Blizzard Coming - Page 3

Nope, -6 this morning! Actually, that's Celsius, so I am WARMER than you!  It's actually 25 F right now (but quite windy).
Going to snow later, so must get the poop cleaned up! I've been ignoring it due to the extreme cold of the last few days!

Frozen poop in the snow is really an easy clean-up for me, beats the hell out of scooping it up in the mud.
My problem when it goes below the single digits is frozen water lines, frozen hydrants, and drinking water for the animals.

My electric bill is gonna go through the roof !
 

You'll have to forgive me Moons, if I find chipping frozen poopsicles out of the ice and snow very low on my list of favourite past-times.

My runs are concrete or pea gravel, so mud is not an issue, unless someone's been digging in the gravel. (Mostly my male does that.)

Anyhoo, the job is almost done, and I'm going to take the dogs for their first walk in quite a few days! 

Speaking of cold, be glad you don't live in Manitoba! 

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/parts-manitoba-hit-53-c-154100804.html

Edit: electric bill. Oh, yah...I can SOOOO relate! 

I'm not using my kennels at this time but mine are dirt with straw and I just put on my rubber gloves and pick it up when it's frozen.
No it's not my favorite either.

Through the roof means at least a $500 dollar electric bill for two or three days in the single digits just to keep water running.
The wood stove keeps me toasty warm but does little for the pipes under the house.
 

As you may know,Moons, I run a boarding kennel, with space for about 20 dogs. The kennel is heated with electricity.

In the warm weather, my electric bill is less than $100 a month. At this time of year, it runs about $400. But since I've never had weather this cold in the 3 years I've been here, I bet it will be at least $500 this month!

I heat mainly with wood, too. I don't have gas in my area, and oil to fuel the furnace is very expensive.

That's a lot of poop !!!!



LOL.

I am lucky I have gas and a well insulated house my gas bill is only about 70.00 a month in the dead of winter but my electric bill runs anywhere from 225.00 to 100.00 a month depending on the month. I live in a cold area and I just turned my furnace on for the first time today. lol. If I need to warm the house I will turn on the oven for a half hour. I was smart when I built this house I upgraded all the insulation and it sure helps to keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

My bills were never this much until smart meters were installed a couple of years ago...don't know the rate per KW hour but I'm sure it's more than other areas.
My problem is a drafty crawl space where the water lines are.
I open a small duct to allow heat into the crawl space and use a heat lamp on the north side where the line comes in from underground plus a heat tape.
The wind can make all the difference in the world here too, they're calling for high winds here.

I'll survive but it will take some effort..
Watching the weather report now.

Yeah my crawl space is pretty air tight and I have never (knock on wood) had a water line freeze in the years I have been here. I need to upgrade my windows and doors and this place would be even most efficient. I have been thinking about switching to LED lighting to try and save even more.

Insulation? What insulation??

When I bought this place, I have to confess, I was taken for a ride. Very few of the defects were visible to the eye, and did not come to light until I hired some contractors to replace the leaky roof and upgrade the windows, etc.. Most of the house had what's called 'Florida windows', which consists of a simple pane of tempered glass that slides in a track. They are definitely NOT meant for the Canadian climate, and they let in bugs as well as cold air.

When the renovators removed the windows from my bedroom, they called me in to have a look at the wall. It consisted of a layer of drywall, a vapour barrier that was crumbling with age, then the tongue-and-groove cedar boards that make up the structure of the house. Outside of that was a layer of ten-test fibreboard, then the aluminum siding. As the contractors were installing modern energy-efficient Jeld-Wen windows, one of them turned to me with a rueful grin and said, "You know, the 'R' value of these windows is about the same as your bedroom walls!  It turns out the house was originally meant to be a Panabode (or similar) prefab 3-season vacation home!

The obvious solution would be to strip the siding off, and insulate the walls properly with rigid foam insulation, but there's no way I can afford it.

I've spent a lot of nights sleeping on the couch next to the fireplace lately....   I keep the bedroom door closed to help heat the rest of the house, and to keep my dogs off the bed. One night, when I checked the thermometer in the room it was about 45 F.  58 degrees is about average in the wintertime, and I actually find that quite bearable, as long as I have enough blankets on the bed. I hate being too hot when I sleep.

A couple of nights ago, my back started complaining about the couch, and I was worried about the plumbing in the utility room underneath my bedroom freezing, so I gave in and turned on the baseboard heater. [sigh] There goes MORE money to the provincial electric utility, Hydro One!  But the room is quite comfy, and I slept very well the last few nights, despite the frigid temps outside.

We went to SmartMeters shortly after I bought the kennel. Since I have no choice re. heating the kennel all day long in cold weather, it was not a great choice for me. Then, one day, an electric marketing firm dropped by the house, and, after checking them out carefully, I decided to sign up with them, and go back to a flat rate. I watched the bills carefully for the first six months and found It has save me quite a bit of money.