Snow Removal the Finnish Way

Want to know how to tell if a country gets really serious snow? They don't use salt. They throw gravel on top of it. The ice in our parking lot is at least 5 inches thick and it has been melting ever since we got here. The walks are several inches above the stone base. In some areas they are starting to sweep up and clear away the gravel as the snow and ice melt. They use some heavy duty machinery to do this. In another month we'll learn where the paths are and what they look like.

One more interesting thing, not related to snow--there are no stop signs here. Any intersection that does not have a traffic light, which is most of them is controlled by the yield to the right rule. This effectively creates a four-way stop at every intersection and puts the responsibility for watching on everyone there. So no one assumes they have the right-of-way as occurs at stop sign controlled intersections in America. We are so glad that the exiting elders happened to mention this rule to us in our none-to-detailed orientation.