I lived in northern Saskatchewan once upon a time, almost to the Canadian Shield, so I can’t say I have never experienced cold this cold before. But there is a lot of difference between the bone dry arctic cold of North Central Canada and the damp-laden cold of the coast. This is the kind of cold that goes right through a person and settles in the bones.

This is the kind of cold that puts frost on your INSIDE doorknobs, and heaven help you if your hand or glove is wet when you grasp said knob. When you open the door, steam billows into the room. A very few minutes outside and fingertips, toes and whatever scant inches of face are exposed get painfully cold.

I don’t like it.

At all.

I am very grateful, however, to be in a house with hot running water, R28 insulation and a woodstove that is quite capable of cranking out the heat. It is killingly cold outside, but we are warm and comfortable and well fed inside.

All the animals are packed in their various huts with liberal amounts of straw to bury themselves in and wait out the weather. The dogs go out long enough to pee an ice cube and then they come back in by the fire, too.

I can’t say I wouldnt rather be in Mexico right now, but if one has to suffer siberian air patterns, this is the way to do it.