Everything except the actual temperature could be said about where I live in Southern Saskatchewan, including the insects in winter. A week before the cold snap we're in I'd been seeing flying insects almost daily. That's right, flys outdoors over Xmas in Saskatchewan!

To top it off, I read this article yesterday. Ok, I'm not thrilled that I might have to factor Lyme disease into my outdoor planning, but the thing that really caught my attention was that there are many tick reports coming in over winter.

I graduated in 1974, so I might be a few years older than you, but it sounds like we've seen similar "progress".

One thing I miss is "snow houses". When we were kids, we could build multi room shelters with connecting tunnels high enough that even many adults could walk upright. All you had to do was hit the lee side of any windbreak, starting in mid-late December. We usually did the bulk of the work over Xmas break.