Wives' tales a harbinger of winter severity?

The hair on a horses’ withers and haunches is denser than other years, plus, you’ll find thick hair on the neck of a cow. Douglas fir drop their green pinecones in June and July.

The woolly-worm caterpillar we see in the late summer and early fall will have a much wider orange band around its body. There are other folklore indicators of winter predictions the Old Farmer’s Almanac shares and even with today’s technology some people will not budge from their earliest education from Gramps' weather-guessing.

When most people think of a tough winter, copious amounts of snow come to mind with bitter temperatures. Our daytime highs and lows are close to normal for this time of year and snowpack up high is strong, but who

among us has shoveled more than three times since the mongo dump on Oct. 24? (Just admitting this publicly may have jinxed an almost snow-less winter around the 2,700-foot elevation level).

Based on the model predictions and expert assessment, the likelihood for La Niña conditions to continue through January 2021 is estimated to be about 90%, which translates to a mild winter.

“I’ll tell you in April what kind of winter it was”, chuckles Kerby Smith, co-founder and proprietor of Mineral Energy Company. The company is relatively new, but the staff have been in the propane business for years, and Beth Price, Office Coordinator, is pleased with their growth.

“Our contract sales went up 22% since last year and we are so very grateful to this community.”

Smith’s second bobtail truck recently arrived which might say something about people thinking this could be a nasty winter from whatever sources they follow.

Has anyone noticed squirrels building their nests closer to the ground? That’s another wives' tale that may have had to do with the uptick in their sales.

The same with corn husks – if they are thicker than normal, keep your snowplow idling.

Malinda Steinebach with Energy Partners said they didn’t have a slow season at all this year. She feels part of it has to do with the housing boom we are experiencing.

“Spring and fall we can catch our breath but not this year. It has been more than steady and now we are in the busiest season and moving faster each day.”

She indicated that propane did increase 30 cents from last year, but people are ordering the same or a bit more than previous years.

Squirrels gathering pinecones in July and August ‘could’ indicate our snow shovels will not sit idle. Do you remember if we had heavy fog in August? If we did, you might need new liners for your Sorrels.

For those who burn wood as their primary source of heat, gathering it after the Mineral County Fair and before archery season seems to be the popular time.

For some it’s a chore. For others, it’s a fun activity which usually involves family and friends working as a team to cut, split and load. A cord of wood is 4-feet high, 4-feet wide and 8-feet deep.

How many cords of wood you have ready for winter is discussed among the ‘Stihl Chainsaw Community’ and how many more you need, or if you think you’re good with what you have in the woodshed already.

You may have been watching the huge pile of logs being cut into blocks all summer long just before the Huson exit as you are east bound on I-90. This is a family affair where the dad is a logger, and his three daughters were stacking and loading constantly until school started.

They are known as the ‘Little Wood Chucks’ and their record has been 25 cords in a day.

They don’t advertise but are on Facebook and deliveries to Mineral County would go as far west as Alberton. Or you can load your own and save some money.

It’s also common to see a pickup with side rails up to the cab already loaded with split firewood with a number to call in most rural towns. A short survey has loads like these being delivered between $120 and $150.

But if you’re willing to load your own, Big Sky Forest Products in St. Regis will let you have a pickup load for $50. Know in advance they come in assorted lengths and diameters but it’s all seasoned.

If you’ve observed woodpeckers sharing a tree or the Snowy owls from the Arctic arriving early, then Mother Nature might be in for walloping us with negative-memorable winter.

Unless you’re a skier, snowmobiler, polar bear or devout ice angler, winter usually ranks third or fourth on favorite seasons from people but they will admit that it makes each spring much more enjoyable and appreciated.

So, if you haven’t noticed that the muskrat houses are bigger and taller this year, or the northside of beaver dams don’t appear to have an excessive number of extra sticks and twigs, then the garden and seed catalogs we receive in the mail next month might be timely as the days will start getting longer and we might not be sick and tired of winter at this rate.