This will be my 10th year of living in Montana. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve been here this long and other times it feels like I’ve hardly been here at all. This conversation on dealing with cold weather is brought to you by FilterSnap but all opinions are my own. Heaven knows I prefer the warm weather but the hubby will tell you he loves the cold. So I guess it’s good we live in a place that has definite seasons.
Get Ready for Snow
When you live in northern climes snow is a given. Some years there is more than others but every year I have lived here we have had some level of snow. This year is stacking up to be a very snowy one. Be sure you have your shovels handy; here we have one on the deck, one in the pick up and one by the barn. The hubby also puts the plow on the tractor as soon as the snow word starts appearing in the weather forecasts. That way it is ready to go for when he has to plow the driveway. He also makes sure that the tractor is full of gas.
Get in Your Wood, Oil, Propane
You have to heat your house somehow so make sure that whatever you use is topped off for the winter. Here in the yurt we heat primarily with wood. The hubby goes out into the forest several times in the summer and harvests wood then he brings it home to cut and split to fit in our woodstove. We do have a propane furnace for backup so we also make sure that the propane tank is full as we go into winter. If you heat with oil make sure you get your tank filled. The last thing you want is to be facing frigid temperatures and no fuel.
Change Your Heater Filters
It’s very important to make sure you regularly change the filter on your heater for it to run efficiently. Here on the farm we change ours quarterly because we don’t use it that often. If you use it a lot you might want to change it monthly. To make this easier I’d like to tell you about FilterSnap. It’s a subscription service for heater filters. You tell them the size of your filter and how often (and how many) you’d like to receive them and that’s it! No more worry. Your filter arrives and you are thereby reminded to change it.
FilterSnap filters start as low as $12 and shipping is free (US.) They are made in the USA of superior materials. The hubby was very happy with the quality of the filter we received and he’s installed it in our heater. If you have questions or want to know more you can check out the FilterSnap FAQ
Get the Snow off of Your Roof
If the snow doesn’t slide naturally from your roof do what you can to get it off. The weight of all of that snow can cause problems. We are fortunate in that the yurt has a decent pitch to it AND a metal roof so the snow usually slides pretty easily. A couple of our outbuildings have problems though and the hubby has to to go out and erm, encourage the snow to slide. Otherwise the roof could collapse and no one wants that to happen. So keep a watch on snow buildup and be prepared to have to deal with it.
I do hope that my tips have helped. My response to snow and cold weather is to add another layer and to make soup. If you ask me soup is the perfect antidote to winter.
