RM> So we're finally getting that bit of a warming spell but it's too
RM> little and too late to help much I think unless we get another.

AA>How did you fare through that? Not long after that, we had that
  >flash-freeze.  I heard that it was more extreme out your way at
  >the Bay.

We had some fun days. My last shopping day there was a warning
on the car radio - I pick the worst days to shop it seems -
and they were saying flash freeze.. and it droppd from +2c (35f)
at 1:30pm to -7c (19f) by 5:30pm. I didn't have too much trouble
getting home though.

But it warmed up well above freezing and then we got heavy rain
a few days ago and we lost about 80% of the snow we had.

The next day it dropped below freezing again and the surface
of the bay was like polished glass and it was quite tricky to
be carrying pails of water in without losing your balance.

AA>And.. last night we had some pretty wild gusty winds for most
  >of the night.  Is your cottage still unmoved on its pillars/
  >foundation?  

Yes, it was howling pretty good and I was just happy the power
didn't go out. 3 mornings I woke up and it was under (43f) in
the livingroom when I came out and it took hours to get it up
to something reasonable. As I think I've mentioned, overnight
I only run one baseboard heater and I hide under my electric
blanket until morning. Usually I expect it to be about 15c (60f)
by morning since the one heater isn't enough on cold nights but
it's a lot worse when the wind gets howling.

AA>Methinks you could insulate the building from the outside, and
  >make it look quite nice.

Years ago I put 3 inches of fiberglass insulation on the outside
and covered it all with aluminum siding and it looked great and
worked well enough for a lot of years, but it really wasn't
expected to be used all winter at the time I did that.
I put better windows in, but single glazed so I put plastic
on the inside of the window frames over the winter now, and
I did that work back around 1983 and time has taken a toll on
some of it making it not work as well as it originally did.

If I knew, or planned/expected to be wintering here for a lot
more years I'd re-do the whole thing. I could afford it but
I'm a bit too practical to spend possibly $30,000 to winterize
a place I may only use for one or two more winters.

And most days are not bad. It's the unusual weather that
causes problems. I've already woken up to more super cold
mornings this year than I did ALL of last winter.

Oh, BTW.. Those Bucket Mouse traps we talked about earlier..
With most of the snow gone I went to check out the two that
my sister put in her 2 cottages and there were 3 mice in
one and 4 in the other, so they are working pretty well..   B)

---
 * SLMR Rob  * I'm an Apathetic Sociopath...I'd kill you if I cared.
 * Origin: Capitol City Online (618:250/1)