Hi Medhi,

Ever since you wrote me about your seasons in Bangladesh, I promised to write
you about our seasons. Weather in America can be very different everywhere,
because the country is so big. I will have to limit my letter to Wisconsin, a
state in the northern central part of the continent.
I like the names of your seasons better than ours. It is more descriptive of
whatever the weather is. Here, we still call them by the standard Spring,
Summer, Fall, Winter.
But the names don't really reflect what the weather actually is, at the time.
My location is very much in the North of the country, and near the central area
of the continent. Both combine to make our weather colder, and our Winters
longer. Our crops must be specially chosen to ripen in a shorter Summer.
I am not a farmer. But where I live is mostly farm country. Although we grow
some fruit here (cherries, grapes, apples), mostly we grow foods heavy in
starch, not sugar (corn, potatoes, soybeans). And we depend on meat a lot. Pigs
& sheep, but the big livestock are cows. Mostly grown for their milk and the
cheese we make from milk. Wisconsin is known as "America's Dairyland." Of
course, we get other better foods from other states. And sell our produce
across the country. But the weather does influence our diet.
Spring is supposed to start on March 20th. Here, there is still usually snow on
the ground then. The ground is too frozen to plow, and will remain so for
another month or two. But already we start to see migrating birds arrive from
the South. They seem to follow the calendar, the lengthening days, not the
weather. So I usually put out extra food in the feeders, and add suet (cooked
beef fat) to the mix. Suet is a wonderfully compact food source that can feed
lots of birds. They will need the energy to get through the frozen nights.
Also, I have a heated bird bath. Nothing more than a saucer three feet across,
but it has an electrical element in it, to give thawed water. If birds have to,
they can eat snow, but it takes so much of the bird's energy to melt the snow
they might die. Melted water is the way to go.
I'm always listening for the calls of Cardinals & Robins or see Crows. To hear
or see them is to know our Spring is really about to arrive. When the Spring
thaw does happen, all the snow will melt within a couple weeks. The snow melt
is about 1/3rd of the precipitation we will get for a year. Low lying land will
flood. The farmers start to plow & plant. Sometimes they run tractors 24 hours
a day to get everything in the ground on time.
The smaller Sparrows & Wrens arrive about this time. The Goldfinches become
visible. They have stayed here year around, but they were a drab green-brown.
In Spring the males molt and grow in dazzling yellow feathers. The females stay
drab, but both genders become much more vocal. Time to put out Thistle seed for
the smaller, more energetic birds. Also sugar water, and some oranges for
Hummingbirds & Baltimore Orioles. Finally now, the leaves start growing on the
trees, and the early plants such as Tulips, Grapes & Roses start growing. Until
now, all I've seen for the last seven months is either snow or a dead-looking,
brown land with dead-looking brown plants sticking up. Now I can hear the
Red-winged Blackbirds and the Meadowlarks. They don't eat seeds, so they don't
come to our feeders, but we can hear them.
About halfway through Spring (as the calendar reads), Spring rains start. This
is about another 1/3rd of our precipitation. We are too far inside the
continent to ever get Hurricanes, or other huge deluges of water. But the
warming land does change the rain & wind patterns. We can get severe weather.
Enough rain to have floods that last only a week or so, at most. I live in a
house partially up a hill, so our house doesn't get flooded, but the weather
can make travel difficult. Our house is hit by lightning two or three times in
the season. I've seen, but not been hit by, Tornado. Six years ago, there was a
hail storm that was so violent, the sides of our house were destroyed.
Honestly, it looked like someone used a shotgun on it. I'm happy we have
insurance on our house.
Once the rains come, Spring is much like you would expect. Green things
growing, birds nesting, crops start growing. At night, if you listen carefully,
and the neighborhood is quiet, you can hear the corn grow. It crackles.
Everything is eager to get on with life. During Winter, many animals such as
Rabbits, Mice, Squirrels, Raccoon, and Opossum ate underneath our bird feeders.
They scavenged what the birds didn't eat. Now with Spring, they no longer have
to scavenge and disappear from our backyard. We won't see them until Winter.
Summer arrives on the calendar June 21st. The Spring rains have stopped less
than a month ago, and we get dry weather for several months. Again, this is not
really severe drought, we get rain now and again, but not a lot at a time, nor
long lasting. By about halfway through Summer, the birds have fledged their
first nest full of young, and are starting on a second nesting. The increase in
bird population (as well as rodent population) brings an increase in predators.
Red Tail Hawks, Bobcat, and Foxes. Sometimes they stake out the feeders waiting
for the meal to come to them. We have four grape vines on one side of our
house. They will now cover the house, ten feet high, and fifty feet across.
