Snap

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Last night we had a cold snap. It went from +2 to -21 over night and this morning when we got up it was -12. A snap like that does wonderful things to the trees making it look like it has just snowed when none fell. Just ice crystals sparkling on all the trees and fields.

I've heard predictions that Western Canada will be having a less cold than usual winter. Looking forward to evaluating the truth of that prediction.

In the meantime I've made sure all the machinery that I want to run has working block heaters and can be plugged into trickle chargers to keep the batteries in tip top shape. When it gets to about -20 or so the cold batteries just don't have a lot of power to turn over an engine - especially if it has cold oil.

When it get's to -30 I will cover the equipment with a tarp and plug in a heater to give it a chance at starting. Mind you at that temperature I have a hard time getting me started! But it just doesn't last these days. Not like a few decades ago when it would hit -40 ( centigrade or Fahrenheit) for weeks on end. The old timers tell stories of placing propane torches in stove pipes to thaw out recalcitrant engines. Sometimes with disastrous results - usually because they didn't bother with the stove pipe to contain the flame from the tiger torches.

It's a beautiful sunny day. Hope it's a beautiful day where you are - whatever the weather.

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