Laundry Day

Photo from the "everything old is new again" file.

I wanted to get a load of clothes done but didn't want to run the dryer so I set up the clothes rack. Running the dryer makes no sense what-so-ever when it's sub-zero. Taking warm conditioned air from the house, heating it again and then exhausting it outside is no way to treat your BTUs. By drying the clothes inside, not only do you save energy but you also add humidity into the house. With the fireplace and the heaters running the shack was getting pretty dry. The humidity had dropped below 40% and that's with the water pans on the fin tube and a tea kettle boiling on the stove much of the time. Might as well hang some clothes up inside and add to the house humidity. Of course I could have hung them outside and freeze dried them - wouldn't have helped the house humidity any but they will dry.

The record setting low temperatures and the gusting winds have pointed out once again that I need to replace a couple of windows in the house. It's ironic that the worst windows in the house are the newest. The vinyl windows on the west side of the house, even though they are double pane glass, leak all kinds of air. I'm definitely going to see about at least four new windows this year and look into a generator that will keep Mama warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There's no way she can haul wood and do everything I've been doing the last couple of days. If the power was out for an extended period rather than just an hour like it was the other day, I would have dropped the plow on the tractor and hooked up the welder/generator to bring it up to the house to be able to run the furnace and the water pump. That would have been tough enough for me at -20. No way for her. 

Definitely time to get some things plumbed up to make life easier on myself and by extension the Missus if I'm not around. Might make it easier to sell the old place when the time comes as well.

In the meantime, more snow on the way followed by warming temperatures and rain, then temperatures more typical for the first week of February. That should make for a sloppy mess and some flooding and then a refreeze. The nice thing however is that it's February and the worst of the winter should now be behind us.