Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
About all we do is drain the garden hose and hang it up.
Everything else is pretty much done. In Wyoming, Winter can hit 365 days a year so we pretty much stay prepared instead of trying to scramble getting ready.
well this is my first winter ever so I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants, I dont own any winter clothing so I'm about to clean house at LLBean. We're gonna get out car inspected make sure everything is in working order for the season.. I read on here about the "rust repellant" stuff or whatever it is.. Do you find that very beneficial at all? Do you think its necessary? I also read somewhere else about heaters for your engine, umm I can't remember what kind, block heaters or something.. What are the opinions of those?
As for my dog Charlie Brown, well evidently he didn't think it was that funny for us to move him from South West Florida to New Hampshire and he has finished making his preps for the winter. And he's not budging till AT LEAST late spring, or talking to mommy and daddy for that long either, poor puppy.
well this is my first winter ever so I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants,
I dont own any winter clothing so I'm about to clean house at LLBean.
We're gonna get out car inspected make sure everything is in working order for the season.. I read on here about the "rust repellant" stuff or whatever it is.. Do you find that very beneficial at all? Do you think its necessary? I also read somewhere else about heaters for your engine, umm I can't remember what kind, block heaters or something.. What are the opinions of those?
REALLY?
So now I understand why you talked about "relief from 'never-ending heat' ". I guess I'd assumed you've already lived in NH for a few years from the way you described loving their winters.
Tips for winter clothing:
- Gloves or mitts that are snug/tight are actually a little colder than ones that are a little loose; because any tightness can restrict blood flow. Also looser fitting gloves or mitts allow heat from warmer parts of your hand with cooler parts of your hands, if there are any.
- Buy a wide scarf that you can still breathe through, wide enough to cover you from the bridge of your noes down while still covering the top of your winter coat collar. It will be most usefull and convienient should you need to spend an extended period of time in extreme cold.
- Buy some kind of winter boot or snow boot if you plan to spend much time walking through snow. Many people don't but accept the fact that they will get wet and really cold shoes, ankles, lower etc. If you want to be walking through creeks or even slushy roads, buy boots that are very water repellant, perhaps ones with the bottom half totally rubberized.
For your doggy:
- Buy a snowsuit that fits well. We have one from when she was a puppy and now it's a little tight. She doesn't like it and doesn't notice the cold much until it's below 5 F, so we put her coat on when it dips well below 0 F, or if a lot of wet snow is falling down.
For your car:
There is night-and-day difference with getting your vehicle annually sprayed with a rust-protective coating. Up here cars typically only stay "new looking" the first 6-8 years before they get rust spots. I've seen vehicles with no noticeable rust that were 12 plus years with no noticeable rust spots.
Regular cars usually start looking ugly after 10 years and hideous after 15 of being driven year-round.
That being said if you have no interest in keeping a vehicle that's over 10 years old, you can ignore rust checking, just buying another vehicle when your's gets ugly.
Block heaters:
They are unnessary above -20 F if you have a good battery and proper weight oil. If you have Florida oil and a Florida battery, change it! You need a battery with a lot more "Cold Cranking Amps" and you need an oil that has a thin winter "W" rating. (check your owners manual) For example, our car can take "10 W 30" in places like D.C. and southwards but north of there they recommend "5 W 30." "5 W" is half the thickness of the "10 W" in extreme cold, yet it's warm weather thickess is the same; "30."
However I recently discovered that block heaters electrically heat your coolant, so not only does your engine warm up but it allows you to have warm or even hot cabin heat much sooner.
(I've got to try that sometime)
Oh, you have to make sure your coolant mix can handle at least -20 F for winter.
Another random winter car tip:
Stock up on large jugs of winshield washer fluid. Driving fast (50mph plus) on wet salty roads will leave you windshield in a sloppy glaze of salt which you will frequently want to clear.
Last edited by ColdCanadian; 10-01-2007 at 09:36 AM..
REALLY?
