Folks I mentioned this tale in my previous post concerning cold weather. Now I'm fixin' to tell ya'll just how cold it kin git sometimes. To help understand some of this rambling I gotta tell ya'll I hunt mainly with them ole guns. Flintlocks. The kind Dan'l Boone used. And due to the intelligence of our Game Commission the Flintlock Season falls in late Dec./Jan. every year here in Pa. It's the coldest and most misserablest time of the year. And most of the deer has been shot already er' are so paranoid it's hard to get anywhere near them. And did I mention it's cold? O.K. Anyways, back in the late 80's I was going over to The Old Rotz Farm outside McConnelsburg to hunt on my friends farm. We had about 20in. of snow down, the temp was -5 degrees and a stout 40mph wind was blowin' from the northwest. Windchill was about -50 that morning. The oil was so froze up in the van it wouldn't hardly turn over, let alone start. But finally it did! O'er the mountains I headed and managed to spin my way up Freds lane an parked at the farmhouse. We shared a cupp'a coffee and he wished me well and made some comments about my sanity as I headed out the door and up the mountainside. Folks..it was bitter....bitter cold! But....I'm a hunter..WAGH! I arrived half-way up that hillside shiverin' like no mere mortal man has ever shivvered in this lifetime! I found me a tree to hug agin' and I stood there..for hours. Seemed everything else had enough sense to hunker down 'cept me. By daybreak my hands was froze into a "crab-claw" around that rifle and chips was flying off my teeth from the chatterin'!! I was too cold to even kindle up a fire and too cold to walk back to the farmhouse! I knew I had to unthaw my hands soon 'er risk frostbite and so I decided to tuck my frozen digits into the one possible warm spot left on my body as I hunkered there in the snow. More to come....Audie (still shiverin')..the oldfart!

 

Folks..a body chills down from the extremities inward. The toes/feet and hands are the first to freeze..then the ears and nose. The body shuts down the blood flow to these areas in order to conserve heat in the core of the body. It's one of them amazing survival devices the Lord has provided us. (Wearing a good hat can retain as much as 80% of body heat..the head acts like a radiator. Ever notice how in hot weather yer head sweats first?) Well, anyways. I'm stuck on this mountain and too cold to move. I got to warm my hands to even hope to kindle a fire 'er make my way down this snowcovered rockslide of a mountain. Soooo...I tugged my mittens off with my froze lips and poked my hands into the last remaining vestige of "warm area" I had. Folks..nothing much will make yer lips pucker and yer pupils shrink up to tiny little pinpoints.... as tears freeze to yer cheeks...and ya make funny little grunting gasping sounds...as does doing that! Breathing literally stops, as ye suck in one last fast breath. Chances are good if yer not sittin' down..you will be soon... curled up in the snow in a fetal-position!! Well, it's quite obvious I survived. Though not without some losses. I did actually get a shot at a deer that day! I never heard the gun fire and returned to the farmhouse and thawed out after some time. Fred called me in April of that year to tell me he'd heard a BOOM! from the mountainside..though no one was hunting at that time. Heck..I knew right away what had happened..the sound froze solid in the air and just thawed about come April. And that's the rest of the story. Audie..the oldfart...

 

Glad to have you back Audie, I look forward to your stories.