Tag: preparation

It Can’t Be Over

Warm weather and garden season that is. When I arrived home from last week’s wanderings, the woods were beginning to wear jewels. I had seen a bit of the dark red Poison Ivy climbing the trees and the barest hints of color elsewhere, but by this week’s end there is much more color on the mountainsides.

The Maple aka, the Tick tree as you can’t walk beneath it without acquiring at least one.
The photo doesn’t show nearly the color the eye sees.
So I conceded and pulled out the fall banner and mini banner, the fall wreath, tablecloth, napkins and kitchen towels. With no kids in the house and no Trick or Treaters come this far, I only put a few decorations out, a real pumpkin on the porch, a resin one on the front table, a ceramic ghost and ceramic lighted jack-o-lantern on the bookshelves.

The table set with a large dried bottle gourd, a smaller gourd I painted at Garden Club years ago and a Burgess Buttercup squash from the garden.
So I have conceded, sort of, but I’m not ready for the early frost/potential hard freeze predicted for our region on Saturday night. Today and tomorrow, I will harvest Tomatillos and peppers, drape a sheet over the peppers tomorrow eve in hopes that we either miss the frost or only have a short light one. Sunday I may be able to find all of the Buttercup squash, Seminole Pumpkins and sweet potatoes, but I’m just not ready yet.

This is when I wish I had a portable hoophouse that could be put over the two beds that are still providing, hoping to extend their season by a few weeks. Maybe next year.

Today as the rain comes in, I will can applesauce and apple slices. Yesterday I started the cider vinegar. Tomorrow, we will bundle up and go buy meat for the freezer, leaving space for the 15 chickens that will be processed next weekend.

October 3, 2014
Here we go again!

Yesterday was in the low 70’s and sunny, today in the mid 60’s, but a front is roaring through, house shaking wind, torrential rain this afternoon, and plunging temperatures. We took a day trip today to two Harley Davidson shops, each more than an hour from here for Jim to check out new and used motorcycles with a bit of size to replace his Honda Rebel starter bike. We got back just in time to pick up our generator and take it to the repair shop and drive home in the worst of the rain. The generator that we bought 7 years ago was used during construction of the house prior to the electric service being brought down to the house site. Since that time, it has sat unused in the barn. It is a sizeable unit and was unfortunately stored with some fuel in it. We have had several times when having it functional would have at least provided us with some light and ability to keep the freezer working. It seemed like we should deal with it, so it has gone to the shop to be cleaned and tuned and hopefully made fully functional again. We would like to have it tonight. The thermometer plunged 20º in the hour after we got home. It is falling into the teens tonight and staying near freezing tomorrow daytime and back into the 20’s tomorrow night.

With the strong wind, we again face the threat of loss of power. Though we and the dogs would be uncomfortable, we would survive it well, the 5 day old chicks would not. I moved their set up into the basement as the basement having 3 walls underground hold its temperature better than the rest of the house. I also turned the thermostat up to warm the space more and have brought in wood, paper and kindling to start a fire in the wood stove if the power fails. The chicks will be placed as close as safe to that stove in hopes that they make it. At less than a week old, they need 90+ºf temperature and that will not be able to happen for the next 36 hours if the power fails.

The other preparations for storms have also been handled. The guest bath tub has been filled. Extra straw placed in the chicken coop. Wood brought into the garage, fires laid in the fireplace and the wood stove, just awaiting a match. Oil lamps filled, batteries in flashlights and lanterns checked. I keep hoping that the prep will ensure that the power stays on. I would rather be ready and not need it.

Next time we are threatened, hopefully we will have our generator back and will fret a bit less, but we still will have no heat and no water if the power fails. And tonight I will not sleep well, I never do when the wind howls even though there are no trees near the house. There is a shed roof over the heat pump to protect it from snow slide off the roof, but I always fret about it’s stability in high wind.

As the temperatures were falling and the winds rising, the dogs again decided it was time to wade in the muddy creeks in the sinkhole. I am not amused with this behavior.

Winter will end, I have confidence, but as it darkens, it has dropped 30º already and it is sleeting. After much coaxing, the chickens have been closed up for the night.

