Oh baby, it's cold outside

December has come on with a vengeance in our neck of the woods. We live here in the Pacific Northwest, normally a temperate area. Frankly, I'm a bit spoiled. It's kinda a "banana belt" area, getting around the low 30's, maybe a few days of freezing, we are lucky if we see some snow. If we see any bad weather at all, it's usually going to be in January.

December has roared in like a lion, driving wind down from the north. The "Arctic Blast of 2009" is what they are calling it. We haven't gotten above freezing since Monday, and it's now Thursday. For our area, this is UNHEARD of! Especially this early in the season.

I know, I know, everyone wants a white Christmas, but it isn't white outside, it is just COLD.

I have FOUR QUILTS on the bed. The dogs are sleeping in the bathroom every night, and the ducks have a heat lamp. We had to buy pond heaters because going out every hour to break their water for them was just....too hard to keep up with. Sorry, but when we adults go to work for a few hours (or need to run errands, or go to therapy or sports practices for hours), no one is around to do it. We are all wearing extra clothes, and using the throw blankets in the living room.

When we bought the pellet stove this summer, I swore up and down that I would "splurge" and heat the house up to 70 degrees in the winter if I wanted to. Here it is, a few months later, and I can barely stand to allow the heat above 65. The frugal me keeps thinking of the cost of the bags of pellets. We have a ton and a half of pellets in the garage still, but I keep thinking "that has to last all winter!!!" Old habits die hard. And with this cold snap, we are whipping through those bags of pellets.

Hubby fixed the insulation on the doors a bit better than I had it a few days ago. We keep the insulated curtains closed on the windows all day (sorry, even though the sun is shining, the wind and cold weather just sucks the heat right out. Better to keep them closed.).

All we can do now is hope that the cold weather breaks soon. They are saying warmer weather by Saturday. Fingers crossed that they are right. Because 14 degrees at night is pretty darn cold. BRRRRR......