Well… Fall was a nice day. We’ve apparently jumped right into Winter now 
I kid, but yikes! It never got above the mid 50’s today and just a mere 90 minutes North, in Blue Mountain Lake it was 48° and it snowed 
It didn’t last long - thankfully 
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It was a beautiful fall day here too, except for one thing. Had to take the boat out of the lake. 
Always a sad day. Darn near froze my ears off taking it over to the loading ramp too. I looked at the hoodie on my way out the door but it was 58° and sunny - still t-shirt weather, until the arctic blast whipped up over the lake. There were whitecaps out there! LOL. Funnest ride all summer.
Was gonna go out yesterday after work, but we got some backspin from that hurricane and while it was sunny and nice, there was a steady wind with some 40mph gusts. That’d blow my little boat sideways.
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Weather hasn’t been the nicest here the last few days, just got through Hurricane Fiona, Finally have power back. But no real damage to the house and only a few broken tree branches. Much luckier then some on the cost on NS, PEI and NFLD, very devastating there.
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I was just reading about the damage I had no idea it hit you guys so badly. I’m glad everything is ok for you now. I heard that it took down the Teacup Rock in PEI
I’ve never thought of the Canadian maritime provinces as likely locations for anything but the stormy leftovers of hurricanes, but I guess it happens every so often. I’m glad you escaped the worst of it. Looks like Florida will be walloped with a big one later this week.
We get hit by hurricanes fairly often during hurricane season, but they are usually just mild tropical storms by the time they get up here, but every so often we get hit by a bad one, usually not as bad as this one, so the damage is pretty severe this time round, still lots without power and some a lot worse.
How cold does it have to get in your abode before you turn the furnace on?
The temperature isn’t the deciding point in our house. Instead, it’s who prevails in the argument.
Mrs. Just_B would feel hot wearing a t-shirt and shorts in the Arctic wilderness during a winter ice blizzard.
On the other hand, I’m tempted to reach for my parka before opening the refrigerator.
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We try to make it to Halloween at least before turning the heat above 60 in the main part of the house, and the cellar above 55. My sister works from home so her part of the house is on a separate zone and already is set at 70 when she’s in there, LOL! My office is in the cellar where its a pretty steady 58-60 year round.
After the first frost though it could be a battle. I’d keep it 60 year round but once the cold snaps are in, we have to turn everything up “for the kitties.” Ya. Kitties have fur coats. But…pick your battles, I guess.
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I try to wait until it gets really cold before turning on the heat. That’s what sweaters and pants are for, lol.
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I hope you test-run the furnace/AC before the seasons seriously change. Nothing spoils the party more than finding out the system’s not working when you need it immediately, desperately.
Always, I have a mini split and baseboard heaters. always cleaning the darn things before turning them on for the winter, otherwise they burn stuff and smell horrible. But yes, if you don’t check before hand, could be in for a not so nice surprise.
We don’t have a choice. The landlord turns it on in Mid October and off at the end of April. For me, it’s too warm about 80% of the time. We open and close windows to adjust
Ahh… apartment life 
We are usually nesh about this, but this year we have to get really cold before the heating goes on - yesterday it got down to 45f so that was the second time since March lol. 
Our outside temps were mid 40s over night. It got down to 68 in the house, so there’s a little chill in the air.
Growing up, the house had electric heat. It was the wave of the future back then when my dad built the house.
You know what we didn’t have? A lot of heat. Cuz it was darn expensive even back then. So I guess I’m used to it. We had a wood stove going all winter too, but only the main rooms. The bedrooms, cold.
I currently have oil heat and a fireplace liner-style wood stove because you never know…
Just last week we got notice that electric rates here in MA are gonna spike come November to almost double what they are right now. I’m glad I got cordwood when the heating oil price went up mid summer. The price per cord just doubled here overnight. 
I’m certainly glad I don’t have an expensive electric car to charge.
In the summer, I get a wood harvesting permit from the Forest Service to cut down a few dead fir or spruce trees myself to get two or three cords of fireplace wood. Cutting down dead trees and splitting logs is surprisingly enjoyable.
Both houses have wood-burning fireplace inserts. Unfortunately, we can no longer use the fireplace here in Salt Lake because they’re now illegal to use. Because the Salt Lake Valley is trapped between two mountain ranges, the stagnant winter air causes a terrible air pollution problem. Prohibiting the burning of wood is part of the mitigation efforts.
Fir and spruce? Evergreen burns too hot and too fast for my taste. And it gums up the flue faster. It is easier to cut, and far far easier to split than hardwood.
I try to find guys doing local land management that either cut standing deadwood or are thinning out a stand to make it better for the trees left standing. One time though, I was driving out in the country and a guy was clear cutting a stand. I asked if he sold cordwood. He said “Nope, going to the mill to make stove pellets.”
Not only that, about 6 months later they planted 4 acres of solar panels on that land. It’s all fenced in with pea-stone over landscape cloth. That kinda makes me a bit jaded about any of that solar crap.
Yeah, but you live in Massachusetts where hardwood trees grow naturally in the forests. In the western U.S., the only hardwood trees big enough to use as firewood are those that people plant in their yards. The only trees worth cutting using a Forest Service permit are the big conifers and on occasion a little bit of quaking aspen (but that’s a type of poplar that burns faster and cooler than the evergreens).
When I was a kid, there was an old apple orchard on the farm that was past its prime and not needed any longer. The hardwood from that orchard helped heat the house for several years.
… and now I have a memory of that fresh pile of wet sawdust from my father slicing up the snow covered logs and then we would split them. It’s a good memory 
Wood heat was all I knew as a kid. We had no furnace. We had a huge Round Oak stove in the living room and a box stove in the dining room. Needless to say the upstairs was always cold. But, we had lots of blankets, afghans and quilts. I think it’s why I love a cold bedroom to this day 