Pounding rain and wind

We’re having another one of those coastal storms that brings sideways rain and high winds. It’s ugly out there. I spent a restless night as things kept going bump...crash in the night, with the rain just pounding against the windows. This morning I discovered a small metal basket of flowers that had blown off the neighbors house and landed on my front porch. First it hit one of the front windows and put a nice crease in my brand new screen. I’m glad the screen was there or I’d more than likely have a broken window.

But it’s still relatively warm outside, if you can call 46° warm. Yes, we’ll call it warm compared to what we’re getting on Friday. I don’t anticipate snow this close to the coast, but we’re going to be frosty cold when the arctic blast out of Canada finally reaches us.

It’s now been two days since I’ve had any heat on in the house. I let the stove burn out on Sunday night. It was plenty warm in here then and yesterday was in the mid 50s so it was too warm for the stove. Last night the outside temps dropped into the low 40s and this morning the house is still hovering around 66° despite the strong winds outside. This is a real departure from last year when the brisk winds would make the house cold very quickly. It’s clear to me that the new windows have made a huge difference in helping the house retain heat.

I noticed when the window guy took the old windows out that there wasn’t a shred of insulation around them. When he put the new ones in he packed the space around them with insulation. And, of course, the double panes also do what they’re supposed to do. I am surprised at just how much heat this house was obviously losing with the old windows and how much heat the new windows are holding in. That makes me very pleased.

Well, that’s two additional days of not using any wood this month. Probably won’t have to start a fire until sometime tomorrow, either. I may just make it to March on my two cords. I super really wish I’d bought 3 cords instead. That extra insurance would have made me feel a lot more secure and left overs are never wasted. What isn’t used this year is perfectly good and even more seasoned for the next year.