Monday September 21 2015  AUTUMN IN THE AIR

This is the time of year that I feel sorry for people who do not live in Wisconsin or other states that have such a display of nature as we have.  There is something about the air that is different.  It begins in the evenings.  In Wisconsin during the summer, it can sometimes be warmer in the evenings than it is during the day time.  It seems like summer midday or afternoon should be the warmest part of the day.  Not so here.  As we approach fall that changes.  The evenings start turning cool and the nights drop down quite rapidly.  We have had beautiful sunny warm 70° to 75° days and the nights are now in the low 50°.  The frequent rains keep everything green and air clean and clear.  Flowers are still blooming and many do so until the first frost.  Frost have been as early as August and as late as the early to mid November.  Usually we begin expecting them in early October.  Wisconsin has 90 growing days for crops.  That is all that can be counted on.  A late frost in autumn is always hoped for.  What is worse is when you get a late frost in spring.  Most farmers do not plant to early but when we have early warm weather and the apple orchards start blooming a late frost can kill an entire crop.  And that is really sad because we have a great apple orchard just around the corner and down the road.  We stopped by on the way to the gym on Saturday morning to buy a bag of Honey Crisp apples at 9:00 a.m..  I like to buy seconds, the ones with a little spot or indent on them because they are so much more affordable.  We go through a bag of apples (probably about 10 pounds or more) every week during the apple picking season.  We eat them every day.   I cook with them, make soup out of them, or bake apple cranberry pies.  Just remember I didn’t say the f_ _d word.

Well, I said all of the above to tell you that the season is changing for us here.  Another six weeks or so and our life will be a lot different.  Windows will be closed, the air conditioners covered, millions of leaves will have been picked up or still falling from the trees, and the heat system might even need to be turned on.  We sleep with our bedroom window open and close the door to the rest of the house so it won’t lose its heat.  Actually, we do not heat the entire back wing of the house where the bedrooms and bathroom is.  We have three heat zones and only heat the main living quarters.  In the deepest and coldest part of winter when it gets down to minus 20° we must turn on all the heat zones for about an hour a day to keep water running through the pipes of the baseboard water heating system.  We have a boiler room with a huge boiler that has an electric starter but is powered by natural gas.  The boiler room is included in our laundry area which is right below the kitchen.  The kitchen floors are tile and the heat conducts up from the boiler room and heats our kitchen floors wonderfully.  We also have a large shop, about 20 feet by 40 feet or more attached to the end of our home and goes under the garage.  The pipes also go through the shop and keep the shop from freezing.  The shop has an extra wide door so a riding lawn mower or small tractor can fit through it.  We also have dual window panes that helps keeps the heat from escaping.  We had these windows installed about eight or nine years ago and it actually saved us about $100 to $125 dollars a month on heating costs.  

In the winter when we sleep in our bedroom, even when the windows are closed once it hits freezing temperature, we awaken in the morning and our windows are covered with a thick layer of ice on the INSIDE of glass panes.  That is how cold it will become.  With both Dave and I breathing in the enclosed space it creates condensation on the windows which then freezes solid.  As the day warms up a few degrees the frozen breath starts melting and I must go and wipe it out several times before it totally thaws.  We have an April Air Humidifier that comes on automatically and the rest of the upstairs window panes also freeze but not to the same extent. We have a lot of windows so I do a lot of wiping in the winter.  I hope I have painted a realistic picture of what it like to live through a Wisconsin winter.  And I haven’t even touched on Dave having to go out in the cold and clear our driveway with the snow thrower.  You ought to see what he wears when he goes out in the extreme cold.  But I won’t get into that now.  I’ll just take a picture later and blog it. 

So now you can see why we love autumn.  And we also love spring and summer.  I even love the few days of humidity we get.  It seems we had more this year but I loved every time I was out in it.  It makes my skin feel so moisturized and refreshed.  Winter does the opposite.  Everything dries out.  And when I say everything, I mean everything.  It was quite frightening the first time we lived through a winter and our house started making the loudest cracking sounds.  EXTREMELY LOUD, like lightening striking the attic.  The booms were so loud and frightening that we thought a tree had fallen on our roof.  The entire house shuddered.  And there would be several cracks in succession.  We heard the sound all over the neighborhood.  That was even scarier.  Well, once we found out about it we understood what was happening.  It only happens in the extreme cold, literally minus 20° to minus 26°.  I think minus 26° is the coldest I have experienced outside while here.  It has gone down lower but I wasn’t shopping at the mall at the time.  These temperatures do not include windchill.  Windchill will cause it to feel much colder. The temperature can plummet in just a few hours and you don’t want to be caught out in it.  I remember getting into the car (barely able to get my keys in the lock because my fingers were so numb even in my moon gloves) and once in the car it took 30 minutes for the motor to warm up enough to allow the oil to start moving through the car’s engine.  The car absolutely would not drive until the motor was warm enough.  Needless to say it wasn’t plugged in anywhere.  As a matter of fact the car we had didn’t even have a plug adapter.  When it is so cold the battery will often die and the car can’t even be started.  I watch the weather very closely before venturing out.  Last year when I was doing a winter photo session at about 7:00 a.m. on a minus 12° morning I came home and my fingers were almost frozen stiff.  It was awfully painful!  I think the cold is what makes Wisconsin such a wonderful place to live.  I learn to live indoors for the winter months and then I have the pleasure of living in a very unpopulated area of the country the rest of the year.  After my trip through the cities this past spring, it makes me so thankful for our low population state.  Believe me, you don’t want to move to Wisconsin.  I hope that sounds convincing because for several years we have been winning awards for the BEST PLACE TO LIVE AND RAISE A FAMILY.  

Well, now I will tell you that I said all the above so I could copy my poem into the blog that I wrote this morning during my quiet time.  I have gone past my bedtime now so I shall make it quick and then will say goodbye.  Enjoy all that warm weather you are having and be thankful you do not need to look forward to a Wisconsin winter.  But autumn is lovely.

AUTUMN PRAISE

By Kathleen Martens

September 21, 2015

Autumn knocks gently at the door

And summer relinquishes her hold.

A graceful transition does ensue,

Summer sun is no longer bold.

Tempered nights carefully adjust

The blankets upon our bed.

A quiet stillness falls on the fields

As harvest looms ahead.

A time of change and grateful praise

For the bounty of summer’s end.

And the fall in decadent color

Soon becomes our intimate friend.

Sweaters and scarves are soon adorned

To deter the wayward nights.

And the days grow ever shorter

As earlier we turn on the lights.

Work increases to beat the clock

Of preparing for winter’s cold,

For there is always much to do

For a season that lives to be old.

And never is one truly prepared

For the blasts of the arctic wind,

Which takes control of how we live

Until Mother nature, spring doth send.

Usually I write my poem about what I have written in my blog.  Well this evening I have written my blog about the topic in the poem.

Have a wonderful tomorrow.

Good night and God bless you.