how do people try to guess wether its going to be a hard winter or not?

Beats me but my grandmother always said she could smell when it was going to snow..?? and she was never wrong.

Funny you should ask that question! I was just talking about that the other day. I happened to be chatting with an Old Indian when I asked him what he thought the winter would bring, and he said," Oh, its going to be a very cold winter this year." I was curious as to how he knew with so much certainty, so I said, "How can you be so sure?"" Its easy," he replied," White man have Big woodpile!"