Good point dcarch. We get moderate cold here and most things are insulated, but I have found that our laundry drain wasn't, and have had a big surprise when running a wash without thinking.

I have gravity feed water and if it gets too cold it freezes up in the woods, despite an outside faucet near the house in a small housing that has an electric light in it to keep the faucet water from freezing. This year my water survived to zero or a little below; I've never had it last below +5 degrees before, but I fiddled with the faucet and got the stream going stronger and it's worked! Let me tell you, this is the major achievement of 2017/18.

Our house and pipes were fine. However, the water meter froze because the city employee who came to turn off and then turn on the water when we did a plumbing project just before Christmas FORGOT to put the lid back on! And of course it was on Sunday and Mnday was a holiday. Sigh. Tuesday morning they came out to thaw the meter . . the city employee asked if we had taken off the lid. "No" said I, it was one of yours! (And I told him what they did). He was a bit embarassed.

I've been letting mine drip in the kitchen and left the cabinet doors open at night to give some additional heat to the pipes. They are the only pipes on an outside wall and that is a north facing wall. It got down to -15 but I had no freezing.

It was 16 below a couple of nights ago, plus my furnace quit working because of a bad breaker, but we seem to be fine, with no frozen pipes. The majority of the water lines run under the house, since we are on a "slab" foundation with no basement, I don't know if that helps or hurts.

The problem we always had was at the farm where the outside spigot that filled the water tanks would freeze, the pipe was 4 feet deep and sometimes the frost would reach that level and freeze the pipes. Nothing to do then except haul water daily and wait for spring. The last time we had a frozen spigot it didn't thaw until May 11! So, when we needed a new pump at the farm we paid the well guy a little extra and he put in a new outside spigot, this one is 8 feet underground. That ought to do it, I hope. He "guaranteed" me that it would NEVER freeze, and I sure hope he's right. If it freezes he has to dig it all up and bury it a few feet deeper after thawing the pipes, so he seemed relatively confident that I was "freeze proof" at the farm, at least.

It's been below zero for 8 out of the past 11 days, and still supposed to be cold through the weekend, but then it will warm back up into the double digits and be normal. Thankfully, we aren't getting that storm that they are going to get along the East coast, so stay warm out there!

Annie

After many days of at or below 0F highs and -20F or below nights it warmed up a bit yesterday and today. Tomorrow we have a blizzard coming through. And then another hopefully shorter cold snap. I haven’t had any burst pipes but many others have. Also everyone is using their firewood up quickly.

i love winter though sometimes wish it was shorter. Somewhere between 0F and -20F dog walks go from crisp and wintery to downright painful and miserable. Even in my pouffy down coat. My dog loves it.

Stay warm all....

Nasty storm. Wind is whipping. I've been up since 3am checking and prepping for possible power outage. 2 loads of laundry, ran dishwasher. Baking bread. Kitchen spotless. The LED under counter light run for the sink side went out. Grrr. Not at all storm related. Probable the transformer. Cobbled together a spare set.

Hang in there NEast and all coastal areas. A break will come Tuesday with possible 40º.

For you all to consider:

Shoveling snow can be a real pain. Go buy a cordless leaf blower.

Nowadays the new high power lithium battery turbo fan design cordless blowers are very light and practical for blowing away snow. They are not cheap, especially you probably need to buy an extra battery. Wonderful for blowing away snow on cars and steps. They are as powerful as gas driven leaf blowers.

dcarch

Our weather much like Annie's. I've lost track but I think that Christmas Eve day was the last semi-decent day. Exhibit A for good reasons to keep a well-stocked pantry. I've left the homestead only once and that was for a trip to Menard's for basement remodel supplies.

I did use the last of our coffee beans this morning but found some years old instant coffee in the pantry so that will get used next. No doubt it will taste pretty bad but not bad enough to motivate me to put my butt on a cold car seat and venture out for fresh.

Nothing frozen here but this is Wisconsin so extreme cold isn't out of the ordinary. One of the houses we had in Oklahoma had the laundry room in an un-insulated enclosed back porch. Some winters the water lines to the washer would freeze for a couple of days. Minor inconvenience since it never occurred to me to insulate and properly finish out the room.

