At your elevation, ice water and boiling water calibration should work fairly well. I've been able to come within 3 F° of my NIST traceable digitals this way (746 ft. above MSL).

Kathy, you are one busy gal and I must express my admiration for what you have accomplished. I would love to have goats and chickens, but we can't in our current situation. That said, on to the window coverings:

I finally cleared the work area of cats and dogs and was able to make the prototype widow covering- still working out how to stream line the process to make quilts for 26 windows. Some panels are cut, but putting them together does cause disruption to normal household affairs because I need large work sufaces to cut etc.

I was fortunate to get several bolts of free fabric through Craig's list this past Spring. It came from a company that makes faux suede upholstery. They were going to toss the bad runs in the dumpster. I also got a few rolls of muslin. I really did not know what I was going to use this stuff for, but I'm a fabric hoarder.

This is what I'm doing: Three layers of the faux suede sandwiched between outer layers of muslin. I tried tying the layers like typical quilting, but they are too thick so instead I machine stitched vertical seams. This adds some stability to the finished product without compromising the loft too much.

The quilted window covering is about the same weight as the blankets used by moving companies. We will attach the quilts at the top of the window casing with a strip of wood screwed into the casing. On the sides and bottom it will be attached with hook and loop fasteners; self stick for the casing side and sew on for the fabric.

There are other ways to prevent heat loss through windows, but I thought this was the best for us and most economical.

- Charlotte

Granny-May,
Thanks for the kind words and your informative reply. I think I can figure it out now lol . My boxes and boxes of fabric I also got on the cheap. I found them at a flea market a couple years ago. Made a bunch of quilts out of them for Christmas presents that year (and didn't even make ONE for us ) I'll have to remedy that, even if it's only by making the window quilts. Quilting does take a lot of time... and that's one thing I am pretty short on these days .

I'm going to get working on those window quilts... sooner or later....

Kathy

Natural gas sure sucks to heat with, even when you've made some money on it in the market. Our house is 12o yrs old, big, drafty, and probably poorly insulated. I told my wife we could expect 3000 $ gas bill for the year. This past year our gas bill was 2200. (we have three teenagers who like long showers way too much, and who own too many clothes). We turned the heat on about two weeks ago. Our water is gas heated too.

Bah, where was that heat pump again??

Drew

I just fired up my new wood burner a few days ago, and shut off the NG furnace for the winter. The wood burner isn't as powerful as the NG furnace, but can be just as good, if not better, I think. I also bought a new NG water heater and gutted out the old one, in the hopes of using it as a pre-warming water tank.

Cold night here, ~ 36 degrees. Wood Stove feels great!!

We're getting a wood stove . A friend is giving us one. I wrote about it on the [Small Farm] Today I.... thread. Suffice it to say, it's cool, and I am excited about it.

Now in addition to those window quilts, I'll have to add wood stove installation to my to-do list ...
Kathy

A nice big woodstove in the basement with a self-installed stainless steel chimney liner for safety. We have a woodstove insert in the main floor fireplace that also has stainless chimney liner.

Fired it up yesterday for the first time this season.

The house is well insulated so we only burn about 7 hours a day and then bank the coals for long slow warmth. Passive solar provides the rest.

We're going to last all winter without turning on the heater... not even once. Yeah, I know we live in a temperate climate, but this is a small part we can contribute. Most people around here set it at 72 and leave it there paying several hundred monthly during the next four or five months.

But not us. EB

This winter's fuel and a good start on next winter's.

What's NG ??? ( ahahahahaaa )

I have not turned mine on yet, but snow is predicted for later this week so I may not be able to say that much longer. The lowest daytime indoor temp I've measured so far is 57, though 64 is more the norm. I know everyone's big on using CF lighting to save energy, but I've found that a good incandescent lightbulb right over your head can keep you a degree or two warmer for only a little more electricity.

TUrned the gas on 2 times for at most an hour and had the electric 600watter on for maybe a total of 20hrs so far. Will be moving soon, and will be looking into wood burning, depending on the cost.

well just got my first NG bill and despite that the average temp for October was a little bit warmer than Last year at this time, my NG used is almost 3X as much (and this is with having a programmable thermostat for this year's bill and not for last year's.)

The difference being, I think we've only had about 5 days of sunshine for the whole month of october (and not many for November either).

Something to consider when they talk about "Warmer than expected weather" in the Norhteast. Its not just the temperature that we should look at.

I pity you Brits, I thought properly insulated homes was all you needed to avoid your NG problems. But after experiencing a month of weather similar to yours, I see now you're screwed despite your mild temperatures (although some insulation wouldn't hurt)

Well the thermometer on the porch says 28 but I bet the wind chill is around 20 this morning. We had overnight lows last week in the high 50’s so doing chores this morning was somewhat bracing, to say the least.

I guess I’m going to break down and fill the propane tank, the wholesale price bumped off $.95 a couple days ago and with the cold snap I guess that’s about as good as it’s gonna get. For you Hank Hill fans here is a chart:
barchart.com daily propane

You girls that found the cheap fabric are really lucky. My wife sews and does upholstery and gripes all the time about fabric prices and selection – she bought Roman shades from Penney’s and lined them with store-bought blankets (those real fuzzy light ones) for less than she said she could buy the fabric alone, let alone the fancy hardware.

BTW, we haven’t fired the furnace up yet…

Pops..i've been looking into shades too! I was going to buy some of the cell type ones (double or triple) but the prices made me not feel good! I would love to make some homemade ones (that look good) but am unsure if the fabric store is well stocked (last i knew they had a huge backorder on the fabric needed)...

Heat came on yesterday for the whole day, but was set very low...25F and VERY windy right now. Couple of inches of snow on the ground. Tonite looks like its going into the single digits.

Its moving day here...moving starts @ 3PM... Going to need long undies, hat and gloves!