The full heat of Summer doesn't arrive until August. The "Dog Days" can be up
to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the nights 75 degrees. This will last only three
weeks or so. Time to put out more water for the birds. The heat will signal most

fruit crops to start ripening. We have Peach, Pear, and Apple trees in our
yard, and all of them have to be harvested at about the same time. One tree can
produce about twenty five pounds of fruit. We also must worry about Wasps. They
will literally eat whole pears, except for the skin & seeds. They leave hollow
husks of the pear, still on the tree. We are kept busy preserving -- freezing,
canning, juicing and making wines.
The beginning of Fall is September 22nd. Easy to remember, as that is the day
we married. The heat of Summer is already gone. The last 1/3rd of our rain
comes. Again, not as heavy as Spring rains. Birds have finished their second
fledge of young. Grain crops start to ripen, as well as our grapes. We make
about 15 gallons of juice. Tractors and specialized harvesters called Combines
go onto the fields. Again they run day and night, and will continue to harvest
until mid-November, or whenever the snows arrive. Some animal feed grains can
stay dry in the field for months, and may even be harvested after snowfall.
The Summer birds start to leave for places South, and others arrive from parts
North. Some just stop at our feeders for a couple days or a week, Ravens &
Grackles, Woodpeckers. Some just fly over our house while they migrate:
Canadian Geese, Egrets & Herons, Cranes, even the occasional Bald Eagle. Some
have arrived to live here for the Winter: Mourning Doves, Sparrows and Blue
Jays. The leaves start to dry up, die, and fall off the trees and plants. This
is normal, as the ground will soon be frozen, and the plants won't be able to
absorb water for the next six to seven months. They stay alive by dropping
their leaves.
According to the calendar, Winter does not start until December 21st. But here,
around late October, the first frosts happen. Beginning at nights only, but
within a week, we get "hard" frosts. Insects die. Plants appear to die. If they
have not yet done so, trees loose all their leaves, overnight. Some birds will
get caught off-guard, and can be killed. Most birds though, will have mobbed my
feeders and stuffed themselves with food. They will make it through the frosts.
Some animals dig holes and tunnels, and retreat into them. They go into
hibernation, and will be safe until Spring.
Any harvest you have not taken, is now lost. Any food not brought in and stored
or preserved, is now inedible. It is amazing how one day you can have a garden
of Pumpkin, Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, and etc. Then the next day, the fruits
which were frozen overnight, now thaw into mush. Some of my neighbors can
"feel" when a hard frost is coming. They get the word out, and more than once,
I have helped in someone's garden, harvesting everything that is on the plant.
Even unripe things. There are always plants that continue to fruit right up to
frost. And we all have recipes for these unripe things (Fried Green Tomatoes
are a treat, when prepared right).
For the next week to a month, there is nothing. Snow hasn't arrived yet. The
land is brown and dead. Most animals can't be seen. The only reason to look out
your kitchen window is to watch the birds. They are as energetic as ever. Maybe
more so, because if they keep moving, they keep warm. Time to put out suet for
the season. And plug in the heated bird bath. Flocks arrive at my feeders
numbering as many as 50 in each flock. Their colors have all turned to browns,
blacks, and grays. But they are still uplifting to watch. When Mourning Doves
fly, they make a peculiar musical whistling sound. When they perch, they choose
the top of my house -- because it is warmer, up high, and near food. When they
call to each other, it s a mournful cooing that seems to lament the extinction
of their cousin, the Passenger Pigeon. If I am careful and slow moving, I can
stand out in my backyard, and be serenaded by a choir of birds.
Eventually, the snows arrive. Sometime mid-November. And they arrive with a bad
attitude. Usually with high winds (up to about 30 miles an hour), the snow is
dangerous. What would usually be one inch of rain, becomes ten inches of snow.
This year's first snowfall was 23 inches. Meaning, if there had been no wind,
there would have been an even, 23 inch thick layer of snow over everything. But
it is never that simple. There is always wind. If the wind is strong enough, it
is called a blizzard. The wind blows the snow around, and piles it up in
strange drifts. Anywhere there is an obstruction, such as a house, snow is
piled up around the obstruction. Some places like harvested fields, can be
blown clear. The snow can become like a fog because of the wind.
Highways and roads can be totally obscured. Snow is slippery. If you are
driving out in a blizzard, you may not see the road at all. This year for the
first snow, we were at a science fiction convention called Chicago Tardis. We
were 250 miles from home. We have very good highways in the Midwest, and this
trip took me five hours to drive there. Driving home, took ten hours. Mostly
because of other crazy drivers. For some reason, most folk drive through the
first snow, exactly as if it were rain. It isn't. The car does not stay on the
road as well on snow. Stopping a car takes special technique -- and a LOT
longer distance. If you have to dodge something, like a wild animal which has
wandered onto the road, you may spin your car off the road, or even flip it or
roll it, if you are driving too fast. And I swear, everyone in Chicago drives
as if they wish to commit suicide.