So now I understand why you talked about "relief from 'never-ending heat' ". I guess I'd assumed you've already lived in NH for a few years from the way you described loving their winters.
[."
Well the thing is I've visted quite a few times for winter.... never got to see the snow though in January and Feb no less. I was up for 3 weeks at a time so I get the jist,, I know it gets very cold I've done 2 ice storms, and the scraping of the windshields etc. I think a couple days it didn't get above 9 degrees without wind chill. My husband grew up in Northern Maine so he's done many a many years of the winter, he's explained to me whats gonna happen.. LOL I feel like I've been doing them already!!
wow hey thanks for the info on the oils and stuff, I had no idea about that stuff. We've got a good mechanic up here and around the end of Oct-ish we're gonna go get all our winter prep for the car.. We just bought brand new all season tires for the car in March so that should be pretty good, we'll check the treads and stuff , let the fun begin
As for my dog Charlie Brown, well evidently he didn't think it was that funny for us to move him from South West Florida to New Hampshire and he has finished making his preps for the winter. And he's not budging till AT LEAST late spring, or talking to mommy and daddy for that long either, poor puppy.
My dog loves mild, warm and hot weather. Also loves to stay dry.
(fur is like a mop; everything sticks to her)
She'll go lie in the 95 F sun for up to 20 minutes sometimes.
I saw a lot of bichons in parts of South Florida.
Sometimes my dog does not want to go outside when it's below freezing, but that's attitude more than anything; I've seen her fall asleep on our dry wood deck at 5 degrees F for 40 minutes. She's pretty temperature tolerant. You can see she starts feeling the cold when it's 0 F and a light gust picks up.
We let her coat grow all winter typically, starting in mid October.
We try to let her coat be about 2" long before winter sets in.
We call bichon hair-do's with the body trimmed to under 1 inch "Summer Do's".
In winter all we trim is the fur around her eyes and fur around her paws. Lots of fur around the paws are bad as they can hold snow and ice on your dog's feet. (and track in more snow and road salt once they return from a walk)
We just bought brand new all season tires for the car in March so that should be pretty good, we'll check the treads and stuff , let the fun begin
While new all-seasons are good, if you want to be doing a lot of winter driving you might want to buy snow tires too, and separate rims. They sell cheap steel rims for snow tires and they're popular because they let you easily switch from all-season to winter tires.
There is night-and-day difference between brand new all-seasons and snow tires.
One difference is that all seasons are meant to be able to last a long time when it's hot outside. They are sold in places like Phoenix.
The bad thing about that is that because they have to handle high heat the tires are made with a harder rubber compound. When it gets colder, your tires will be even harder. At 0 F, the rubber all-season tires are almost like plastic tires; the still work, with a slight but noticeable loss of grip, even on dry roads.
Snow tires remain soft below 0 F. This increases grip. My snow tires are softer at 0 F than our all-season tires are at 80 F. (I checked with my thumb, pushing the treads)
Snow tires also have a lot more "siping" which are slits made in the tread to get rid of water. As you drive on snow, the weight and pressure melts the snow and creates water, momentarily, then refreezes to make ice. That's exactly what happens when you pack snow into snowballs, only a lot more pressure is involved.
Having extra snow-tires extends the life of your all-seasons. We tried snow tires 4 years ago, put about 30,000 miles on them and they still have plenty of tread.
*If you don't need to drive much in the winter, snow tires might be unnecessary. If you do, but use all-seasons, you will probably get stuck at least once. But then you can consider it "initiation" to driving up North. Good snow tires on all-four corners are a recent phenomenon so you will discover the traditional experience of driving in winter.
** If you're buying winter tires, don't spend extra money to buy the "ice tires" as they don't work much better. They have bits of silica in the first 4/32's of tread. If you keep the tire a long time, after it wears 4/32's you now simply have an expensive snow tire.
My dog loves mild, warm and hot weather. Also loves to stay dry.
