Hey, we talk about preparedness day and night it seems, but how prepared ARE we? Water is always one of the biggest deals. Luckily, we feel we have it about covered. After all, even with frozen water lines, we still have more than 500 gallons of potable water in our basement storage tanks (which we are using VERY little of) and more than four feet of snow to melt outside.

We’re melting snow to flush the toilet and wash up with. This morning I washed my hair with some of it, heated on the wood stove to conserve propane, and Will’s coffee was brewed with some water I brought from the Idington spring yesterday, on the way home from town. The animals’ water is mostly melted snow. I’m only going to wash clothes once a week in our water-conserving wringer washer and that water will be mostly melted snow. By the time the snow’s pretty much gone, we’ll be able to get water from our spring as it won’t be wading through four feet of drifted snow to get at.

Melting-snow

We feel fortunate to have plenty of firewood, food, and critter food on hand. If we get another couple of big snowstorms we may have to run the snowmobile out to the road. Knowing this is a possibility, we’re really stocking up on critter grub, especially. We have our bounteous pantry for ourselves, of course. A lot of folks we know have already gone through their entire winters’ worth of firewood and have had to buy more. But the firewood they bought is pretty green and really doesn’t burn well or economically. Green wood takes a lot of heat to drive off the steam in it from the sap and that burning eats up a lot of wood. And with propane getting scarcer and selling at $5 a gallon, I don’t know what folks will do. Luckily, we stock 2 years’ worth of firewood in the shed. But we’ve started dipping into our second year’s firewood already. We feel fortunate that it’s split and very dry, AND under cover…not out in the snowbank somewhere!

Hondo-snow

We’re plotting out what we’re going to grow to harvest for seed to sell in our mini-seed business next year. It’s fun but challenging as some crops such as corn and squash require extreme distancing to avoid cross pollination between varieties. We’ve got it about figured out and should be offering about 20 or more different tomato seeds plus many seeds from our old-faithful garden crops. (We still have plenty of seed for sale; just click on the green box pdf link above.)

Meanwhile, keep warm and tell us about where you live. Hearing about folks tilling their garden and running around in T-shirts gives us hope for spring! — Jackie

28 COMMENTS

  1. DEbby Rich,

    Hey, 8′ is nothing; one of the iron mines south of us has frost down 20′!!! Yikes!!!

  2. I heard on the news last week that the frost line in southern Mn. is now down
    to 8 feet. No wonder your pipes froze.
    Please take care
    Debby

  3. All,

    I’m so jealous of all of you wearing T shirts! But we’re doing fine and expect our water line to thaw about the second week in April from past experience. Luckily (?) we’ve got plenty of snow to melt. We heat it up on our wood stoves so we always have hot water. Can’t use a Mr. Coffee to heat water as we’re off grid and don’t want to start the generator to heat water when we have it already on the wood stove.
    Our wood’s going fast but we have plenty as we stored 2 years worth. Just in case. This is one of those “just in case” winters!
    Will’s getting a lot done inside this winter as it’s just too brutal to go out for long. But we know spring’s just around the corner. Hang in there, all of you suffering nasty weather too. We’ll make it.

  4. Grrrr! Talk about a sudden change here in DFW Texas. Yesterday it was a high of 82, shorts weather we sometimes get here in February. Well today, we are having thunder sleet. It is supposed to be pipe breaking weather with lows of around 12 tonight. Really, if we didn’t have weather forecasts we would be so messed up. We went to a Storm Spotters class the National Weather Service sponsored and they said that these up and down weather patterns were indicative of an active spring storm season. Hope he is wrong!

  5. Well, I have to retract mu invitation. We are going to get dumped on by winter storm Titan tomorrow. It’s to believe as I have windows open and baby peppers outside soaking in the sun.

  6. Hanza, she is there but her name is Blackstock not Blackstone. Books are Night Light, Last Light, etc. I have read them and found them interesting but a LOT was left out to be practical. Easy read.

    Jackie, you have the skills and fortitude (and Will) so hang in there. It won’t be long and you will be outside planting. I can’t wait to learn more from you. You are a great inspiration and I have learned much from you. We have expanded our gardens again this year. Hope I can keep up. Our temp today here in SW Missouri is supposed to be 15 plus wind chill. Church cancelled due to ice. Gotta remember it is almost over. :)

  7. @Hanza: It is the restoration series by Terri Blackstock.