March 12, 2014
The Calm Before . . .

Again we are being threatened with a winter storm. How many times has that happened this winter and it fizzled? But this time they seem to be serious and instead of adjusting the storm away from us at the last minute, they are giving us more and more intensity. It is to be a snow event in this part of the state. I love snow and snow sports, so I’m fine with it, however, it always requires more effort on our part as we do live rurally in the mountains and heavy snowfall often means loss of power. Loss of power means loss of heat, water and all other conveniences of life, so today, the cold, calm day of azure skies will be filled with the preparations for such occurrence.

The downstairs bathtub must be filled with water for necessary flushing and so the dogs will have water. All of the emergency and camping jugs also filled as to get water when we have no power, we must trek downhill a few hundred yards to the gravity fed yard hydrant from our cistern that is there to water horses and cattle next year after our fencing is done. Trekking down is not difficult, but toting one or more 5 gallon jugs of water back uphill is tough. With enough snow, they can be loaded onto one of the toboggan sleds that we bought for our grands and us to play on in the snow, and dragged back uphill.

A supply of firewood will be brought over and stored in the garage to keep the woodstove and fireplace stoked for heat. The wood is stacked against the end of the huge compost bins by the garden, but who wants to carry wood over in the wet snow when we can just grab it in the garage.

The hay used in the chicken pen and coop needs to be covered as they won’t come outside their coop if snow is on the ground and I don’t want to have to dig the large round bale out and deal with wet hay to get a layer down on the ground for them.

A pot of stew beef that can be finished on the wood stove or the propane camp stove will be started, or a pot of chili made that we can heat on the wood stove or camp stove will be prepped.

The freezer will be rearranged to make sure that there are few air spaces and jugs of ice that I keep in the basement refrigerator freezer when not needed, will be packed on top to keep the remainder of last summer’s bounty frozen.

Some day we might finally get a decent generator, maybe a whole house generator so these preparations will become unnecessary. Until then, time is wasting, I’d better get to work.

February 11, 2014
Anticipation

The day is mild, almost springlike. The thermometer has risen to 53f (11.66C) though we still have gusty wind. The forecast is for our first real snow, not a huge one, but 3 to 6 inches, I’ll settle for that. The transportation departments are out in force, spraying their salt mixture on all of the roadways in anticipation. We live on a 2/10 mile gravel driveway, downhill from a 2/10 mile state maintained gravel road, downhill from a real paved road. With only 6 inches, no drifting and the 4 wheel drive feature of the vehicle engaged, we can get out if necessary. The only time we couldn’t get out, we had 20 inches two weeks after we had 22 inches that had not all melted and the second snow drifted. We were stuck for 3 days until our contractor/farmer neighbor came down our driveway on his huge tractor with a blade and plowed us out, then waited to make sure that hubby’s vehicle could get to the top of the driveway. For about 2 weeks, that is where the car stayed and all supplies that we had to bring in here hauled down to the house on plastic toboggans, sometimes with us racing each other down the driveway in two of the them. That was 4 years ago, the year of the last Winter Olympics and we posted many photos of our Cave Hill Olympics, our antics in the snow. We may both be senior citizens, but we still like to play in the snow.

As the transportation folks are preparing, so are we. Knowing that snow and wind often mean power outages, some for only a few hours, some for days on end and when we don’t have power, we also don’t have water, I have preemptively filled the downstairs tub, the water jugs and will shortly go bring in a couple days worth of wood into the garage for the wood stove and fireplace. We went to town and resupplied some of the staples that were low from the natural food store. I added another 8 or 9 inches of dry straw to the chicken coop and put a fresh layer under the coop and where I enter their pen.

With this potential snow, we are facing single digit temperatures at night for the second time this winter. We will have to leave the hot and cold water faucet in the utility room dripping, pull out the space heater and hope the pipes don’t freeze in there again. I also need to figure out how to keep the washing machine drain from freezing, though I can always drain it into the utility sink if the water is running.

With any luck, we will have a layer of white to enjoy for a day or two. The dogs will love to romp in it, the chickens will be less thrilled, but I am still kid enough at heart to be anticipating some snow and a long walk in the cold white world.

January 20, 2014