by Amy Jo Browne

Created on: April 10, 2009

This morning is it a bitter cold 6 degree above zero and I really hated to crawl out of bed this morning where it was warm. However, work cannot wait even with Jack Frost nipping at my nose, toes and creepy into my bones. Staying warm on chilly days when there is no wood stove or fireplace in the home is essential, and I rely on my baseboard natural gas heat.

With natural gas prices rising out of control this winter season along with everything else, it is essential that I figure out ways to keep my prices down on that. Here are my suggestions for keeping warm; perhaps the might help you along with your family.

1.) I keep a blanket on the back of the chair I sit to write as I do my daily work. When it is chilly I toss the blanket across my legs, and it does help to enable me to work in comfort.

2.) Slippers keep my toes nice and warm. Today I have on a pair that my son Alex gave me for Christmas; he knows that my poor circulation leaves my toes cold and I need to try to keep them warm. Warm fuzzy slippers always help on chilly winter days.

3.) I have a long round pillow that fits the length of my cellar door which blocks out the cold rising from the depths below. You would be amazed at how much cold emerges from the cellar even though no windows are open down there.

4.) Long before the snow and bitter cold came to this part of Northeaster Pennsylvania, I covered most of the windows with plastic to combat the air leaks. My house just turned fifteen years old but I still get quite a bit of cold coming inside even though the windows are locked so that they are airtight.

5.) I also bake at least once a day in the winter months, sometimes it is just turning the often on to keep pancakes warm as I cook the rest but it does come on daily. Yesterday I baked chicken; today I will de-bone it, and make chicken biscuits and gravy, which will mean the oven comes back on for the homemade biscuits.

6.) I use an electric heater to sometimes take the chill out of the room, especially if my grandchildren will be visiting. Most of the time we are in the living room area as it is the main part of the house and the front door faces west, so there is a lot of bitter cold that comes in. Weather stripping around the door helps when it is closed, but during the day it is used several times, so the space heater comes in handy.

7.) I limit the trips out the front door, as much as I can. I hate to feel that blast of cold enter. Luckily, my own kids hate the cold as I do, so they do not use the door excessively. On bitter cold nights, I will hang a cover on the inside after we are all in for the night; this covers the entire area around the door to block out any cold that might find its way inside.

8.) The back door, which leads to the driveway, is blocked off entirely with two layers of plastic sheeting and weather stripping. This door does not seal too well, and cold escapes from the outside so my youngest and I hung the plastic so it overhangs the door casing by an inch on the three sides, and goes to the floor. It is secured by masking tape so it is easy to remove in the case of emergency but as a rule, it is not used during the winter. To combat the grandkids from removing the tape, we put a large shoebox over the bottom of the plastic; this prevents the little ones from getting to the plastic.

9.) My parents always had hot soup cooking on the wood stove and since I do not have a wood stove, I had to improvise. Hot soup is always a great way to warm up hands as well as bellies in the winter. On bitter cold days, you will always find something warm to eat here.

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