Dealing with the cold
 

Unlike some of the west coast guys and southerners, we are driven into basements and other heated spaces from un-heat-able garages and barns, etc. Our gray pud-tat still keeps the mice out of the garage , so I have his box triple insulated and at a window to catch sun-heat and take him fresh water and food 2X a day.

I just got done with a pair of RCA CTC16' color chassis, which I set up a jig for on a solid basement stone laundry sink. I have a 4-foot fluorescent light above it at the a wall, where the schematics hang for quick note-taking.

Heat is from a dryer 6 feet away and I do the laundry as an excuse to be down there:D . The dryer is a electric 1964 Montgomery Ward Signature that has a flip-down lint filter door along its bottom to divert damp warm air into the room instead of the 4" metal vent out the basement window. Its the basement so I could care less about lint blowing around too.

Unfortunately the older, fat indoor cat ignores mice incursions, so I have to set traps.:sigh:

Do not try this with a gas dryer because it needs to vent the products of combustion outdoors.

During the summer months the garage becomes a staging area for swap meets, a decontamination (mom's deathly afraid of getting roaches so every thing that ain't new stays in the garage overnight) zone for acquisitions, repository for tools for working on my car, and storage for various things the folks have...Every winter it gets cleared into the basement primarily so the cars can be parked.

Around 70% of the basement is mine. It tends to be cooler than the rest of the house, but the heat does work down there. The whole place is well lit so I can find things and work easily (my work bench is down there), got TVs, video games and audio gear so it is easy to relax.

Winter here tends to bring in the mice occasionally. It was much worse when there was still a farm field at the end of the block (it's housing now). Back when our cat was alive we did not need to worry about mice...They knew she was there and did not enter. One observation I've come upon from having multiple cats over the years is that mice will avoid a place with a cat till the cat is reaching it's final years...Once they sense the cat is no longer fit to pursue/catch them they are no longer scared off.

:thmbsp:great observation - 8 to 10 years is their "service life" for that benefit. I've noticed that over 45 years and a dozen cats but no more than 3 at any given time (also had 4 dogs in succession until 2001, but want another).

What's a basement? Here our water table is only a foot deep...

We run shallow wells - 10 feet to a lifetime of water....

My attached garage is heated, so my woodworking bench becomes a pressed into service electronics bench....

There was a piece on tonight's' news about old folks going without heat - running space heaters because they can't afford heating oil. One lady slept in a wet suit, with sweats on over the wet suit. Scary and sad.

Must be nice to live in a normal climate. My window A/C is on right now.

Living here I've done that this time of year too....When you run 2-3 tube TVs at once for 4-5 hours in a small closed room in an apartment, the people on the floor below like it HOT, the window is VERY hard to get to open, and you need it COLD to get to sleep you will know why...

Big hoo-ah on the TV about a big freeze up & heavy snow on it's way here in England, all we have here in Nottingham area today is light rain & 5 degrees Celsius, about normal for this time of year. Woke up on 2'nd of Jan to a very frozen car that had been left in a hotel car park at Stafford we were staying in since 29'th Dec, of course I couldn't find the de-icer spray grr grr. A Co-op shop was round the corner so bought some from there then found some under the front seat, I wasted a pound grr grr. Car is kept in a garage so not used to it freezing. My radios & TV's are kept in a heated spare bedroom..

Like other animals around here I hibernate. I hate winter.
This ones been easy so far, only abt 2 ft of snow & most
is melting away. Right now abt 50 F, time for the beach !
Will be back down below 0 F tomorrow nite.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Been to Florida, Mallorca & Canary Islands in middle of winter & loved the warmer weather, would love to move to one of them places but Wife & I have got pre-existing health conditions so Florida is out. Other 2 are part of Spain & visa & healthcare entitlement is up in the air with Brexit coming up..

It's been like that around here. It rained on Tuesday and the temp went to freezing, so the roads got icey, then turned to snow. Got to my workshop and the drive was icey glazed. Went to the hardware store for salt. It was raining and above freezing. Three hours later the temp dropped about ten degrees and my car was glazed over with ice. The ice wouldn't budge, it was so thick.
They claim, the windshield washer fluid doesn't work, when it gets old, as the alcohol evaporates from the engine heat. It didn't work very well. :sigh:

No basements here in AZ - I couldn't move consoles up and down anyway.
We will be getting a little taste of "winter" this weekend, highs in 50's (F), and rain.
South facing garage door is a dark color and not insulated. On most days, I can open the door from garage to house, set up the box fan, and blow free heat into the house. Of course, in summer, it's a real detriment.

Funny how that weather is same here 8-hours south, but no sun either :sigh: at least I did not need a coat today. We had 3 inches of snow last weekend but now its just rain.

Me & my big mouth (see # 7) it's been snowing over night & it's white over. Of course the country will come to a standstill, trains wont run, planes wont fly. Slightest bit of snow in England & the place go's to pot. We're totally useless when it snows as we don't get it very often. One year most of the snow plows & gritter/road salt spreader trucks wouldn't start & the mororways ground to a halt, lol..

Dont feel bad the same thing happens here and we are used to storms
that will drop 1-3 feet in a day ! Could be worse, could be up here.
https://www.mountwashington.org/expe...onditions.aspx

73 from the colonies
Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

When we have bad weather in England the government/prime minister always gets the blame, it's as though they can control the weather. We had massive thunderstorms & floods in summer: was govt's fault of course. Our road floods every time there's a storm, the storm drains have collapsed through mining subsidence, the local council say the water company should repair them, & the water company say the council should, so nothing gets done. Lucky for me my driveway rises from the road so flood water doesn't affect my house or garage just the bottom of driveway..