Winter soon

[Tom Bender]

Good time to tune up the weatherstripping and the snowblower. Try out the furnace too.

[Stan Calow]

Yeah, and to finally get to all those jobs you've been putting off until cooler weather.

[Jim Becker]

I am "winter adverse" and hope we have another one like the last two or three... but El Nino is in charge this year, so there may be more precipitation than in the last two years. We did order a coat for Oliver the dog, however...which is pretty much the extent of any preparation needed to be done here.

[George Yetka]

I heard somewhere the northeast should see more snow than last year. But last year we got about 2 inches total so Im not sure if that means we may get 3 this year or I should stock more food.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Just got back from having an oil change on my Pilot. Recommended service? New tires before winter. I checked. They are right. Yes, furnace checks are due.

[Mike Cutler]

Snowblower. - Check.
Tractor and Plow.- Check.
Generator. - Check.
Woodstove. Need new Flue pipe.
Seven cords of wood stacked outside the back door.
Tires on cars are good to go.

I'm good to go, now we just need some actual winter in Connecticut. We've been lucky for the past few years, and the Temps and snow have been very mild.

[Jim Becker]

I heard somewhere the northeast should see more snow than last year. But last year we got about 2 inches total so Im not sure if that means we may get 3 this year or I should stock more food.
The article I read a short time ago indicated we would likely have a wetter "winter", but the temps would be more moderate resulting in a lot more rain than snow. Like you, we only got a few inches for the entire winter last year (and the previous) so it remains to be seen what the reality will be.

[Tom M King]

A couple of more months before we have to worry about it here. I have never seen a snowblower in person.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Yeah. In the next week or so, the ruby-throated hummingbird migration will have passed through, and we'll have to wash and store the feeder. Tough job.

25 years in Michigan. On the way to I-69 South, gave away snow blowers, shovels, and 4 wheels with winter tires from the E39.

"Well I did my time in that rodeo,
Been so long and I got nothing to show"
- Lowell George & Richie Hayward, Little Feat

[Brian Runau]

Fall work to tune up plants in the landscape. Pick up leaves, get gutters cleaned, I am not allowed on the roof anymore, move snow blower from shed to garage, drain gas from mower blower trimmer for winter storage and put on 10 lbs of winter weight! Brian

[Bruce Wrenn]

Pies, soups, and stews are at the top of my fall list, along with BBQ and State Fair. Don't forget meat loaf, and mashed potatoes. All comfort foods. In early December, will drain seasonal spigots. Reseed the lawn, and rake the leaves. Then wait for spring, which can't come too soon.

[Greg Quenneville]

Meanwhile down here on the 6th day of spring its 84° and thick with smoke. El Nino on this side of the Pacific means shimmering hot days and no rain. Just serviced the chainsaw for storage and about to go tune up the irrigation system.

[Patty Hann]

Aaannd here in Phoenix life begins anew for the next 7 months, 8 if we are lucky and May temps stay down.
Love it here in the winter... low humidity and "dead of winter" temps are 60-70s days, high 30s-low 40s at night.
I swim laps outside all winter (ASU and some nearby municipal pools are heated)

[Tim Elett]

Plenty of free wood to turn ,and new igniter in pellet stove in shop. I may even install a thermostat so the shop will stay warm.

[Keegan Shields]

I can’t wait for winter. Hopefully the temperature will go below 90F finally here in central Texas…

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I got the new all-season tires installed on my Pilot Tuesday. Now I want to buy a good grain shovel to use as a snow shovel. I purchased and tried on some new snow boots in June. My tire chains reside in the compartment below the deck in the rear of the Pilot year round. I think I'm ready.

[Rich Engelhardt]

:(

O'dark -thirty sets in around 5:00pm soon & stays that way for a long time. Used to be cold and snow didn't bother me all that much. Now that I live my entire life at the end of a 25 foot oxygen tube, cold raises holy hell with my ability to breathe. It's not the cold really, it's the dry air. I should move to a rain forest somewhere! :D :D

Oh well, soon enough I won't have the cold and dark to whine about.....I guess I'll whine about that when it happens! :D LOL!

