Fog can be a way of life when you live in some places. In the early seventies, my wife and I lived on an old farm on the Nova Scotia coast along the Bay of Fundy.
While the view of the water across our neighbor's sheep pasture was often stunning, it was also more often than not obscured with fog.
My theory as to why so many homes like our old farm house were painted bright colors was that it added some life to the ever present fog. The only benefit that I could see to the fog was that it made growing some vegetables like broccoli almost too easy. When your broccoli plants are as tall as Labrador retrievers, you know that they like the area. It was also a wonderful place to grow English peas, but tomatoes and corn were more of a challenge.
My wife and I decided we wanted to have a commercial farm so we moved to a "better" spot for farming at least if weather is your main consideration. We found sun for drying hay much easier to count on when we moved to Tay Creek in central New Brunswick. Of course I am not certain that trading cool breezes and fog for black flies and minus forty temperatures balanced out, but it worked for us.
Now we live on North Carolina's Crystal Coast. While it shares some characteristics with Nova Scotia, it is a far different climate. I have written before about how little fog we see along the Southern Outer Banks.
What I have learned in the almost six years that I have been on the NC shore is that fog here is a lot more beneficial than it was in Nova Scotia. At least it works that way if you are a home owner trying not to use your heat pumps.
Nova Scotia had so little heat along the shore that cool morning fogs often brought out jackets. Here on the North Carolina coast, we have plenty of heat, and usually a little fog just cools us down nicely.
My wife and I play a game each spring. We try to see how long we can go without either heating or air conditioning. Some years we can stretch it to nearly two and one half months. All it takes is a little work at opening and closing windows at the proper times.
On April 10 after my boat ride on the White Oak River which runs down to the Intracoastal Waterway, I sentenced myself to pulling some wild onions from our front yard. I spent about an hour out there in the heat which probably got close to 80F unless you believe the thermometer on our bedroom window which registered 106F.
After I came in the house and cooled off, we headed over to the beach about 6 PM. Before we left I opened several windows in our house including the upstairs ones in my office which are especially useful in cooling down our house. With windows open in an adjoing bedroom, the open office windows create a nice crossflow of air that sucks the heat right out of our home. The temperature upstairs was 80F when we left for the beach. By the time we got back around 7:30 PM, the upstairs had already cooled to 77F, and the downstairs had gone from 77F to 75F. Of course the only energy that cost us was my climbing some stairs.
We left the windows open all night. This morning the temperature in my upstairs office was 64F. Our downstairs temperature had dropped to 69F. I closed all the windows before the morning air started to warm up. If the Accuweather forecast for the Swansboro area is correct, we should get close to 80F again on April 11. We are usually a little warmer than Swansboro. With our location being farther inland about 3 miles up the river, 80F is easily possible.
With a little luck, we can avoid running the heat pumps for another day. That's a whole lot better than having to build a fire in the fireplace to warm up on a summer day in Nova Scotia.
Of course, after escaping the heat and crowds of the big city of Boston in the seventies, I thought sitting by a fireplace in July on the Nova Scotia shore was pretty neat. It all depends on where you are in your life and what your goals are. Mine have changed drastically.
One of my goals now is to be outside as much as possible with as few clothes on as decency requires. Another is to be on the water as many times as I can in a week's time. That means being able to use my boat every month of the year. Then there is walking on the beach whenever possible.
Carolina fog works better for all that, but I will never forget those times in Canada. They taught me to never take civilization for granted.
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