Ice Storm Drama

One day it was 12 below zero and the other was 14 below. This morning it was 7 below and with all 4 walls of our house being covered with snow plus 3 feet or more on the roof it is hard to keep the house warm. Besides the wood stoves, we heat with natural gas so that is another thing we have to depend upon others for. I went thru almost 2 cords of wood in the last 3 weeks or so. I split another half cord Sunday. With 3 wood stoves going we go thru a lot of wood every 24 hours. I have 2 large wood stoves for heating and a wood cook stove like the ones our grandmothers cooked on 125 years ago. I had it shipped in several years ago from the company in Knoxville that has been making them since the late 1800s. I have another 3 cords of wood but it is covered with several feet of snow. Even so I need to get out there and dig a large batch out and get it split.

We are on a well run by electricity but I had a stand by hand pump put in a couple of years ago so in theory water is no problem. I have a generator and also a solar generator that will push 8000 watts with no problem so that will keep the lights on and the freezer going IF we have sunlight which we haven't in a couple of weeks. I have had Colleen buy an extra couple hundred dollars in canned goods every week or so and that keeps the cabinets bulging. We have several coal oil lamps for lighting so that is not a real problem right now.

I have a really good log splitter that I bought from Home Depot 3 or 4 years ago that does a really good job splitting 10" logs in seconds. The down side is it is electric. I am going to check on another but that one is gas driven so it is damned if I do and damned if I don't.

Another pain in the ass is our propane company in Flagstaff called Colleen today and told her with the heavy snows out here they can't get their big trucks to us for a good while. That is not a real problem getting by but I use propane to run my bluing tanks so that is one more "shortage" we have to get thru. We have quite a few stainless guns to work on but the folks that have blue guns in here deserve to be taken care of too.
Kase moved back in with us a couple of months ago and is a real help especially with the 1911 and AR-15 guns we have to build or work on. Just in this last few years he has really grown both physically and mentally. It is not unusual for him to bring in groceries and help take care of the dogs besides working in the shop.

So anyway, good Lord willing we will make it thru this man made recession and snowpocalypse.

It was so strange, 28 degrees and the water on the ground is not all frozen, more slushy, and navigable. The UV keeps the black pavement radiating heat and kept our roads clear. The freezing rain was just rain. I was out checking pumping stations at midnight and 6:30 a.m. I was very thankful.

Gary's pictures of snow are beautiful. To us snow is a novelty but then we don't have to shovel our way out of it. It may snow 2-3 times a year here from a light dusting to an astonishing 12-14 inches. Lots of fun for cutting doughnuts or sledding. Just a couple days then it's gone. I've gone from snow 14" deep to 70+ deg. in only one week here in AR. Not uncommon to have 30+ deg. changes in one day!

I pray you guys get and keep power soon.

The western side of the state where the banana belt is located was much better LOL