How to deal with cold temperatures

How to deal with cold temperatures.  Radio and television stations tell us to remain inside when the temperatures dip.  Out of fear for our health, they say.  Yet, I have always wondered what answer an Alaskan would have.  So this morning I woke up to 14 degrees.  It was chilly in the house.  So I ate breakfast, put on my winter boots, warm coat, hooded sweatshirt, super gloves and went out side.

Now clothing is rated, if you did not know.  But if the coat is rated for 15 degrees, that rating is measured by someone's comfort WHILE WORKING.  Not to say that anything shady is going on, just saying.  So if the temp outside is 14 degrees, if one just sits on their astabula, the temperature is, in a way, somewhere around -4 degrees.  So in view of this, many fear the outside and of course in the end fear Nature.  I can not think of anything more contrary to logic than fearing Nature.  But that is what we are told to do and most acquiesce.

So back to 14 degrees.  House was chilly, so I put on my winter gear in defiance of the news media and dare to breathe in air dangerous and lethal. Early in the winter I had cut up a tree back by the barn.  I had always been afraid to take down this tree; it was close to the barn and the trunk gnarled as it rose.  It was difficult to see which way the bulk of the weight lay.  So in my wisdom, I did nothing but give it a glance on occasion.  Nature in all of her kindness knew exactly where to put pressure on this ash and brought her down.

Now I love Nature and respect her but she apparently tried to clear the barn but failed.  I can only assume that she was busy that night.  Almost 6 feet of barn for forty feet were crushed along the west side.  Not damaged but crushed. When such a thing happened a few years before. Nature really missed that time.  Nature landed a tree on my barn extension which houses the trains.  Insurance agent evaluated the damage and wrote a check.  I fixed it for a pittance and Sarah and I used the rest of the money for good purpose.  But this time, I had a few health problems and we had a check from insurance to pay a good friend to fix it up.  Of course he had the audacity to improve upon my work for which I am very grateful.

But seventy feet of ash is a whole bunch of firewood.  So I cut her up in the fall, split the wood and had hauled some of it to the house.  Back again to 14 degrees.  Remember it was chilly in the house.  Pulled out my large sled and hauled five loads to the house, perhaps five hundred feet.  By the time I had finished, I was hot.  I came inside, took off my winter gear and there was a nice cozy layer of sweat.  I was no longer cold, the house did not seem chilly and I had actually done something.  There was a Roman I have always liked, Martial.  In a poem he wrote he had trouble being impressed by those in the baths clanging weights about.  He said that trimming vines would be more beneficial.  I agree.