Frost can bite.

In my career since 1979 working in the outdoors…

I can’t remember a time where I have shut down work because of bitter cold lasting so long.

Yes, I have experienced cold, but not like this when all of our work is outside. It’s kind of like the perfect storm of weather. It does keep coming in waves. Tomorrow is now going to be in the 30’s, and Monday they are predicting wind chill values in the -30’s again. I don’t think it has been much above 0 degrees this week since last Monday. ...

We have now stopped work because of the wind since Tuesday. Three days in a row. When the wind chill values are not even getting up to -20 for most of the day, it makes no sense to work. It’s hard on the crew physically, and maybe even harder mentally. I know they still want to make me happy in what gets done, but I also know it is nearly impossible to achieve a production rate of anywhere near what is done in a more mild working condition.

It’s funny, thinking back on working in harsh conditions I have two experiences that have affected my body in two extremely different ways. I have suffered from heat exhaustion, which was probably very close to heat stroke. The daughter of the contractor I was working with created a new phrase describing me at the time. She said I turned into a ”puddle of Mark”. 

The other time was frostbite. A patch of it down my left side that to this day is very susceptible to being affected by the cold. In one of our recent cold snaps, I didn’t realize it while plowing snow, my jacket rose up some and later that night I felt a burning sensation and sure enough, it got me again. So just as important as not working in a lightning storm, or excessive heat, we won’t work in excessive cold. It just does not make for a fun day!

Looking forward to our 30’s tomorrow, let the gloves come off!

~ The Carpenter