Thursday 11th Heavy overcast and breezy from the north. About an inch of new snow overnight. More forecast by one forecaster. Sunshine by the other. The wind is supposed to be less than walking pace. Yet the garden anemometer is whizzing round/around despite the intervening trees.
22F/-5C outside and still falling at 8am, 50F/10C in the heated "living room," 39F/4C in the kitchen and bathroom.
It takes 20 minutes to raise the tiny bathroom to a "barely" tolerable 53F using a 2kw fan heater for my shower. It is not just the air temperature but having all of a room's surfaces at their original, lower temperature. Solid surfaces always lag well behind the air. The body radiates its heat to these surfaces regardless of the measured air temperature. The bathroom, outside, [uninsulated] block-built wall measured 30F with a laser guided, remote thermometer. Which is below freezing! The back door, of solid timber, measured 28F/-2C. The inside of the door regularly frosts over when it gets really cold outside.
The air movement from the heater fan has to be carefully directed not to increase evaporative cooling of exposed skin. Particularly when wet! The wood framed, bathroom windows have been frozen shut for several days. Making the government's expert advice to "air all rooms" frequently, each day, a bit of nonsense.
Given the general "leakiness" of our home I doubt we have much to worry about on that score. We just need to survive the hypothermia, the particles and carcinogens from the old wood stove. The radon in the air, agricultural poisons in the air and drinking water and the spores from the mould on the walls. Oh, and let's not forget the Jinping Plague. 😂
10.00 23F/51F. Now continuous sunshine. The snow and drifting forecasts have been cancelled. I have just walked up to the highest point of the forest and back by the direct route in about an hour. It snowed while I was crossing the prairie on the approach. The sound of forestry work could be heard. It must have been deeper than I could see through the bare trees despite clearly hearing their voices. My boots crunched and squeaked throughout my walk on on about 6" of crisp snow. I saw a couple of birds of prey and several deer dashing about in the woods.
I cleared the 130 yards of the drive and the "parking area" of snow again. Another kind person has delivered our [online] grocery order. My wife spent the rest of the morning giving it a wash where it was feasible. Just in case of contamination. That which cannot be cleaned is put aside for as long as possible before being used. There are obvious examples where this is just not possible. We take every precaution, we can think of and must just hope it is enough.
At least we have enough wood fuel briquettes for the stove for the next few days. More exercise, multiple handling 10kg bags of blocks. Load them from a pallet onto a trolley. Wheel the heavy trolley to the checkout. Push the heavy trolley outside. Load the blocks into the boot. Drive them home and unload them into a wheelbarrow. Unload them and carry them inside. The price has risen to match the increased demand in the cold weather. So I bought 18 x 10kg bags.
11.30. 26F outside/53F inside. It snowed quite hard before the sunshine disappeared completely into another overcast.
15.30 25F/55F More snow in the afternoon. About another inch. Cleared the parking space again.
17.45 18F/-8C Getting dark very quickly. Snowing again. Expected low of -11C/12F tonight and tomorrow morning. Clear overnight and sunny tomorrow? We'll see.
I was just reading the expert's advice on keeping a Danish summer house at a minimum of 15C/60F to avoid burst pipes. How does that work when you are living in a house where you can't even reach those temperatures? Should we turn off the water and drain down the pipes? 😏
~~
No comments:
Post a Comment