First Winter

We've survived so far, us transplanted city folk.
The pickup truck with the plow attachment was out of the mechanic's shop, pretty much road worthy, in time for the first major snowfall - thankfully. We got snowed in (like most of Ontario) and spent four days plowing and shovelling out ( I like to refer to MY job as hand-plowing). I had bought a 'sleigh shovel' in anticipation of that storm, and it has become my best winter tool... easy on the back, efficient at moving lots of snow in a short amount of time, and great at creating high wind-breaking banks alongside the drive. This is our winter to figure out 'logical snow piling'... where best to plow in the banks so that we can keep adding and adding and adding without running out of space. Where to start so that the most gets cleared with the least amount of 'hand-plowing'. After every snowfall, we congratulate ourselves on gravelling out the yard so that the parking area is expanded - it's all taken up by snow, now. It will be interesting to see how the grass made out, come the spring - it takes practice to keep the plow blade low enough to scrape the snow but high enough to spare the grass.
We lost a shocking number of shingles during the fierce winds after Boxing Day, along with a section of our chimney stack. Thankfully the shingles were the 3rd layer, so the roof seems sound (a hasty climb into the attic only showed 1 small leak, which can be put off until the snow starts to clear) and Max was able to do a repair on the stack (again, to last until spring when we re-do the roof). I had to hide in the basement, though - the sound of the wind tearing around and over the house and garages was terrifying. I guess the longer I live here, the more I'll trust the house not to fall down or the roof to rip off.
We've started feeding the birds, and now have dozens of them daily - everything from a pair of cardinals to the typical flock of starlings, with lots of finches, sparrows and blue jays in between. It's hard to distinguish them in their winter feathers, but I'm trying to learn the different species. It's also interesting to see how they interact as they feed - the Northern Mockingbird ( I think that's what it is) seems to take on the 5 blue jays, and the starlings are every bit the gluttons that the bird books say they are. I've taken to scattering the food out in a few places, and hanging suet balls on a few trees, just to give the smaller birds a chance. 2 days ago we had a flock of snow buntings show up and they looked amazing from below as they flew off together. It's a pretty terrific change from the city, where the number of species seems so limited (and limited enough to have prevented me from ever before taking interest in learning how to distinguish them!)
So far, we seem to have done little to embarrass ourselves as 'the city folk'... we even got the chance to offer our neighbour a tow when he got stuck at the end of his (mile-long) drive. I think that the '86 Chevy pickup truck (with the remarkable plow blade proudly riding out front) has done a lot to improve our reputation.