Baby, It's Cold Outside

It was -6ºF here at The Gulch this morning, with a wind chill of -35ºF. I decided to postpone some planned morning errands until this afternoon since there was nothing that I needed done before then. I also didn’t feel the need to start the trusty RAM 1500 quite so early. I usually don’t start it up and let it run in order to let it warm up before heading out, with an exception to that being if it is iced over and I’ll run the engine while scraping ice to help defrost the windshield. Sub-zero temps is the only other exception and that usually requires running the engine a lot longer than when defrosting the windshield. (I keep thinking I should have both a block and oil dipstick heater installed in the trusty RAM, but haven’t done so yet. I did have both in the old trusty F150 and they made a difference on those sub-zero mornings.)

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The local news outlets have been warning folks about the sub-zero temps and what to do to prevent problems, with one of the most oft mentioned tips dealing with keeping pipes from freezing. It still surprises me that any builder would purposely place pipes against exterior walls where they can be vulnerable to freezing temps. The design for The New Manse has all pipes well away from exterior walls. The Gulch was built in the 1980’s and there isn’t a single interior pipe along an exterior wall. (Some of the other homes in the neighborhood built at the same time didn’t take that step and frozen pipes are a regular occurrence during winter.) The exterior water faucets have had the water shut off inside and the exterior faucets cracked open to make sure all water was drained from the pipes between the interior valve and the faucet.

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Between the sub-zero temps forecast for today and tomorrow morning and a snowstorm forecast to start Sunday evening I figured it would be a good idea to run The Gulch’s generator yesterday to make sure it would start if needed. I never assume it will run when I need it, so I test it now and then. In this case it started on the first pull, a good sign.

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One thing we do during the winter months, particularly when we get very cold temps, is to run some form of humidifier. Most folks forget that dry air feels colder than moist air. It’s something anyone who heats with a woodstove knows. Those who have forced hot air heating also experience this. (When I was renting a mobile home in a small town north of here, I had problems with nosebleeds and didn’t realize it was because it was so dry inside - less than 5% relative humidity – and once I got a humidifier the nosebleeds stopped and I was able set the thermostat back a few degrees because it felt warmer with more humid air.) Even though The Gulch has forced hot water heating, it still gets quite dry inside. To combat this our humidifier – a $16 Vicks vaporizer – is pulled out of the closet, filled with water, and plugged in. After a couple of hours it feels a lot warmer inside even though the temperature hasn’t changed.

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One thing I noticed is that Lake Winnipesaukee finally appears to be frozen over. Whether the entire lake is frozen from shore to shore is unknown only because I can’t see an area known as The Broads which is usually the last part of the lake to freeze over.

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Stay warm, folks!