A stretch of cold winter weather, piles of snow or dark skies can turn almost anyone into a glum couch potato. But many in the Midlands know how to kick those winter blues out the door with indoor picnics, crafts, volunteering, winter bike rides and other activities with family and friends.
Rich Yost, 53, of Bellevue stays cheerful making birdhouses to represent each state in the union. It's a project he started last winter when snow covered the ground for months and he got bored staying indoors.
When warmer weather arrived he returned to yardwork and outdoor projects — like making a sand volleyball court in his backyard.
Now that it's colder, Yost, who works at First Data Resources as a timekeeper, has returned to the birdhouses.
He found the inspiration for his project in a birdhouse that his father quickly made, many years ago, with scrap lumber for walls and an old Nebraska license plate for the roof.
Yost decided to make his houses more artistic with knickknacks collected from thrift stores to represent each state. He designs the houses around the things he finds, selects paints in complementary colors and fashions a roof with an old license plate from the state being represented.
"Each one is unique, depending upon what kind of knickknacks I pick up," Yost said. Most of the houses are complete or mostly complete. He's looking for ideas and props for birdhouses to represent Connecticut and the District of Columbia and thinking about how he will place the birdhouses in his yard.
Thinking about spring also has him joking that he needs to find a real estate agent to start selling the houses to the birds.
"The purpose of a birdhouse is to have a bird — to have an owner in the house," he said.
Making the houses has been fun, he said.
"When you get home from work it's almost dark and I don't like watching TV," he said. "I'd rather do something with my hands. It's more entertaining to be creating something."
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Crocheting chased away the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that has bothered Sherry Woodard-Rush, 66, of Omaha in the winter.
Woodard-Rush, a retired ombudsman for the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging, decided last winter she needed to be more productive during the coldest months of the year.
At the same time, she learned that the homeless and the near-homeless needed warm winter gear and she started to crochet hats, scarves, mittens and slippers for the Siena-Francis House.
She hasn't kept a tally of how much she has crocheted but she took several bagfuls of winter wear last year and again this year.
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"When I run out of yarn I go shopping," she said. "I take my coupons and get what I can get. I usually stick to the sports-weight yarn. It's heavier, made in the USA and 100 percent acrylic. There's no shrinking and it wears really well. It's affordable and you can throw it in the washer."
This year she made a few things for her family, too. Her granddaughters have been getting compliments on their warm headbands embellished with her crocheted flowers.
In previous years, Woodard-Rush would have headed to the sofa with a book and the remote control for the television.
"By remaining productive through the worst of the winter my SAD improved and I actually felt good," she said. "So the old adage of 'It's better to give than to receive' has taken on new meaning for me. I'm really surviving winter better than I used to."
Making things with her two grandchildren helps Therese Lenhart, 60, of Omaha get through the winter doldrums.
The stay-at-home grandmother builds a lot of Lego and K'nex kits with grandson Braylon, 5, and granddaughter Huxley, 19 months.
In recent weeks, Lenhart purchased wooden craft kits from a dollar store. Her husband got involved and worked with her grandson to glue together and paint a race car, a helicopter and a jet fighter.
They were so enjoyable that she plans to buy more kits for Braylon to assemble on weekdays, after school.
"The doldrums can be days of sunshine with grandkids," she said.
Beach wear is encouraged when Linda West, 58, of Lincoln throws some hot dogs on the grill and hosts a winter picnic — indoors.
The medical technologist typically invites three or four friends and co-workers to her home to enjoy a picnic-inspired menu in January.
She uses a gingham tablecloth and plastic cups and serves things like potato salad, potato chips and ice cream.
After the meal, her friends stay to watch movies on DVD.
Carolyn E. Sieling, 72, of Omaha looks forward to bicycling with a friend — also in her 70s — any time of the year. If it's cold, they simply dress for the weather. Snow and ice may occasionally keep them at home, but they are usually able to ride at least once a week. Their trips last about six to eight hours, including some rests.
"We make it a fun adventure," Sieling said. "We stop for coffee and we take a lunch along. We enjoy the countryside more than the city trails. We usually save every Tuesday for biking, plus another day if we can. Our goal is to bicycle 1,000 miles a year and we've made it the last six years."
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Sieling started bicycling in earnest about 10 years ago. Most of her life, 57 years, she has worked as a piano teacher and organist. The bicycling supplements the swimming that she regularly does for exercise.
"That's the way to keep young: just keep moving," she said. "I have arthritis and I keep it bay by biking and swimming. I don't take any medicine."
Bicycling with a friend makes the trips more interesting, Sieling said.
"There are places we go together that I would not go by myself because they're isolated," she said.
Focusing on a quilting project is so interesting that LaVonne Stamp, 74, a retiree from AT&T in Omaha, doesn't pay attention to winter weather closing in.
She took quilting lessons in 1980 and she has been quilting ever since.
This winter she has been working on baby quilts for grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Each one is different because the mothers of the babies request quilts to go with the design themes in the nurseries.
"These new moms have new ideas," Stamp said. "It's not the monkeys and teddy bears."
She recently made a quilt with large alphabet letters, of varying sizes and in varying shades of green fabric. The quilt repeated the same designs and colors the mother put on an accent wall in the nursery.
"It was so fun, I really enjoyed that," Stamp said. "The size of the lettering was the hardest part. But once I get onto something it doesn't take too long. I wake up early and head off to the sewing room."
She has a long-arm quilting machine and a couple of sewing machines that will embroider.
"I've got all the bells and whistles," she said. "My husband always knows where to find me: in the sewing room."
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Barbara J. Wiselogel, 65, of Red Cloud, Neb., takes advantage of the milder, snow-free days of winter to work as a volunteer in the Red Cloud Cemetery. She picks up branches, rakes leaves and fills in low spots with soil. She owns her own business, selling books on Amazon.com as the Queen of Cheap, so she can set her own schedule.
"It depends on my arthritis and the weather and my joints," she said. "If all is well. I can work a full afternoon, four hours, in good weather. If temperatures drop, I take a day off and quilt. I don't have a TV. When you turn the TV off you discover hidden hours" that had been frittered away.
Wiselogel decided to volunteer in the cemetery when she noticed that city government did a great job mowing but didn't have staff to attend to other details on the grounds.
"This volunteer work in a parklike setting is ideal for me," she said. "It combines beautification with outdoor exercise and honoring our deceased with civic pride."
Her volunteer labor has boosted her physical stamina and been more social than she first imagined. People stop to chat with her when they walk through or drive through the cemetery. She also learns about the history of Red Cloud and how people are related as she tends to the graves.
"It's a win-win," she said. "I'm getting stronger. It's a beautiful setting. There are lots of good feelings of thanks for making it more beautiful."
Lately people have been noticing the piles of branches and bags of leaves and offering to help or purchase more bags for leaves.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com
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