How Cold Is It?

Way too cold!  Winds containing gusts of 35 mph started last night and have continued to blow right up to the present time of 7 p.m.  The thermometer couldn't quite make it above zero all day.  We've had a wind chill factor of 40 below all day.  Yep, that's too cold.

I haven't set foot out the door all day.  My dear husband has done all the chores including bringing loads of wood to the window I opened on the enclosed porch where I've taken it from him while bundled up in my heavy down jacket, gloves and a hat.

This morning we had to wait to restoke the wood stove in the living room which heats that part of the house and Papa Pea's office above it.  The ashes had built up to critical mass and I needed to clean them out.  Both our stoves hold a fire overnight which is wonderful in this frigid weather but that means there were lots of glowing coals in the living room stove that I wanted to burn up before starting the ash clean out.  If I shovel ashes with still burning coals into the small garbage can we use for ashes, lots more dust, grit and grime floats out into the room than if the ashes are cold.

I have to admit I didn't let the ashes get entirely "cold" this morning because we humans in the house were mighty eager for that stove to be fired up and putting out heat!

Lighting the gas oven in the kitchen on the other side of the living room wall helped a bit.  I had planned on baking a blueberry pie today anyway, so it was made and put in to bake even earlier than I had planned.

But the ashes did get cleaned out and it wasn't too long before the house was warm enough to be comfortable.  I'm so thankful, grateful and appreciative for a well-insulated home and plenty of dry and seasoned wood for our wood stoves.  In weather like this I can't help but think back to our first few years living up here.  We were in an old, uninsulated (or darn close to it) metal trailer trying to heat with green wood.  Ugh, those were not the good old days. 

I worked along all day today like the energizer bunny getting the "must-dos" for the first part of this week done.  Tomorrow is laundry day for me and I'm bound and determined to spend all the time I can squeeze in around wash day chores in my quilt room.  Tomorrow's weather forecast is calling for about the same as we had today so what better weather could there be for quilting?