I remember an ice storm back in Eugene, the city was all but shut down and every one was talking about how cold it was. If I recall right it got down into the single digits (F). Yesterday's low up here in the backwoods was -19F and our high was 20F. I'm sure anyone in Alaska, northern Canada, or the more northern parts of the US are thinking, "That's not that cold.", but it's colder then I have ever had to deal with.
When you get this kind cold things happen to objects and flesh that are not fun. We have ice on the insides of our doors ( note: need to finish insulating) and going outside is a multi-step process. Layers of clothing are my best friend.
First comes the basic day ware; Long-johns, sweat pants, jeans, tea shirt, flannel shirt and wool socks . When available I add tow warmers to my socks before putting on my boots or shoes. My boots have steal toes, the steal acts as a heat sink and makes my toes colder then when I'm in my street shoes, but have better treed for moving around on the slick ground. All that is just for sitting around in the house and even then I keep a blanket over my legs when at the computer.
When I'm going out for more then a few seconds I add an insulated flannel over shirt, my heavy jacket, a neck scarf, glove liners and wool gloves, and my funky northwest insulated ear hat. Even through all of that I can get cold if I'm out for more then 15 or 20 min.
When we went into town yesterday, to fill our propane and gas cans, the door on the back of the truck was frozen shut. I had to pour about a half a pot of hot watter over the handle just to get it open. (note: get deicer). Our truck normal has a good heater but on the ride in and back the poor little thing was working overtime and just keeping it barely warm in the truck. Even the door to our house freezes shut at times. It takes a good swift kick to get it open.
There are advantages to this kind of cold, at least for us. As we have no refrigerator yet the cold has become our refrigerator and freezer. We have to keep one of our windows open just a bit to be sure we have ventilation for our propane fireplace. We put things we want to keep cold right in front of the open spot. For larger items that are OK frozen, we have our freezer tree. I put a small shelf up in one of our trees and we set stuff out on it to keep frozen. So far it hasn't been raided by any crafty wild critters.
Latter today we will be doing an icicle harvest from the house. The icicles will be put in the turkey fryer over our stove to melt. One can never store to much watter. Isn't that right sister in-law ( family ribbing)
Our once nice fluffy snow is starting to freeze into a solid layer of crunchy, icy, slickness. Even our dogs that are made for the cold are having a bit of a problem with it. We need to get snow boots for all our critters. Miss. Treehaven has no boots, just her street shoes, so venturing out into the snow is down right hazardous for her. Anyone want to contribute to the boot fund? ( Note the Pay pal section to the right. Shameless begging.)
Bundled up Geek of Treehaven
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