I've just gotten back from a trip out to the west coast for a week and I'm a bit worn out from driving. I used to have no problem making that trip without stopping but that was in a mercedes or a bus with room to sit, sleep and eat. This is the first time I have made the trip alone and in a small vehicle, in this case my VW pickup, which is extremely small. It was a pleasant thing to hit some warm weather and I made the best of it while I was there by bundling up in my winter gear and shivering. It seems that 65 degrees there in the damp weather feels about like zero here in the dry cold so I froze. I am glad to be home! While I was there I stopped at the house where I grew up and walked around. We sold it to an army couple that wanted it for a Y2K retreat and now it looks like it has been abandoned, the road to the place has grown over with blackberries and alder trees so I had to walk in. I did some off road driving up on the trails that I used to hike or ride my horse and walked up the river that I used to hang out at. I picked apples off the old trees there and even got a little time to pick some herbs that don't grow here (nothing grows here this time of year) Then I went down to Oregon where my little brother works at a natural foods co-op (Azure Standard). I have to say he is my little brother because people constantly assume that I am the little brother because I am a lot smaller and younger looking than David is. If I were to grow a beard like he has it might solve that problem, maybe I'll think about it...
Anyway, it was good to see him since we hadn't seen one another for over a year, it was also good because he came home with me so I had another person to share the driving with! Don't get the wrong idea, I love my little VW and it drives great, like a sports car, which is the issue, handling and cornering are excellent, not long, over the road cruising. I kept a max speed of 65 mph which to me, on that long trip through Montana with the lax speed limit is almost torture. I am used to setting the cruise control at 90+ at the border and setting back in relative comfort with a little leg room to spare. Oh well, the price we pay for fuel economy and luggage room.
Now that I am home the weather suddenly turned cold, as in -40 below zero wind chills, this is making me wonder if I shouldn't take another trip south, anywhere south! My not too distant ancestors came from the warm beaches of Islands off the coast of Greece in the Mediterranian and Southern Italy, I guess my constitution is such that I don't like cold too much, I prefer a nice 70 degrees. Again, don't misunderstand, I love North Dakota and I love having four seasons but I just wonder sometimes why I live in one of the coldest places on earth!
I've mentioned several times of the minor battle I have been taking part in with regards to helping my new neighbors from the west coast get heat into their house. After getting a huge wood stove installed they thought they had things covered, not quite fathoming the realities of winter here, wind included. Their house is about as wind proof as a screen door and this last weekend when the blizzard came through their fire was blazing as much as it could be coaxed to with the nasty green and wet elm wood but the temperature was plummeting drastically. They finally moved to Kyle's place for the night when the pipes froze and the thermometer hit less than 20 degrees near the stove. The wind was blowing snow into the house and there were little drifts on the windowsills. Aaron and I cut a trailer load of good dry ash from my shelterbelt the next day and we grabbed a roll of plastic that was set aside for my spring hoop house and some rolls of insulation that I had set for the addition to my house. We stapled plastic over the windows and put a false ceiling of plastic in the room that the wood stove was in because there is no insulation there. We also took the insulation and filled the cracks elsewhere, covered the holes and basically stopped up all of the drafts we could find, which was an easy job since the drafts were so obvious from the snow blowing in. I think the house is now in the 50s above zero and somewhat comfortable, we just need to keep cutting wood as they have barely a weeks supply. Last weekend we had to stop because the bar oil in my chainsaw was so solid it wouldn't flow and my chain was running without oil, which isn't good. I will have to go to town and get a real light winter grade of oil for next time.
On the positive side, we were able to give our winter gear a good real life workout test and most of mine worked quite well, I see that I need a better pair of gloves and a pair of real good boots would be a good idea if I were to do much standing around out in the cold. The boots I have now are excellent but if I stand still my feet get cold.
Have a good week!