Building a good fire is a skill indeed, one I dont have, so it is one of accomplishment.
As for living in your cabin throughout the winter, sure that’s fine in a mild winter. If you have back to back extreme winters like they had, what was it, six years ago? five years ago? You might look at it differently. Do you even have snow moving equipment? I dont understand it, but whatever.
I guess the key is being able to predict what kind of winter you’re going to live through, so good luck with that.
Our good friend moved to northern New Hampshire and it’s all about the snow for her. She lives on 5 acres outside of a little berg, and she can see a couple of neighbors but the nearest neighbor is gone through the winter, they are snowbirds.
So here she is clapping her hands in excitement about the idea of snow and her first winter in northern New Hampshire, and she has no snow moving equipment and she hasn’t lined up anyone to move it for her. I don’t think she understands what a real blizzard condition is that during those snows all the heavy equipment in the world can’t even get to her road or to her house. She also is from New Jersey/New York.
I’m from Iowa and DH is from Northern Iowa and he has seen his share of blizzards blow across the plain. In one snow story he tells how he spent the night with Thousands of cute chicks. Driving home from work he had to pull over and spend the night inside the chicken hatching facility.
I will not live north of interstate 80.
But I think New England is gorgeous in all respects. The topography, the vegetation, the architecture. I would love living there April-December.