While the scenery is beautiful in Libertyville, the weather can be brutal.
The summers are warm and humid with temperatures often in the high eighties and sometimes even in the low nineties.
The winters are freezing, snowy and windy with temperatures in the teens for half the year. It’s not surprising to experience sub zero conditions. Rain falls on and off just about all year long. We get snow from November to April and it adds up to about 38 inches. Because of the weather extremes, there’s rarely an opportunity to open the windows and just enjoy the fresh air. For most of the year, it’s necessary to rely on either heating or cooling. My house in Libertyville, Illinois is outfitted with a forced air furnace, a central air conditioner and duct system. The cost of temperature control adds up to about fifty percent of our household energy consumption. I really appreciate the change of seasons in the local area. The change of colors of the leaves in the fall is especially beautiful. I look forward to the farmer’s market with the fresh apples, eggplants, zucchini, squash and tomatoes. Unfortunately, I typically need to start up the furnace sometime in October. The temperature drops very quickly. The snow is beautiful but creates a great deal of work. When it’s fourteen degrees outside, it’s not much fun to shovel the driveway and walkways, brush off the car or scrape the ice off the windshield. I need to run the defrost in the car for fifteen minutes before I can go anywhere. It takes forever for the spring flowers to finally arrive. I watch for signs of tulips, daffodils and the first robins. The summers are fairly brief but it’s my favorite time of year.