Duluth Furriers, Deer Hunting Drama and Snow Angels

Duluth, MN is known for it's winters that go on forever.  I have proof of these long winters.  Below is a video clip of my daughter and I on May 28, 2014 in Duluth.  Check out the ice!

 Duluth winters aren't just long but they are cold and snowy.  Below the picture on the top is a warning that popped up on my phone our second winter in Duluth. The picture on the bottom is of me just standing in our yard in Duluth.   

       

                                            

                    

    I have to say that Duluthains never fuss about the cold, however, when the temps hit 80 degrees you might hear a bit of fussing.                   

   

Deer waiting at our
neighborhood bus stop
one morning

So what does one do when the weather is so frigid?  You get creative.  I will tell and show you what Mickey and I do when it's cold.  

Just a backyard black bear

One day we decided to go snow shoeing.  We strapped the snow shoes on and went back behind our house which had a large nature park complete with bears, wolves and deer. 

Below is a video of Mickey showing off his amazing snow shoeing skills.

Once Mickey fell down, our snow shoeing days ended.  He broke both of his snow shoes and I'd rather do something else anyway.

There's always ice fishing as a cold weather activity.  Mickey has ice fished in Utah but Duluth is different.  We NEEDED an ice hut to ice fish in Minnesota.  We decided to rent one and that day it was about -20 out but we were toasty in the ice hut.  One question I have about ice fishing...... why?  We sat on chairs and watched a hole in the ice.  Tyler, Mickey and I enjoyed the day but it's a one and done for me.   Tyler was the only one to catch a fish and it was just tiny.  Check out the size of that minuscule fish Ty caught.  That's really tiny for a Minnesota fish and no one else even got a bite. Tyler was proud of his catch and posted this picture below after our ice fishing day.

Check out the many glasses needed to NOT
catch a fish.

Trying on hats for the cold weather is an excellent snowy day activity.  Once when Ty was in town we decided to take a look in the furrier store in downtown Duluth.  I couldn't believe all of the items of clothing made out of fur that this place had.

Below is a video of Tyler, Mickey and I in the store.  Ty tried on some gloves and I tried on a hat.  Mickey was in hell.

Below are more hats that we tried on:

 Ty has an uncle Eddie look about him

 

Mickey and I tried on some Russian hats that we liked so we bought them. 

This brings us to our next activity for the cold and snow.  When Mickey wore his Russian hat, he thought it made him Russian.  In the video below we are using science to entertain ourselves.

Sometimes Mickey and I would just take the dogs outside and hike behind our house.  Because of the extreme cold, I  found out quickly that the pads on my little dog Wilson would freeze quickly.  When this happened I would just stick him down my coat where he would stay snugly and warm up.  Mickey was always jealous of Wilson's warming up spot.

I also learned that when you put a snow covered dog down your coat, the dog warms up and the snow melts creating a puddle in your coat.  This makes for some cold hiking.  I decided that I would purchase my dogs some dog boots.  Dogs don't love dog boots at first.

Mickey loves hunting so he decided to go hunting with some of his Minnesotan friends.  Of course it's going to be cold outside and this video below is not dramatic at all.

There are a lot of creative things to do when it's freezing outside.  I'm not saying that they're always fun but this last idea we had is my personal favorite.  It's self explanatory.  Enjoy!

Nuff said.


*Dedicated to the wonderful Duluthians who brave the frigid winters and are the nicest people anyway.