Cold Weather Advice

The MOST important advice is to take pets INDOORS.
Livestock must have shelter and water free fro freezing.

In my state it is a FELONY to leave out dogs for more than 30 min if the temperature is 32 degrees or below.

stay inside as much as possible

D - The cold temperatures outside can cause ice to form on windows, and then thaw during the day. Check your window sills in the morning, to see if they need a quick drying with a rag.

Idling in winter thus has no benefit to your (presumably modern) car. Auto experts today say that you should warm up the car no more than 30 seconds before you start driving in winter. "The engine will warm up faster being driven," the EPA and DOE explain. Indeed, it is better to turn your engine off and start it again than to leave it idling. (As many readers pointed out after this post was first published, it's always important to be careful driving in winter, and clear your windshield of any ice.)

So idling does nothing for your vehicle, but it does have several big (and avoidable) costs: Wasting fuel, and giving off greenhouse gas emissions and other types of pollution.

If you have a toilet against an exterior wall, the line feeding it can freeze in extreme cold even if you keep the faucet trickling. To prevent that, you can either keep the heat at no less than 70F constantly or you can keep a trickle of water running into the toilet. (See: http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2006-01-21/news/26942198_1_burst-water-pipe-heat-tape-faucets)

I use a trickle charger on my car battery whenever the temperature falls below 20F.

I'm hanging on for the heat wave we're supposed to get this coming Sunday: 26 degrees! That's above zero. Last weekend it was -25 when we woke up Sunday morning. We've had below zero temps every day since Christmas Eve, so 26 above is going to feel almost spring-like.

I'm at the other extreme in the land down under. We're preparing for 41 degrees Celsius, about 106 in Fahrenheit I think, in the next couple of days. I'll be dreaming of snow.

Hope it's not too late to mention anti-freeze for the radiator. I get lazy and don't bother to check, but it rarely gets below freezing where I live. But I did buy a jug recently and added to the reservoir.