The Winter Warrior Rides Again

Iowa has been getting slam dunked by snow this year.  We had the snowiest December on record.  And, to top it off, it is snowing right now.  But, snow doesn’t slow down the hardy.

I’ve been keeping my bird feeders filled.  We have deer that visit and eat from the feeders in the front yard.  Our suburb actually tried to pass an ordinance against feeding deer.  But then, I rather like to battle city counsel and I don’t think they can bust me for the deer being resourceful.  My INTENT is to feed the birds.  Squirrels, bunnies,  and deer just happen to be clever foragers. The bunnies were smart enough to move closer to the feeder.

Actually, we have an over population of deer.  They are everywhere and seem to be very adaptive toward urban living – which translates into vanishing prairie.  After all, they were here first.

My husband sees deer all the time throughout the year.  They either stand by idly and watch him or bolt, often the wrong way so he has to avoid them.  But one young fella deer, complete with shiny new antlers, has taken up a game with my husband, Pat. 

It’s not exactly a reindeer game, but close enough.  When this deer spots Pat riding his bike along the trail, this deer runs along side Pat for quite a ways.   But then, the reason Pat has to be buddies with the deer is because Pat rides in weather everyone else considers inclement.  The deer, being outside anyway, are just stuck with whatever the weather dishes out.

The deer are so plentiful here that they are hazardous to drivers.  As a result, the city actually allows bow hunting of deer at certain times.  I hope this attracts real woodsmen, who genuinely know what to do with a bow and arrow and how to hunt with them.  My brother can actually hunt with a bow and arrow – and so can I, for that matter.

I don’t hunt, but I know how to use a bow and arrow.  I’m a pretty decent shot, both with a bow and arrow and a handgun.  This is why we don’t have any of these around our house.  I would have used them on some of our neighbors, in particular one former neighbor.

My bow and arrow use is limited to target ranges.  I find it very therapeutic to pull back a tight bow and let the arrow fly into a nice bull’s eye target.  I’ve also “hunted” Styrofoam animals.  I nailed a Styrofoam deer right in the eye once.  I caught a fake turkey in the neck.  My second arrows were a little truer but then, real deer and turkeys wouldn’t stick around for the second shot like their Styrofoam cousins did.

Most of the residents in our suburb are more likely skilled in using those annoying leaf blowers than any weapon.  They are also pretty good on tennis courts and golf courses.  To my knowledge, though, no game animals have been downed by Dunlap tennis balls or Titleist golf balls.

But hunters come annually and thin the herds, filling their freezers with venison.  There’s even a program for donating deer meat to inmates and the food bank. We have no game in our freezer.  It’s used for popsicles, ice cubes, ice cream, those gel bags for sore muscles, and occasionally some frozen vegetables.

So, hopefully Pat’s buddy will grow more antlers and keep himself out of harm’s way.  All the snow in Iowa has slowed down Pat’s cycling a bit.  The bike trails are not plowed and currently sit under 20 some inches of snow.

But this will not slow down the hail and hardy.  One of Pat’s friends organizes an annual New Year’s Day bike ride.  The length of the ride depends on the weather.  If it happens to be 30 degrees, they ride 30 miles, starting from a local Starbucks coffee shop.  If the temperature peaks at 10 degrees, they ride 10 miles and so on.  The one kink in this happens if the high is zero.  Then the game plan is they ride a “century”, which is 100 miles in bike talk.  Personally, my suspicion is that more people show up when the weather is warmer than when it is in the deep freeze zone.  But, hey, whatever gets the guys out of the house is a good thing.

Unfortunately, lately it has just been snow getting our guy out of the house.  If we have just a bit, I’ll use the shovel to scoop.  Any more than that and it’s a job for the “stunt daddy” and his ridiculously big snow blower.  He bundles up, and heads out for the he-man job of clearing our three car driveway and our corner lot sidewalk.  It’s a lot to do.  But then, if he had a way to hoist the ridiculously big snow blower in and out of the truck he wants but we don’t own, he would most likely plow out the bike trails himself.

Of course, the snowfall is only one obstacle.  Here in Iowa we get plenty of wind.  We have so much wind that wind farms are springing up all over.  Enormous pillars support three giant curved blades that spin, producing electricity.  The bad news is that this same ever present wind causes those big white fluffy flakes of snow to drift into giant piles, which block streets – and bury the bike trails even deeper. 

So, his only hope is to wait for a thaw – or invent a blade to put on the front of the bike that parts snow like the blades they use for the same purpose on trains.  Until then, I guess his little deer buddy will just have to wait until the winter warrior rides again.