Preparing Our Little House for the Cold
Brrrrr. That’s the word for the first of this week, as it turned cold with a cold front that came in over the weekend. It will warm up a bit this week, but I’m confident that our 100+ degree heat indexes are now but a memory until next summer.
My “Me” day was fantastic, with the exception of getting that massage which I hope to get this week, I got to do everything I wanted to do.
As you can see in the photo, I also made an unplanned stop at the “Life is Good” store in town and couldn’t resist this new long sleeved tee.
Dale also bought some new t-shirts for work this weekend and I got a couple of pairs of sweats, as I live in these during the cold months.
That means it is getting time to put up my cool summery cotton pedal pushers and t-shirts and rotate to my sweats and Dale’s flannels.
First, though, I must do away with some things I didn’t wear last season. I practice the “one in, one out” policy, so I will have a bag of things to take to the Salvation Army at the end of the week.
In addition to rotating the clothes, here’s some other projects we will be working on in the coming week:
- Dale saw a nifty stovepipe cleaner on the show, “Cool Tools” on the DIY channel. I ordered it yesterday and hopefully, it will be here by the weekend. The cleaner hooks up to your drill and you clean the pipe from the bottom. This is something we need to do, as it hasn’t been cleaned in two years. When we sold our house in the city, the inspection told us we had a flue fire at some point and the whole chimney had to be rebuilt. This is what happens when you’re careless about the cleaning. If you’re lucky, as we were, your roof doesn’t catch on fire.
- Clean out my cabinets. Like many people, I do a lot more cooking in the cold winter months than in the summer. It’s time to dig out the crockpot recipe books, the crockpot and also see what is languishing in my cabinets that needs to be used first – or thrown away.
- The wood all needs to be moved from the upper driveway near the storage building closer to the house. Dale cut and split the wood last winter and stacked it so it would dry. We keep it away from the house to keep snakes and bugs from getting close, but it needs to be moved closer to keep the home fires burning this winter.
What are you doing around your house to prepare for the upcoming cold weather?
Well, I’m trying not to panic that we’ve only had two cords of wood delivered so far. There is still so much to do, but we’ve had an amazing fall … really more like Indian Summer … so that’s lulled us into some complacency.
Still… as if this week when Lilly and I walk to the top of the road, there is SNOW on the continental divide.
Oh, now you’ve done it. You’ve mentioned the 4 letter word!
Hey Kerri,
I thought of you today as I plunked down $800 on a quilt…I know totally INSANE but there is a story behind it that makes it still INSANE but cool… ANYWAY the quilt has bears on it and as I was looking at it I thought of you and your bears.
Prepping for the winter here too. Putting up a new stove pipe. gathering more wood etc etc. I’m so glad that Fall is here. I love all the seasons however Summer can be hard to deal with.
Amy
Actually, Amy, for a full sized quilt, that really isn’t that out of line. I have a small one that my aunt made for me, but I don’t keep it out because of the dogs. 🙂 Enjoy that quilt, I’m sure those bears will help you hibernate this winter!
I’m rebelling against winter because we only had three days of summer here in the Pacific Northwest. My daughter has been wearing summer clothes to work and last week the sun came out on two different days.
However, I’ll have to quit rebelling shortly because we’re due to have a very harsh winter. Then it’s bringing in the patio furniture, covering the outside faucets and digging out the sweaters.
Ah, rebelling. Good strategy. However, I don’t think it will do any of us any good in the end. 🙂
I hope you will write a post about cleaning the stove pipe when the gadget arrives. We will need to clean ours next year.
As to your question, there is so much to do here that I cannot even think about it. My first task will be putting the garden to bed.
I will have a post to report how it works, Alexandra! Good luck putting the garden to bed! 🙂
I love your wording: the “one in, one out” policy. That’s what I do too, I just never gave it a name. I can’t stand to cram nice new clothes into an overstuffed closet, so I always make myself weed whenever I get anything new. Thanks for giving me an official policy!
You’re welcome, Melanie. We have a very small closet, so it forces me to one in, one out! 🙂
I haven’t thought about Life is Good shirts in years. I always like them.
I love Life is Good, Frugal. It’s one of my vices.
Oh how I miss wood heat. My parents had wood stove heat and I love the smell. I miss that. It must be so easy to heat such a small space. Cant wait to get my very own tiny home.
It is very easy to heat with the woodstove, Beverly. However, when I’m working at the studio everyday, it does get a little annoying having to go back and keep the fire going during the day. Still, I do look forward to those low, low electric bills in the winter!
Continuing to split over 8 cords of wood **sigh**. Fortunately we do have a woodsplitter but some of the bigger pieces have to be downsized first. Woodstove is already on these chilly mornings.
We had our chimney inspected last spring but the fellow said it was clean as a whistle. As we have a cookstove and we burn only seasoned wood – and generally with the draft intake fully open – our fires tend to burn very hot so that keeps the creosote down. It’s more problematic if you tend to burn at a low heat.
Put away all summer clothing (and then had to get it out for a couple of days last week when the temps were 28-30C – but that is a fluke, sadly.)
Cleaning up the garden. Putting away the beach pass 🙁 ……………….
Dreading the 6-7 months of winter that lie ahead and praying for a l-o-n-g warm autumn.
I’ll join you in that prayer, Olivia….and a short, warmer winter!
Kerri- one of the things I’m excited about in our new house is firing up the wood stove for the first time! I guess it’s easy for me to be excited about it since I won’t be the one chopping wood for it.;-)
The inspection guy said that we first need to have it checked out by a professional and probably cleaned. I’m glad to know about the special tool you’ve ordered as we will probably need one in the future- let me know how it works out.
It’s getting cold here too, jeans and sweater weather! And- also like you, I’m going to be firing up the crock pot and rotating seasonal clothes.
David and I refer to this summer as “the lost summer” because we’ve been so involved in moving into one house and out of another that we haven’t had much time for anything else. Ironic that we moved here to be close to our land, but have spent less time there than any other summer since we’ve owned it! That will hopefully change as our Prairie Village house finally goes on the market this week. Great blog as usual, Kerri!
Thanks, Kathleen! Ah, yes, I remember oh so well our lost summer. Sounds like a great essay for you! 🙂 Yes, it would be a good idea for you to have the wood stove inspected. Make sure you have it done by a certified chimney sweep. I’ll definitely have more on the chimney tool, if only to post a photo of Dale with a soot covered face! 🙂
We already filled the wood bin in the garage and seeing it full and ready made me feel ready for cold weather. We still have to put away the front porch furniture and I have some bulbs I want to plant. I’ve been on a bit of a fall cleaning binge lately which is part of my fall nesting instinct.
It’s amazing how those nesting instincts kick in during the fall, isn’t it?