preparing for the cold

[35 Rem]

Well, wind chill is real. Go out on a cloudy day with wind at 20 degrees and you feel a heck of a lot colder than the same temp with sun and no wind. Of course it has no effect on freezing pipe in the well house.

[waksupi]

wow where abouts are you located..?? -56 is crazy

N.W. Montana. One town, Chouteu, I think, had -60 this morning.

[MUSTANG]

We warmed up this AM. Only got to -27 last night.

[.429&H110]

Chico's nose is sticking out of his dog bed. He burrowed into his fleece blanket with his heating pad on top.
House is down to 72 mornings, sun will get us back to 75. The old heatpump suffers in the cold, too.
Chico and I prefer 80F in our old age. Maybe next week.

Fairbanks Alaska is like Mars, but with ice fog.
utube has co-eds in bikinis in front of the UAF sign that reads -40. It's a thing to do there.
Mars' low temp is -166F, average -80F, 95F in the summer. Too bad there's no air, sounds livable.

[MaryB]

Heatwave! 1f today! First time above zero in 4 days. -28 wind chill though, froze my face hauling i wood pellets. 10 minute exposure... face is tight so some skin damage...

[MrWolf]

Chico's nose is sticking out of his dog bed. He burrowed into his fleece blanket with his heating pad on top.
House is down to 72 mornings, sun will get us back to 75. The old heatpump suffers in the cold, too.
Chico and I prefer 80F in our old age. Maybe next week.

Fairbanks Alaska is like Mars, but with ice fog.
utube has co-eds in bikinis in front of the UAF sign that reads -40. It's a thing to do there.
Mars' low temp is -166F, average -80F, 95F in the summer. Too bad there's no air, sounds livable.

You are lucky. I prefer the heat too but Ruger (Great Pyrenees in avatar) has the house at 70 with multiple fans blowing year round. He is outside now ( 22 degrees) laying in the snow and loving it. He spends most of the day outside by choice. He is built for this kind of weather.

[Rapier]

About every ten years we have one of these days. Sun comes up, low 30s, drizzle, temperature starts dropping and continues to drop all day. Just hope the drizzle does not turn to ice, before it stops. Not many folks here know how to drive on icy roads. Hope they do not get caught out from home.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

No special prep, might check that we have fuel for the generator, rural coop electric is very reliable, though stuff happens, generator runs furnace if needed, do need to get a bigger generator for the 240 well pump, but a little care handles that for a couple of days - fill the tub with water until the really bad weather passes. One truck in the 60x80 'garage', one outside - in case the electric door opener does not have power or the doors are blown shut with snow. We expect the below zero/wind chill below -40* every couple years. Today it looks like we should be good for the year. Not enough snow to chain up.

[gwpercle]

My family came to Louisiana in 1723 ... settled across the river from New Orleans in Des Allemands (The German Coast) . Since that time my immediate family has moved North about 90 miles ... less hurricane damage in Baton Rouge ...
but still far enough South to have never have had to shovel snow.
This morning (Wednesday) it was our coldest 17 degrees but now the sun is up , it's 28 and at lunch time it will be 43 degrees ... Tomorrow it will be 64 ...
I see no need to move any farther North than Baton Rouge , La.
I hate ice , snow & freezing rain ...
I rather like ...Global Warming ... it beats Global Ice Age ... Seven Ways To Sunday !
I'm rather proud of the fact that ... I have never had a Snow Shovel touch my hands !
Gary

[higgins]

When weather like this is forecast wife cooks a big pot of chili, makes beans and potato soup; things that can be reheated on a Coleman stove if the power goes off. I have a drip coffee maker I can use on the Coleman. About 6-7 years ago the power was off for 2.5 days because of an ice storm. Fortunately it wasn't this cold so no plumbing froze. We still had hot water from the propane water heater and could heat the core of the house up to the upper 40s with the ventless propane logs in the fake fireplace. Judiciously used Coleman lanterns and kerosene lanterns in the living area. If you have basic camping gear and basic camping knowledge and are not prone to get overly excited you can get by for a few days.

Just don't be like a former coworker who ate cold food out of cans a couple of days until the light bulb went off when he was looking at all the snow piled up on the gas grill out on the deck.

[dverna]

One of the investments I made when I started selling “useless toys” was a whole house generator. IIRC it was less than $8k installed.

I kept the 5000 watt gas generator just in case.

Over 6 months of food. Treated diesel for the tractor. Over a year of firewood put up. Topped off both 500 gal propane tanks last month.

We are prepared 24/7. It is a mind set. Once you get into that mind set, it is so easy a caveman can do it.