Put Your Memories On Ice

by Vanessa from Vermont

Someone asked me today how many months we burn wood. ‘We’ was meant to be collective. I answered, “Roughly eight”. Yes, here in Vermont we burn wood roughly 8 months out of 12, depending on the year. This question was asked while a group huddled around the fireplace, warm soup was simmering on the stovetop and pie baking in the oven. Outside, it was a balmy zero. That’s right-zero.

Not surprising, weather is usually the topic of conversation in small towns across our state; in the post office, in the country store, at the bank. It is more often than not the first thing out of someone’s mouth, “Cold today, isn’t it?”, “Big storm coming!”, “Hope it warms up a bit”.

Given that Vermonters only have a few days of sun on average a year, we have to sometimes force ourselves to get out and enjoy ALL kinds of weather. I have found that this is when some of the best memories are made.

One New Year’s Eve when a nor ‘easter storm hit we went sledding down a deserted hill. The flakes were coming down so fast and they were so big, our eyelashes were loaded up with them. We could hardly catch our breath we were laughing so hard. There was the Great Ice Storm of 1998 that had the power company working overtime for over a month. We put on our skates the day after the worst of it and skated back and forth down the road. We made sure to bring our camera for that one! Most recently, we bundled up our 14 month old son and brought him to the local iced over pond. We put him in the smallest skates I have ever seen and made a memory I will never forget. It made no difference to him that it was 10 degrees. He only knew that his family was together and we were having the most fun. Our noses may have been red but the only part of us that hurt was our cheeks from giggling so much.

So, my new motto is: no matter the weather you are served, get out there and make some memories.