2021-22 Cold Winter

flowerbug

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after living up north i learned pretty well how to cope with the driving and also just surviving. down here it's a cakewalk in comparison. still we have the propane tank for heating and the fireplace is converted to propane so we won't freeze to death in any kind of power outage.

as for keeping warm in the cold the biggest issues are keeping dry and not wearing clothes/boots/mittens/hats/socks/shoes/scarf so tight that your blood doesn't circulate. extra layers are much better than just one. if you have lung problems it helps to have a very thick scarf to breath through as long as it will let in enough air. the heat from your breathing out will warm up the air coming in (a mini-heat-exchanger). i have a few very thick rings of knitting that are my scarfs that fit one on top of the other and i can go out in -20F with a wind and still breath ok.

the only thing i really want and have tried to remember to buy for many years is a good pair of eye goggles for the wind so i can see better (instead of trying to see through a very tiny slit in between the hat and the scarfs).
 

Mini Horses

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I live in an area that gets little snow, normally. Seems about every 10 yrs or so, a "major" snow hits us...like a foot of it. It's been 12 yrs now, so I'm just "waiting". A snow of 3-5" is bad here, limited road equipment. Mostly our temps are lowest in Feb. So outside pipes are checked in barns, for coverage on the heat tapes. It does sometimes get pulled off or ripped. It's a normal winter prep check.

Here I have a few kero heaters...and fuel, in case. Big generator for running well, lights, appliances....it plugs in to meter base with special hookup. stock up gas as weather says I should. Have propane stove that needs no electric to run and I can cook on top of it! 😁 for my area, I'm prepared.

The livestock are my concern with water not frozen. Have several heated tanks if weather is extreme for several days...big ones! And some small ones. Expensive to run but needed. If only morning freeze I break ice and add hot water, it's cheaper! I have kept one big heated and dipped from it sometimes.

only time I've had power out for more than 2 days was after a hurricane took out massive power lines, been almost 20 yrs now. That was almost a week. Boo!
 

Alaskan

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In February, we had a snow and ice storm here in east Texas and -6F degrees! I never in my life experienced MINUS degrees. We got 2 ice storms and 2 snow storms, totaling 10" of snow. That might be laughable to a lot of you, but for east Texas, that was record breaking. We have no snow equipment for the roads, and the idiots make the auto body shops happy.

I don't want a repeat of that!
Yeah.. . That was crazy apocalyptic for Texas.

Kept blowing my mind. Your cedar trees exploding and song birds falling over dead.

Very much NOT Texas.
 
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