It’s a bit nippy out there

/ Re-Farmer

We have a clear, sunny sky that looks so lovely right now!

It’s a lie.

It’s warmed up a degree from before I started my rounds this morning.

Short rounds, today!

I went to dump the cat litter sawdust buckets this morning, which had been waiting overnight in the old kitchen. Half the contents were frozen to the sides.

The sunroom, however, never dipped below -15C on the wall thermometer. I should use the temperature gun one of these nights, and see what it’s like under the platform, where the cats pile up.

This is the entryway door right now. All three windows are like this. This would happen every winter for as long as I can remember, since this part of the house was added on. There is frost built up on the bottom, too. We had tried attaching a sheet of insulation to the outside of the door in the past, but the air pressure change between the doors when it was opened would tear it off.

Replacing these doors with modern, insulated exterior doors is on the list, along with the matching door in the dining room.

Right about when we win the lottery. *sigh*

Our temperatures are not much to complain about. Certainly not like in parts of Alberta, which I’ve read was the coldest place in the world, yesterday. Temperatures dropped below -40C in places, with windchills below -50C.

At those temperatures, propane is a solid, so those with propane heat were in trouble. EV vehicles, of course, died quickly and took forever to charge. People waiting for their vehicles to charge had to bundle up, rather than use their heaters, or it would take even longer. The province’s wind and solar weren’t producing power, and the government put out a grid warning, asking people to avoid using electricity as much as possible, including the use of space heaters. Saskatchewan started providing electricity to Alberta, to help out.

At these temperatures, the only things that work for home heating is electricity sourced from coal, nuclear or hydro, natural gas, or burning wood. All but hydro is actively discouraged – systemically punished, even – and Alberta doesn’t have the water systems needed to produce hydro electricity.

It’s a potentially deadly situation.

So… yeah. It’s a bit nippy out, but we have nothing to complain about!

The Re-Farmer

11 thoughts on “It’s a bit nippy out there”

  3. That is a lovely photo of your entry door! The snow and ice look so nice, but that’s about it! We are damn cold here too. But not that cold! Have to leave the taps on to keep from freezing the pipes. So glad this doesn’t happen too often! Good luck to y’all!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Thank you.

      I was just reading more from people in the hardest hit areas. People with heat pumps are in trouble, too. Those stop working below -40C.

      Others pointed out that, while you may have your block heater plugging in, that does nothing for the transmission fluid, power steering fluid, or brake fluid. Also, things shatter more easily, so if you’re driving and hit a bump, all sorts of things might crack.

      Many years ago, before we had kids, my husband got an unexpected payroll error corrected in his favor. He was in the navy and we were living in Victoria, BC. We decided to surprise the family, rent a car and drive out for Christmas. We called all over, but no one rented cars with block heaters. Some didn’t even know what we were talking about.

      We finally picked a company and headed out, getting as far as Swift Current, SK before stopping for the night. The car seemed to run fine in the morning, but started making noises shortly after we got on the highway. Being young and stupid, my husband started walking back to town. Thankfully, someone picked him up, then came and got me.

      We called the rental company and they had it towed. We spent an extra 3 days, mostly hanging out in a mall, waiting for the car to thaw out and they coukd check it. It didn’t thaw out. We ended up taking the train the rest of the way, and they provided us with a replacement vehicle.

      We later found out temperatures had reached -61C that first night. The engine block cracked. A case of pop we had under the back seat exploded, too. 😆

      In the end, it cost the rental company over $5000 just to get it back; we got reimbursed for some expenses, and got a copy of their insurance claim.

      A few years later, we learned thar the owner of that franchise replaced his entire fleet of cars, and block heaters were standard on every car.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to ajeanneinthekitchen Cancel reply