Molly Malone – Thank you 🙂
OldMt Woman – Based on my experience during that blizzard, I think you’d probably need the Big Buddy-sized heater to keep your living room comfortably warm in the sort of weather you’re dealing with – especially since your outdoor temperatures will be a lot lower than ours were. I recall thinking at the time (February 2012) that I wished I had a small Mr. Heater model also to keep my Mother’s large bathroom warm. The larger Big Buddy model heater did a good job of warming the master bedroom but it wasn’t a very large room, and the ceiling in that room was just of an average height. However, if you aren’t in a position to get a Big Buddy-sized heater right now I’m sure the smaller size Mr. Heater you have will still be a good help. If necessary, you could always partition off a smaller portion of your living room with hanging blankets (or even set up a tent in there) and use the Mr. Heater to warm that smaller section of the room.
Loving Life – We used to lose electrical power fairly often at my Mother’s old farmhouse, and sometimes for up to a week, however, Snowmageddon was the first time the power had gone out during a blizzard – so it was memorable, lol. The only use I’d heard of for wood ash before was to use it to make lye for soapmaking, so I was interested to read the other uses you posted.  Wish I had a wood cookstove as you do! About 20 years ago I took a class on cooking with a wood stove that was taught at a farm museum. It was quite interesting! The teacher recommended a book by Jane Cooper called “Woodstove Cookery: At Home on the Range”, which I believe is still available on Amazon.
- Yesterday, I caught up reading the recent posts on several preparedness-related Facebook and Yahoo groups to which I belong, researched more medieval and ancient Roman recipes to see if they could be made from shelf-stable foods, and continued sorting through my medical preps. I realized I should probably purchase more sutures (in various sizes), practice sutures, skin staplers and sterile staple removing devices. More items to add to my wish list <sigh>.