wintry matters

2023 went out like a lamb up here. From the winter solstice to new year’s eve, the farm got about 175 mm (@7 inches) of rain, half of that on Christmas Day. During that span we averaged 8 degrees C. (about 45 degrees F.) daily highs and 4 C./40 F. lows. It stayed rainy and warmish until January11th, when it dropped below freezing and hasn’t relented yet. The rain turned to snow and we have at least ten inches on the ground as it continues to pile up. It’s supposed to turn to rain through the night as a warm front, presumably the Pineapple Express, moves through.

The cold snap did have one advantage. It tested our new lithium ferrous phosphate batteries. We had switched to them from lead acid batts recently when we upgraded our off grid energy system. The LFP batts don’t off-gas or require maintenance like the old ones did, but they don’t handle cold weather well. They supposedly reduce efficiency from -15 degrees C. on down. So we put R-22 insulation in a box around them in a small room we also R-22ed. It got down to -13 C./10 F on our coldest nights, but the batts in a box never went below freezing.

Jude and I just returned from parking the car and the truck near Granite Bay Road, the main artery of our community, and walking home as the dogs frolicked in the snow. If we do get the rain predicted for tonight, our driveway will be impassable by morning. The big flakes were still falling steadily. The fir trees looked like elegant gowned figures in the dusk. It felt like a genuine country Christmas night, a feeling that I could not muster up during the recent Yuletide.