The snow itself is bad enough. But the wind is more deadly. It can blow a car
off the road. And because of the slippery snow, you may not be able to correct
in time. Assuming of course, you are still on the road in the first place. With
the snow, you may not be sure where the side of the road ends, and where a
farmer's field begins. I navigated the highway, part of the time, by looking at
plants. Although I could not see the highway, I could see the remaining stalks
of plants that had grown at the side of the highway. They were my guideposts
home. We made it back. Shoveling the snow away from our driveway and sidewalks
took three days. And I discovered that my wife is a natural when it comes to
her running a snow blower.
I said that wind is more dangerous. Not just for driving. For all the entire
Winter. We have special clothes we wear for being outside in Winter weather.
But the thermometer does not tell the whole story in Winter. I assume that you,
during Summer, go out on a hot day, and then feel a breeze of wind, that cools
you down. It feels cooler. That still happens in Winter! The temperature may be
only Zero degrees Fahrenheit, but if the wind is 10 miles an hour, you are
cooled down even more. Now it is as if the temperature is -16 degrees. If you
dress only for the thermometer, you may not be well enough protected. And this
mistake can be deadly.
No joke. About 30 years ago, I went to an important meeting when the
thermometer temperature was -53 degrees. I got into my car in my garage,
protected from the wind. I took all the clothes I should have, along with
emergency supplies in case the car failed. Drove to the meeting. I got out of
my car, with my back to the wind, and I was smug. I thought I had enough
clothes for the weather. I then turned into the wind, and felt my nose
crystallize. With the wind chill, the weather was as deadly as if it were -98
degrees. I was never before aware of it, but skin has an oil on it. It was the
oil that froze when I faced into the wind. My skin froze along with the oil. My
nose was OK, but the skin was killed. It was like the world's worst sunburn,
except that the skin did not peel. In the next two days, it died and turned
black. Then fell off in little patches. Ever since then, I have always looked
at wind speed even before I look at the thermometer.
Birds are smarter than me. When there is snow on the ground, they bury
themselves into the snow. Immediately, it makes wind a non-issue. They only
have to worry about the temperature. And then, it is interesting that snow is
an insulator. The body heat of the bird will warm up the 'cave' they create,
and they will be even more comfortable than the temperature would indicate.
Some rodents do this also. After snow, in our backyard, there are tunnels
underneath the snow, all over. The rodents come to our feeder, but otherwise
stay hidden and 'comfortable' in the tunnels. Predators can't see them, and
they survive the entire Winter without hibernation.
Winter seems to have four parts to it. First, the heavy snows of November. Then
not so much wind, and light gentle, Christmas-like snows. Every two days or so,
you have to shovel off the driveway and sidewalk; while city plows take care of
the streets.
Next is the January thaw. Weather will get just above freezing, and about half
of the snow will melt. Since water is heavier than ice or snow, it sinks to the
bottom, and then re-freezes. The ground is too solid to let the water soak in.
But the snow drops to about half it's previous thickness. Some places, you can
even see land.
I have a cousin who actually jumps into Lake Michigan at this time every year.
Oddly, this is something of a sport. They are called "Polar Bears." He and
others offer to jump into Lake Michigan in exchange for donations of money.
The contributions are used to support programs like the Special Olympics. The
Special Olympics are youth version of the Paralympics. He has a sister with
Downs Syndrome, so this is very important to him. Last year, he raised about
$3,000 for Special Olympics. He was also interviewed by two national
newspapers.
Then comes February. Nothing but cold. It will be a good day, if the
temperature during the day gets to 10 degrees. February is a short month for a
reason. The weather is too bad for any normal human to stand more than 28 days
of it. I spend about 1/3rd of my fuel bill for the entire year, in February. We
stay indoors a lot. Neither of us are very fat, and cold weather hurts. But
there are lots of others who take advantage of the weather. Skiing, skating,
snowmobiles, Turkey Bowling, ice fishing. Our Village even throws an event
called Shiverfest. It takes place entirely on top of Lazy Lake in February. The
lake has now frozen so solidly, that people can drive trucks on the surface. I
think the people who go to Shiverfest are crazy. Strangely, the wind dies down.
There is nothing outside except for bone-numbing cold. More suet for the birds.
Fill the feeders three times a week, instead of once a week.
Last part of Winter is more snow. The weather "warms up" from the February
temperatures. But it would be considered a rainy season, if the temperatures
were above freezing. The wind returns. The birds are actually getting fat. They
got in the habit of eating a lot during February, and don't seem to get the
idea that Spring is only two months away.
And that brings me back to the beginning of this letter. I started with Spring,
so I will end this just before Spring.
I hope you enjoyed my letter.
Jay Toser