Sharing just to give this community a little bit of content. This December has been temperamental with snow – we've gone from tons to nothing and back several times. I do prefer it like this, last winter was just tons and that sucked XD
Three of us took to the sticks to make some good food, enjoy some homebrew beer, sleep soundly in the fresh -5 °C conditions and perhaps get up before sunrise to take the shotgun for a walk. Did all that save for the early walk, everyone chose sleep instead :)
Tried cooking with a 'jätkänkynttilä' / log torch for the first time. It was a revelation. A single log that would make four pieces of firewood lasts long enough to cook a whole meal if not two. This was cut from fresh pine that had been felled by wind two weeks earlier. The log torch is going to see a lot more use in our future adventures, for the winter it's perfect!
My sleeping arrangements consist of a self-made monofil / silnylon double layer hammock, an Enlightened Equipment short down underquilt rated for 20 °F ( -6 °C ) and a Carinthia Defence 4 synthetic sleeping bag, I think that promises comforts down to -10 °C. Forgot to pack a tarp, so I had to use my ground cloth in it's place :o) I did also put a string up across some trees and put some pine branches on it to make a windbreak towards the lake.
One thing I'm really happy with and have been for a long time is not really a part of my 'routine', but something I'll do maybe once a month max. Always after sauna, when the skin is soft and pores are open. (Yes, am Finnish :D)
I keep a mix of ground coffee, coconut oil and cocoa butter that I prepare by slightly heating the coconut & cocoa greases and add in the coffee. In room temperature it keeps solid, but warmth of the skin melts the fats that have all the magic ingredients of freshly ground coffee infused. I apply that on the face and scrub somewhat forcefully for a good ten minutes, then wipe off with toilet tissue. The ground coffee acts like the plastic bits in any exfoliating product, but it's natural and obviously biodegradable. The toilet tissue is also a part of the magic, since the stuff tends to contain quite a bit of what is practically clay, so it counts as a fine finishing sandpaper to the rough effect of the coffee. (Trust me, this is my field of engineering :)
Started doing this after I was turned on to exfoliating scrubs, which were awesome, but I didn't like the microplastics aspect. Figured out coffee as an alternative and after several years of self-experimenting with nothing but positive results to show, I dare recommend it publicly. Indeed, this is the first time I've shared this :)