Baby, it's cold outside!

During the first couple months of housesitting this season, I had comments made to me from time to time about the warmer-than-usual weather we were enjoying. Most were to the effect of, “Well, you could have spent the winter in your RV in this weather!” to which I would reply, “But in Alberta you never know.”

I credit the commenters for their optimism, but the current cold snap has abruptly reminded us of why we store our home on wheels, even though it is “winterized”, and spend the winter months in a traditional house. It is not about the space, it is the weather.

It would not be impossible to stay in our RV through the entire year. Others do it. But when we compare the potential catastrophe factor and the unpredictable costs, housesitting wins. Here we can budget known utility expenses and have a garage to shelter our vehicle. We save the expense of insulated trailer skirting, metered electricity, campground fees, and unknown quantities of propane dependent on the weather. There are no hoses to insulate, no pipes to burst.

Perhaps in retirement years we will travel to a warmer climate, but while working in Central Alberta we will continue to do the shuffle. It doesn’t take a great deal of time to pull up to the curb and move a few clothes and groceries. It also gives opportunity to use larger appliances, like a standard refrigerator and a stove with oven capacity for more than six buns or a dozen muffins at a time.

And there is nothing that makes the decision look wiser than peering at a sheltered thermometer registering -36C. Baby, it’s cold outside!