Wow, all of a sudden we have precip! Also, first fire.

All summer it rained one time with any real enthusiasm. This sudden spell of weather has hung on for more than 24 hours. It couldn’t really have snowed all night or we’d have more of a blanket – there’s not even an inch of snow on the ground – but it was snowing at twilight and it’s snowing now.

It got surprisingly cold yesterday, but the heavy clouds kept it from getting any colder overnight…

So it wasn’t particularly cold indoors either. That’s the good news. After months of unbroken blue sky I was not in the habit of obsessing over battery voltage, but…

That’s the lowest opening figure I’ve seen on the readout in probably a year. The sun didn’t cast even a wan shadow once yesterday. Shows me the batteries are still nice and healthy, though. As they should be, being only a little over a year old.

And as I look out the window just now the snow is really coming down so I’m not convinced I’ll see any shadows today either. Guess I should look at a forecast or something – the weather’s been so unchanging so long I’m clean out of the habit.

Good news is I have no chores today. I lit the first fire of the season…

Made myself a nice traditional breakfast instead of the usual Spammo Classico, and I plan to just stay in where it’s warm and dry with probably just a brief expedition or three to clean off the solar panels.

Oh! My last bit of untested winter infrastructure gave me good news this morning…

This heat-powered fan was a reader gift from years ago – I can’t quite recall if this is its third or fourth winter – and with small electronic gadgets you never really know if they’ll survive long periods without use. But I dusted it off and set it on the woodstove, and minutes later it was spinning cheerfully away. These little things make a surprising difference in how well a room warms up, and evidence suggests that the Chinese ones work as well – or at least as reliably – as the more expensive Canadian originals.