Gearing Up

This is Part 2 of the post about our winter walks - the part before we actually get out the door. The weather is warming up and we're needing fewer layers now, so it's time I finish documenting the ordeal of deep-winter gearing-up in all its ridiculous glory.

It starts with piling a mound of gear in the middle of the living room floor. My coat and hat and cowl and mittens and boots. Maya's snowsuit and hats (yes, plural) and mittens and neckwarmer. The backpack. Two dog leashes and some plastic bags. Of course Maya is right there, inspecting it all, and the dogs know exactly what's happening so they're prancing around, getting in the way.

It's taken some time to develop a system for bundling the little bean, but we have it down now:

First, a thin wool balaclava ensures her ears and forehead are covered. Then a fleece neckwarmer that I sewed up hastily one frigid morning; we've been using it ever since. Next a second, thicker hat for additional warmth. The mittens will be next, but first I have to put on all my gear, because she'll protest (understandably) if I cover her hands and render her unable to move too early in the game.

Sometimes she's fairly agreeable about the whole process.

Other times I get this:

Like I said, it's an ordeal. I can't blame her. Meanwhile, I'm sweating in my jacket by now and the dogs are still in the way. Sometimes I feel like making this face too.

After the mittens are on, she goes into the snowsuit. That's actually the best part of the whole process. I found this Patagonia snowsuit at a garage sale in the heat of last summer when Maya was still teeny-tiny. It's sized 18 months and I figured it wouldn't fit until next winter. It is, in fact, still too big, but that's why it works so well. I sewed up the leg openings so her feet are always covered, and even with the sleeves rolled up, her hands are tucked inside too. It's roomy enough that she can have extra layers on underneath and it's still easy and quick to slide her in and zip her up.

Here we go - totally bundled!

Once she's in the snowsuit, she goes straight into the backpack and onto my back. Then it's all good.

She is an entirely agreeable walking companion. She might chat a bit, but mostly she just watches, calmly taking it all in. If she falls asleep, it's usually not until the very end of the walk, as if she doesn't want to miss anything exciting.

And it is exciting. Every day is different. Sometimes the sun is shining, with a brilliant blue sky and crisp shadows on the white snow. Sometimes fresh snow has fallen and every tree branch is outlined in white. One day, the snow had drooped so that the branches were all festooned with party garlands.

There were several crazy-cold stretches in February when the negative numbers kept us from venturing out, but days that include a walk are always better. Keeping that in mind, even if snow was falling fast, we often geared up, headed out, and pressed on through the storm.

Napping through a blizzard? Why not! Here we are back at home after a particularly snowy walk.

And now it's time to take all these layers off again!