walking in my yard

You all know how it is--you can walk in your own yard, especially on a familiar path, without thinking, usually, even at night. I can walk in my yard without thinking because it is familiar ground under my feet. My muscle memory helps me to walk confidently without searching with my feet for the ground.

Okay, just forget about the time I was tripped up by the wisteria. And, forget about the hickory nuts, especially before the husks wear away. So far, I have never fallen because of stepping on one. Usually, I stumble about and wrench my back or calf muscle.

For the last week it has been difficult to walk in my yard. The ground is so frozen that what was soft under my feet is now brittle and frozen in odd shapes. My muscle memory is betrayed.

A squirrel or raccoon can dig a place in the yard, mostly swipe marks for both, just longer and a bit deeper for the raccoon. Now, I slip and my foot turns when I hit these unfamiliar places.  Ordinarily, I would squash the loose dirt partially back in place.

These frozen places make walking so perilous that I now have to watch the ground! In the last five days, I believe the temperature has been above 32 F for maybe two or three hours total for the five days.

I know that people who expect the snow to fall and stay there for the winter often scurry to pick up things that, once covered with snow, will become a major obstacle for those walking. Things might be destroyed on a farm if a vehicle hits the object obscured by the snow.

While I complain about freezing, being so cold, I am lucky I only have to traverse yard with frozen clumps in different places. The yard does not "roll" under my feet even on familiar ground.

Probably, I won't be making daily trips to potatoes growing behind the house. This prolonged freeze has doomed them. Someone told me they will re-emerge in the spring. Is this true?

Does the frozen ground at your place interfere with the familiarity under your feet? Or, is snow obscuring familiar ground?