Funny story, freezengirl.

We are still very cold, -20f last night, it's been cloudy most of the day with a few snow showers, high of 10f, it is supposed to start warming up in the next day to two.

Margaret, I'm glad you're going to get a little relief from that cold!

On the downside... it seems to be coming my way; Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be in the negative temps overnight, but then on Wednesday we go back up to the low 30s. Weather is crazy!

I'm just looking forward to getting past the holidays so I can start seriously looking through the seed catalogs

Sandy, along with the warming up, we may get some snow for the next 3 days, they say just an inch or so, but you know how that goes, could end up being more.

Or, hey! It could be less, Margaret!

One can always hope Sandy.

It is -9 right now, when I went out to start the car last night it was -14, so I do not think it got all that cold last night.
The newspaper lists record lows from the past and it reminded me of 1983 when we had continuous lows in the twenties with drops to -30s and -40s some days for several weeks.
That was a nippy winter.

When I went to college at Bemidji, Mn for a couple of years forty below was not rare and I walked a quarter mile to a grocery store one evening when it hit -50, that is a slightly different world.
I had a genuine USAF arctic parka, which I still use, that kept me warm but I tried the old freezing spit trick thing, and they are correct it does freeze.

Now Bemidji is one hundred some miles north of here but it is amazing how much difference in uncommon lows such a small difference can make but at the same time I have seen forty below where I am sitting now multiple times in the past twenty years yet my other house which is only fifty miles south of here, I do not ever remember seeing even thirty below.

Only four days to the start of winter, Merry Christmas.

Holy moly, RpR -- I actually never realized that MN was that much colder than (northern) MI...

I can definitely relate to the part about how much difference there can be in the weather not that far away; Escanaba and Marquette are only 55 or so miles apart, but like 2 different worlds, weather-wise. (Thank you, Lake Michigan!)

RpR said:It is -9 right now, when I went out to start the car last night it was -14, so I do not think it got all that cold last night.
The newspaper lists record lows from the past and it reminded me of 1983 when we had continuous lows in the twenties with drops to -30s and -40s some days for several weeks.
That was a nippy winter.

When I went to college at Bemidji, Mn for a couple of years forty below was not rare and I walked a quarter mile to a grocery store one evening when it hit -50, that is a slightly different world.
I had a genuine USAF arctic parka, which I still use, that kept me warm but I tried the old freezing spit trick thing, and they are correct it does freeze.

Now Bemidji is one hundred some miles north of here but it is amazing how much difference in uncommon lows such a small difference can make but at the same time I have seen forty below where I am sitting now multiple times in the past twenty years yet my other house which is only fifty miles south of here, I do not ever remember seeing even thirty below.

Only four days to the start of winter, Merry Christmas.

I am extra cold just thinking about it.

RpR said:It is -9 right now, when I went out to start the car last night it was -14, so I do not think it got all that cold last night.
The newspaper lists record lows from the past and it reminded me of 1983 when we had continuous lows in the twenties with drops to -30s and -40s some days for several weeks.
That was a nippy winter.

When I went to college at Bemidji, Mn for a couple of years forty below was not rare and I walked a quarter mile to a grocery store one evening when it hit -50, that is a slightly different world.
I had a genuine USAF arctic parka, which I still use, that kept me warm but I tried the old freezing spit trick thing, and they are correct it does freeze.

Now Bemidji is one hundred some miles north of here but it is amazing how much difference in uncommon lows such a small difference can make but at the same time I have seen forty below where I am sitting now multiple times in the past twenty years yet my other house which is only fifty miles south of here, I do not ever remember seeing even thirty below.

Only four days to the start of winter, Merry Christmas.

Good reminder on the USAF parka, forgot mine was still in the basement, we always had them on board when we went to Eielson.

RpR you hit the nail on the head for posts. We always refer to Bemidji area as down south. That is the area we were living, now we are a further 120 miles north of that just west of the so called "Ice Box or the Nation" (my hometown area). I think about 1/2 of the hometown area kids that grow up and leave tend to navigate to Fairbanks Alaska because it is familiar to them, the not so crazy about the cold ones move to Anchorage or other coastal areas. For years I complained to my husband that the winters are killing me and I thought we should move west. We ended up at the end of the Kenai peninsula in Alaska (230 miles south of Anchorage) a considerably milder climate then this part of the country. I was shocked and stunned to realize all those miserable bitter cold winters were in some ways much easier to cope with then the much milder but coastal moisture and soggy wet snow. The second winter we were there I thought we were going to get buried alive in snow. They ran out of places to put it clearing the streets and had to get special permission to pile it near the ocean. Several commercial businesses had their roofs collapse from the weight of the snow. Our winters here are so cold that it never occurred to us that the intense cold dry meant we rarely had to cope with ice conditions which are a nightmare in coastal cold climates.

