When winter cold hits home and away

Houses and humans do not like this terribly cold weather we have had lately. Neither do the trees, squirrels, rabbits or anything that must be exposed to the cold. If houses have occupants, they can be relied upon to keep the inside warmer than outside. Then those houses are happy.

Wild animals, like squirrels, can keep their space in trees less cold, but not what we humans would consider warm.

But with extremely cold weather comes higher utility bills. Houses may be freezing on the outside, but they count on their owners to keep their insides warm. Houses and their owners who live in the northern zones expect their winters to be cold. However, Mother Nature is quite capable of creating mild northern winters and colder southern zones.

For instance, many years ago, when our offspring were still children, we decided to spend Christmas with relatives in Florida. That state usually has much warmer winters than the rest of the U.S. — not always. The year we went down there was a cold snap, which sadly killed all of the lovely poinsettia plants planted in gardens around the house. The inside of that house wasn’t that warm either. That big house had no central heating system, just a very small floor furnace on the first floor. Unfortunately, our rooms were on the second floor.

By the next morning, everyone staying in that house was cold. Taller Half told us he thought he was pretty sure the flue was not clean enough to have a fire; perhaps we could clean out that flue enough to allow for a small fire at least.

We did our best to clean that flue, and then we started a small fire. It felt so nice until smoke began pouring out of the flue, filling that room with smoke. We put the fire out as quickly as we could, but that room was full of smoke. That is when Taller Half announced we were leaving right then to check into a motel to stay there until the smoke was gone.

After a good night’s smokeless sleep, we returned to the family house. Taller Half hired a flue cleaner to come clean the flue, and the work was done that day. The problem was the stench of smoke tainted the floor, walls and every piece of furniture in that room. With the windows open, the smoke smell was sucked out into the night. It was lucky the cold spell that had caused all the problems had passed.

We spent a couple more days visiting family before we headed home, just in time to run into icy cold weather. Thankfully, our home has adequate heating, and we walked inside to be warm. We are all sending Mother Nature our pleas for less icy cold weather, and perhaps an early spring would be nice.

Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.