Friday we had a low of -13 F and the most it warmed up to was 4 F . Now I have a woodburning stove and electric heat, but dang I had that stove cooking all day just to keep it at 70 deg. in the house. But as a kid we had a big farm house and the only source of heat has an oil fired space heater in the living room. Mom used to block off rooms that weren't used every day to keep the heat in the rooms that were. Us kids slept upstairs and the only heat up there was through floor registers, so very little got up there. We used to have a pitcher of water up there in case we woke up thirsty. In the winter the pitcher would be frozen over. But I can't remember of ever having a cold in the winter, We would still be up at 5 to do chores and milk cows and have a big hot breakfast before catching the bus for school. Dad would be up at 4 am to eat and then drive 50 miles to go to work at 6:30 am. Man I couldn't do that now!
I had my wood stove cooking here too and that kept the house warm. But we've only had the woodstove for 2 winters. Before that, this big 'ole farmhouse would have been cool. It made me wonder about the people who lived here in the 1930's when the house was built. How did they stay warm in these cold spells? I guess we are just spoiled
It's about 10 F now and I just went out and brought in firewood, fed the birds and burnt trash. There is about a 10 mph wind out of the southeast. It feels colder out there with the wind than it did yesterday at -13 with no wind.
I figure we have become soft now that we have all mod cons. We have gotten used to being warm and cosy in our homes. Mum often quotes to me how happy she is to have modern heating as when she was a child in Devon, she would sleep in the bed under blankets and used to watch her cold breath smoking from her mouth and would have to scrape the ice from the inside of the windows in the morning to see outside. BBRR
I think EJ is right. We wear short sleeves inside all year round now, and only put on woolly underwear and sweaters if we go outside for an extended period of time. The cars have good heaters and we can park inside when we go shopping. It's all about what we're used to I guess.
Our schools have been closed the last two days due to subzero temps and windchills...years ago I never remember schools closing for anything other than excessive snow or ice on the roads. I think our school superintendents have more to worry about now with all being so sue-happy, they don't want to take any chances on kids getting frostbite.
That's one reason I loved grandmas house- she let me sleep in the "front room", right by the oil heater. The house I grew up in was very long and narrow. The lone natural-gas heater was at the front of the house. My room was at the back. I was Very attached to my hot-water bottle, so nice on the toes!
We are really spoiled .It use to get really cold here in the winter .Nothing like our winters now.I remember the cold in the mornings and going to the living room to get warm and kitchen was always warm from the wood cook stove and wood heaters.I never had to milk cows as I could never get the milk to come out.Followed ole Nancy all over the pasture and was so sad cause I was the only kid that couldn't milk a cow.When I got older I was so glad.I did have to feed the chickens and gather the eggs .but don't remember the cold that much.
