January 18, 2012

Outside Temp: -16 (high for the day was -9... low was -22)

The frost on my bedroom window...

What I cooked today:
Lasagna: I made a double batch of lasagna... one for tonight and one to throw in the freezer for another time... And what better way to freeze a batch of lasagna than in nature's own deep freeze!

Yes, this is a 9x13 baking dish full of lasagna, sitting on my front porch, covered in snow.

Update:

So, winter is here.  It took a little longer than I expected, but it's here.  No doubt in my mind.

I opened my blinds this morning and the windows were totally frosted over.  People pay good money to make a window look this awesome.  It's downright pretty.  The picture at the top of the post is a close up of this window.  Of course, I closed those blinds up 2 seconds after taking this picture. 

We knew it would happen sometime, and it finally did.  We woke up this morning to frozen water pipes.  Just enough water in the tank for a few flushes of the toilet, and then nothing.  Not a drop.  Not a dribble.  Nowhere in the house.  The house was actually at around 55-60 degrees, but we were using the pellet stove and the space heaters, not the central heat.  Since the central heat registers are in the floor, we decided to turn it on to see if it would heat up the pipes. 

After about 30 minutes, water started to flow again.  So, we shut off the heat and went on with our morning.  About 2 hours later, I started a load of laundry only to find that the water was gone again.

So, Patrick went outside to the access panel that leads under the house.  We had purchased some heat tape (the kind that attaches to the pipes and plugs in to an outlet to keep them warm) about 2 months ago, but we never got around to actually putting it on the pipes.  I guess we wanted to experience the wonders that is -22 degrees, climbing under the house in the snow and wind.  Oh joy.

The hole he climbed into wasn't large enough to actually get into, just enough to get his upper body inside.  We put a space heater in the hole, so he wouldn't freeze while attaching the heat tape.  But his legs were sticking out the hole, so I put a blanket on them, and used some insulation to cover the hole while he worked.  It took about 45 minutes to get the tape all attached.  During that time, the water started flowing again (thanks to the central heat), and as of now (at -16), we still have water.  And, of course, the outlet that is next to the access panel, where you are supposed to plug in the heat tape, is on the circuit that doesn't work.  So, we had to run an extension cord from the enclosed porch.  Fortunately, there is a gap in the door to the outside, so we could close the door with the extension cord going through the bottom (and extra towels pushed up against the base of the door to keep out the cold.  I assume the heat tape is doing it's job, but we'll have to see how things look in the morning.

While working under the house, Patrick realized that the skirt that surrounds the house has lots of holes.  They may be vents, I'm not sure, but they were definitely letting lots of cold air under the house.  So, when the kids got home from school, he put Allen to work.  They went around the house, shovelling snow around the outside to create a barrier on all those holes.  So, right now, I have about a foot of snow surrounding the base of the house.  It might actually be doing some good, since both Ryan and Katie's rooms seem a little less cold (I can't say warmer, since 58 degrees isn't really warm, but it's less cold than, say, 50?)

We are surviving the cold just fine.  I sewed together a few pieces of fleece, with a little fluff in between, to make a pretty cozy blanket.  Of course, it took me longer to remember how to use my sewing machine than the time it took to actually sew the blanket.  But I did it!  I figure next time I head into town, I'm picking up some more fleece and making a few more blankets.  It's nice and warm and works great when you're on the computer and you want something to warm up your legs and toes. 

According to the weather reports (which I don't actually believe), they claim that this is as cold as it's going to get.  It should get up to single digits tomorrow, and back into the 20's by Saturday.  Then again, they also said that it should be about -2 right now, not -16, so I'm preparing for a few more days of below 0.  No big deal.  :)