A couple of hints...

When the cold weather comes around there are some very importannt things we must do to prepare. One thing many folks ignore until it's absolutely impossible to ignore, is the changing of the batteries on your digital furnace thermostat. Most homes now have these programmable type thermostat. Most have 2 to 4 double "A" batteries. These are what I want to speak about. I recently changed the batteries in my unit. After I did so I noticed my furnace was working very badly. It even got to the point where it tripped the circuit breaker inside of the unit. I am glad my son had shown me where this breaker was located since it was below zero outside. I thought it was the flame sensor since I have had to replace this more than once, but I found the problem to be the batteries I put in the unit. I had been given some batteries, brand new, which I used. I did notice that these batteries were thinner, not much, maybe 1/32, so I paid it no mind since they were "AA" size. Here's what was happening, the batteries were not a tight fit, they were snug but not tight, so whenever any vibration would hit the thermostat such as one walking by it or the beat of a song, the battery would move and affect the setting on the thermostat. If the furnace was operating at the time the unit would send a signal to stop and immediately to re-sume. This was sending a message to the on-board computer that the there was something wrong and it would trip the circuit causing the furnace to stop operating completely. This happened twice before I decided to change the batteries. I place name brand ones this time not generic ones. And thank God it has worked fine. So in this case it is to ones advantage to spend the extra dollor or two on the best batteries to prevent these problems and also to prevent from freesing. I now wonder if I really had to replace the flame sensor on the unit last year. You see i also had put generic batteries in at that time. Never again! I learned my lesson. I am glad I did not give up on checking what the problem was. What led me to thinking it was the batteries is the process of elimination I always use when trying to figure out why something is acting up. You see in this case I said, "Well the furnace was working fine until I replaced the batteries, so that must be the problem" and it was. I learned this many years ago when I replaced the spark plugs in a Buick I owned. After I changed the plugs the car worked terribly. I checked the wires and just about everything you could imagine. Then I said to myself it worked well before I changed the plugs so....Yes, that was it, once I put the old plugs back in the car worked fine. Apparently one of the new plugs was faulty. Another lesson learned. So remember to keep it simple always retrace your steps and you will most of the time find the solution.

The next thing I want to talk about is those pesky little mice that find their way into the house. I have tried several types of traps in my lifetime but the ones I find work the best are glue traps. I place these along the baseboard behind a piece of furniture so that pets and children can't get them stuck to their bodies. That glue is some really sticky stuff. Anyway, this has proven to be the best method to catching those little guys. Hope all this helps to prevent you some headaches.