Tuesday, 8:30 am, January 3, 2005: Good morning, it is a whopping -8 degrees Fahrenheit. I forgot, or slept through getting up in the middle of the night to put more firewood in our woodstove. When we got up this morning our house was a cool 50 degrees. It is warming up fine now. We buy six full cords of firewood in the spring and we use about five cords during the winter. The extra cord is used as an emergency backup -- just in case.

My wife and I will be driving on the Trans-Canada Highway today. Their road crews keep the highway in good shape, albeit with lots of salt. On the U.S, side up here, the main thoroughfare is US Route One. It tends to be slower because it passes through every small town along the way and the speed limit fluctuates from 55 mph down to 25 mph every few miles.

During the winter months and the accompanying freezing and snowy weather makes us switch over to our studded snow tires. Regular “all season” tires just don’t work here.

Our current values from our Vantage-Pro weather station:

Current temp: -8 degrees Fahrenheit

Barometer: 30.31 and slowly rising

Humidity: 70%

Winds: Calm

Skies: Clear

Low temperature since midnight: -12.8 degrees F. at 7:45 am