Okay, BigJETS I'll put you out of your misery. The guy was leaving it down to let the snow and slush blow off the gear before retracting it so that those little itsy-bitsy switches didn't freeze during the high altitude cruise and cause problems.
(Seriously, there was an ac I flew where we retracted/extended/retracted after take-off in such conditions to avoid just that. But I can't remember which one it was)
Okay... ODR in June... well...