Anyone else turn off his or her furnace on this fine 12-degree day in Monroe County Michigan? You should have if you have large windows with southern exposure. I had the main heat in the house off for 3 hours. It helps offset the evening and night usage.
I’ve also posted before that I have a gas wall unit in back of the house that doesn’t use anywhere near the gas as my main furnace. But if anyone has an Eden Pure heater or similar that runs on pennies of electricity, it should work equally as well for the portion of the house that faces north—that is if you need much warmth there during the day at all.
People keep posting that because it is cold, it can be global warming. I’ve blogged more than once that portions of the earth, especially the northern hemisphere will more than likely freeze over, not fry. But also on days like this, in bitter cold we have to admit the power of the sun.
I take care of a semi feral cat. He’s a “wegie” or Norwegian Forest Cat, we’ve named “Wolfie.” He has every attribute of that breed He’s a definite, beautiful “wegie.” He likes winter because his fur is about 4-6 inches long. I can’t keep him because he is male, and I already have two male cats. They get in fights with him and vice versa. All my neighbors care for “Wolfie” too but have cats of their own also. Between my neighbor and me there are 4 males cats in residence already. Wolfie is a floater so far. But even he has limits to the cold whether he knows it or not. We stash him in our garage with a covered fleece lined bed and another fleece lined open bed, bowls, and litter box in weather like this.
When the sun came out today, I let him out and put one of his beds back out on the front porch in the sun. He didn’t bother getting in it and wandered off. I put my hand on his fleece pillow in the middle of the bed and the backside of the bin where it’s nestled and sure enough it was warm—on my front porch in 12-degree weather. It probably would have been too hot for him.
The sun is hot enough to heat up surfaces even in air temps this low. Same thing is happening in the Arctic, cold temps or not.
As for Wolfie, anyone that might want to adopt him, or a breeder that may want more genuine “wegies,” here are pics of Wolfie. He will come into a house that doesn’t have any other cats, but will always want to go outside. He wouldn’t be happy if he was permanently housebound. He uses his litter box when he can’t go out, but is otherwise housebroken. He’s a perfect cat for someone who lives in the country, and will keep him up to date on shots, because he is darn hardy and seldom wanders very far or gets in trouble. He was a kitten the fall of 2007, when a neighbor who has since moved, took him in. He is extremely healthy and hardy living under our deck most of last winter. All along, I haven’t seen him as much as sneeze. He is too nice of a cat to be living the semi-feral life.
