How cold is it?

This morning over half of the country woke up to temperatures in the nose freezing, finger numbing below -20C range. What was even more surprising here was that we also awoke to no power. After returning from a chilly walk with Logan it was obvious that this wasn't going to be typical cold weather morning. The house was very very quiet, very dark, and slowly getting cooler.

At times like this you begin to think about things like pipes and water - no power to run the furnace or the pump. Woodstoves are certainly a godsend, but what about the basics like keeping the basement pipes from turning to icicles? Luckily the power is now back and the furnace is humming away again, but for those people who have suffered through days or even weeks of conditions like this, or looking back historically at the settlers who did not have the option of electricity I can only say one thing - that's some tough folks.