Winter in Northeast Ohio can be a tough time of year, but my wife, Mary Anne, and I try not to let it interrupt our lives too much. Sure it’s cold and snowy and all that, but that’s no reason to stay at home and watch TV. We have found that if you set things up right, there’s no reason to let Winter stop you.
Take driving in the snow for instance. Mary Anne and I both have four-wheel drive cars. I’ve got a Jeep and she’s got an Escape. We just put Winter tires on them both and they can pretty much get through anything. They have to of course, because as I don’t, as a rule, shovel or plow our driveway at home unless you can’t get the car doors open.
The four-wheel drive also comes in handy getting up to our cottage in Fairport Harbor in the winter. Sometimes the roads can be pretty slippery at times, and there is one big hill at Big Creek. Once we get up there, the driveway there is also unplowed so you get the idea.
We keep the heat on, but turned down, up there, so we just have to warm the place up a little. Last weekend we were going to go up there and decided to grill out some cheeseburgers. We bought all the stuff for dinner, but when we got there it was snowing pretty good. I uncovered the grill and fired it up. Grilling in the Winter is pretty much the same as in the Summer, you just have to take a little more time to allow the grill to warm up. One look at the picnic table, though, was enough to convince us to eat inside.
Like I said, we just kind of chug on through. Keeping the cottage heated all Winter can be an adventure too, and next time I’ll go into more detail on how we do it. I’ll give you just one hint – Steam!