The worst of this cold snap is over. It was still pretty frosty this morning, I think my outside thermometer read 11 degrees when I went out to feed, but the wind has died back to nothing which makes all the difference in the world. We ended up using an entire truckload of split firewood in three days that normally lasts us a week plus we were taking some off the normal stacks I keep next to the stove as well.
Under normal conditions having the large wood furnace is doable. The extra work it requires is small potatoes with chainsaws and fossil fuels. IN a grid down situation though, especially with these Alberta clippers that come through, it would be back to the smaller wood stove and huddling in one room until they pass. As it is the furnace barely keeps one room warm enough with that wind and single digit temps anyway and eats through the wood to do so. The furnace really is great 90% of the time but doesn't handle the extreme winds and deep cold as well as it should. It's kinda like after a certain curve is reached between wind speed and temp it's usefulness falls dramatically. I have seen days when the temps were below zero and it did just fine but other times it would read 20 out and the high winds just shut her down. Only thing you can do in that situation is manually over ride the thermostat inside the furnace and go with it.
It's suppose to heat up into the high 20's today and the forecast is now saying snow starting in a few hours. I had planned on taking the 8N back into the pasture and cutting up some small Locust trees I have dead back there but that may not happen.
Just playing the wait and see game right now.
Speaking of wait and see. It seems the magical number now for any of my posts to update is eight hours. Since this has been going on comments are down by a bit and overall daily hits have fallen by half. I was averaging about 2000 hits a day and I am now down to about 1000. Not one bit of helpful information from the blogger help forums either. Just some questions and then nothing. I can sit here and watch other blogs I have linked update within minutes all day long while mine sits in limbo. Occasionally one will update within a relatively timely fashion but it is rare, I would say one out of ten.
I guess since it's free you get what you pay for.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
That is so weird about the blogging limbo. Almost like you and blogger are on different time zones.
ReplyDeleteLisa - I am betting it's a corrupted database somewhere. Thing is when it's somethign like that no one will ever find it and it won't be fixed until they run maintenance on the database and who knows how long before they do that. Maintenance might not even fix it it might take someone going in and lookign at the data directly and I doubt they would bother with a free service like this. Not sure what I am going to do at this point.
Deletedude - i totally feel your pain we just got through a storm with 100kph (60mph) gusts and it was NE wind which hits the back of the house hard - the squirrels have tunneled through a good portion of the insulation and the windows scream with drafts so it was cold as heck - at least the actual temp wasn't as bad as yours..
ReplyDeletethe west winds are colder and they hit the front hard - we have electric baseboards and the kitchen is freezing despite the heat on full blast.
wind is the worst i am really glad it died down for you - stay warm pal!
jam
Deletemet a boy who said his mom repelled squirrels by putting out lemonade. i think he meant the powdered kind, but was too remiss to ask.
deborah:
Deletethese tiny red squirrels are the nasty - they would probably just add water and vodka ;-)
cheers!
LOL I would pay to see pictures of you guys dealing with squirrels drunk on Lemon screwdrivers :)
DeleteIt is cooling down here so your clipper is on us. I went through the same thing with blogger and was surprised when the last few postings were fairly close to when I created them. I wonder if the more often you post, the more delay they put on your account. I have got to where I don't post but every week or so as it is the same stuff here to where I don't know what day it is some times. Kind of like you get punished for using blogger?
ReplyDeleteSf - Well I See RP posting two or three times a day and updating fine along with a few others. It just doesn't make sense as I have tried all the different settings I can think of. It 's got to be a database corruption somewhere or the blog has been flagged for some reason and they ain't going to admit it. I remember when your blog was doing this too and mine has done it before as well but never this bad and for this long.
DeleteNow just a darned minute, PP! As an Albertan I get damned mad when you Yanks blame us for all your crappy weather! You should thank us - it's those damned Siberian Highs that freeze our geese up here - and we take the brunt of it before passing it on to you guys down there!!!
ReplyDeleteI want a printed retraction with an apology (along with a small financial compensation for hurt feelings)!
Give me three of your chickens and we'll call it square! :)
bahahahahaha! i'm with Glen...and as a fellow canadian i want a printed retraction, apology...oh screw that! i want my financial compensation!!! my feelings are hurt! so there!
DeleteWell Glen I was going to offer up a settlement and all in the spirit of good faith but then like some class action lawsuit kymber had to chime in. Now kymber still owes me an apology and official redaction to mentioning being sick out of both ends in a post she did some years back. She never did it even though it was flagged as a 100 word penalty and roughing the reader. So I am afraid we will need to enter negotiations on this matter now.
DeleteHowever if you can arrange for the squirrels at her's and Jamby's place to get drunk we can talk :)
In the spirit of mutual cooperation though I will for now on call these cold spells Alaska clippers though. Will that be Ok and appease you? :)
No. I am an angry social justice warrior and now I am offended on behalf of my cultural and ethnic peers in Alaska!
DeleteThe price is now six chickens!!!
Say - do you mind if I post a link to your blog on mine, PP?