It may not look that cold, but when I took this photo at 8:30 this morning of Widget's House it was 15 degrees below zero (-26 C) and the wind was blowing 12 miles per hour (19 kph). When you're sub-zero, that kind of wind is just a killer. I had just let the dogs out for a few minutes while I re-started the wood stove, then put the dogs back up. You can see the smoke is coming straight out sideways from the chimney because of the wind.
We usually run an electric heater in Widget's House and heat our own house with a wood stove, but when it gets this cold, it's time to fire up the wood stove in Widget's House, too. I had it going all last night, and even though the fire was out by this morning, the building was still nice and toasty inside. Wood stoves put out a wonderful residual heat that soaks into the walls.
So in two-wood stove weather, I spend a lot of time splitting wood and keeping both fires going.
The biggest challenge in this extreme weather is just convincing the dogs they need to go outside … and then keeping them outside long enough to do their business! They'd rather run right back inside the house, and then of course a short while later … "oops, I had to go!"
The horses are blanketed and in stalls, and we feed them as much hay as they can eat to keep them warm.
While it's not unusual at all for us to be subzero, it is unusual to have this kind of wind — and it's been blowing nonstop since Saturday morning. And we have a long way to go — here's the National Weather Service forecast for our location:
Tonight: A 20 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a
steady temperature around -17. Wind chill values as low as -45. East
southeast wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Monday: Mostly
cloudy and cold, with a high near -10. Wind chill values as low as -43.
East southeast wind between 18 and 21 mph, with gusts as high as 31
mph.
Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around
-23. Wind chill values as low as -44. East wind 8 to 17 mph becoming
south southwest. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.
Time for Alayne and me to head outside for afternoon chores — it's minus 9 and the wind is blowing 11 mph. Oh, well! We move very, very fast when it's like this!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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