(fur is like a mop; everything sticks to her)
She'll go lie in the 95 F sun for up to 20 minutes sometimes.
I saw a lot of bichons in parts of South Florida.
Sometimes my dog does not want to go outside when it's below freezing, but that's attitude more than anything; I've seen her fall asleep on our dry wood deck at 5 degrees F for 40 minutes. She's pretty temperature tolerant. You can see she starts feeling the cold when it's 0 F and a light gust picks up.
We let her coat grow all winter typically, starting in mid October.
We try to let her coat be about 2" long before winter sets in.
We call bichon hair-do's with the body trimmed to under 1 inch "Summer Do's".
In winter all we trim is the fur around her eyes and fur around her paws. Lots of fur around the paws are bad as they can hold snow and ice on your dog's feet. (and track in more snow and road salt once they return from a walk)
Charlie is actually a toy poodle. I had a bishon many years ago actually almost everyone in my family did. They're delightful dogs, and easy to maintain ie don't shed.. The same goes for the poodle.. I'm terribly allergic to most animals but I've found the poodle and bishon are the exception. I have been letting his hair grow for abou the last month. He's a little puff ball.. He'll get used to the cold, and I have a sweater for him and I'll buy him a snow suit.. At least for the first year if anything. He's just a big baby (yah that'd be my doing) and he acts like an infant lol. Has to be held and talked to when he goes to sleep, he sleeps under the covers to say warm all night, follows me around every corner of the house and I even had the surprise of my life when he bound into a bath with me once.. So I've begun wrapping him in blankets to stay warm instead of me holding him or carrying him against me to stay warm, and the sweater helps too its cozy for him.. I have to undo my doing lol. I lost my other dog I had for 16 years a year go this week in a tragic accident with a babysitter while I was on vacation in NH.. she got loose and was hit on the highway, so when I got Charlie I think I went overboard with the protection and babying.. So now I pay lol!
He's like your bishon though he lays in the sunspots that shine in on the carpet and he would lay under the palm tree's all day ify ou let him in Florida..oh well poor puppy now he'll have to get used to taking sleigh rides instead...
Oh your poor puppy!!! That poor little guy will be in for a shock. BTW, he is a cutie. We love pets, but no longer have any canines~just felines now, but they're our babies so they are very responsive.
If you have a heated garage, you may be able to skip the engine heater. DH and I both have one on our vehicles. We don't plug them in too often, but we can get cold spells where the windchills will be 40 or 50 below and when you plug your car in, you've got a much better chance of it starting.
There's really nothing I have to add cause off all the good info you've been given. As long as you've got a good mechanic there, you should be all set. He'll be sure you have enough anti-freeze in your car for the temps in your area. Oh, and when it gets really cold, we add Heet to our gas tank when we fill it up. It's also better to have at least a half tank of gas during the winter.
Wow, I had no idea of the details that one must do in order to winterize things. I have come to the conclusion I love living here, where it cools off, but does not require such drastic measures for survival and ability to move around via vehicle.
What types of emergency kits do you keep in your cars? I figure that would cover food, medical, blankets, but what do YOU pack in your cars??
Wow, I had no idea of the details that one must do in order to winterize things.
What types of emergency kits do you keep in your cars? I figure that would cover food, medical, blankets, but what do YOU pack in your cars??
Yes, and by contrast all I have to do to prepare myself for "wretched" heat and humidity of summer in the southeastern U.S., say a typical day with heat index of 110 F is grab a drink and maybe put on some sunscreen.
Given that's all that I need to be comfy, I suppose it's easy to see why a heat index of 110 F is not a problem for me, since it's much less complicated to prepare for.
Some people pack food, I don't think we usually do.
I like to leave money in the dash's ashtray for food. (I live in an urban area)
Keeping at least one ice scraper in the car, a blanket and a cell phone is usually all I need.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
BTW, he is a cutie. We love pets, but no longer have any canines~just felines now, but they're our babies so they are very responsive.