[Jim Becker]

I got the new all-season tires installed on my Pilot Tuesday. Now I want to buy a good grain shovel to use as a snow shovel. I purchased and tried on some new snow boots in June. My tire chains reside in the compartment below the deck in the rear of the Pilot year round. I think I'm ready.
A little hint...for where you live, always shoot for an "all weather" tire rather than an "all season" tire. They are different. The former has a 3 peaks rating and is substantially better performing in colder, winter conditions while not sacrificing warm weather performance. The formulation of the material doesn't harden up at colder temps as fast as typical "all season" tires.

[Steve Demuth]

It feels astonishingly like Spring here, even though I know you're right that Winter is just around the corner on the calendar. We have been in the worst drought in the settled history of the area all year (less than 4" total rainfall, and nonewhatsoever from the second week of July through mid-September). It finally broke with a 3-4" overnight rainfall ten days ago. Suddenly the world is green again - I'm going to actually have to mow for the first time since June, and we have fresh herbs and produce from plants in the garden that I had taken for dead.

Meanwhile, we just completed a major energy efficiency retrofit of the house. Tightened and insulated the foundation and crawl space, replaced the remaining old windows, replaced the old propane furnace with a new heat pump. We traditionally have heated primarily with wood, with the furnace as the steady state backup, but as we've aged, the fractions of heating load carried by wood vs propane have rev,ersed. Now the central heat will be as much powered from our farm as the wood is (via solar generation capacity), so I guess we're ready on the heating front. Final part of that project will be to redo the interior and floor of our bedroom, and then after 45 years working at it, the house is done ... finished. No more construction, barring a disaster that knocks some part of it over.

I dislike any temperature much above 68oF, so these coming months are among my favorite of the year. I like Winter too. Farm chores take half an hour a day, so the possibilities for new learning and shop projects are endless.

[Andrew Joiner]

so the possibilities for new learning and shop projects are endless.
Thank you Steve!
Windsurfing season is ending soon here. Seasonal adjustment is tough for me. You inspired me to clean up my shop and start the indoor season.

[Mel Fulks]

It’s been dark here all Summer. Canada dust ? Worst Summer I’ve seen . I bet happy pills …of different kinds have all been big
sellers.

[Patty Hann]

... Final part of that project will be to redo the interior and floor of our bedroom, and then after 45 years working at it, the house is done ... finished. No more construction, barring a disaster that knocks some part of it over.

Wow.... a 45 year WIP. Congrats on the completion.
Now I don't feel so bad about my 15 year WIP.

[Steve Demuth]

Wow.... a 45 year WIP. Congrats on the completion.
Now I don't feel so bad about my 15 year WIP.

Yeah, I feel good about it. I'm pretty sure my wife thinks I'm 40 years late on my promise to build her a house, though. We started with a 32' X 24' one room schoolhouse sitting in a hayfield, with no insulation, no electricity and no plumbing (but beautiful QS White Oak floors) and about $12,000 total to work with. 45 years on, thousands of hours of our own labor, and hundreds of trees and other plantings, It's now a gorgeous little cottage sitting in a little piece of paradise.

And, of course, I'm old now. Guess that's how life works.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A little hint...for where you live, always shoot for an "all weather" tire rather than an "all season" tire. They are different. The former has a 3 peaks rating and is substantially better performing in colder, winter conditions while not sacrificing warm weather performance. The formulation of the material doesn't harden up at colder temps as fast as typical "all season" tires.

My tires are the best rated carried by the dealer for the Pilot I am driving. They are rated for M&S too. I never cut corners on tires and don't run them more than 4-5 years depending on the physical condition of the tire. As a teen driving every horse the 283 or 327 would produce, I had two tires blowout while driving. Surprisingly, when the rear tire on my '56 Chevy blew it was much worse to handle than when the front tire blew on the same car. 3 years later when I married into a readymade family my attitude changed dramatically.:o

[Doug Garson]

Wife has New Years trip to Mexico booked so we are ready for winter.:cool:

[Mel Fulks]

The nature guys doing the film voice -overs always say , “Soon it will be Winter , food will be hard to find” .

