I'm curious, what did you wind up doing? As a Texan who moved to Eastern Montana for a while, I agree, trying out winter is very important. We had entire months of -20s and sometimes hit -40s. I think we did have a -50 day while we were there. We loved it though. I much prefer cold over heat. But, we had to learn some things. Different fuel for the RV in the winter, engine block heater on the car, added a whole house generator to our condo. We didn't need to drive when weather was bad, so we'd often just wait for the plows to get the roads cleared and sometimes didn't leave home for an entire week. Keeping plants alive and animals though I imagine would be a huge challenge.
