I’m headed out first thing in the morning to New Brunswick for 12 days, where I’ll be running several winter bushcraft and survival courses with Jeff Butler at Northwoods Survival. My departure was put back a day due to the blizzard we had yesterday, but I’m told the highways are clear so the truck is loaded and ready to go.

As people spend more and more of their time inside these days, especially in the winter, I’m always amazed at their responses to a snowstorm. Even before the snow stops falling people are busily shoveling and plowing themselves out so they can go out and drive around, etc. It seems odd to me that they’re in such a rush to maintain business as usual. Since I’ve spent a lot of time living in a shelter or canvas tent in the winter, I guess I approach things like snowstorms with a different attitude. I’m not in such a rush to get everything shoveled. In fact, other than our stairs which become impassable when there’s any depth of snow on them, I think shoveling snow is a pretty ridiculous endeavor. People don’t want to embrace the season, or the lifestyle or mindset it takes to thrive in the snow. They’re too busy fighting it and trying to get it out of their way. Instead of learning how to live on snow, we’re getting it out of our way. Imagine going on a snowshoe trip for a week or two and shoveling your way through the bush. It’s sounds completely insane. But I wonder if our current approach of trying to remove all snow from our way isn’t just as insane.

See you in 12 days. Hopefully I’ll have a bunch of photos to share.