Northeast Gardening: Beating the Winter Blues & Cabin Fever...# 2, 1 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
We do leave the cabinet doors open and water dripping, but the holes in the foundation absolutely mandate that we drain the kitchen/laundry area each time we come and go from Dec until March or they freeze no matter. But that does help for sure for minor cold snaps or while we are up here. Got down to about 5 last night. It is a simple procedure and keeps us from worrying. Our dear neighbor pops over whenever he thinks best. They use the house whenever they want for overflow, especially at Thanksgiving as we normally have t-day in Nantucket. Good exchange.

The other thing we must always remember to do is to close all the toilet lids or we sometimes come back to finding a dead mouse floating in the bowl. Not pretty. Mice have not been a big issue this year. Last year they were terrible. Not sure why. We keep all the stuff in the kitchen draws in plastic bags so that keeps them uninterested in those draws.

It is a 1790's house so no way to keep them out. If we final do the kitchen section which was add in the 1850's then that will help as that part is on a rubble foundation and totally leaky with no insulation. We fixed the old part up some years ago, so it is all good except it needs a new tin roof at some point. Love it up here in any season. Patti