Gee, I never thought about it, you are right, it is about half over. Unfortunately though, Jan and Feb are for me the worse months so hopefully we can get through without any major cold snap. -32C in Winnipeg this morning, but the cold spell is supposed to be short lived and warmer snowy weather is on the way, then at least near normal after that. Could be worse. I always think the way to beat the winter blues is to keep busy.

Glen

Yes, its very nice to see the sky begin to brighten up as I get to work these days (I start at 8:00) so before I start my day I get a reminder that spring is on it's way... well it IS getting closer!

Was extremely WINDY here last night and rather a bite to the air today, though at -6c, it definitely could be much worse!

Terry

We're in for a couple of weeks of the cold stuff now - fortunately there are no predictions for -30s or -40s, though! But it is getting lighter! Today when i was parked in front of the post office getting ready to leave, the post mistress came out to get the mail in the outside mailbox. She was grinning at me and pointing at the sky, so i rolled down my window and she said, all excited, "You're here, and it's almost 4:30 and it's still light out!" LOL She said that she gauged the time by when i get to the PO every day. So we whooped a bit about spring coming - and it must be, because there were two new catlogues in the mail, Botanus and Vesey's. God help me.

Hi to all of you optimists. It is only the middle of Jan. and there is still Feb. to come. As far as I can recall there has always been a very, very cold spell (ave. -35C) during these two months before it get better. As I'm using a new winter protection method for my roses I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope the snow cover does not melt and the cold spell will be short.

Sengyan

Well, -40c for this region tonight and the forecast is for such to continue. This is the coldest temps I've seen in the past two winters ... though, this just might be what those darn pine beetles need to knock them back!

Terry

Yesterday was such a beautiful day - no wind and the temp went above 0 for a while.

(sigh) How quickly things change. At the moment we're in the midst of a blizzard and -25C. I'd be hard pressed to try and conjure up more miserable weather than this.

Oh well, nice and warm inside and I don't have to leave home again until Wednesday so I think I'll just curl up with a good book. (The story of which, by the way, is set in prehistoric times when much of N America was still covered by glaciers and there was no such thing as a furnace, LOL ... makes a person count their blessings).

-45 here, too, this morning. I new I was talking about the good weather too much...I must've jinxed us :(
At least the storm is over and today was sunny and calm albeit soooo cold.
Terry, supposed to be like this all week (a few degrees warmer maybe) so that could do it for those darned beetles. Every cloud has a silver lining!

-41 °C here this morning, car won't start, had to cancel my clients for Homecare and to top it off, my laundry washer pipe is frozen so I can't do laundry today!

I sure hope all those new Irises I bought last Fall will make it, well at least they got the snow to protect them.

Stay warm everyone!
Sharon

Yep, also -41 C here on the acreage (by Spruce Grove) ... though, at least no wind and the sun is shining brilliantly, one has to look on the bright side of things! There's close to a foot of snow on the ground, so am sure all perennials are snuggled up and just laughing off this cold. Now, I just hope this artic blast will really get to those darn pine beetles!

Keep WARM everyone!

Terry

Me this morning at -25 with a 52km wind.....that makes it -42 with the Windchill. It's pretty accurate - the only thing moving were my eyeballs and I just made it in the building in time!! At this point it's hard to feel much of anything :(

Oh well, let's look on the bright side, there are only 50 days till Spring!!!!!

Warm wishes from the 'Peg!

....49....48...47.......sigh!

Like Sharon, -41 and that is without the windchill factored in. I used up my January stat day to stay home today...spent 2 1/2hrs late last night in a dirt crawl space thawing one waterline:(
I live in a really neat old house, but it has the old dirt "pit" type basement that just houses the furnace, watertank,etc...trap door to get down the steps to it and must say it likely was quite the sight of me with my legs sticking through a rickity staircase and my dogs all peering down the "hole" to see what I was doing down there for so long. I can laugh about it today, but trust me...wasn't what was coming out of my mouth at midnight:)
Debbie...who is REALLY wishing for a spring day!

I'm home recovering from an emergency root canal procedure yesterday - lots of swelling and some very nice pain killers - I'm looking out my living room window at all the snow from yesterdays blizzard and enjoying having my cat Mocha cuddle up to me - it is a balmy -34C and a -47 windchill. A perfect time to dream about summer

Fern

The prairie chill has reached here too. Overnight and tomorrow morning, the windchill is supposed to be -48°. Tell me what we did to deserve this??? :>

Debbie, that is what DH had to do, get under the crawl space to put some kind of heating tape on. THere was no way I was crawling in there. I thought he was going to have a heart attack in there!

Ohhh Fern, hope those pain killers did the job, was the snow falling ever so softly ;)

We're supposed to get back in the -20's by the weekend, that I can handle!

Sharon

-36.2C here right now, with the windchill it's -51C. The kids are home from school again today, which they'll be extatic about. I'm really hoping that we've got enough snow cover to protect all the perennials well enough to survive!

Fern, a root canal! Poor you, that sucks! :(

Take heart Laurie, unless they're actually sticking out of the snow, windchill doesn't affect perennials. And we had a solid week of -36ish last year so they've seen it all before... except the new ones that is. Anyway yeah, good thing I plugged in the car, hope it starts!

The extra daylight hours are really nice though...

"The extra daylight hours are really nice though..."

For sure it is! I've also noticed the heat that the sun is giving off now....that is if you're out of the wind.

We had two days of school closure so just back at work today - with -37 temps and -50 plus windchill, it just wasn't safe for kids to be on the road, and since it was exam time, parents (including me) would have been driving their kids in. Thank goodness for mulch. We still don't have much snow, and what there is has drifted into ditches of course. It was nice this morning to have it light enough that I could tell whether it was blowing hard or not. It's much better today, only -26 with a windchill to -33: that's almost tropical!
Connie

Half-over? Darn.

In explanation, my business is gardening - the longer the off-season the better I like it. I _enjoy_ sitting around with my feet up instead of running around from garden to garden. All of the seedlings growing in my sunroom or under lights can last a while longer. :)

Debbie, that is what DH had to do, get under the crawl space to put some kind of heating tape on. THere was no way I was crawling in there. I thought he was going to have a heart attack in there!

**I couldn't pass the job onto anyone else, but trust me, when my son comes to visit sometime this spring, HE will be crawling in there to put heat tape on for next year:) it was pretty creepy to say the least.

And Fern...hoping you are not in pain today...ouch...no fun having a root canal.

They say we are going to be up to -5C on tuesday. Can't wait!
Debbie

Hang in there folks. The cold spell is over. Snow may continue to fall till May but the cold is gone for this year. Just keep saying " Spring is coming ".

Sengyan

Our water used to freeze up when we were in the mobile home. We had a heat tape, with insulation covering the water line, but the cats liked to crawl in under the trailer. They were pretty smart - they'd dig through the insulation so they could sleep on the heat tape. Once they got up, the water would freeze. I finally solved it by putting chicken wire held down by fence posts over the insulation. It might be a miserable job, but is there any way to get insulation wrapped over the heat tape?

Connie

Connie, you can buy pink insulation in rolls that are about 10" wide and just unwind it as you roll it around the pipes. This method takes longer then... Also there is insulation that comes in a long black tube with a slit up one side. Just open the tube and slip it over your heat tape and water pipe. Cut the tube in the lengths you need. You do have to make sure that all the water pipe is totally closed in or the slightest wind at an exposed area will freeze your pipe. Canadian Tire heat tapes can last as little as a few days to 10 years. Some people put two tapes on at the beginning and then when one goes they just plug the other one in. Some trailer courts used to require this to be done when the trailer moved in.

Brenda