The sleet and snow ended sometime during the night while the temps steadily rose until we hit a high somewhere in the mid 40's and the sun even peeked out a bit. It pretty much turned everything into a wet sloppy mess too.
Now that I have my truck back with the real man sized bed on it I was able to split a huge load of firewood and give myself a little more breathing room. If we go back to normal temps I should have more than enough to last already cut but I can't count on that. However I don't have much out there left I can get to when the ground is soggy either. At this point temps are suppose to drop tomorrow night and stay below freezing on Monday so I may shoot for a Monday cut when I can get in somewhere without sinking into the slop.
It's amazing how three or four days of frigid temps can eat through a wood supply. I think we used more wood this last week than I did the entire last 2/3ds of January.
Oh well one good thing is since I haven't really cut any wood for this year's supply since November I have to say I am happy with my record keeping and supply estimates. Even if I run a little short I can say I came close enough that maybe only adjusting by a cord or two is all that is needed. I will be able to tell from the stacks how close I am.
Other than the firewood emergency I got dug out the drainage ditch in front of the barn to keep the run off water going where it should and started pumping out the basement once again. Once the freeze danger is passed I am going to try and see if I can open those drains once again but until then I need to continue running the pump after each rain or snow storm.
Oh and the washing machine is on the fritz too. Always something to deal with ain't there?
Not to mention I am so far behind on answering comments as well. I need to get on that this evening.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
We are still getting a little sleet and snow, I know what you are saying about wood, I have been feeding 3 stoves for days and I am getting into what I thought was cut for next winter. I hope I get above freezing tomorrow, you got a lot done.
ReplyDeleteSf - Ya this real cold makes me burn through the wood. That and when I am gone for a few days and have to have the Wife, Son and Mother fill the box they tend to use almost twice what I use. They like to cram it full to the max thinking then they can wait longer before needing to refill it again. I on the other hand who also has to cut, split and stack it try and be a bit more conservative and only put in what I need rather than running it over time. I also know how to keep the house at about 75 or so where as they will put the temp over 80 doing it their way.
DeleteI can make you feel better, bitter wind chills tonight and all day tomorrow -30 below. Up near Grand Forks N.D. wind chills near -50 below, oh you read right. our last gas bill was $133. gas heat, water, cooking..
ReplyDeleteRob - Ya know I lived in South Dakota for a while. As far North in SD as you can get actually, I was only about 10 miles from the ND border. Anyway 20 below up there felt warmer than 20 above down here to me due to the humidity. But damn did that water freeze quick though.
DeleteMy mother ran out of fire wood. She is going to have to buy some and they do not deliver, so she has to pick up. My mom is sort, but she lives alone and is 71 even if she doesn't like to say so.Lol
ReplyDeleteI always worry about her in winter.....I told her we would bring our chain saw this summer and get a bunch cut, we could even rent a splitter.
I think we are in a weather trend, and we need to re jigger our winter needs..
LW - Definitely. My firewood consumption has grown by over half since 2008. I most of that has come since 2010 when I switched to all wood heat but to be honest even before that I rarely used the propane. 2012 - 2013 Winter was the big jump I used almost 3 times the amount of wood that year as any previous year but the amount had been growing up to that point. I will also say that prior to about 2010 I had people begging me to come and cut up trees in their yards after ice storms. These days downed trees are claimed about as soon as they fall.
DeleteAny ideas how the bees are weathering this Preppy?
ReplyDeleteNot a clue yet. Haven't seen em out at all and it's been too cold to pop their tops.... I am worried a little bit to be honest.
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