There was nothing special in a cold Chicagoland winter, it has always been like that. The only special in that particular year was, that it was that cold. Single digit temperatures and even negatives several days in a row. Everything was frozen, and I really mean, everything – the tree branches, the bushes, the little and even the big lakes. There was even a layer of ice on the roads because the salt didn’t work anymore, which make the humans grumpier that usual.
So, you could probably say it was a hard winter that year. The deer and the coyotes fought over the last warm spaces beneath the bushes and the hawks fought over the numerous squirrels that were still out there and were having fun with all the bird feeders in the area.