Love the photo, daisychain01! The cold air is hitting the Carolinas. We will have lows of teens come the new year.

It looks so cold out there daisy. I hope your area will warm up soon. Are those ash trees?

That is a VERY pretty pic Daisy!!

Faron

Daisy, it was so much warmer this am! Only -18!

Summersrhythm-we're neighbours to the north in the Canadian prairies! It's been sunny at least!

Got outside and shoveled the driveway tonight while it was a pleasant 10 degrees above zero - really quite nice and refreshing and a good temperature for physical activity. High of 12 below and low of 25 below this weekend. I will be wearing my new old Craigslist mink coat when we go out to dinner with friends.

It's amazing the difference 10+ can make. 9 above is shiver-cold, 10 above is just cold.

3katz4me, so happy you! :-) You need it in MN. Now you need a fur hat!

I couldn't shovel all the snow on the decks, so I bought a small snow thrower, will see how it works on decks...... https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-16-in-10-Amp-Corded-Electric-Snow-Blower-RYAC801/205446635

Well, even though y’all sent some of that nasty cold down here (it is 20 degrees here this morning! *crying face*) I am however receiving mental fortification for my 6 mi run...if 10 degrees is “pleasant” for physical activity to y’all...surely I can run at 20?!? Surely??

20F is warm for me, but the road condition may not be safe though. Running shoes are not made for icy roads, and you don’t want to fall hard and have a broken bone for 100 days. If the roads are dry without any black ice, snow, I say go for it. 20F is super warm for here. :-)

Yeah, fortunately no ice, thank God! I did it, and made it...my cheeks sure are rosy though! I’m cranky when I don’t get to run, lol!

Lol, you must be a horse year born baby who loves to run.

summer - I'll be interested to hear how that little blower works. Our city place is an HOA so they clear our driveway if there's enough snow and we have the driveway plowed at our lake place. However when there's a lighter snow DH and I shovel for exercise. If I were at the lake by myself I might like that little blower as there's more driveway than I would take on alone.

Sure. I will let you know next weekend. I can’t wait to use it, but I don’t think we can make it to the country house this weekend due to a couple snow storms are coming in tonight and tomorrow from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. We have a big snow blower at the suburb house, and for the country property we signed up snow plowing service, but we shovel the snow on the decks when there is a lot. I really hope it works. :-)

Remember!!!! You gotta prep all your small-engine machines so they start!!!!

Faron

Thanks Faron. We have been using ethanol free gas for all the engines, snow blower, motorcycles, scooters and cars. What else should we do? The snow blower had some trouble to start this year, just bought it last winter (Feb 2017). I'd love to know if you have any tips for cold weather. Thanks

VERY good start using ethanol-free!!!! That stuff (Ethanol) will ruin a small engine.

>>>>> THE 2nd most important thing is using a fuel-stabilizer!!!!! Untreated, gas breaks down too much in 30 days for use in small engines. Dump old gas in your cars, & get FRESH GAS.

Seafoam is my fave. I put some in the cars once a month. For the small engines.....I add about a 1/4 cup (maybe a little less...) to a gallon of Top-Tier class E0 Premium. That way, all the engines have a steady diet of treated gas. Briggs & Stratton has a very good one too. Stabil is ok, but it's old-school. The others are better.

In the snowy states, using a synthetic oil in snowblowers helps them turn over MUCH easier.

In 30 years of using Seafoam for my engines, I've NEVER had a gas-related no-start issue! And....the inside of the carbs are clean as a whistle.

Faron

-37 C this am.....why do I live where the air hurts my face??

Ah, affordable housing, great job, and it is beautiful. Just cold! :)

Thanks Faron! That’s a great help! :-)

You betcha Summer!

Where I work, we sell a LOT of small-engine stuff. Whether they wanna hear it or not, I give everyone the rundown of how important gasoline-management is!

Good Grief!!!

It's now MINUS 21F here in Fargo!!! It's worse the farther N you go!!!! To our NW, Fortuna ND is -27! Getting dangerous in Winnipeg...-31F. Yikes!!!

Be safe all my Northern Friends!!

Faron

Wow akl - that is cold! Where are you?

3katz4me- Canadian prairies!

akl, what do you use for heating?

Summersrhythm- gas furnace, so glad we got a new one this fall, so toasty!

We went out shopping today and glow bowling. Can't do anything outside!

Glad you got a new one too! Just in time for this cold winter! :-)

"...this cold winter".

Reminds of Cinderella's "Long cold Winter" album! One of my FAVE Hairbands!!!!

Holy Hannah! It's now -20F in Fargo! Even our Samoyed "Callie" doesn't spend any "unnecessary" time in the backyard! After 2 minutes, shes lifting her paws & racing back to the house!

Faron

Faron, you need a coyote coat in that temp! Blood would freeze in seconds. No kidding.

Forgot to mention here Target marked down all the Christmas light-50% off! I bought a lot of LED string lights. They are great for gardens all year, wrap around a tree trunk, a deck.....a snow man. :-)

Omg Faron- totally forgot about Cinderella :) lol!

