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Stay warm, stay safe

LYNN HIRSHMAN
Posted 1/15/25

PEAK TO PEAK - As one who has lived at two weather extremes in North America – in the Canadian Arctic for five years and north Texas for the same amount of time – I am, of course, the perfect person to give Peak to Peak residents (20+ years)...

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Stay warm, stay safe

Posted

PEAK TO PEAK - As one who has lived at two weather extremes in North America – in the Canadian Arctic for five years and north Texas for the same amount of time – I am, of course, the perfect person to give Peak to Peak residents (20+ years) advice on how to stay warm in the arctic chill you all are experiencing right now.

Most of you know the obvious stuff: wear layers (wool or cold-weather synthetics) and put on and take off as necessary. Cover exposed skin if you’re outside for any length of time at all (I froze an earlobe once when I went out with silver earrings and no hat). 

Mitts rather than gloves. Boots with liners – waterproofing not necessary when it’s really cold, but shake off the snow when you come back indoors. And if you can get some mechanical heat packs for hands or feet, do so. 

You probably have some kind of wood-burning heating for your place already, given the all-too-frequent power outages. It’s always a good idea to bring in A LOT of wood as soon as you know a freeze is coming. 

Also, please take in the lesson of the Missouri Lakes fire covered in today’s paper: put your ashes in a metal bucket, and put it well away from anything flammable, like your house

You also probably have your water pipes from well to house covered in heat tape. And that may well work for you…ours never did. There was that one un-coverable length. Anyway, when you hear a freeze is coming, fill up a BUNCH of gallon containers with water and keep them someplace warm. (Our pipes stopped piping one winter day when I was halfway through a shower. I was happy we had a gallon of room-temperature water in the bathroom so I could wash the shampoo out of my hair.)

When your pipes do freeze, thaw them slowly with a hair dryer. 

In the Arctic, we all had oil dipstick heaters for our vehicles and kept them plugged in. Here, it’s not a bad idea to put a worklight (bare lightbulb) under the hood to keep the battery warm enough to keep its charge. It usually works.

I won’t go into all the car safety stuff you already know. Besides, when it’s THAT cold, you don’t want to go anywhere anyway.

Happy wintering, and remember: this, too, shall pass.