The winter, and 2012, is officially upon us. In our area winter begins around the end of October with temperatures in the teens at night and the thirties during the day. Yet, it’s been surprisingly mild. It began like gangbusters the first part of November with 10 or so inches of snow in November and high temps in the mid 20’s. Then in December, and even this month already, we experienced a couple days in the 40’s (at night barely below freezing), which melted much of the snow, except of course the snow in the trees like where our trailer is parked. Even pouring rain and a couple nights we were too warm for sleeping comfortably! The freeze at night however turned the now slush into a sheet of ice, everywhere. Thankfully it then snowed enough to get traction with both boots and tires. So staying warm in a t.t. hasn’t been too difficult thus far.
The straw bales help enormously! Even on the lowest morning of 5 degrees. Although that morning the water lines to the kitchen sink did freeze because they run right under the front door and we didn’t have a bale there. Tom remedied that immediately. And the valves to dump the tanks froze up so Tom wrapped them with heat tape. Problem solved. A 7-8 gallon tank of propane lasts about 1-1/2 weeks, that’s with all of our cooking, baking, and hot water usage. Not bad, eh. If need be we have a portable camp wood stove we could set up for cooking, etc. out of doors.
We sure miss wood heat, though. That’s OK; it just keeps us looking forward to when we’re in our snug little cabin home relying on good ole Stanley for all such needs. ;) There sure has been some gorgeous hoarfrost, though (in the photo).
The new pup, Liam, is doing wonderfully! He is going to be such a good dog. The cattle are well; the cat is good; our dog Greer is great. In short, we're all just fine! Hope you are, too!
