Thanks for asking Mike,
I'm fine, hanging in, we have lots of snow, [great snow cover for tender wood], looks like we might hit a record when all ends in about April. On Sunday it got down to minus -36F. but towards weekend it will be near the freezing point again,..I hear, people in the US are not thrilled with this and blaming us, lol. Seen on TV last night, a little town in the US [Hell] freezes over in polar vortex.
Here, we have this 6 to 7 month out of the year, we're or must be allot hardier,..lol

In the machine&grinding shop it's about as usual, up and down.
I'm the only machinist, right now I manufacture some tool holders for carbide inserts, used out in the field in pipeline construction, cutting welding bevels around ends of pipes, or machining ends of pipes, lots of these go to the US. Most of our business is in grinding, surface grinding, cylindrical grinding and internal grinding, some tool sharpening.

Hell is in my area of the woods. Well we don't blame you, heck a huge hunk of Canada is south of us! If I were to go to Windsor from here, I would go south, not north. I really don't particularly like this time of year, but I'm certainly used to it. I have a cottage on the St Clair River, and my in laws live in Cheboygan, so the Great Lakes has always been around me, and they can be extreme even in the summer. One learns to respect nature. I start swimming when the water hits 55 degrees. Have you ever had an ice cream headache? Well swimming in the river is like having an ice cream headache all over your body! :) great low impact exercise, and I do it ASAP in the spring. I love it!
A little cold for swimming right now. I'm going to wait at least until I can use my boat!

You know, our lives are dissimilar in many ways although I do think we still have much in common... but tonight we may hit the mid 40's and it still feels cold to me.

I'm shocked/impressed that humans live where ice can form outside, let alone -whatever degrees. I'm much happier at 115 than 40F, but I guess that is how I grew up. My wife thinks 70 is cold so comparatively I think I'm rational.

Drew, we swim in the bay here, which is low 50's year round so I understand the whole-body ice cream headache.

Warm wishes to all of you guys.

Luckily the water does warm up. Slowly though, and we have a few weeks where it is in the 70's. I myself like about 68 degrees. As if it's 90 out, it really is refreshing to swim, it cools you off for hours, the warm sun feels good at that point! Here's our swimming dock.

Konrad...

How did you fare this strange winter?

Mike

Strange for sure!

Temperature this winter has been going up and down like a Jo-yo! Luckily we've been spared from severe low temp...the coldest was about minus 36C / -32Fwhich means, some of the tender fruit buds on cherries and apricots might set fruit if late frost doesn't kill it.

Hey ... good to hear from you.

So... you were "spared" from the "severe" the cold temps and ONLY got to -32f !!!!

I'm not usually at a loss for words but ... I just got frostbite typing that number.

Mike

I'm with mes111....if you think -32f is being "spared from severe low temp" then what constitutes "severe cold" for your area, Konrad? !?!

LOL...

Most years we hit the minus 42C. -43F marks, some years minus 45C. or -49F.

OOOF!!!!!

good grief....that just isn't right. I'm surprised you can grow anything but spruce up there! btw....I haven't seen any of your great photos recently. BTW Konrad, I hope you haven't let all the plagiarism prevent you from posting them!

Hah..no it's not that,..just not much to shoot! No Apples yet! lol. I'll be checking the one only trail camera soon and see if anything is worth to show.

In the meantime,..if you haven't seen these, all trail camera pictures.http://nature.gardenweb.com/discussions/2232072/self-portrait-of-birds-and

Somehow or another I had missed all those incredible photos. WOW! Even your trail cam photos are spectacular. I'm sure everyone has their favorite, but for me it was the porcupine ones! They just make me laugh. Perhaps its because we don't have those down here where I live in the southeastern USA (TN). I know they are pretty common up your way and the bane of many curious dogs, but for me they are just exotic, funny looking animals. I enjoyed all the photos very, very much. Thanks for the heads up.

I loved your wildlife photos! I'm new to this "Orchards" forum. Just discovered it today! But I've been using GW for at least a decade. I spent 40 years in Barrie, Ontario, also a 5b and near you. Your photos reminded me so much of that area! Looks the same with the same critters!

We moved to BC a couple of years ago. It's very different here. I haven't seen a racoon, skunk or chipmunk where we now live and not many squirrels. We spend a winter up on the Yukon/BC border before moving to our more-or-less permanent location in the Okanagan, so I understand COLD! But beautiful! We like it better here. :-)