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[sour_grapes]

The latest cold blast here (single-digit highs, -17 lows) was not quite as bad as it was last month, but still pretty chilly. (Nothing like Moose Jaw, obviously.)

But my butcher nailed it today, when he said "Everyone is so over it. Last time, we were all bitching about the temperature, and yakking about how cold it is. Now, it's just like, 'pfft, yeah, it's cold, what do you expect?' "

 

[olusteebus]

John said it best!

Not nice! Funny as hell but still, not nice at all.

 

[JohnT]

DAN,

Now that was funny!!! You made coffee go up my nose!

 

[jswordy]

John, I feel your pain. Environment Canada is predicting that Saturday March 1 will be our (Moose Jaw's) coldest day of the winter @ -39C (about 40 below F) for the low and -27C (about 20 below F) for a high. Both will be records by about 10C (18F). Might not be able to BBQ on Saturday. Ice on local lakes is approaching 4 feet thick, so it will be a while before we get to go boating.

After receiving my first utility bill ever that was over $400 for last month, I wonder how the heck you can afford to live in places like that where it gets so cold for so long. I was lazy with my wood heat this year and just let the furnace do most of the work. It was a really lasting cold for the South this year, but nothing like Canada experienced or the extreme northwest of the U.S. experienced.

A friend once lived in Hibbing, Minn., and said the steam heat there is communal. Everybody pitches in money to a central plant that heats the town. Uh, he lives in southern Texas now.

 

[wineh]

After receiving my first utility bill ever that was over $400 for last month, I wonder how the heck you can afford to live in places like that where it gets so cold for so long.

Jim,
It's not always this cold here, not that we don't get a few very cold days each winter. Most of North America has experienced an unusually cold winter this year, and for us it's the coldest February in 35 years; that's longer than I have lived in Moose Jaw, as I move here from slightly further North! Our infrastructure is geared to survive in winter; our homes are significantly more insulated than those in the South, we have high efficiency furnaces, and a vast network of natural gas pipelines and storage caverns. Our gas utility is regulated, and although it has purchased some product at a higher price, that will be averaged, and we will likely pay a slightly higher rate next winter. The biggest natural gas bill I recall is about $225.00 for 1 month, and technically, I could be on an equalized payment plan that could blend the summer and winter costs.
Many of us who live in "the great white North" have a certain sense of pride, just knowing we can and have lived through some fierce weather, hence my previous post. Many who can afford it (and some who really can't) take a Southern holiday in the winter to at least get temporary relief. I'm not one of those. Even though we like to complain, I can't imagine living somewhere where there are no seasons.
Besides, there are some upsides to living here:
no earthquakes, no hurricanes, very few tornadoes (and not as severe as in the South), no tidal waves and, a very low persons/square mile ratio!
Oh, and one more thing, when it's this cold, you can just stay inside and drink wine!

 

[sour_grapes]

After receiving my first utility bill ever that was over $400 for last month

Wow. Must be the insulation. In the month that included the polar vortex, my gas bill was $154, and electricity was $82. (Of course, I have tens of thousands of dollars in sunk costs to insulate and upgrade my 1920's home.)

 

[JohnT]

JS,

My thinking is that our high heating bills are offset by our lower A/C bills..

 

[Geronimo]

I wonder how the heck you can afford to live in places like that where it gets so cold for so long.

Insulation is huge, and we also have very well made high efficiency furnaces. In fact almost every home in the area that's less that 70 years old has double pane windows, updated siding/insulation and a newer furnace. My total cost for gas and electric last year was under $1,200.

 

[wineh]

Wow. Must be the insulation. In the month that included the polar vortex, my gas bill was $154, and electricity was $82. (Of course, I have tens of thousands of dollars in sunk costs to insulate and upgrade my 1920's home.)

Ours is a 1940 model, and ditto the $$ spent on upgrades. But just think how environmentally friendly we are being by reusing our existing infrastructure, wood, glass etc. instead of buying new and spending double. Either that or I'm cheap. (hint: it's the latter).

 

[jswordy]

Wow. Must be the insulation. In the month that included the polar vortex, my gas bill was $154, and electricity was $82. (Of course, I have tens of thousands of dollars in sunk costs to insulate and upgrade my 1920's home.)

No, it's not the insulation and I have a high-efficiency furnace in the house and slab heat in the outbuilding. I am heating two buildings with natural gas, one 2,500 SF and one 1,600 SF. The smaller one is just heated to 48 degrees, but still heated. In thinking about it, that utility bill was my gas and electricity and Internet all in one, so posting the total misleads. IIRC, gas was like $195. By comparison, my Dad in a well-insulated 1,150 SF house in northern Illinois paid $126 for gas.

wineh, I am not far enough south to be in single season weather (USDA planting zone 7). We do indeed have 4 seasons where I live, it's just that our winters are typically so much shorter and milder. Cold blasts sometimes come but they usually last just a day or two. I was born and grew up in northern Illinois, so I know what that lifestyle is all about. It really makes me enjoy the fact that while it was 18 here Wednesday night, it will be 70 on Sunday.

Most of all, I love it - ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT - that our averaged annual snowfall over the past 30 years has been less than 1 inch. Because, like I say, I lived that lifestyle the first 25 years of my life.

Pic of my orange hot-rod at my southern Illinois college apartment complex in 1979…



Pics of a 4-day span here in late February…

 

[ibglowin]

Seems fitting for a Friday night LOL…..

 

[ibglowin]

No wine tonight, no problem!

 

[plowboy]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm tequila

 

[wineh]

for us it's the coldest February in 35 years; that's longer than I have lived in Moose Jaw, as I move here from slightly further North! Our infrastructure is geared to survive in winter; our homes are significantly more insulated than those in the South, we have high efficiency furnaces, and a vast network of natural gas pipelines and storage caverns.
Oh, and one more thing, when it's this cold, you can just stay inside and drink wine!

Well, extreme record cold at the very end of winter can tax even our infrastructure. It was -38C when I got up yesterday, and our city's infrastructure is hurtin'. Several water-mains popped overnight, including one on our block, leaving us without water. Crews are digging a hole in the street as I write this, so hopefully our block will have running water by lunchtime. Hope it warms up soon (only -30C right now).

 

[Geronimo]

I don't know who I feel worse for; you or those guys trying to break through 5+ feet of frozen ground to patch the pipe.

 

[wineh]

I don't know who I feel worse for; you or those guys trying to break through 5+ feet of frozen ground to patch the pipe.

I vote for the guys working outside in the cold (on Sunday). At least we're still warm and dry.

 

[ckvchestnut]

Btw wineh... Lucky you don't get some terrible natural disasters but we sure do! We get earthquakes quite often, as well as tornadoes and extreme wind storms. Every one of my huge maples near my house has been destroyed by the windy weather. One summer, one of my horse shelters was ripped out of the ground and thrown 30 feet into the field. Thank gosh there were no horses in it or near it. I'm so over this weather! I'm done! Too bad it's not done with us! We are getting another snow storm next weekend blah!

Here's hoping for spring to come sooner rather than later! I took this shot one afternoon from my back deck...



At the bottom right of the photo you can see the trunk from one of my destroyed maples lol that whole ridge was lined with mature trees when we moved in here.


Carolyn

 

[ckvchestnut]

Now the ridge will be all grapes :-D


Carolyn

 

[ibglowin]

Fun fact for today….

 

[Pumpkinman]

Mike, that is great! I still cracked up, I tend to use that term at times.