There are many reasons why I do not miss living in Crusty County and this is one of them.
My man Hal Walter has been enjoying the sort of lifestyle E.B. White wrote about in his 1958 essay “A Report in January,” in which White observed that “just to live in New England in winter is a full-time job; you don’t have to ‘do’ anything. The idle pursuit of making-a-living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace.”
Sixty-six years later and several thousand feet up at his snowbound acreage in Colorado, Hal has had his good truck develop a sick headache, just as he prepared to take his son, Harrison, to the dentist in Pueblo, 50-some-odd miles east and down; borrowed his wife’s SUV for the trip only to bury that vehicle up to the axles in a snowdrift on the return trip, just 50 yards from his gate; shoveled it out in a single-digit wind chill; returned to doctoring his own rig, successfully, without having to call a tow truck (“If I were to need to have this thing towed, nobody could even get in here.”); and dug a path for it up his driveway to the county road, newly plowed.
This was in addition to the usual chores: delivering hay to the burros, grub to the family, wood to the stove, Harrison to Colorado Mountain College in Leadville (slated today, the last I heard), and so on and so forth.
If, like White, Hal wonders when he would once again “get a chance to ‘do’ something — like sit at a typewriter,” or even his MacBook Air, he has not mentioned it to me.
Mad Blog Media 
I think Hal should be nominated for Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year award. Patrick, I bet you could write an outstanding nomination!
Hal, that is a beautiful scene save the shovel in the foreground. That thing gives this desert rat the “fear.”
The man does the business, to be sure. I’ve asked him how many miles he’s put on that new truck of his but he won’t say.
I’ve also nagged him about getting back to writing his Substack newsletter, but like White he seems to think pounding the keyboard is way down on his to-do list.
Perhaps he is just living in the moment. I should pay more attention to my priorities. One thing I do know, next June I turn 75. I can decline jury duty because of age. I may defer other civic duties, like voting, to the younger folks. Worrying about it is stress I don’t need.
I was going to say something about a similar circumstance I was in but I thought it would be more appropriate to comment that it sure looks like a lot of work for a pretty picture.
Hal, I understand that a home improvement refinance loan might be a good idea for a utility tractor or an old used CDOT loader.
I had to do a bit of shovel work now and then when we lived in Crusty County, sometimes at the foot of our hill, where the private road met the county road, other times up at the house, where there was a short incline from our little parking spot to the private road. It was not my favorite way to pass the time.
Back in 2021 I did an episode of Radio Free Dogpatch about it. Och, thim were the days. …
We finally have snow here in the Mitten State and some of us are happy about it. Cold, rainy weather is pretty useless.
Excellent. Did you strap on the boards and go for a glide through the woods? Hal did indeed drive north to Leadville and if anything the weather there looks worse than it did in Weirdcliffe.
My motorcycle safety instructor once quipped “Your motorcycle is always trying to kill you. It is your job to stop it.” Seems something similar could be said about some of these harsh climates.
The bicycle will try to do the same thing. I got out for rides three times last week and found icy bits lurking in the shade ever’whichaway, especially in corners and on descents. Had to deploy that old Third Eye a time or two to keep the greasy side down.
Roads up here have been shall we say interesting. I have yet to drive anywhere without having the antilock brakes or traction control kick in on the Subaru. So I’ve only had the bike out a couple times and both times, it made technical singletrack look like child’s play. Prolly will try it again today as we have had a few days of good sun to melt the snow into ice patches.
Harsh climate? -7 degrees ain’t so bad if the wind isn’t howling. Got some old vintage skis waxed up and will do the old kick and glide in a few hours. It is supposed to warm up to 0 degrees. XC skiing and snowshoeing is one thing in this weather but cycling would be certain death for old Herb.
I did all my cycling indoors when the Crusty County temps hit negative numbers and the winds achieved double digits. You need a proper playlist on the iPod for that action. Mine was heavy on the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, etc.
Awoke this A.M. to -33 F supposed to be -16 F. The clothes washer’s hot water froze and the compression fitting to the inlet was pushed out by ice to the washer off to the hardware store. There I bought 2 two hoses. It is still flipping cold. The only good part is I am out of horses so no feeding, worrying about water. But my 69-year-old body is telling me that I am too old to live in this NW Montana climate. Time to find a place in a southern climate. Too cold for a walk, but put the Buff on to protect my lungs. No wind yet but that factor that will change for sure. Where the hell is El Nino? I put on a Buffet CD and played Manana. So god damn cold it will snow until June, freezing up in Buffalo stuck in their cars. Oh well one f&^king disaster at a time.
Minus-33°? Yikes, etc. No thank you, please. I remember a time or two in Alamosa where it was said to be -20° with wind chill, and some similar atrocities in Crusty County — where our house perched on a hillside with absolutely jack-shit between it and the wind coming off the Sangres — but I’ve never dealt with numbers quite that low.
Once in Greeley the oil burner in my trailer went tits up in the middle of the night and I awakened to a toilet full of ice. Having had a drop or two taken the night before, I didn’t notice until I unleashed a torrent of industrial lager filtered through the kidneys and most of it bounced back.
he he The good old days.
All I got to say is if this cold weather and snow keep up (which I hope the snow does, because Lord knows we need the snowpack if we are to have tap water this summer–the reservoir up here was at last look at 19% capacity), it is gonna be tough to do 70 miles, kilometers, or even minutes in a week and a half. Maybe I’ll drink my age in ounces of beer…..
That’s a capital idea, Khal. Just think of it as carb loading. That’s 8 pints buddy! You think we are up to it? Or is it one pint, two pints, three pints, floor?
Hm. I have a similar date in March. I’ve done a couple-three 20-milers this year but will need to step up the old training if I’m to try for 70 … of anything.