One winter here in WI, when the boys were playing hockey, I remember that the sewer line to the septic system at the rink froze. Until then, I didn't know that was even possible! Fortunately it was at the rink and not at home. Major disaster if you have to live with that kind of problem for any length of time (like anything over a couple of hours!) With frozen water supply lines, you can buy bottled water and put off laundry & showers for a few days. Dealing with frozen waste water lines is a whole other thing.

ci_lantro, I agree, when it's this cold I stay home. I have only left the house once Christmas Eve when we went to church, other than to do the farm chores. Fortunately that doesn't bother me, although it does bother Elery. He needs to leave the house and go SOMEWHERE, even if it's just to the gas station or to get a cup of coffee. I'm perfectly happy to stay home for weeks at a time and not go anywhere. Of course we got that foot of snow and 40 MPH winds during that last storm, and so that helped me decide I was perfectly happy to just stay home!

Fortunately, no freezing of waste lines here, Michigan is pretty darned cold in the winter and most home owners/builders make sure pipes are buried below the frost line. That year the farm froze, a lot of businesses in town were having problems with their sewer lines, and that hasn't happened yet this year, so hopefully we'll get a break with the temperatures pretty soon. Right now it's 12 below zero and going down, but at least we aren't getting any more snow right now.

To everyone on the East Coast, stay safe and stay warm.

Annie

DH is much like Elery in that he thinks he needs wheels under him. But the weather has been so darned cold that he's been more or less content to stay home, albeit pretty grumpy.

We weren't supposed to run out of coffee. DH was supposed to pick up 3# back in December when Dunkin' Donuts had it on sale. Back in December when the weather was delightful (by comparison to what we have now).

Anyhoo, long story short. DH just went out in the dark and cold and fired up the truck. Apparently that one cup of Taster's Choice in the pantry since sometime back in the last millennium was a motivator. (Actually, I thought the Taster's Choice was a vast improvement over the ancient Folger's instant decaf that I had.)

Fortunately, we've had very little snow. Maybe six inches total for the winter so far coming in amounts that you can almost ignore. Need some snow cover to protect plants from the extreme cold and the house always seems warmer with a blanket on the roof but I sure don't want to have to be out clearing it away in this extreme cold. But, like I always say, the weather is going to have to warm up before we get much snow.

-3 right now with negative 16 predicted for tonight. Sposed to start warming up on Sunday though. But I sometimes think that the weather wizards purposely lie and dangle carrots in order to prevent people from either making mass exoduses or going off the deep end.

Out of coffee? Now, that's an emergency that would get even me out of the house. Fortunately I roast our coffee, and buy green beans about 10 pounds at a time, delivered by our lovely mailperson from Burman Coffee in Wisconsin, LOL. Yeah, coffee beans from Wisconsin and I never have to go to the store for coffee!

It was way below zero this morning, the car thermometer said -17 when I left the house at 8:30 this morning, but now it's all the way up to zero! It's supposed to be above freezing by Monday, so maybe we're working up a January thaw....

Annie

Annie, how do you roast coffee beans indoors?

I have been to Michigan a few times. Once I visited a friend in a hospital in Grand Rapids, and was stuck there for three days and nights because of a giant snow storm. I ended up volunteered in the hospital because staffs couldn't get there.

I don't know why, but Michigan houses had the most gigantic beautiful icicles hanging from the roofs.

In Michigan, It can get so cold that many places had ice heaving problems. Sidewalks, concrete paths were rising as much as 18".

Be very very careful if you have to drive to far away places. Old cold batteries may not be able to start your car. Many cold cities in Canada have electric outlets for battery warmers in parking lots.

dcarch

Was that in 1978, dcarch? Elery got stuck at work for 4 days during that blizzard and I had to break a path from the pond to the house because the cattle got "lost" in their own pasture and couldn't find their way to the barn. It was a doozy, although we've had others not quite as impressive.

I drove to Grand Rapids yesterday, but I park the Enclave in the garage, and Elery keeps the old Silverado truck outside. That old Chevy is a 1994, but it sits outside and has started every morning when it's been 15 or 16 below zero, it's dependable, that's for sure.

