Minus three and improving

In the country, when the old geezers gathered around the pot-bellied stove in the general store during the winter, the first question they'd pose for discussion was this: How cold was it at your place? Alas, the general stores are gone, and the geezers, most of whom worked on farms so the winter was more or less their time off, are more or less gone as well. But, while I'm not a farmer, I certainly qualify for geezer-hood, and I have two wood stoves, so I guess it falls to me to keep up the rural tradition. Of course, there's no gathering place, so I'll have to answer that question by talking to myself. How cold was it? Well, it was a two stove night on the ridge last night, and for the main stove, it was a two-stoker night, which means I got up around four to cram another load of wood into the basement heater. It was a good call. With the daybreak low at three below and a wind chill approaching something out of Antarctica, we needed every BTU of heat the stoves could generate. Happily, they did their job.