Winter....North Coast Style

It's raining, nearly every day. Sometimes it's windy, and sometimes, just sometimes, there will be a clap of thunder in the distance. The last big storm that came through produced 68 mph wind gusts at the airport. We bought a small, one-burner propane stove and a bunch of long-burning candles, just in case. This house is all electric, so if a wire goes down, we are not only in the dark, but also unable to heat any food. Someday when we get our own place a wood stove will be near the top of the list.

Many people use pellet stoves and wood stoves here. This house has a heat pump. Of course heat pumps and pellet stoves are both dead in the water in a power outage. At least here, no one needs to worry about freezing to death. It's very rare for the nighttime temps to drop below 40. I heard there can be frost for about one week in January. This is a Maritime climate, which is heavily influenced by the Pacific Ocean. Summers are not too hot and winters are not too cool. Deciduous trees are slow turn and drop their leaves. Most of the trees are pines and Redwoods, so there is a definite lack of fall color.  Everyone tells me I can see lots of fall colors and snow several miles inland.

Front yard and drive...just rain

We are 9b.