Smoking Outdoors In Minnesota
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Kevin Godbee - Nov 4, 2014
- 5 min read
Marshall "Butch" Armstrong
It takes a brave person to smoke a pipe outside when it’s below zero. Or is that a foolish person? I don’t know. Whether brave or foolish, and sometimes they’re one and the same, that person is me. I smoke outside. My wife doesn’t smoke and we have our grandkids out here often so I respect that and don’t smoke in the house . During spring, summer and fall it’s not a problem but winter is another matter altogether. In Minnesota, winter is a force to be reckoned with. Last winter we had more than forty days when the temperature dipped below zero. We cannot do or plan anything in winter without considering the weather. If we do, we’re courting disaster. Storms can happen with little warning, whipping into a blizzard with white out conditions within an hour. On Halloween day 1991, the temperature rose to over 50 degrees during the early afternoon and by time the day was done we had over 30 inches of snow on the ground. It can make pipe smoking outside interesting to say the least.
In winter most people carry survival kits in their cars and trucks. Driving on snow and ice provides plenty of opportunities to spin out and wind up twenty feet in the ditch. And if you’re on an isolated road, you could be in trouble. A survival kit usually includes candles, matches, a small metal can for melting water, protein bars, a heavy duty flashlight with fresh batteries and a sleeping bag. For those of you who live in warm climates, this is no joke. A couple of hours in below zero weather and you can freeze to death. It happens a few times here every year. It’s nice that most of us carry cell phones nowadays. A few years ago a woman went in the ditch and was tracked by her cell phone signal. They found her right before the battery died. Of course no survival kit would be complete without a pipe and tobacco. Unfortunately the moisture in the tobacco would freeze solid in no time if I leave it in my car. So it’s kept in a nice warm spot inside my jacket, ready when I want it.
Every morning at about 6:30 a.m., I take my dog Sophie out for a one mile walk. She’s a Malamute Husky cross with blue/white eyes and weighs close to one hundred pounds. She needs her exercise so we go unless the weather is life threatening. That’s a good time for me to smoke my pipe. It’s a nice relaxing time that helps me wake up and having my pipe at that peaceful time of the morning is great. We live about 3½ miles from town on the North side of a lake. The land around us is beautiful and filled with wildlife so our walks are almost always quiet and enjoyable. Unless Sophie sees something she wants to chase. Then I have to worry about my arms being torn off. Sophie is a force to be reckoned with also. It takes us about twenty five minutes to do our mile and I have a couple of small pipes that work perfectly for that. The only drawback to smoking on a walk or, ‘lunting’ as it’s called is the wind. Out here among the cornfields and lakes the wind is almost always present. I use a wind cap on my pipe which works pretty well but if I have to relight in the wind it can be a challenge.
There are plenty of people who work outside in winter, either for a job or around the house. Staying active in winter gives me the opportunity to smoke and it’s also good for my waistline which seems to have expanded over time. Maybe it’s age, and maybe I just need to be more active. We have a tendency to want to stay inside and eat all winter and with the Holidays not too far away I’ll be better off smoking on a walk than grazing in the fridge. There are a lot of good cooks in my family as I imagine there are in most families so I need to be careful. Moderation in everything I guess.
The signs are all around us. The leaves on the trees have mostly fallen, the air is getting cold in the mornings and the daytime temps have been in the 40’s and 50’s. And there was ice on the ponds in my area this morning. It’s coming, but I’m ready. I’ve planned ahead. I have sectioned off a space about 10 feet by 5 feet with plastic tarps in my garage and if I turn on my small electric heater it gets warm enough to sit out there and smoke fairly comfortably. I can use my laptop to write or do a little work on an estate pipe while smoking there. It’s not a "mancave" by any means but it works for me. I have heard that some people use small ice fishing houses with heaters as a smoking shack and I can see that working too. In winter our lakes freeze solid enough to drive on. That’s when the ice fishing begins. A small portable ice fishing house with a heater gets warm enough to sit inside in a tee shirt and smoke your pipe. It takes a little work and planning but if you really want to smoke that new tobacco you just got then it’s worth it. Recently I’ve taken a liking to Latakia and it’s great to smoke a good Balkan in the cold air. It reminds me of campfires. The fresh clean air is great for the smoky flavor.
This morning it was absolutely beautiful outside. The temperature was 27 degrees F., there was almost no wind and the sky was turning pink as Sophie and I started out. I lit up my Balkan Supreme and didn’t need a wind cap for my pipe. The cold air just makes that Latakia taste so good. Sophie sniffed along the ground and I listened to the rooster crow from a nearby farm as geese flew overhead. The smoke from my pipe hung in the air and slowly drifted away. I had to work today, another nine hours on my feet, but that seemed a thousand miles away as I smoked my pipe in the quiet peacefulness of a cold morning in Minnesota. After that, it just had to be a good day.
