warm enough for the glue to set. Anything above 45 degrees Fahrenheit and the glue works well.

The project is just getting started. I am building a new box beam for the forms to go on and then I will have to set up my forms and get everything square and straight before I can attach the first strip. After the inner stems and sheer strips are set up, the process goes smoothly and I can glue in one or two strips every evening, even when I have had long and busy days. After a few weeks it begins to look like a boat. And this one will be a beautiful boat. I’ve got the best cedar I’ve ever had to work with and the boat is long and elegant. 19 feet long and 22 inches wide - even sleeker than my skin-on-frame greenland kayak which is 17 1/2 feel long and 28” in beam. This boat feels fast just looking at the plans - which is the stage that I’m at right now. I’ve been pouring over the plans and organizing my work space to get ready to begin the project.

So I’m willing to say, “let it snow!” I’ve got what I need and I wouldn’t even be sad if we got snowed in for a few days. That, however, is highly unlikely, especially with this light powder snow. It takes a lot of it to make travel difficult as long as one is willing to respect the slippery spots and take it slowly.

One of the magazines I read every month speaks of the two main seasons of the year: “paddling season” and “building season.” That makes sense to me. And, since I’m always writing about paddling and including pictures, I need to remember to take pictures of the build as the boat begins to emerge.

I’m thinking I’ve got several more blogs to harvest from this boat before it is done.

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