    The biggest issue with a Mr. Coffee to heat water with, is it requires electricity. In an off grid situation, it would be impractical.
    Jackie: Real temps over night of -24 here in N. MI, and very close to all-time record snowfall for the year. So ready for it all to be gone! Hubby is up on the roof as I type, shoveling off at least two feet of the disgusting stuff. Lots of roof cave-in’s in this area this year! Am I the only one who thinks this last round of weather has been especially bitter?

  8. I live up in Alberta Canada and tonight we are sitting at -43 with the windchill. My neighbour province of Saskatchewan is at -65 so it’s very brrrrrry up here.
    I’m well stocked up with water and food and don’t plan on having to go outside except to take our little dog which is a very quick trip when it’s this cold.

    @ Nancy…. I have read all the series in that story and learned a lot from them. Sure makes you think.

    @ Hanza….. I found the books at the library

    Stay safe and warm everyone!

  9. Sorry, no t-shirt weather here in southwest Missouri yet. No snow cover, just an ice storm on the way.

    How are the peppers doing?

    Stay safe.

  10. We live north of DFW on the Texas / Oklahoma border. Today it is windy out but is in the upper 60s. Tomorrow in 70s then colder weather coming in. We will have “spring” here in about 3 weeks. Will start planting then.

    Hope to catch you all at the expo in Mesquite in April. Sending some warmer weather you way to help you thaw!

  11. Live in Spokane WA, out along Highway 2. It’s supposed to be even colder than it has been, plus windy here starting today. Our snow cover is pretty much melted right now from the rain/freezing rain yesterday. It’s been quite a year! All I can say is, if it hadn’t been for your books and articles I would never have started to pressure can and that has been a blessing for us. I have confidence that if we lose our electricity/water we can stay warm, eat and so on. Good luck to you guys!

  12. I am reading the first in a series by Terri Blackstone about a time when everything electrical and mechanical goes out. It makes you think about things. I am so glad for my pantry but must get the rest of my meat in jars. To much in the freezer yet…

  13. My bedroom is 32 degrees this morning. My husband is in Dallas, Texas this morning with our daughter. They left from savannah, Georgia on Wednesday and drove a truck to our daughters home in Texas. They got there last night very late. Be glad when he gets home tomorrow so my bed is warmer!

  14. Minus 16 degrees this am in Gregory MI with more snow coming through the weekend. We are blessed to have water, all the garden food we can eat, and plenty of wood for the woodstove, although we too are into next year’s supply. I am so anxious to get the tomato seeds (from you!) going but have to hold off for another couple of weeks yet. We’re glad that you’re managing so well in spite of your weather and water troubles. The two of you are truly an inspiration! Loved the picture of Hondo too!

    By the way… Ruth Ann, wonder if we live near each other?

  15. I’m surprised that your water line froze with all that snow cover! Glad to hear that you’re taking it in stride. During my first winter here, I endured about 12 weeks without water… followed by 6 weeks of a frozen septic line. Yuck. That continued well into June, until finally hiring a backhoe to dig up the offending pipe. May your septic system continue to function. Fast forward to this crazy winter. While the polar vortex rages on, it’s been unseasonably warm here. I drove home from work early today to find the honeybees buzzing around their hives and otherwise enjoying the 48 degrees. This evening I was enjoying the sound of rain falling on my roof. Greetings from balmy Alaska.

  16. Well I live in southern Michigan and its cold here even without the wind chill its cold and per the weatherman its not supposed to get warmer for almost the next 2 weeks, maybe longer from what I heard. Its about 5 degrees right now and probably will go below zero before morning and thats not including wind chill. The polar vortex that hit us last night has subsided in that we don’t have the strong wind gusts providing the white outs we had earlier in the day today. We have plenty of snow should we need it for water but so far no frozen pipes. I will end on a positive note – my brother and SIL are in Florida for the winter and they said today is was 64 degrees there. Now that looks pretty good right now.

  17. I 2nd the use of a Mr. Coffee for heating water.

    When I was stationed on Okinawa (I’m Navy retired) in the late ’70s, the base had “water hours”, 24 hours on, 24 hours off for 12 months of the 19 months I was there.

