We got a small amount of snow the first week of November. Just enought to say it was winter. Then overnight on November 14 we got over a foot of wet heavy snow with some mixed rain & snow during the day on the 15th. Last night due to the snow accumulation on power lines we had a power outage that affected over 1200 homes and businesses in the area. The power was out from just before midnight to 8:30 this morning. Our old house does not have an alternate source of heat other than to pile on the quilts. Thank heavens we have a number of quilts! The power coming on woke me and I was toasty warm, but the house was very very cold for a while.

Oh my; if an outage *has* to happen, better that it does so when you can pile on the quilts and sleep thru it, for sure!

Please, God, we will get no deep heavy snows like that this year; I don't want to be stuck down this long driveway unable to get to arthritis swim class for days on end!!

Jan in VA

Thank goodness you had plenty of quilts to pile on
I second what Jan said in her prayer

I am not ready for the cold either. Two days ago we had a hard freeze and today it was in the 70's and tomorrow is to be in the 80's or 90's.

Our weather has been a little crazy also -- had 4-6 feet (yes feet) of snow early October -- power outages anywhere from an hour to 5 days depending on the area and heavy loss of livestock -- the following week we had another snow and since then have had a few days of cold but many days of wonderful weather. Don't know what this winter has in store for us!! Just figure that every nice day means one less cold day.

Snow is great if you do not have to get out in it to go to work and your power does not quit working. Life is never a bowl of cherries; pits are included. Find that silver lining in every cloud. Moisture is put into the soil to grow things next year. I spent years down South without snow and seasonal changes after growing up in the Mid-West, and I missed the seasonal changes and snow.

Family time can be spent together. A chance to sew and quilt all day. Find things to celebrate together and give extra hugs to one another. Look at ways for everyone to have something special in their day. This day is gone tomorrow, so what memories have you from today??? Good ones, I hope; and that you made it good for the family. Family grows up and leaves home. None of us live forever, so enjoy each day that is a gift of time given to us, and count your blessings. Yes, we can all talk about the weather, good, bad or not so bad; and hope that it changes for the better.

A few years ago, after buying this house, we had to have an electrician come in to fix a few things. He noticed we had a generator and commented to my husband, that he could hook us up with a whole house generator for under $2,000. That is a lot of money and I thought my husband was nuts when he wanted to do it.

Two weeks after having it set up, we had a hard winter storm and lost power for 5 days. The generator, which we'd used to run just the freezer in the past, could then run the water pump , the furnace and we had lights and TV at night, plus the frig and freezer for the entire time of the power outage. I would encourage any one who lives where they have frequent power outages, to consider one. It is a lot simpler than I thought and was the best $2,000 we ever spent.

I have a "whole house" generator sitting on its own little bed outside the living room window…..just waiting for our son and friend to come over and hook it up……lost power for 11 days last year due to "SANDY" and not looking forward to living like that any time soon.

power outages are the pits. I lost a whole freezer of meat. the power went out when I was at work and the sitter never said a word. when the rotted meat smell was cleaned up she said "oh, your breaker must of not kicked in for the outlet after the outage" hmmm. Ya could mentioned that ya crazy ole bat! No, I didn't say it but I found another sitter. That was the proverbial straw as they say.

I hope this is helpful in the future. You can make a small room heater with a narrow metal pan (bread pan type), 4 tea lights, and a small clay pot, and a larger clay pot.
Light the tea lights and set them in the center of the pan on a heat proof surface.
Place small pot over the top upside down, and place the larger pot over the small one, also upside down.

This will create a convection type heater. I saw it on Facebook, but I have the supplies now so if our power fails, I am ready. I did try it, and it does work for small areas. The heater works about as long as the tea lights last (about 4 hours). I want to try it again, so I can see if I can heat a small pan of water on it at the same time. NEVER LEAVE IT UNATTENDED!