I'm enjoying the snow, but the bitter cold temps are just nuts. We are in for below zero temps again this weekend with 2 days of fresh snow as well. Old man winter sure has it in for us. I'm on facebook and found it rather hilarious that people are still hung up on global warming. Yeah, that's the ticket! Or is it climate change now? They can call it whatever they want, I'll call it weather and just plan for it. Weather is cyclic in nature and the sun has far more to do with it than anything. I'm not saying we shouldn't be stewards of the planet, but let's be realistic. Killing the economy, shuttering businesses and dooming our children to debt is far worse than letting a little co2 hit the atmosphere. It's not like the composition of gases in the atmosphere has changed a bit in the last 200 years.
As prepared people, we must be ready to meet the needs of our family in case there is a problem. That problem might happen at any time, in any weather condition so be ready to meet the challenge when it's time.
When 12 inches of snow fell, I thought I was ready. Turns out I wasn't 100%. I keep my generator on the trailer that's next to my house. When I did a service change this year, I installed a generator crossover panel that will run needed power to the gas furnace, kitchen, lights, office, garage, and microwave. The generator plugs in to a 30 amp 240v twist lock receptacle and powers the panel at that amperage, the panel then distributes it. It even has meters to balance the load with. Well, it turns out that the fuel tank on the generator has some water in it. Frozen fuel line stopped it cold when I tried to get it started in -5 degrees when the wife called and told me the power went out. I was out plowing snow but was close so came home and.... failed to help. The power came back on a couple hours later and we resorted to firing up the gas fireplace in the mean time. Had it not, I would have been out there dealing with it when I came home from plowing. While I was out working, I saw no less than 5 transformers blow. It was quite a sight with all the snow and wind, it really lit up the sky with an eerie zombie green glow.
The next day I got out there and drained the water out of the fuel and got the battery charged back up. Everything went fine and the panel tested good so all is well. I did notice that the fuel looked and smelled a bit stale, so I added fresh and some heet fuel line antifreeze. I'm back to ready again.
Another issue I had is that I keep half my stored food in the trailer. Some of that food is in jars that can freeze. During the power outage, some cans and jars froze and popped the lids off, and the food will need to be used before spring hits. The heater I keep in there reset to off, and didn't heat the inside to 50 degrees like it's set to. Another chink in the armor. Need to upgrade my heater to a manual model that comes back on to the same setting as before the power goes out.
And the last issue we've had is issue with mice this year that we've never had before. When I refinished the front door, I tarped it and guarded the entrance the day it was off, but we had an invader in the house after that. I trapped him a day later and haven't had another issue til this winter. I've trapped 2 mice and there is another that seems to be eluding the traps. It's not around but 1 day a week or so. Very odd pattern.
Hopefully the rest of the winter goes well. I'm afraid the market will correct this month, it's long overdue.
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