Hi all….Our Internet crashed on Sunday 12/30 so I “disappeared”. Hmph! Weekend plus holiday…so tech is coming to fix tomorrow. We’ve been having trouble. Mountain access to the satellite is sometimes iffy but this seems to be something in the hardware/software? Anyway, for some reason we have signal right now. Hurrying to type in case it disappears again… I’m TRYING to hang onto modern life here!!
Yesterday we prepped for losing electricity during the 24 hrs of snow and DEEEP cold. Snow was lite tho persistent. A bother but the cold was dangerous. Went well into the sub-zero range all of yesterday and last nite. Stuffed the windows [only single pane of glass and no storm windows] with bubble wrap, then cardboard [I save the top …not greasy part..of pizza take out boxes]. Then I shove in spare pillow or whatever and cover with blankets. Kept only enough open to let in light and that had bubble wrap. After dark, the whole window is covered. The back door seepage is handled by the dog’s bed shoved up against it. The front door has an old towel at the base and folded newspapers shoved into the seepage crack…wind was from that direction. Brrrrr! ….have I mentioned we rent a OLD log cabin? Cute but …it’s flaws get tiresome.
Poured extra water…cuz the well has electric pump. Had non-electric phone [old Princess style] at the ready. Our usual one with cordless handsets, requires electricity. Kept heat up higher than usual in case of losing pellet stove AND furnace. In sub-zero, if the electric went off, we probably would have to go somewhere besides this house to stay warm enough. We do have 2 vehicles and could run them to stay warm….and have extra gas. Inside the house, we could try the Buddy Heater – on propane tanks. But not at all sure we’d be warm enough. ‘Course we do have a large dog to snuggle with…lol.
When we have sub-zero, we use different protocols. I was home but DH was at work. [yes Muffy, …I use DH for Dear Husband…But some occasionally use if for some other term like: “DX”….it would probably not stand for ‘dear’.. lol ] …anyway he was at work and I had to do PM chores. DV …does not stand for ‘dear’ vehicle in this case 😉 …started and ran but would not engage into gear. It’s a warm–weather sissy truck! So dog and I took poultry water on sled and went down hill to barnyard. With my disability, it’s an issue to walk up steep hillsides.
By protocol, I put in call….so someone knows when I leave house and when I get back inside. Only have cordless house phone service in certain locations down there. So…in case I slip on ice and sprain ankle, for instance. Yes, that happened once and I wasn’t in a phone access area of barnyard.
But last nite all was well and critters were all fine with extra bedding/feed. It wore me out to climb that hill again when finished tho the dog assists. Never stopped snowing. Below zero when I went out so part of our prepping is having pre-set protocols for dangerous weather. What we feed. How we feed. Subzero is so NOT forgiving. Take no chances around here with those conditions. [hate subzero!]
SO thankful we never lost power either. This snow was tiny, persistent bits. We’re more likely to lose power if it’s heavy spring snow that brings down power lines with the overburdened limbs of trees. Yay for furnace and hot showers …..so far we are not living post-stuff-hits-fan! 🙂
Today I made a little oil lamp from Altoids tin, OLD jute cord for wick, and olive oil. It barely works. I’ll try putting another hole in the lid…better air? Dunno. Also look around for any other ‘expedient’ material for wick. With low O2 and air pressure up at this altitude, there is a difference in how things burn.
OK…OldMtWoman is outta here….send before we lose Internet again. Tech coming tomorrow.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by
OldMt Woman.