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Marshall Lee Armstrong enjoys camping, fly fishing, kayaking, painting, drumming and writing. He has published two books of poetry and writes a blog called “The Window", which includes a section called "SMOKIN‘" where he writes about cigars and pipe smoking. He is 58-years old, and has worked as a Rock Band Drummer, Electroplater, Chemical Process Technician, and Circuitry Manufacturing Supervisor. He is currently a Medical Lab Technician. He started smoking pipes in 1980. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Jack London comes to mind, bringing in the dogs to help stay warm, walking to the mailbox becomes a balancing act between life and death, hands freezing to a shovel. Being from the South, I can only imagine a place like that. Winter to me, means I have to wear socks, and if it gets really bad, I go buy me a cheap coat to wear for a couple of weeks.
I enjoyed reading this, and I respect all of you folks that live up in those uninhabitable regions of the world. But, I’d just prefer to read about snow and cold than experience it. Brrrr, I’m cold just reading this.
Great read!!
As a pipe smoking Canadian from Saskatchewan our winters are very similar to the winter in Minnesota and while reading I knew exactly what your were talking about. While there is nothing wrong with coming from a warmer climate folks from southern states will next understand ice fishing, neck deep snow, and winters like us northerners. Smoking a pipe takes on a whole new set of hurtles when smoking in winter. Great read and well done.
YUP I feel ya right next door to you in wis last winter was a b#@$tch but kept smoking all the way thru it !! Happy Pipeing !
cosmicfolklore, great comment, “Winter to me, means I have to wear socks” You folks from the South really need to come visit us in February. Chalk it up as a learning experiance!
blueeyedogre and pjm03fatboy, you guys know what I mean. Especially when you’re eyelashes start freezing together!
Good to meet you all. Thanks for the comments.
What a great debut article. I can relate to most of it, having grown up in West Michigan, cut my teeth on pipesmoking in Chicago, and now living in west Montana. I think the key is to keep moving, which obviously has other benefits, too.
Best part about piping in winter is you don’t have to worry about fire. As soon as we have some good snow on the ground I’ll be able to wander aimlessly through the bush while puffing away without worry.
I just barley started smoking pipes but I know it gets cold in the north, coming from Wyoming. I’m hoping it’ll be a good winter to start off smoking (: cheers there buds!
Great article! Coming from Sweden I really get what you mean. I love taking a walk during winter while enjoying my pipe. Last winter the temperature dropped to just below -17 and I just had to take a walk and listen to how eerily quiet everything was and just enjoying the solitude and my pipe. Last winters best memory.
Enjoyed the article.
Winter’s getting going in Dubai now. This means a decent 25C to 32C during the day, time for camping in the desert, days on the beach, evenings spent outside enjoying drinks and food.
If it gets really bad, in February I might need to bring a jacket with me if we sit outisde at night!
Enjoyed the article. Spent 3 years in Alaska so I know the challenges of smoking in winter. The images of quiet walks in the snow are still quite vivid to me. Thanks again for the article.
Redstar, Ha, Ha. I would like to spend a winter in Dubai just to see what it’s like but I wouldn’t want your summers, way too hot!
slightlywittynickname, Isn’t the quiet amazing in winter? The snow is so insulating. I love winter!
Thank you all for the great comments!
“Cheers!” jdjacobsen1, Thanks for the comment.
Thanks kingjon!
I also live in MN. I can not do the wind during out winters so I go into the garage. I should definitely invest in a portable heater. Might make me want to smoke my pipe in January. Thanks for the good read. Stay safe
I enjoyed reading that article, thanks! I’m from Scotland and a lot of that rings true here as well, especially up in the highlands. When it’s bad you need to be prepared! I’m a cigar smoker that has just started along the path of the pipe (I’ve not even made my first forum post here yet!)so it will be interesting to see if pipes are better or worse than cigars in bad weather.
“Up the cold country!” It’s 23 degrees F. here tonight and will drop into the teens. Hey styler, any jobs in Scotland? I’d love to come there someday. Thanks easterntravler, for the comment. Thanks to everyone for enjoying my first article here. Stay tuned, more to come!
Plenty of jobs in Aberdeen where I am, we’ve got a good few years of oil left!
As a fellow Northerner, I empathize completely–winter is a trial, but frigid air surely does add a layer of flavor clarification to a bowl.
Thanks for the article Butch. It makes me recall my early teaching career in Northern Alberta. Couldn’t smoke in apartment so I’d bundle up and go for a walk with my pipe. Those January evenings were sometimes as cold as -25C. Something to be said for blissful ignorance; knowing what I know about pipe dynamics I’d be worried to do that now. But those were some of my best walks; bright green and red northern lights, the sound of snow crust ‘clinking’ in the colder night air, and the stillness and quiet of the world around me. Made my pipe all the more enjoyable.
Last winter we had more than 40 days when the temp dipped below zero F. And somedays it never got above zero. Makes smoking outside interesting that’s for sure!
I live in Minnesota as well, and you are right about the winter weather. I have setup a space in my garage to smoke my pipe in the winter if the weather is really cold. Otherwise if it’s nice 20F or above I’ll be on the patio smoking my pipe.