It's officially winter, and we've already seen several days and nights where the temperature has gone below zero. I remember a few Decembers back, we were hit with a stretch of fifty-degree days filled with rain and heavy winds. The wind caused a ton of damage, leaving a lot of people without power, one of them being me. Without any power, I also had no heat, and it seemed as though in a matter of hours the warm rain was replaced by bone-chilling cold. To this day, I don't know how I made it out of those few days without a frozen-pipe disaster.

I learned a lot of lessons through that experience, and one of them was that it is absolutely necessary to have a way to heat my house should the power go out—the most obvious option being a woodstove or a fireplace. However, without having one already installed when I bought my house, or knowing the state of the chimney, I settled on a portable generator big enough to power my heat and plug in a lamp or two. Alternatively, I keep a few space heaters on hand to help certain parts of the house stay warm when it's exceptionally cold, or in case my main heat source malfunctions or runs out of propane. It's a bit of a hodgepodge solution, but it works.

The Northeast experiences cold winters, and many people opt to have more than one way to heat their homes during the winter months. Folks often choose to do this not only in case of emergency, but also for energy efficiency, so there is less of a load on the home's primary heat source. When looking into buying a house, be sure to ask your agent about all the heat sources throughout the home, as well as any service or repair history from the previous owners.

Some day, I would like to reimagine the heating and cooling options for my house. The idea of installing some mini-splits seems intriguing, especially for the summertime, since I rely on window air conditioners, and they aren't very efficient or effective. If I could wave a magic wand, I would put a tiny woodstove in the living room and call it a day. However, I don't have a magic wand to wave, so instead, I will continue on with my propane and space heaters, with a generator as a backup. I sure hope I don't need to take the generator out again anytime soon, but I don't think there's a way around not using the space heaters, as those have already been run a few times—and so early in the season!

Paige O. Roberts has a degree in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Henniker Review, Sidereal Magazine, Rejection Letters, and Cypress. She has been nominated for a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize. She lives in northern New Hampshire, where she owns and operates a pet boutique called Tailswag.