[Patty Hann]

"Winter is coming."

[Jim Becker]

My tires are the best rated carried by the dealer for the Pilot I am driving. They are rated for M&S too. I never cut corners on tires and don't run them more than 4-5 years depending on the physical condition of the tire. As a teen driving every horse the 283 or 327 would produce, I had two tires blowout while driving. Surprisingly, when the rear tire on my '56 Chevy blew it was much worse to handle than when the front tire blew on the same car. 3 years later when I married into a readymade family my attitude changed dramatically.:o
They sound fine. Just as an aside, the 3 peaks rating is higher than M&S should you feel that will be helpful the next time you need new ones. It's just a more malleable material when it gets cold without becoming wear sensitive in warm conditions like dedicated winter tires would. One example is the Falken Wildpeak AT Trail which is one of the most popular tire today alongside of the Michelin CrossClimate 2 (directional tire). They are especially popular for folks who live in northern areas that have actual winter but don't "require" dedicated winter tires.

[Pat Germain]

Thanks for the reminder. I need to get my snow blower tuned up and ready. I know it sounds blasphemous, but I'm leaning toward a new, battery-powered snow blower. I'm getting envious of my neighbors who simply roll out their electric snow blower and go while I'm filling mine with gas, pushing on the primer bulb, plugging the electric starter into an outlet and trying to get the engine to start then actually stay running. I've already replaced the factory carburetor that NEVER did run right. If I any more trouble, I'm going battery-powered.

[Stan Calow]

Pat, that's my plan in general, for all the outdoor tools I have - rechargeable technology is a game changer for lawn homeowners.

I usually get the snow thrower ready to go (test start) on the same day I put the lawnmower away for the winter (oil change, air filter, spark plug, sharp blade). So I can swap their places to be nearest the door. Lawnmower's last use is in November to bag up leaves.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

They sound fine. Just as an aside, the 3 peaks rating is higher than M&S should you feel that will be helpful the next time you need new ones. It's just a more malleable material when it gets cold without becoming wear sensitive in warm conditions like dedicated winter tires would. One example is the Falken Wildpeak AT Trail which is one of the most popular tire today alongside of the Michelin CrossClimate 2 (directional tire). They are especially popular for folks who live in northern areas that have actual winter but don't "require" dedicated winter tires.

Jim,

I have driven in these conditions all of my life. I feel comfortable with the tires and my abilities. Did I mention I had the new tires siped? Should the conditions warrant, in the hidden recess below the cargo area of my 4WD Pilot resides year-round, 2 sets of cable chains that I practice installing annually just to keep in form. When I was still elk hunting it wasn't unusual to have to chain up to get into and out of our camp at 7,000' elevation. I also carry a real, short-handled shovel. The shovel and some Sorrel snow boots will be going into the Pilot shortly for the winter. I wear a LL Bean winter parka designed with help from the Maine Warden's Service that has a removal down liner. The coat is a double layered Gortex shell and too warm with the liner except for the most extreme conditions. Thus I remove the liner and it stays in the car until late March. I wear the shell year-round. It's been to Australia, NZ, Fiji and Ireland with me. Love that coat! When Sharon and I went to Yellowstone NP last Christmas, I also packed two sub-zero rated sleeping bags, just in case! I have suffered hypothermia twice while elk hunting in Idaho. I learned some hypothermia lessons the hard way! It's no fun and I don't want to see it a 3rd time!

Thank you for the information!

[George Yetka]

Through much toil Im now 100% ready, I switched whats hanging in my closet. 2 dozen golf shirts and 2 flannels is now 2 dozen flannels and 6 golf shirts.

[Doug Garson]

Through much toil Im now 100% ready, I switched whats hanging in my closet. 2 dozen golf shirts and 2 flannels is now 2 dozen flannels and 6 golf shirts.
Don't forget your wool socks for your Birkenstocks. ;)