Getting ready for winter
Greetings and Welcome to Tool Talk, Jimbo.
To round out our perspective on what Jimbo is talking about, I'll add my take on winters in Upstate NY. I moved out of the Tri-Cities (Albany-Schenectady-Troy) and Upstate New York area in 1962 in my early 20's. Forever. Winter, e.g. snow and cold began on November 1 and ended as early as Mid-April 6 months, or so, later. Lakes and rivers froze over, sometimes overnight. Four-hour snowfalls would deposit 30 inches of new snow, Hay would be helicoptered in to feed cows and horses on the farms after blizzards. The NYS Thruway west of Rochester would be shut down because of these same blizzards. I personally experienced week-long "cold snaps" of -35 degrees.
No wonder all us US Army's college-educated draftees in the early 1960s stationed in Alaska were from Upstate New York!