Snow and Ice

[Uplander]

Sitting here in the frozen north country looking out at my travel trailer....covered in snow from our last 3 day snow event...it has warmed up for the past few days to temps in the 40s but the melting process is very slow...still have another 3 or 4 months of snow yet to come....piles of firewood still block the travel trailer in addition to the snow....it must be stacked to clear an escape route for the trailer.
Spring can't come soon enough!......Thinking I might have to reconsider my retirement location. I love this spot on the Vermont/New York boarder...lots of acres of privacy and fantastic views of the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York.....but.....once the near perfect spring, summer and fall weather gives way to the big freeze and snow, snow, snow I start to think a location in the south might be better for these tired old bones!

Any suggestions as to locations ??? I cannot tolerate high heat and humidity so that eliminates a lot of southern states....a breezy island in the Carribean seemed like a good idea but when on vacation in the US Virgin Islands for a week I got bored with the limited possibilities of Island Living.....swim..drink...snorkel....drink...lay in the sun....drink...swim...drink...etc...etc...

Somehow the idea of full time RV living seems a little difficult to wrap my mind around....always lived in big houses with lots of "stuff".... Squeezing my life style into a RV seems like an impossibility, even a monster 5th wheel!

So now we wait for spring and the start of a new camping season.

[Jack L]

Limited possibilities for drinking ??? There's so many varieties of beer and wine I would be busy with just beer for several years. Then I would move to wine which would also keep me busy for years. Various whiskeys and whiskey based cocktails and then there's gin, vodka, rum..... The list goes on and on. Use your imagination.

Seriously, I'm thinking 2 separate places might be best for me. Arizona is beautiful in the winter months and a hot weather summer trip to a higher elevation in Utah would work for me.

The perfect set up for me would be Alaska in the summer and Arizona in the winter.

So many choices. Good luck and Merry Christmas

[Carl Pa]

You are thinking what i am thinking. May just head to the southern states in early march. It should not be to hot or crowded. NC, SC, AL, FL. For a few weeks. That should cut the bite of winter off. Carl

[jennykatz]

Patrick you could just get out of Vermont from Nov. -Feb that would get you out of the very cold and go back when weather turns, early March .Florida in the Winter is very nice it's June -Sept. that are the Killers . We bought our Lil Snoozy to get out of Florida in the Summer . It didn't work out that way this Summer but hopefully next . We are Lucky we have Kids that will live in our home for Summer . good Luck in your Quest for the Happy Life Jim

[steve dunham]

We like Georgia in the winter . Not as hot , humid, expensive and crowded as Florida . If you love heat and humidity Florida is the place to head

[David B.]

We moved from Michigan, and still love Arizona after 30 years, but we do escape to cooler places in the summer months. Come see us and we'll show you around. This is a shot of our back yard.
Dave & Paula

[Lora]

The nice thing about having a tt is that you can try out some different places before you make a long-term commitment. Granted there may be some places that you would enjoy in a bricks & mortar environment, that you won't like/tolerate in your tt.
Where have you ventured so far?

[Uplander]

My problem is this....our home is a 200+ year old federal period colonial house that has been completely remodeled (over a 15 year period). I am reluctant to leave it unattended for extended periods in the winter. If the heating system should fail then the water pipes will freeze and destroy the house. My son lives in South Carolina and my daughter lives over an hour away. I have explored the idea of having the local heating oil company monitor the house with electronic alarms to detect heating system failures. This could work however if we have a power failure the system is useless. This area also has many telephone service failures. The monitoring system uses both electric and telephone. I would not be comfortable leaving the house for long periods in the winter.

That is why I am thinking about the relocation to a warmer location.
My wife and I enjoy RV travel and do so in spring, summer and fall.
Because of age and some physical limitations we do not engage in "winter sports"....even our cross-country skis have gone unused for decades.
Winter is not our season....but....we do read a lot of books when the snow flies!

RV camping fits our lifestyle as we can change locations as one spot starts to "get old". When the kids were young we toured the entire country during summer vacation periods. My wife's school teaching career gave her the summer months off and my employer gave me 6 weeks vacation time that I used in the summer months for RV travel.

Once the "RV thing" gets in your system there is no slowing down !!!

[honda03842]

When our kids went off to college we sold the big house.Over the last 14 road years we've found we don't need so much stuff.

For the last 14 years we just close up our house with the heat on low. We have a red light in our window that comes on when the temperature drops below 40 F, our neighbor calls the gas company. We have a contract with the gas company and when there's a problem they fix it. If we did not have a good neighbor we would simply completely shut the house down or sell it.

We sometimes spend the winter in FL and as we age will spend more of them here. We do not find the humidity to be high in the winter, it's just a few days and entirely bearable. Typically the winters are in the 70s and 80s, the pool takes care of any real hotspots. Florida is virtually bug free in the winter, at least where we travel.

We live in a non-tourist section of FL and absolutely love cattle and orange country.

[Uplander]

Norm and Ginny, Sounds like you have the best of all solutions and know how to enjoy retirement....stay healthy and have a very Happy New Year.

I have a NON-RV neighbor who is selling his place up here in the frozen north and relocating to a Condo in Florida.....Hope he can deal with the summer heat and humidity!

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by Uplander

I have a NON-RV neighbor who is selling his place up here in the frozen north and relocating to a Condo in Florida.....Hope he can deal with the summer heat and humidity!

