Keeping Warm In Winter: Comforting Pets, Fireplaces, And Other Favorite Options

By Kendra Bobowick

Again this month we reached for mittens, a shovel, and the defrost switch, only to shed our layers as weather warmed, then cooled off again. So far this winter the birdbaths have repeatedly frozen and the sidewalks have disappear under snow, forcing many residents indoors trying to keep warm.

Surrounded daily by fireplaces, wood pellets, and brooms for the hearth, Carrie and Tom Swan at Black Swan Hearth & Home on Route 25 may know a few good ways of keeping warm this winter, but her answer was cozier than the flames behind treated glass. With her husband in mind, Ms Swan said “snuggling with Tom” was her favorite way to keep warm. A little laughter turned to more practical considerations, and she replied, “We crank up the fireplace and fire the pellet stove.”

Despite what the snowdrifts and frozen windshields might indicate, shoppers don’t necessarily buy heating units more than usual during a storm. Instead, they come out for supplies and fuel.

“It’s like bread and milk,” she said, hinting at the surge of grocery shoppers packing bags with necessities when bad weather threatens.

While people track clumps of snow and slush through the supermarkets, they often skip another shop, despite its steaming beverages. Mocha Coffeehouse owner Rob Kaiser sees a drop in the number of men and women stepping inside to wrap their hands around a warm mug of dark roast.

“Cold doesn’t mean slow business, but the snow does,” he said. As the temperatures freeze shut mailboxes, key locks, and latches to outdoor sheds, Mr Kaiser noted, “You would think people would stop in.” Aware of the weather outside that sends drafts through his home built in 1809, just steps away from his coffee shop, he, too, has a special way of warming up.

“I snuggle with my beagle, who puts out a lot of heat,” said Mr Kaiser about his pet, nicknamed an American Snuggler, who likes the snow, but only a little bit at a time.

Historically Colder

Noting the Little Ice Age, an era when the climate made history due to famines, droughts, and temperature shifts between approximately 1300 through 1850, Town Historian Dan Cruson recounted the ways that early residents sought warmth in the “materially colder” times. Newtown has its own notes documenting to the historic cold. “We know from records kept that the winters were colder,” he said.

With notes stretching back to as early as the 18th Century, Mr Cruson provided a look through the long-ago windows where residents were warmed beside the fire.

“Mostly, people toughed it out,” he said. People also were more acclimated to the harsher weather, he said. In the time before plumbing, shallow outdoor wells often froze, he pointed out.

“They would put stones in a bucket and drop it down the well to crash through the ice,” he said. He also talked about “wood that warms you twice: when you cut it and when you burn it.”

In the late 1700s homeowners did not know the comforts of draft-free and insulated walls, baseboard heat, or forced hot air. So what did they do?

“Several things, the most obvious was to dress warmly,” Mr Cruson said. “Woolen underwear was essential.”

The town’s first houses had fireplaces, but were not the cozy wood-burning stoves of today.

“A lot of the heat went up the chimney,” said the historian. In the early 1800s parlor stoves — wood- or coal-burning — emerged. Bedrooms also were structured in a way to contain warmth.

“The four-poster bed had a canopy and when it was pulled closed it retained body heat, like a tent,” he said. And like the Matthew Curtiss House on Main Street, usually one main bedroom served the entire family on cold nights.

“Very often the main room for the family to sleep had a fireplace in it,” he said.

The smaller room at the back of the house might see servants or occasionally teenagers sleeping there. The parents generally warmed the canopied bed, he explained, “judging by the birthrates in Colonial times.”

At home by the fireplace, people sat in high-backed chairs to keep drafts off their necks. “Anyone in an old house will know that the temperature gradient is tremendous when you get farther from the fire,” Mr Cruson said. “So, they huddled by the fireplace.” As bedtime neared, hot stones from the fire went inside a brass container that was passed between the sheets.

What A Winter!

The last time the region saw so much snow as of the last storm in early February was the winter of 2004-05. Western Connecticut State University Weather Center assistant to the director Gary J. Lessor said the winter four years ago had a total accumulation of 38.8 inches of snow. With the last days of February and all of March still ahead of us, this year has already plowed and shoveled out from under 12 storms and more than 31 inches of snowfall as of February 6.

He agrees that an “inordinate” amount of snow has been on the ground this year. But the cold and stormy pattern “may be trying to break,” he said.

Temperatures leading toward Valentines Day reached 50 degrees. The normal high for this time of year is 35, and the low 18 degrees. “We’re turning the corner on the coldest days already. It appears the cold air in Canada is wearing itself out.”

The best news this week comes from a look at any traditional calendar: as of Friday, February 20, just 28 days remain until the first day of spring on March 20.