Brrr. This is our coldest weekend of the year so far. The temperature was fairly steady yesterday at about -39C. We drove 2 1/2 hours to a neighbouring town yesterday to go to the dentist. It was so cold that our van wouldn't start, even though it had been plugged in. Thankfully, our old 4-Runner started and so we all piled into that instead. The kids were dressed in snowsuits and boots and Dwayne rigged up a piece of cardboard as winter front so the heater would work better. The steering column was almost frozen stiff, it was all Dwayne could do to steer around 90 degree corners. No driving for me! If he can barely manage it, I certainly wouldn't be able to. It was too cold for most critters as well. The only brave souls were grouse and a few ptarmigan, but it was so cold that they didn't even try to fly off the road as we drove right beside them. Oh, we did see a fox on the way home as well.
Our generator wouldn't start last night so Dwayne used the 4-Runner to jump start it. Today we weren't so lucky. The 4-Runner would not go and neither would the generator. As we would normally use the generator's power to plug in the 4-Runner we had to go to plan b. After putting a small fire on in an old frying pan and placing that under the 4-Runner for a while Dwayne was able to get the 4-Runner to start. He then used that to start the generator. I guess it ran for about 20 seconds, made a terrible sound, and died. Lovely. It will have to be completely rebuilt. For now, we will have to revert to smaller generators that we will keep inside the back door when they aren't in use so they will start in the cold.
Also, our on demand hot water heater froze up yesterday and so we are without running hot water for today. Thankfully, we can heat up water on the wood stove or on the propane stovetop. The hot water heater pipes are copper and split in a spot where they can be soldered so it shouldn't be too difficult to fix.
Everyone is playing near the wood stove today. The kids have set up shop over there with play dough, cars, pillows, and assorted other toys. They are taking most of their food and drink over there today too. Riley still braves the cold in just her underwear. I have no idea how she does it. She is currently sitting on the floor beside my chair in the coldest area of the house with next to nothing on, building a "big, big buiding" out of Duplo. I am freezing just looking at her. I, by contrast, am wearing wool socks, leggings, jeans, a tank top, a cotton sweater, a hoodie of Dwayne's and my toque. Yes. And I am definitely not overheating. Oh, amazingly enough, Riley is wearing socks as well!
Me: "Are you cold Riley?"
Riley: "No."
She did not get her warm bloodedness from me...
I am off to tackle putting away a mountain of clean laundry as I can't do much water-wise until Dwayne comes home with the smaller generators and the hot water heater part.
Off to work and to stay warm!!