A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

We’ve had some of the coldest weather here in the mountains that I’ve ever experienced over the past several weeks. From what I hear, that’s the story pretty much all over the country. But that doesn’t make me feel any better about it.

If we weren’t so broke from fixing the plumbing, I would probably be seriously looking into Cancun vacation packages right about now. But we are, so I’m not. At least it’s gotten a little bit warmer for the past couple of days, and if the weatherman is right, it should stay that way for the rest of the month.

I’m not a particularly outdoorsy person or anything. I just despise cold weather. It presents problems that wouldn’t otherwise be a concern (like frozen pipes), and it makes fixing those problems more difficult or even impossible. If Hubby weren’t so deeply rooted in the mountains, I probably would have tried to talk him into moving somewhere warmer a long time ago. But that’s not happening, so I guess I’ve just got to deal with it. At least it won’t be quite so chilly for a while.

I was listening to the weather on the radio this morning, and if what they said was true, we’re going to have one snowy weekend. They’re calling for 3 to 6 inches tomorrow, and by the time it’s all said and done, possibly 10 inches or more. Nooooo!!!!

I hate the thought of snow at all, but if we have to have it, I wish I could push it back a few days so it would be on Christmas. I don’t really care if we have any snow on Christmas myself, but Hubby’s dying to have some then. And I’m sure Pumpkin wouldn’t mind it either. Of course, if I had my way, it would just miss us altogether. They’re giving a 100% chance, but I’ve seen snowstorms miss us with those kind of odds before. I can hope, anyway.

I saw a huge flock of crows the other day, and realized that they were probably making a pit stop on their way to fly south for the winter. I sort of wished I could sprout wings and go with them. I don’t like winter as it is, and the weather here is shaping up to be particularly unpleasant this year. It has already been quite cold, and we’ve narrowly missed quite a bit of snow and ice so far.

I doubt I’ll be growing wings any time soon. And I’m certainly not one of these well-to-do folks who can just pick up and reserve one of the best hotels New Orleans or Orlando or Atlanta has to offer for a week or two. So it looks like I’m stuck toughing it out.

The idea of getting away for a while sure sounds good. Things are getting a little better on the home front, but it would still be nice to have a change of scenery. Guess I’ll have to settle for the occasional trip down the mountain for now, and hope and pray that a vacation is in the cards for next year.

Labor Day is coming up, marking the end of summer. The first official day of fall is the 22nd. But here in the mountains, we’re already getting hints of the colder weather to come.

It has been about 10 degrees cooler than what we’ve grown accustomed to all week. The mornings have been downright chilly. And I’m dreading the coming winter with every fiber of my being.

I had hoped to have a secondary heat source by this winter, but that’s not happening. So when it starts getting cold at night, I’ll have to start staying up late again, keeping a fire going. I’m a bit of a night owl, so that’s not really a problem, but lately I’ve gotten accustomed to going to bed a little earlier than I had been. Guess I’ll have to get unaccustomed, huh?

Besides the fact that it’s so much cheaper than any other kind of heat (especially for us since we get our wood for free), I’m not a fan of wood heat. But it does the job, for sure. The only complaint there is trying to keep it circulated. I’d like to put a ceiling fan in the living room to pull the heat down from the ceiling, but as low as our ceilings are, that would be a recipe for disaster. So I guess we’ll just have to stick with the floor fan. It does a good enough job to keep most of the house comfortable (and often hot).

At least winter hasn’t set in yet, and probably won’t for a couple more months. We should still have plenty of time to enjoy some warm weather.

Spring in the mountains is a crazy time. The weather fluctuates wildly from sun to rain to snow and back again. This week is looking like it might be a case in point.

Today was beautiful. Abundant sunshine and a variable breeze were the themes for the day. Hubbs, Pumpkin and I got out and enjoyed it, and two out of three of us got a little sunburned. Mine is a little ouchy, but I’m not complaining in the least.

But according to the weather forecast, we won’t have another day like this for a while. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and windy, like most of last week, but with a little twist: in the afternoon, there’s going to be a drop in temperature and a chance of snow. Yuck!

But wait, there’s more! They’re also calling for snow on Tuesday, and by the time it’s all said and done, the possibility of 4 to 8 inches for parts of the area. My neck of the woods is only supposed to get a dusting, but dang!

This time of year is always a bit of a roller coaster for me. I get a glimmer of hope when we get a nice, sunny, warm day, and then winter comes back for a while. I know that I shouldn’t let the weather dictate my moods, and I try hard not to. But I’m not a fan of cold weather, so when it starts to go away, I get all excited. Maybe one of these days I’ll learn to be more patient with Mother Nature.

We got a little skiff of snow last night. It wasn’t enough to even cover the ground, not by a longshot. Yet they still called off school today. I’m beginning to think that they get paid extra for dragging the school year out into the summer.

