I really had no idea what a real winter was all about.
I mean, I wasn’t even close.
Having grown up in the south where the heat pump was all we needed for heating, I had a very idealized version of winter. To me, it was like those Christmas cartoons of my youth. It was all fluffy snow and sledding and stuff. The realities of the temperatures had no bearing on how I perceived a serious, northern winter. Well, that all changed and it was quite a wake up call for me. My wife’s mom lives up here and is getting to the point in her life where she needs more care. The idea of moving south to us was just not up for discussion. So when my wife had the opportunity to take a promotion that would put her less than an hour from her mom, it seemed like a no brainer. As far as I’m concerned, I’m here to support my wife on that. I work from home so I can work anywhere. And living up here is temporary and I’ll get back to my heat pump and all that air conditioning in the summer. Until then, I had to figure out just how to heat the house without spending a wad of money doing it. With the help of some great neighbors, I learned the combination to that lock. It’s all about making sure the house is tight and insulated. With no drafts, one can be quite disciplined with the thermostat setting. This is our third winter coming up and I’ve already scheduled the heating maintenance with the HVAC company.