Weather stories
 

My small house was built in 1926 and has never had any kind of heating system, other than space heaters. I heat it with two of those oil-filled radiators on wheels that you plug in.

EDIT: I forgot that originally it had wood stoves in each room. Senior moment.

Woke up this morning and it was -3F outside, WC -20. In my unheated bedroom, it was 46F. The heated parts of the house were at 48. I also have to heat my crawlspace so the pipes don't freeze, when it gets below about 20F. And below 32 I have to keep a tap trickling so the short above-ground section of pipe in the detached garage doesn't freeze. That section is above ground because it has a shutoff valve and a spigot. It is heavily insulated, but still.

Old-school living. Fun times! :yay: + :cry: = :ohno:

Today is the lowest temp day for this cold cycle, so it will only get better. Max temp today is 6F.

It's gotten up to -2 in the sun here in NE Illannoy, with a WC of -15. As stated in the 'What did you buy today' thread, it was -13 with a WC of -37 when I rolled myself out of a warm bed this morning.

We turned the furnace down a couple of degrees last night and I lit the fireplace this morning. The house is about 66. Wool is the fabric of choice today. Mrs.C is dressed in layers, which is a good thing for someone whose vocabulary is heavy with, "I'm cold." I have on a heavy rag wool sweater with the same type of socks and lined jeans.

Meals heavy in calories help a lot, too.

"For CA", it's been cold here. We've been in the mid-to-low 20's in the morning. Had some snow but yesterdays rain melted it off below 4000'. Living in Canyonland, you drive two miles and the weather and terrain completely change. My buddy lives four miles up the same road from us. He needed chains to get out of his driveway, we were clear.

I grew up in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, an area where below zero temps in the winter were the norm. (Sometimes felt like that in the summer too!) We lived in a farm house that had absolutely no insulation in it. We had a wood stove in the kitchen and a wood furnace in the basement. No forced air. And if Dad fell asleep then the fires went out and we would wake up to a house that was almost the same temp as outside.

Every summer was spent cutting down trees, splitting firewood, carrying firewood, stacking firewood, and in the winter filling wood boxes and carrying ashes..... God Almighty I very quickly got tired of messing with firewood!

Then when I was 16 we moved to Michigan's lower peninsula into an apartment and I discovered the most ingenious, and important, invention/innovation of my young life. There was a dial on the wall and if I turned it up the apartment got warmer!!!! Imagine that... no freaking firewood!!!

So even now in my old age as long as the power doesn't go out and that little dial on the wall in my house keeps working let the cold winds blow!

Say Ya to da Yoo Pee, Eh!

From NW Wisconsin and experienced the same though we moved to SE Wisconsin when I was quite young. Every two weeks in the summer, though, go up to Eau Claire and get the grandparents wood supply ready for winter.

Firewood is still a way of life here. PG&E doesn't let us use that dial on the wall much. Only in seriously critical situations like if the fire goes out, and we're gone a long time. We'll bring the house up to about 55'-60' with the heater, then shut it off and let the wood stove take over.
We just got the pre-warning email from PG&E yesterday that our next bill is projected to be over 500.00 for December. We barely ran the heater (propane heat, mind you) and live with minimal lights on. Highway freaking robbery. PG&E needs some competition.
I['m very fortunate that Mrs. 2LZ still loves splitting and stacking firewood. We're also very fortunate that Mother Nature (The Good Lord?) provides us with enough natural oak fall on our property every year so we don't have to buy wood like many here have to.

Edit: When we first moved here, we installed a pellet stove insert into that giant, heat sucking hole in the wall known as a fireplace. It worked well as we both were gone 12 hours a day and it kicked on and off by itself. We'd shut it down when we got home and light the wood stove. It wasn't bad then, I could buy a ton (pallet) of pellets for about 250.00, delivered. That would last about 2-3 months. Now? Pellets are upwards of 7-8.00 a BAG! A bag may last a day to a day and a half. Times that by 30......

It's been 48 all day in my house. Temp is now up to 3F outside.

My wardrobe:
winter socks; Heat Holders slipper socks over them
pair of underwear; pair of long underwear; another pair of long underwear
thick 3/4 sleeve T-shirt; long sleeve semi-thick cotton shirt; thin wool sweater; sweatshirt
hand towel for my neck
thick terrycloth robe
Heat Holders wool cap (super warm)

I had to tuff it out today in 72° sunny weather. I took a chance and road the Vulcan S. :lmao:

That's all going to change in the next few days. Temperatures will be dropping in the teens on Wednesday morning.

Chiefs beat the Dolphins last night at Arrowhead stadium in -4 to -10 with 15mph breeze. It was cold enough to make Mahomes helmet brittle and he broke it running to make a 1st down ;)

It hit 0 today, back down to -4 :cry:

I have been burning hardwood in the box stove all day and the kitchen (upper level) is comfortable. Office downstairs is COLD, but that's where the big screen is and I am watching Dallas losing badly at home :wtf:

My right hand is freezing on the mouse :crazy:

I've been sitting in front of the gas fireplace watching the Packers win in Dallas.:yay:

TBH, I expected the Pack to be one and done.

1. I hate you.

2. OK, you are forgiven.

-14 here tn NE Illannoy this morning. At least no wind today. So far.

I haven't even been hooking Buster to his lead when goes out to do his business. One reason is the clasp is frozen shut. The other is I get dressed and go out with him so he doesn't wander too far from the house before his tootsies get too cold to walk. He's a bit of a job to hoist up and carry back into the house.

By not heating my enclosed porch, which I did by simply keeping the kitchen door open, temp this morning in the kitchen was 54 vs 48 yesterday. Overnight temp turned out to be -1F, not +4 as they had forecast. That often happens here, the actual temp being a few degrees lower than forecast.

For the first time ever I heated the bedroom last night. Made a similar difference, about 6 degrees. Temps in the mid-50s mean no need for the thick terrycloth robe, and my fingertips are warm enough.

I am erring on the side of caution re my water pipes, and am trickling both hot and cold in the bathroom and kitchen on these ridiculously cold days. Cheaper than having a plumber come out and fix any burst pipes. Temp just inside the crawlspace door is in the high 30s, but that doesn't mean it is that warm over by the water heater and kitchen sink lines.

We opened the cabinets under sinks on Friday. The half bath in the lower level gets really cold since there is no heat down there, and that wall is shared with the garage.

Just discovered the most dangerous part of my snowy yard riding was getting across my garage floor without slipping out.