Michigan has icicles because heat rises and even a little heat loss through the roof will cause enough melt to drip off the edges, where it freezes into icicles. The next step is that those icicles cause an "ice dam" and moisture backs up behind the shingles and your roof leaks. We have to shovel our roof several times per winter and spread urea on the "valleys" to avoid leaks. I think we're installing a metal roof this year, the snow and ice mostly just slides off them as long as there is sufficient pitch.

The sidewalks heave, the roads heave, freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. Much like New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, any of the cold states, we work on roads all summer and move snow all winter and start over again. Somehow, our tax money never manages to cover sufficient repairs. (sigh)

Roasting coffee? I have a small roaster that does about 1/4 pound at a time, I put it on a small table on my front entry way, and close the door to that. I "crack" one of the windows about 1/4 inch to let out the smoke and roast. I have the SR 500 model, they have bigger ones but 4 batches gives me a pound, which is about enough for a week. So my beans are always less than a week old and I grind enough for a pot at a time, then do a "pour over" with the Chemex. Yeah, I'm spoiled. I first started roasting coffee using a hot air popcorn popper after reading a Cook's Illustrated article. It works, but is time consuming. Then I read Mother Earth News and tried my cast iron skillet. Also works, but is time consuming AND hot. Finally Elery bought me a roaster, I've had it for a couple of years and it's been roasting my weekly coffee ever since. My current batch is Chinese, the first time I had coffee from China, and I'm enjoying it very much. I still like the Costa Rican the best, but Burman runs sales and I can often get a pound for $4 or less, so I give them a try. Some are good, some...well...not so much, LOL.

I highly recommend it, if you have one of those old air poppers, it's well worth the time. For me, at least, and I don't have to leave the house to buy coffee in a caffeine "emergency". (grin)

Annie

Annie - I think that must have been the year my family visited my uncle and aunt in Italy. My uncle went to teach sculpture and stayed for a decade. Anyhow as we ventured forth my mom was the family translator with her high school French and Latin. At some point we met a lady who was very impressed that somewhere in America there had been 3 meters of snow. She knew not where but somewhere. We didn’t believe her at first - in Maine a really bad storm might be over 3’ with big drifts but not 10’. But lake effect snow storms are big!

agmss, the "lake effect" can create quite an impressive micro-climate, but it also helps us grow grapes and support the wineries, plus it's about 10 degrees cooler in the summer and 10 degrees warmer in the winter if you're close to the lakeshore, so we'll keep it. (grin) . This picture is from 4 or 5 years ago, you can see our snow banks in relation to a full sized Chevy pickup, and this is much more usual than that 1978 blizzard...

The real problem in 1978 wasn't the snow, the blizzard only brought 3 or 4 feet of snow, but the winds were gusting 100 miles per hour and resulting drifts buried entire houses. Of course, that caused power outages and something like 100,000 cars were abandoned on roads as people became stuck. The national Weather Service called it the "White Hurricane" and said it was a "very rare severe blizzard". People died due to loss of power and the cold.

Heck, we even made Wikipedia!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blizzard_of_1978

Anyway, it cemented in my mind that cows were stupid and that's why we eat them. I was always told that animals knew when storms were coming so you would think the foolish creatures would head to the barn, but noooooooo....

dcarch, it was nice of you to volunteer at the hospital, I'm sure the workers that were stuck there needed the break, as their replacements wouldn't be able to make it in. Elery was working for the power company at that time and they sent a snowplow to take him in. He was stuck there for 4 days because they didn't manage to take him back home and they couldn't get his replacement there, so he worked, took a nap and then worked some more. That was the storm of a lifetime, and I hope we don't get another one!

Annie

Annie, yeah, no one was able to come to work. Doctors came by helicopters. I really had no choice but to volunteer. No transportation out. I was lucky that they wanted me there. Food, hotel for three days and four night would have been expensive.

Speaking of no one came to work. Michigan is a strange place (for a New Yorker).

I had scheduled business meetings every week on Wednesdays in GR. This was before e mails and cell phones.

One Wednesday, I got to the airport, took a flight to GR, got a cab from the airport to the meeting. No one was there for the meeting.

I was told, " Sir, why would anyone show up? And why are you here? Today is deer hunting season opening day!"

dcarch