Things You Should Know About Minot

Climate

This topic could take a whole page in it's self. If you are from a Southern state our climate will change the way you dress, drive, make home improvements, and take care of your yard. Let me start with my very favorite:

1) That electric cord sticking out of the front of our cars does NOT mean we all drive electric cars. What it does mean is that if you do not have one there is a good chance that your car is not going to start on mornings when we have our famous 20 to 30 below zero days. That cord is for plugging in an engine heater that insures your car will fire-up when you want it to. A side note to this is don't use it if the temp is above zero or everyone will think you are a wimp.

2) Join AAA or any other Auto Club. Everybody hits the ditch here once a winter or needs to get their car started because they forgot to plug it in.

3) Those little orange styrafoam balls on the Radio antenna are not decorations. They are so others can see you coming out from behind that 6 foot snow drift on the corner.

4) Buy jumper cables. Winter is hard on batteries and if yours is to drained to start your car on those cold days you may save the cost of a wrecker coming to start your car.

5) Remote starters are very popular here. You can start your car from your warm home and let it run until your car is nice and toasty.

6) If you own a home you will want to purchase a snowblower. Shovel arobics are great once or twice but when we get a dumping of two feet of snow at once you won't get arobics, you will get a heart attach.

7)  The snow will eventually melt. It is a good idea to try to keep the snow out of your window wells or anywhere else that may give it easy access to your basement when it does turn to water (and it will turn to water).

8) Don't leave garden hoses out in the winter or/especially attached to the faucet. You can never get all the water out of the hose and when the water in it freezes it will burst the hose. I do not know why but pipes freeze easier if a hose is still hooked up to them and I promise you that it's not a good thing if your pipes burst in the house near the hose bib.

9) Fashion is not as important as dressing to survive our winter climate. Get familiar with Thermals, Bulky Sweaters, Carhart, Sorel Boots, and Snowmobile Suits.

10) You need to own a humidifier. Start using your humidifier when you turn your furnace on. Furnaces burn the moisture out of the air and if you do not replace the moisture it will be very hard on your skin and lips. Also it will cause static electricity in your home which can be very uncomfortable and hard on electronic devices.

11) The first 3 or 4 weeks of truly warm weather are fantastic! After that purchase a gallon of Deep Woods Off.

Major Annual Events

1) The North Dakota State Fair. For more information click on www.ndstatefair.com .

2) The Norsk Hostfest. this is a wild 5 day Scandinavian Party. Just like St Patty's Day you only need to be Scandivian at heart. Check it out at www.hostfest.com

The Top 2 are undisputable as the top events, the following are only in the order I thought of them with #3 being my personal favorite after the first two.

3) The Great Tomato Festival. This is a banquet, elite gathering, silent auction to benefit The Minot Public Library, The Minot Symphony Orchestra, and The Taube Art Musium. It is held the 2nd Wednesday of August.

4) Seratoma Clubs Christmas in the Park. Held from the day after Thanksgiving through New Years Day. A very nice light display, $5.00 per vehicle to drive through. The proceeds go to two good local charities.

More to come soon