Having a power failure is a novelty, but not in winter. Thank goodness you had a wood stove. There's something cozy about a wood stove on a winter's night though.

We had one day of warmer -9 weather, now it's back to the minus 20's with windchill. The thought that keeps me going is that some years, when we get nasty weather like this in December, January can be quite mild. Or maybe not. The nice thing is that I have a few garden catalogues to try and plan for next spring.

Glen

Yes, thank goodness for wood stoves! Got mine going right now sipping on hot chocolate.
Fed the birds and barn cats and staying in the house today. Too cold to go Christmas shopping ;)

Lloydminster - Wainwright - Vermilion - Provost
10:31 AM MST Saturday 13 December 2008
Wind chill warning for
Lloydminster - Wainwright - Vermilion - Provost continued

Extreme wind chills this morning and overnight.

This is a warning that extreme wind chill conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.

A cold air mass has settled into northern Alberta with temperatures near minus 30. These temperatures combined with northwesterly winds of 15 to 20 km h/r will continue to generate extreme wind chills near -44 this morning. Wind chill value may moderate to above -40 this afternoon. However extreme wind chill values will persist through the afternoon into the overnight period for the Lloydminster region and will redevelop over the Fort Chipewyan region tonight.

Stay warm!
Sharon

Here is a link that might be useful: Wainwright Weather

Just brought some more wood in for the stove. It's 6:30 and already -30 and still dropping.Tell me why do enjoy living in a country ( and I do ) where the trees are frozen sticks half the year and we are chilled to the bone? Must be a Canadian thing.Hope all you northern folks have a good nite with no power problems.

Hi all,

Well it's the same here in The Pas, MB too... it's already Minus 31 deg... and going down to Minus 34 tonight...the whole forecast is for much of the same with hi's of Minus 26 and lows of Minus 33 to 34...kind of glad the new furnace is working... lol... hating to see the hydro bill next month...one bright spot... one day with cloudcover, five days away with a slightly warmer trend...minus 20's and S*!@... pardon my French... lol... you know...the 'S' word... that we're not allowed to mention...

I'm thinking that whole lottery thing isn't working...gotta' get outta' here...I really love palms and that kinda' stuff.. lol...tropical sun... not northend of the planet sun in winter...

Wish I had a wood stove... though they say that does contribute to socalled 'Global Warming'... I think anyone who dares criticize should be forced to live in Northern Canada for a winter.. lol...

Keep warm...
Starting seeds right about now... happy holidays to everyone... :-)

Rob

Same here in NWOntario. It has been freakin' cold for a couple of weeks now and it's not forecast to get any milder for the next week.

Glen, i don't hold out any hope for a milder January, but i hope you're right!

And yes, thank goodness for wood stoves! Ours has been going full blast! For some reason, though, the heat doesn't reach this room very well and it's always chilly.

I won't start any sowing until after Christmas. Gotta get through that first!

I think the worst is over....for a while anyway.
With this weather, sometimes you get to see Sundogs.. have seen one yesterday.
Link below..

Stay WARM!

Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: Sundog

Great pictures Konrad. I saw some but they were very low on the horizon and not as spectacular.Guess I got up too early. Thanks for sharing.

We had icy rain a couple weekends ago and then one week later it was -30. I'm not sure which I hate the most. I believe somewhere around the -17 and the wind was howling was the worse. The prediction is more of the same cold temps for at least the next week. I keep telling myself while outside doing chores the fridged weather is preserving me and I am aging slower..hahaha...savona

Apparently today was another great sundog,.... going to be another very cold weekend.

Konrad

(My apologies to you folks to the east!)

And now the exact opposite! +15*C yesterday, today's forecast is +16*C, not cooling off until the end of next week. This is crazy. It's January in Canada for petes sake! Mother Nature has an effective way of dealing with snow removal.

I guess as long as there is adequate snow cover on the garden the warm temperatures won't be cause for concern, but what about the trees... and all the little animals?

Were not that high GC but I'll take +8°C today!

This is just awesome, I just hope it doesn't melt all our snow.

+11C in Edmonton today and tomorrow, following several days of warm weather (+9 yesterday), which followed a month of terrible cold (-37.2 was the coldest I recorded in my back yard). This warm in winter is great for me but not good for the evergreens -- they transpire but the ground is frozen so they can't get moisture from the ground. And it was a dry fall, so most trees don't have much moisture to spare. Hopefully the 3 days I spent watering everything in mid-late October will pay off...

Beegood
Thanks for the inspiring comment!

This should be familar to you, for others it will be news..
It was warm enough today and hopefully a couple more for honey bees making their first cleansing flight this winter, it has to be over 5C. [going to the bathroom]. Warm weather also helps break cluster in the hive, reorganize, clean house throwing out dead bees, work the honey etc.
..
{{gwi:434750}}

..
Poop spots in the snow..
{{gwi:434751}}

One hive had a large number of dead bees.
{{gwi:434752}}
..
Konrad

Konrad,
Great pictures! I kept bees here for 10 years or so and dropped the "hobby" as I was too busy to properly tend the hives. What variety of bees do you keep and what is your percentage loss over winter? What precautions or preparations do you make to overwinter your hives in zone 3? We just broke out of our cold spell here, too-- -40C/F for 3 weeks straight. How depressing! Now it is hovering around 0C/32F

Konrad, that's about the weirdest thing I've ever seen! I had NO IDEA they did that! Thanks so much for posting the pics and enlightening me (us)! Very cool!

That's quite the sight Konrad, I didn't know that.

Konrad, very interesting, I had no idea!

Thank you all!
Don, this is a nice hobby and I know what you're talking about taking care of things, 10 years is not bad at all, you must know a thing or two to have them this long!
I started about 4 years ago with two packages from New Zealand [Italian Bees]
Now I have a mix with Carniolan, 7 hives. If all survive I like to sell about 3 come spring.
I loose about 20 to 30 % so far.
You can read and see more pictures in link below..

Raw Honey from the first extraction last year..out
in the honey house.

Here is a link that might be useful: Show & tell your hive...

Great pictures! Did you get your Italians to overwinter? They were never tough enough to make it through the long winters here.

Thanks...Yes, I find they are best when it comes to honey production,.....hard worker!

Konrad