But sampling soil from who-knows-where is shit. Imagine two weeks of rain at 4 °C and everyday you have to drive out. You are muddy, you are wet, you are freezing.
You're not wrong. I make enough money at my current work that I'm hoping to be able to stop working w/i about 10 years (I'd be in my mid 40's) and then go do some kind of outdoors work (ideally as a park ranger or game warden) where I'd be able to get back to my redneck roots and be away from the city 75% of the time.
with the right gear even freezing rain is tolerable, the big thing is that you need to prevent any water from getting between the boots and the rain/snow pants (or use the single piece pant boot things for wading).