Dealing with the summer heat and humidity in summer in Florida is absolutely no different than dealing with the winter cold in the northern states. You simply stay inside in the A/C instead of staying inside in the heat, or you take a getaway trip to a more agreeable climate, but as an added bonus you never have to shovel or drive through any white stuff. Or listen to rust from road salt eat away your very expensive automotive investment.

Incidentally, winter in Florida is like pleasant summer days in the north; there is no humidity and no stiflingly hot temperatures.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[mary and bob]

We leave our home in upstate NY near Albany and winter on the coast of Georgia, this year in our new to us Casita 17. A relative checks the house and sends down mail every couple weeks to a general delivery address. We have an alarm system that will call us if the heat drops below 45 degrees, if the power goes off, or if there is water on the floor. It is powered by 110 with a battery back up. Last two winters we got called for a no heat problem. Called my fuel / service company and they fixed it right away. This year we installed a new boiler so hoping for no problems.

[Mike Magee]

It is possible to winterize a house (empty the water pipes and such). Or the alarm system with battery backup ought to do the trick. Another possibility would be to find some non-relative (since you have no relatives nearby) who would look in on your house every so often for a stipend; possibly a friend of yours, or ask a nearby church pastor if he could recommend someone trustworthy, or maybe there's even a small business that would provide the service. A business will charge more than an individual, but the business will be insured... and that would be a good thing if they fouled up the job. I guess if you used an alarm with battery backup plus a friend/acquaintance as a backup to the backup, this might give you enough peace of mind.

Where there's a will, there's a way. Don't let your dear old house stop you from making the most of your winter months. (I'd sell the house and move into a nearby rental before I let my house control my free time. )

[joeculver2]

This is an interesting thread. I would like where you are because I like to snow ski. I am in Central Oregon and just 30 minutes from skiing. I am thinking of the future when I will no longer want to ski and then I would not want to spend the winter here. A lot of my neighbors have emergency generators and monitor sytems and they go to Arizona or Palm Springs area in the winter. About half the houses in my neighborhood are vacant in the winter. I also have friends that live in Ohio and Pennsylvanis who winter in Palm Springs and Arizona. I have other friends who live in Michagan and Tennessee and winter in Florida. I have lived all over the country during my career and still do not know what would be best. Northern Florida in the winter is not crowded and you can go to anywhere in Florida in a day or two. I have an acquaintance from Australia who has a house in Tennessee for a base and RVs all over the country from there. I am looking at new houses 30 miles outside of Nashville for $250K as possibilities for myself. Florida and Gulf Coast is one day away in the winter. Appalachians are a day away in the summer. Good luck.

[jay lusky]

We live in Texas, spend summers traveling the mountains and points north, where it's cooler. Winters we travel the south, our little Scamp has traveled where ever our fancy takes us. The home in Texas is to hold the stuff we can't stand to part with.

[John Hussey]

Originally Posted by Uplander

My problem is this....our home is a 200+ year old federal period colonial house that has been completely remodeled (over a 15 year period). I am reluctant to leave it unattended for extended periods in the winter. If the heating system should fail then the water pipes will freeze and destroy the house. My son lives in South Carolina and my daughter lives over an hour away. I have explored the idea of having the local heating oil company monitor the house with electronic alarms to detect heating system failures. This could work however if we have a power failure the system is useless. This area also has many telephone service failures. The monitoring system uses both electric and telephone. I would not be comfortable leaving the house for long periods in the winter.

...

This sounds like the very reason I have no dog, cat, etc., I don't wish to be tied to it should I decide to ramble off somewhere. I believe I'd downsize to a more manageable home were I you. In fact, perhaps I should do so as well.

I live in Florida and simply love it during the three seasons of spring, winter, fall. In summer I wander off to other places.

[bullfrogeh]

For a different 'view' - We love the winter in our snug home in the lakes and forest region of central Ontario, with the nearest neighbour a mile away. We share it with deer, moose, bear, fox, squirrels, coons, and a plethora of winter birds, including a resident flock of wild turkeys. But, we do have oil heat, electric baseboards, with a 16kw propane generator for back-up, as well as alternate propane heat and a large stone fireplace, with our 35 acre forest for firewood. Winter is quiet and peaceful, with a heated wood-working shop, and an indoor railroad layout. Our RVing is from April to October, from Pacific to Atlantic, Yukon to Gulf coast, and includes 'geocaching' in 49 US states and nine provinces. Couldn't be happier !

[Carl Pa]

We had a cabin in the mountains, just drain the the HWH and put a little anti-freeze in toilet and p traps. You probably have a basement in the old house, which makes things easier. Shut off at electric box water pumps and other large draws of power and leave a small lights on at the box so you can find your way in should it be dark. Carl

[bullfrogeh]

Originally Posted by Carl Pa

just drain the the HWH and put a little anti-freeze in toilet and p traps.

You might want to turn on the 'heat-line' you wrapped around your buried water line from the well to your home. And, be careful about what 'anti-freeze' you use, as some are not congenital with the future operation of your septic system. Automotive antifreeze is a no-no !

[mary and bob]

hot water baseboard heat systems can be filled with a antifreeze solution but still require water pressure to them. A check valve or back flow preventer valve is then required. I think it is now required to have that check valve whether the system has antifreeze or not in new installations.