Month: December 2008

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Lulling Us Into a False Sense of Security…

This morning was, again, my favourite kind of day–bright, warm(ish), and snowy. I spent over an hour digging myself and my neighbour out from our two day snowstorm and it was perfect shoveling weather; I soon removed my winter coat and laboured away in just a sweater, gloves, and tuque (and jeans and boots and socks!). But it wasn’t long before the sun vanished and the cold began to seep in again as the wind picked up. We went from a minus six without windchill to a minus seven that feels like minus fourteen. At least, the forecast continues to be more and more optimistic; we’re supposed to hit zero on the 25th!

A glimpse of our snowy world:

snowymountainssnowymiranda

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Reprieve, But at a Cost

The long term forecast is improving… so much so that we’re now in the middle of a snowstorm. As fellow winterites know, it can’t snow when it’s bitter cold out. So, snow is good in terms of temperatures. We’re supposed to hit a high of minus four today, which would be awesome!

That said, the forecast still doesn’t think we’re going to go above freezing until about the 27th or 28th and… my shower drain is frozen.

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A Single Battle Won, If Not the War

Last night was much better than the previous one.

I concluded that sleeping in the study would bring about the same issues as doing so in the upstairs bedroom because of how COLD it is by the big picture window. Since the bedroom is a much smaller space, I figured that it would be easier to insulate. I grabbed whatever I had; leftover pieces of styrofoam insulation, towels, extra bedding, and suitcases to create as much of a barrier as possible between the windows and myself. Also, before going to bed I set a cookie sheet on the mattress to create a flat and fireproof surface and then stuck the heater up there for about forty minutes. Finally, I didn’t skimp on clothes, doubling up on all layers. I was still feeling pretty cozy when I got up at 6:30 to open the park gates, but when I went back to bed after, cold had seeped in.

Another thing I did overnight was leave the water running in the bathroom sink. I hate doing this as it is so wasteful, but environmentalists have obviously never fought this climate. Leaving the tap on meant that I had water this morning and no burst pipes.

When I showered just before bed at eleven last night, the pipes were just starting to freeze. I had water, but the temperature and pressure were uneven. I had to let the shower run for about five minutes before I could even think of getting into it, but the water finally reached optimum pressure and temperature.

This morning, it is -12C (10F), but it feels like -20C (-4F) with the windchill. And what a wind it is. Miranda is thankfully buffered between a house and a huge class A, but she is still being tossed about 35kph (22mph) winds.

Getting up this morning to face the weather wasn’t as tough as some people might think. I’m used to this weather, grew up in it, worked in it, camped in it, lived in it. Which all means that I’ve earned the right to be sick of it.

That said, if it wasn’t windy, these would be the best kinds of days. Bracing, sunny, with an air so fresh and crisp that it wipes the soul clean; the kind of day that beats a ‘feels like 40 with humidity’ summer day.

I suppose I have a love/hate relationship with winter.

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Don’t Forget About Starting Batteries in Cold Weather

My house batteries have been handling this cold snap without blinking (knocks on wood), but my coach battery went from 100% charge to 60% overnight. 60%, I discovered, isn’t enough to crank the engine. For the first time, I pulled out my trusty charger and used it to trickle charge (at 2A) the starting battery. This took less than 10 minutes. I’ll do this once a day until the cold snap passes. How nice it was to have the tool to do this! My neighbours have been boosting their trucks to get them going each day and I know this is not good for a battery.

The car started fine this morning and I have the option of trickle charging it, too, should I have an issue with it at some point.

The charger has a 100A ‘jump start’ mode for boosting using the charger rather than another vehicle, but I can’t use it for obvious reasons! In a pinch, I could use the 15A ‘fast charge’ mode, but trickle charging is definitely the better battery maintenance option.

There is so much to think about!