The cold of the new year has certainly settled in.

And given our forecast over the next 10 days, it would seem those negative single digits are going to be with us for quite some time.

In other words, it’s winter in the Northeast Kingdom.

That picture was taken at about 1:45pm today and, as you can see, the sun is already pretty low in the sky. (I mean, the winter solstice was just 2 weeks ago today…so that makes sense.)

The sun doesn’t come up until around 6:30, and it sets behind that hill by 4:30, so if you’re at all interested in seeing sunlight you’ve got about a 10-hour window to make that heliolithic magic happen.

It’s a great time to stay in the house, binge watch some tv, play a few games, all with the woodstove going.

That said, I’m quite certain my heating bill for the next month is going to be absolutely staggering. I won’t get too far into the financial weeds of it, but prior to having our new boiler installed it ran us over $2,100 to heat the house (+ our water) for the first quarter of 2023.
After the new boiler it cost us $1,500 which, I mean, is still a lot…

But I think about how much it cost me to run the A/C in our house in Houston just to keep things moderately tolerable from May through October and, yeah, I’m still coming out ahead.

The other effect this kind of cold has is that it makes spring that much sweeter when it finally arrives. Leaves sprouting on the trees bring promise of respite from the cold days and nights of winter, rather than being pollen-coated harbingers of relentless, will-consuming heat that will drench every pore until Thanksgiving.

But…we’ve got a ways to go.

See you tomorrow.

j.s.