The forecast is calling for a substantial amount of snow in the area. I’m happily on the least snow-prone side of the county, and we’re only supposed to get a couple of inches. But on the other side of the county, they are calling for up to 10 inches.

Will we get it? Who knows. Most of the time when they cry “Big Bad Snow,” we get next to nothing. I’m hoping this time won’t be any different, because even though I stay close to home most of the time anymore, I like being able to get out if I need to. That, and when school is out, I have a hard time getting my work done. I can’t expect poor little Pumpkin to entertain herself all day, after all.

Anybody want to place bets on how much snow we get? I say 4 inches on the snowy side of the county. I’m willing to put up my entire jewelry box, contents included. Nothing really worth anything in there, but it’s the best I can do right now. Unless anybody’s interested in an air hockey table…

I hate cold weather. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I guess it’s a good thing I never followed through with the hairbrained idea of moving up north when I was single. If I can’t stand the winters here, I can’t imagine how I would deal with them up there.

Right now, as I’m typing, it’s 12 degrees. It wasn’t much warmer than that during the day today. I went out to feed the dogs for Hubby around 5:30 or so, and I didn’t think I would be out there very long, so I didn’t bother putting on any gloves. But the puppy had her chain tangled up, so I had to fight with her to get it unhooked, unwrap it, and then fight with her again to get it hooked back on her collar. I also had to take my time walking up and down the hill since there’s still snow and ice out there. By the time I got back in, I couldn’t feel my hands.

Tomorrow is not supposed to be any better, but it’s supposed to get into the 30s and 40s later this week. Better break out the shorts and suntan lotion, cuz that will feel like a heat wave compared to this!

I know I’m one of many, many people across the country who’s saying this lately… but man, is it ever friggin cold! We’re used to cold temperatures during the winter here in the mountains, but this is the coldest it’s been since I moved here. I remember one winter up in Virginia when it got this cold, but I’m just not accustomed to temperatures this bone-chilling.

I can’t imagine how shocking this weather must be to people who live in more temperate places. Hubby’s cousins are up here this week from down the mountain, and they have just been flipping out over how cold it is. It’s colder than what they’re used to down there, and coming up here and experiencing winter in the mountains is just blowing their minds. It’d be kind of funny if I wasn’t freezing my butt off every time I walk out the door, too.

I’m just glad we haven’t gotten any snow to speak of. Just a little skiff here and there. It was enough to get them to close the schools early yesterday, but by the time they would have gotten out normally it was all gone anyway.

I just hope it isn’t like this all winter. We’ve still got a good two months to go, and maybe more. I’m just glad we have wood heat now. As much as I hate it, I can’t imagine having to pay for oil when it’s this cold.

Yet another reason I hate winter: Snow days when I have truckloads of work to do!

They called school off yesterday, and for once it actually made a little bit of sense. We had an inch or two when we got up in the morning, and the road here hadn’t been touched as usual. Hubby said the walkway was very slick, too. So even though I really needed to work uninterrupted, I didn’t mind that they called it. I don’t want Pumpkin riding the bus, or my truck for that matter, on slick roads.

It snowed rather heavily until around lunchtime, but then it quit and the sun came out. By the time Hubby got home from work, the road was completely clear and there were only patches of snow on the ground. Pumpkin was disappointed because Hubby had said he’d take her up on the hill where the blackberry plants are to sled if it didn’t melt, but I was relieved. Heh.

There was no precipitation overnight. But this morning came, and the radio stated that there would once again be no school. They said there was still snow and ice on a lot of secondary roads. WTH??? The sun completely took care of it here, with no help whatsoever. I realize that some places get very little sun and traffic, but come on! The state had plenty of time to get rid of that. But for some stupid reason they didn’t do it. Par for the course around here.

It burns me up that the salt and scraper trucks are everywhere when we just get a little sprinkling, but if it snows enough to cover the ground, they’re nowhere to be found. Even if we get a pretty good snow, after it quits, they don’t do anything to the back roads (and sometimes even the main roads) for days. It’s so aggravating.

So much for my hopes that winter would start late this year. It appears that it has already arrived.

Temperatures haven’t gotten out of the 40s for most of the past week, and according to the forecast, they won’t for the next week, either. And it’s been intermittently windy. School was closed on Tuesday due to snow (which we didn’t get much of, but they didn’t bother doing much if anything to the roads, and they were slick in places).

It has been interesting trying to keep enough wood to keep us warm. We have two respectable piles outside, and they should last us a while. The problem is getting it cut up and busted into pieces small enough to fit in our tiny stove. Hubby has had to work on it when he gets home from work, and by then it is dark. For the past week or two we’ve just been busting up enough to make it through that night and the next day and carrying it in. Then lather, rinse, repeat the next evening. I hope he will get to work on it this weekend and get us enough ready to burn for a week or so. Then we won’t have to worry about it so much.

I want summer back! It gets hot around here, especially when you don’t have air conditioning, but I rarely complain about it. When I feel like it, I just think about the cold winters and get over it.