Freezen, you hit it on the head. I would rather have some cold rather than the rainy summers and wet winters. DH was in Valdez for some projects around the 1990's and talked about the snowfall there. I laughed when I saw houses with a door on the second floor but no steps. lol. Not exaggerating that they have so much snowfall that they board up lower windows and doors and just go out the top floor door. Weird. Not for me.

I laughed about your husband's constant reminders to you. As if having survived many winters we (women) aren't capable of figuring out what is required to stay safe and warm. Did you have a light bulb under a quilt on top of the regulator on your propane tank? lol only way to keep the propane flowing to the kitchen stove sometimes.

It has been raining here and then freezing at night. That is worrisome. I drive defensively and keep an eye on the other drivers. I have to chuckle at the signs of 'unexpected exits from the road" as shown by long tracks into the berm. You have to wonder what they were doing and how fast they were going to plow their cars that far off the road to avoid hitting someone ahead. Just hoping for more snow here. Still not as much as I would like - only maybe 4-5" I think.

Ugh -- rain at this time of year, for anyone in the north, is not a good thing! Towards the end of the week we are supposed to have "wintry mix" and "possible icy conditions." I don't want it to stay as cold as it's been (and our temps haven't been all that bad, relatively speaking; presumably because Lake Michigan is still open and helping to moderate things), but I sure don't want glare ice, either.

RpR
We had snowblower problems, even though we used Stable.
Try what my husband recommends. Remove the carborator, remove the fuel bowl, soak carb & bowl in Barryman's B12 carb cleaner. Those very tiny breather lines are clogged with old fuel varnish. That sludge needs to be softened, and after soaking for a couple of days, you could run a very tiny [tiny!] Wire thru the clogged lines [and clean the fuel bowl, too]. After they are soaked, to open them up.
It worked for us. Good luck.

Think it also helps to use non-oxengated fuel.

katesflowers said:RpR
We had snowblower problems, even though we used Stabil.

I do now use Stabil for gasohol but will use only alcohol free fuel when this is gone.
The gent I bought it from said it was crap in the carb and fortunately, as new carbs are often not fixable junk, he was able to clean it an reuse it.

I have in the past bought some of the expensive fix it gasoline from some of the high performance gasoline brands and to my surprise that stuff actually works.
It is five t seven bucks a quart but a goodly amount cheaper by the gallon so I am going to buy a couple of gallons and use a quart or so every year.
As dangerous as it can be if one gets careless, if you put gasoline in jars filled to the brim so there is no air in there, it will not go bad as the reaction with oxygen in the air is what makes gasoline go bad.
My grandparents and dad used to have glass jars of gasoline when I was young but I was too young to ask why.
I imagine that is why.

Interesting about the jars. Never heard that. I would be leery if they were to to get over heated. Or if they would explode upon opening. We don't have problems with ours. Just use gasoline in the blower. But we buy it to fill our 3 gallon jugs so it stays fresh. And Damien drains the carb each spring. Also there is something that you can pour/spray (maybe that is stabil) into the carbs to keep them from gunking up over summer. Same problem with lawn mower over winter but that is easier to drain.

I don't think D has used the blower at all this winter. Very little snow so he just shovels it. Glad to have enough to protect my gardens and the fish pond.

A friend recently told us he always buys premium gasoline to put into his "small engine" stuff, because so much of the regular gas contains ethanol and that will cause things to clog up much more quickly.

I am totally ignorant when it comes to any kind of engines, so I don't know if this is true or not.

happy New Year everyone! I hope it is a year of health and happiness for each and everyone of us..

Our luck ran on the snow missing us, we got dumped on last night, over 8 inches, windy and still snowing, cold 14f degrees. Thankfully we have a snow blower and it worked just fine.

the combination of snow and wind is a killer. The snow drifts up against everything and then packs. And driving in it is awful. Sometimes you just drive blind. We haven't had any more for a few days and looking at 14F here also.

Happy New Year to you all! Spring is around the corner. Well, maybe the block.

Happy New Year to everyone. May you have a prolific garden season in 2017...and I don't mean weeds.
Last week when the temp went to 57 degrees and all 13" of snow melted. Lo and behold - on my walk around the garden yesterday I noticed my first tulip breaking thru the soil line. Hooray !