Air gaps and winter prep

This year, for the first time in quite a few years, my lovely wife and I plan on staying in NH for most of the winter. More effort is going into winter prep than travel prep. The house is more weather tight than it's been in years -and I'm not done yet.

My daughter and her husband did extensive house renovations. One of the things they no longer needed was one of their outside doors. It was in excellent shape and much better than my old door to the deck. Thanks to my daughter's door gift my house is noticeably warmer. Today I just cut up the old wooden door for firewood. The only insulation that door had was the reflectix I stapled on it. That wasn't the most attractive fix but it's what I had at the time.

I'm a big fan of expansion foam in a can. It's great for sealing pesky air gaps. While it's pretty messy stuff to work with, that doesn't matter much in my unfinished basement. There's one more section behind my battery bank yet to do as it's hard to reach. My solution will be to duck tape a spray can to a long pole and pull the trigger with a piece of paracord. Sure beats moving a half ton of batteries.

Oil heat is common in New England. The price of oil is lower than it's been in a long time. It's nice to have a furnace to back up my wood heat. That way if I happen to sleep in, the furnace keeps the house from getting too cold. Sure beats waking up to a 39 degree house and then spending the rest of the day getting it up to temperature. We also couldn't leave the house for a few days without getting someone to stoke the stove.

One thing I don't like about winter is that I tend to gain weight. Too much staying inside when the weather is bad. However, a good friend gave me a kit that turns my pedal bike into an exercise bike. Yes, I'm actually using it. I've used stationary bikes in the past and can stick with it.

I should have more firewood cut up, but that will happen. My one hope is that winter passes as fast as this past summer did.

-Sixbears