Thursday, 9:40 am: Another cold night, and tonight is supposed to be colder. Winter life in northern Maine is about bundling up, staying warm and still getting things done. Monday morning, Van Buren Maine was the coldest spot in the Lower 48 States. According to the NWS, the low temperature was -34° [F.], or -36.6° [C.] for readers who think metric. The Van Buren town line is about one mile from our house. What they get, we usually get. Our low was only -23.5° [F.]. But records are designed to be broken. Unfortunately my weather data is unofficial, but still accurate.

The repairman was just here to pick up our snowblower. If it has more than ten moving parts it’s beyond my mechanical capabilities. Now I have to find our low-tech snow scoop, which has no moving parts, just in case he can’t get it repaired very soon. Low-tech means lots of labor intensive work. Oh boy!

And it’s time to get motivated to bring in more firewood for today. Unlikely as it may seem, it is actually easy. Now if I can only convince myself it’s fun. Until then I’ll be nuking a left-over blueberry muffin in the microwave accompanied by a cup of espresso brewed the traditional way.

Current values from our wireless Davis Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: -5.4° [F.]

Barometer: 30.057 & steady

Humidity: 59%

Wind: NW at 1 mph light & variable

Visibility: > 3 miles

Skies: Generally clear with a few scattered clouds

Precipitation: light dusting of snow - none measurable

Since midnight:

Low temperature: -14.4° at 5:05 am

High wind: 11 mph at 12:06 am