    From camping trips I had a 5 gallon hard sided water container, plus a 2.5 gallon camping shower.

    What I would do on the water off days when I needed hot water for my shower, I would take the full shower bag down to the Chief’s lounge, and use the Mr. Coffee machine there to heat the water.

    I would then go to the head, and hang the shower bag up in the shower stall. Did a standard Navy shower: Wet down, soap up, then rinse off. By turning the shower bag off after the wet down, I had plenty of water left in the bag to rinse off with.

    Would make sure the water jug, and shower bag were filled back up on the days we had water.

    No way I would have wanted to skip a day without a shower. Unfortunately, that was the fate of others who lived in the bachelor quarters.

  18. Well around 50 today, 40 tomorrow, 9 the next day, mid teens the next few days, where I live in KS. Calling for sleet in the morning, then two days of snow, and the weathermen don’t have a clue as to how many inches we might get. I have to say our windchill factor is usually bad, and I refuse to leave my dogs out more than 5 to 10 minutes to do their business. Spoiled rotten, and I love all three of them.
    I see pure Joy on Hondo’s face in that picture, I just loved it.
    Best of luck, glad to see you’re hanging in there.
    gen

  19. Whew! I can sure appreciate the frozen water pipes. Ours froze up part of a winter once in Maine. 5 kids made it “interesting” for my folks. I am glad your are set up and prepared for it. It makes it somewhat more palatable.

    Spring is so close to us in SE Virginia. Daffodils will bloom any day now and the trees are budding.

    Hang in there, your warm weather is coming!

  20. Here in Northern Iowa we don’t quite have the same amount of snow but lots of subzero themps w/o windchill. Thankfully we have wood under cover cut and split that I just hate to dip into in one breath but so thankful in another.

    Anxiously waiting for spring and garden planting. Oh plus we have a daughter getting married in May, hopefully it won’t be like last May with a blizzard every week since it is an outdoors wedding LOL.

    I enjoy your blog and admire you guys with what you are doing. We do some but not quite like you. :)

  21. Jackie,
    I just love reading your blog….love it! were in Hamilton Ohio…cold cold cold….were so sick of cold lol….last I looked it was like 15 out….I wanted to share a quick little tip…as a child we grew up w/ out indoor water…and being a teenager…who had to bathe and wash her hair every day, my go to for quick hot water….an old Mr. Coffee Pot, got it at a yard sale….I only used it for hot water….quick neat and did what I needed it to do….got up every morning to my hot water lol….it had a timer on it…but it took very little time to brew extra hot water….good luck! hope the thaw comes to you soon…
    Sandy Fowler

  22. Hi Jackie,

    I’ve been there with frozen water pipes from the well to the house and hydrants. I live about 60-70 miles south of you. Hate to say it, but it was sometime in April before the pipes thawed. In the meantime, for the stock tank, we were able to drop an intake hose from an electric shallow well pump down the well (it’s only about 15 feet to the surface of water in the well) and pumped it to the tanks via another hose. Sure helped with the “big” users. But even that is only possible on fairly warm days…which have been rare lately. It’s been a crazy winter. Best of luck, and glad to see you are coping. It’s amazing what we can do when we have to.

  23. Love the picture of Hondo! Glad to hear that you’re hanging in there and ready for what Mother Nature might throw at you.

  24. As I child I lived in Germany in a very small town (about 680 people) and we never had running water in our house. So when I read about your trials it reminds me how many times we hauled water into the house. We tried always doing laundry outside because that saved an extra trip for sure. We always had a wood burning stove with a water resevoir and that was our hot water for the house. I am thinking of you and hope spring comes early this year. Thank god you are prepared for living out in the country.

  25. Today in Dallas, Texas it is 52 degrees on my patio and our dog is enjoying laying in the sun where the concrete has warmed nicely for her. Two young men are here today installing a new tile floor in the bathroom. We have been on bare concrete for the last 13 years, so it is a treat. The squirrels are happy and busy. We really need rain and the dry times continue to plague our state. Tough times seem to last forever. Thank goodness Will and Jackie can close their eyes and remember the warm sun and their beautiful green world.

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