When I look at Willard's pics and all the others from the frozen north I always think how hard it must be to make a living up there, here in Western Europe you lose very few days to the weather.
What do you do in those periods? You can only change blades and sharpen saws so often.
I work approximately 9 months of the year. Those 3 months off I have lots of equipment maintenance to catch up on for the next season, I just built a chainsaw workshop in my backyard where all my arb gear ,work clothes and small equipment spare parts is kept. When I finish straightening out the inside I'll post some pics for you guys.
It's only 12 ft X 8ft with an attic for over flow storage ,but I built it with 2 full work benches and fully equipped with everything I need, I do all my welding ,grinding etc outside on a cement deck , even got a portable bed in case the wife throws me out of the house for the night.
It's fully portable so if I ever move I can skid it onto a flat deck trailer and it comes with me. I keep my dump trailer/ chipper, stump grinder unit in my 2 bay car garage 10 ft away.
It gets cold up north here for about 2 months straight but the most snow we get is 2 feet deep which stays right till spring. One thing about working in cold weather doing arb work you can dress for the conditions and work very comfortably.
When I was a tree faller years ago -40C was still workable because I was in the shelter of a thick spruce forest and I was always moving keeping nice and warm. The sun shining on the dark spruce foliage seemed to help keep me warm too, because even at -40C snow was melting off the lower limbs when the sun was shining on it.
Now -40C in an urban environment with no shelter of open spaces with stop and go work is a different story.