audreyh1
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OMG - how do the pheasants survive in North Dakota?!?!
One thing I noticed in moving from the Bay Area to the east is acclimation. Because there aren't extremes in temperature changes between day and night, you gradually adjust to the cold and it just doesn't seem that cold unless it's windy. It the summer, I love not needing a sweater or jacket at night. The insects were awful last summer though.
In The Bay Area, the temperature can swing a lot in the summer because of the fog. I remember a cousin's wedding in Palo Alto where it was 90 degrees and the reception was in a restaurant on the hills between 280 and the ocean where it was foggy and 55 degrees. The guys in the suits were fine but I froze in my summer dress!
I'm looking forward to our first snow of the season this weekend.
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Pretty much normal 2x4 stud walls with lots of insulation in walls and roof with double pane windows. My balanced billing natural gas heating averages about $35 per month year around for a 900 square foot house. One of the advantages of the extreme cold is that we only get maybe 30 inches of snow all winter but it doesn't melt until spring. Whatever snow is on the ground at Thanksgiving will be there until spring. The coldest winter I remember was 1978-1979 we had more than 90 consecutive days of below zero temperatures.
I feel your pain - literally. Down here in S Florida it's about the same temp. I feel badly for those folks from the frigid northlands that booked a week in the sun and are stuck with this chilly weather.Today's high is predicted to be only +59F, and right now it is a frigid +47F. That probably sounds tropical to our northerners! Before I go outside, I am going to put on a nice warm sweatshirt and sweatpants ( = cold weather retiree wear). Also when I go outside I plan to wear my winter coat over my sweats. Brrrrrr...
I guess I'm fully acclimated to Southern temperatures by now. F has been wearing a warm winter coat, knit cap, and gloves when we go outside. At least I don't need the hat or gloves yet.
A few of the newer houses here are built on slabs with heat in the floor. Most of the houses have basements. A lot of the newer ones are going to ground resource heat pumps for heating and cooling.Gee, I was expecting 2x6 walls, foam insulation, and triple pane windows. Except for being built on slabs, our houses in North Texas probably have similar construction, but for us its defending against the heat. Any way, I bet your outerwear is more robust than mine
Pheasants are a rare bird in this part of the state, there have been attempts to introduce them here but with the cold, foxes, wolves, coyotes, hawks, and bald and golden eagles the don't survive very long. In the western parts of the state the climate is much milder so they are all over the place. The Red River Valley where I am was once the bottom of glacial lake Agassiz. It's flat as a table top and only about 900 feet above sea level. It's a low spot where the cold settles in and stays.OMG - how do the pheasants survive in North Dakota?!?!
Pheasants are a rare bird in this part of the state, there have been attempts to introduce them here but with the cold, foxes, wolves, coyotes and bald and golden eagles the don't survive very long. In the western parts of the state the climate is much milder so they are all over the place. The Red River Valley where I am was once the bottom of glacial lake Agassiz. It's flat as a table top and only about 900 feet above sea level. It's a low spot where the cold settles in and stays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Valley
I have many friends that head to the western part of the state to hunt pheasants every year.OK - that explains it. Because when we traveled across ND following the Missouri river, we saw huge numbers of them. But now I see we only traveled the western half of the state. I had concluded that pheasant hunting must be one of the draws for ND residents - but there sure weren't many people living in the state!
The rule is if you are stuck in a storm DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR. Your life can literally depend on the condition of your car.
If things there are like here the grocery stores will be full of people getting ready for the storm. Stay warm.Back in the '70's I remember hearing that at their police academy Alaska State Police recruits had a week or more of class time on auto maintenance and repair and carried a substantial amount of tools and spare parts. As you know, it is a survival issue in those conditions.
As for here, winter has arrived. The forecast now is for anywhere between one and 20 inches of snow on Friday/Saturday depending on how it develops. A few are saying perhaps a storm of "historic" proportions. Oh joy. And we are right in the middle of the path:
If things there are like here the grocery stores will be full of people getting ready for the storm. Stay warm.
I feel your pain - literally. Down here in S Florida it's about the same temp. I feel badly for those folks from the frigid northlands that booked a week in the sun and are stuck with this chilly weather.
As for here, winter has arrived. The forecast now is for anywhere between one and 20 inches of snow on Friday/Saturday depending on how it develops. A few are saying perhaps a storm of "historic" proportions. Oh joy. And we are right in the middle of the path:
As a few have said it's getting accustomed to the cold. We used to have USAF personnel arrive in early fall and they would be wearing parkas in September. We had to get them to realize that they would never adapt to cold that way. We had one poor fellow that was native Hawaiian and had spent most of his career in Hawaii and Texas. He was sent to Cavalier AFS in January. I wasn't sure he was going to survive; I don't think he took his parka off until spring.
In Winnipeg I worked with many trainees from Saudi Arabia. One lady arrived during a relatively cool summer and asked me (in July) if it was always this cold. She was shivering at the time. I tried to break it to her gently. She bought a fur coat that winter!
I was out yesterday night working in an unheated airplane hangar, it was about 5 deg F and I was the only soul on the airfield. I decided to pack up and realized that my small radiant heater had almost run out of propane. Well, the car was quite cold by then, cranked slowly, didn't start. Now I'm starting to get concerned. Decided to re-light the heater--nope, it was too cold now for my butane lighter to function. Fingers starting to ache and not work real well. Ruh - roh. I tried the car again and it started. Woo-hoo! My cell phone, my only way to get help, was also cold, I'm sure those batteries would also quit at some temp. It wouldn't have been life threatening: There was a heated storage room in an outbuilding I could have broken into, and I could have built a fire (or lit the heater) using the cigarette lighter in the car to start some paper aflame. But it reminded me to not take for granted that everything will work, to think things through . . . and have some old-fashioned matches on hand. Lots of ways to get in trouble in the cold when just one or two things go wrong--and 5 deg F is not >really< cold.Back in the '70's I remember hearing that at their police academy Alaska State Police recruits had a week or more of class time on auto maintenance and repair and carried a substantial amount of tools and spare parts. As you know, it is a survival issue in those conditions.
saw this on facebook
I could have built a fire (or lit the heater) using the cigarette lighter in the car to start some paper aflame.