GSK-

I better check out that CD!! I THINK Tom Keifer was up here kinda recently at a Casino, but can't remember if it was in ND or MN???! Anyhoo...I couldn't go. Fiddlesticks!

Just saw a TV ad for Nightranger! They'll be at an area Casino in......Feb I think? I like Cinderella WAY more than NR, but it would be fun!

Faron

Wow - currently 29 below. It’s cold in Minnesota but not all that often is it this cold. Clear beautiful sunny day - just don’t want to be out in it.

Wow, 3katz! We just have to be careful here in the Carolinas, because our homes are not built for cold. We have a crawlspace, and yesterday after we took care of the Xmas tree DH went around and made sure all our vents are closed. We have to drip the water at night and insulate the outdoor tankless water heater. Our heating guy is coming for a maintenance check on Wed. Our furnace is about 4-5 years old, so it is at least in good working condition.

Well gs, believe it or not when we bought one house about 25 years ago the previous owners told us we needed to let the kitchen faucet drip at night if it got really cold! Not coincidentally that house also got frost on the interior walls around the windows in the winter. Poorly insulated, 1970’s pre-oil embargo house. Fortunately all of that could be easily corrected with some added insulation.

I remember as a kid we lived in a house without a basement or even a modern day crawl space. We had to do that dripping faucet thing at the kitchen sink and even that didn’t work sometimes. Then my dad would get out the blow torch to thaw the pipes.

Had a low of -25 this morning, now up to -19! Hope to break -10 today! So happy to be able to plug in my Car! Hubby's company had to keep the semis idling for the 10 off hours between runs or the diesel gels and the oil pans freeze up. Lots of extra fuel used these days....and some people actually think we can all convert to electric trucks!

Yeah, anywhere in the northern US, the diesels just have to keep running. I remember back in the early 80's, those dreadful few years when diesel cars & pickups were popular. If people were at sports events, shopping, etc.... people just let their vehicles run. You HAD to!

Electric trucks up here may take awhile.....

Faron

Yeah, we learned a few years back after we got the tankless we were outside with a hair dryer and an extension cord warming the lines. Our kitchen faucet faces the exterior wall but we had some pipe upgrades done a few years back when we had the tankless installed.

GSK- I can't even imagine that! Obviously, everything's well insulated up here! I've got a sink in the garage with H/C lines & drain. Was a warm late Fall here, so didn't have to drain it back 'til late Nov.

Warm here! "Up to" -9 here now!

Faron

I remember seeing a whole lot full of school buses running for hours last winter. I didn’t know that about diesel until I asked someone about the school buses.

3katz4me, here is a photo, it's very light and easy to use, powerful enough, but the chute stopped turning after it ate a lose cable on a deck,......

Looks good! It’s electric right?

Yes, it's electric.

Atta way Arcy!! As I mentioned previously, handheld & backpack-blowers ain't just for grass, dirt & leaves anymore!!

FINALLY got to use my snowblower last weekend! Fargo & area finally had some pretty, light snow. Windy too though, so just enough to use snowblowers. I had prepped the S/B late Oct last year, since my foot surgery was Nov. 2nd...in case DW had to use it! Thankfully, we've had a "light snow" winter!! Had good fresh gas in it, with a good dose of Seafoam. Ran the engine a while, operated everything. Synthetic engine oil still looked new, belts in good shape, etc. And there it sat, in the garage, as I recovered....thru Nov...Dec...Jan...!

Took a couple minutes to get it started, but soon....VROOOM! My 21 y/o machine roared to life! I can't start the S/B with the pull-rope. Too hard on my repaired right shoulder! So...I let the electric-start do the work! It spins it over much faster than I could ever pull it. Had to put on a new Carb last year. 20yrs worth of vibration was letting air sneak in past the throttle-shaft, causing surging. No fix for that, other than getting a new Carburetor. Runs like a beast now!!

Well....tonight in good-ol' Fargo, we'll get to -15F they say, & -13F Fri night!! We're a whole +2F now!

Faron

Took this pic last year of my "Ol' Girl"! Bought in Fall '97!

Faron

This below zero business is really getting old. Five below tonight but at least it’s supposed to be up to 40 this week - balmy.

Uff.....Fargo was -15F Monday am. NW ND was even colder!!! We'll get a brief warmup midweek tho'!!

Faron

This means we get an early and warm spring, right?

I don't know daisy....-37 C with the windchill tonight??? After the -2 C this afternoon;)

Knew it was too good to last. It is reminding me of the winter when my oldest DD was 2 or 3 and it was -20 or colder from January right to the end of March. That would have been about 15 years ago. I remember being so sick of having to dress her up in so many layers to go anywhere and not even wanting to leave the house. Unfortunately, it feels like it could be happening again.

Spring is almost here, the high temp for the next 10 days will be 34-53F, that's really warm for here in Feb. A lot of rain though, 4 rain days......

daisy, where are you? It sounds pretty cold over there.