Are you ready for winter?

[Wifezilla]

Yeah, I have time. We get one or two little cold snaps end of October, then we have a long warm fall. It doesn't get totally crappy here until after Christmas.

 

[FarmerChick]

winter is easy for us in NC most times

and unloading over 600 animals this past year sure has helped LOL--so winter will be very easy for me


usual

get propane tank filled and they come and do that anyway
love my fireplace if power goes out


other than that, I got the usual flashlights etc


I am good to go....

 

[Neko-chan]

...

 

[abifae]

I want a few more gallons of water, propane, and I'd like a few more blankets.

 

[AnnaRaven]

I think we're pretty good to go. Once it actually chills down, I'll have to seal up the window in the bathroom again. I need to find our winter clothing. And get the comforter cleaned.

We have plenty of firewood and just had the chimney cleaned and fixed this spring. We got a new generator. The grounding rod is being installed tomorrow for that. My beef is coming in a couple weeks. Hog on order for October. Just got the pantry shelves put in and earthquake straps on all the shelves. Now I can actually *see* my canning jars of food. And my rain barrels are installed and ready with the diverters so I can capture the rain.

I need to get the new garden dug up though. That's my next big project. And I have a fence being replaced.

 

[JRmom]

Yes! Come on cooler weather! Actually, the only winter preparation we have is to get firewood. We won't order that until October.

But I do have a list of "cooler weather" projects including coating the roof at the cabin and painting the inside. We'd also like to put some insulation up into the porch roof and install a ceiling (we were given FREE! enough used ceiling tiles to do the whole porch).

 

[ScottSD]

Our first winter here, we didn't have our permanent heat in yet, so we used space heaters. Anything with a fan was sooo much better than the oil ones. (Deleted a bunch of just rambling here.. ) We had one kerosene heater just in case.... Put plastic on the walls, closed off areas of the house, etc.

Anyway, the best investment we made was a wood burning furnace. Our SIL got a used one really cheap $150?, spent $100 for a squirrel cage fan to boost the air flow. There's sits in the far side of the garage, ductwork comes thru an opening and hooks on to the existing furnace ductwork. Blows heat all over the house thru the vents. We had to do seperate ductwork, but now it heats the entire north side of our house, both stories. Ours was new, on sale for $999. What we saved that first year in electric rates vs buying firewood paid for the unit. But it's $$ and more for pipe, etc.

Just throwing out some ideas -

Are you somewhere that you have to follow codes and restrictions? If not, Mother Earth News has directions to make a wood burning stove on the cheap. I wouldn't pay to get the chimney fixed. Can you find a place to put a newish wood burning stove and then run the new chimney? The double wall pipe is really expensive, and you have to follow instructions on height, etc. But it can be done correctly by someone with basic skills. Lots of info on the web, kits available for ceiling/roof connection. You'll still have to use heaters in other rooms, but an array of fans might help, or ceiling fans pulling the air up will help move the warmer ceiling air down around the outer walls of the room. Google rocket stove. Lots of passive solar stuff at builditsolar.com that can be made on the cheap. At least you'll get some free heat when the sun is shining.

If you're not allowed those things, then what about looking for a used wood burning stove? You can buy new seals and stuff to fix them.

Our first wood stove is still here in the family room. It's steel, not as hot as a cast iron one, but I can still cook on it. The blower went out after one year, so now I use a little fan behind it that actually works better. It catches some of the heat from the black pipe, too.

Have you tried to google how to fix your furnace? We did that with our heat pump when it had an issue.

As far as codes go, I am pretty sure you can't have duct work going between your garage and house.....(maybe I read what you said incorrectly?)

Anyway, if that is what you have, I would check if that is under code.

I think the reason they don't allow duct work between garages and the living area is the possible carbon monoxide from running vehicles getting into the house.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

We haven't started getting things ready for winter like blockign chicken coop windows, putting the front on the sheep shelter, etc. September for us is still more summerish than fallish. We've got plenty of time to get those types of things ready. The big thing we're working on now is whether or not to put in a woodstove or just re-locate our pellet stove. We're tired of heat pump electricity bills.

But mentally I am SO ready for winter!!!

 

[Marianne]

Aggie, I hear you on the heat pump heating bills. We put in our woodburning furnace after we had three months of $450 - $500 electric bills - and we were still chilly most of the time. 8 or 9 months out of the year, we love our heat pump, but it's too cold in the winter months for it to work efficiently. With the wood furnace, our average ele bill is $119 a month. Most of the time we cut and split our own wood, but even if we bought an entire seasons worth ($600), we're still money ahead. The wood furnace blows out hot air within a few minutes of starting the fire, but the wood stove in our family room? Well, it takes about two hours or longer to bring this large room up to 70 degrees. But I can and do cook on it. Potatoes wrapped in foil, cooked in the coals are awesome, too!

Scott, our wood furnace is in a smallish room that we built just for the furnace. Since we plan on attaching a garage to that, we put three rows of caulk under the walls as they went up, then caulked the cracks on both sides and installed an exterior door. Our insurance guy didn't even come out to check it, he just said to install it according to manufacturer's instructions. We put ours up on blocks, SIL did too.

When I asked SIL about there's being in the garage, fumes, etc., he said there was no reason to let vehicles run in the garage as they're already warm. Open the overhead door, start the car, back it out, close the door. Their insurance guy did come out, looked at everything, said it was fine and left. Maybe their town doesn't have the codes that the bigger cities have. I never have noticed any exhaust smell in their house, so I finally quit worrying about it.

 

[TanksHill]

No thought of winter here yet. We are working on an Indian summar. Which could give us high temps through Oct.

I do plan to change the litter my big coop. After the turkeys are gone things woo be much easier. The garden will need to be amended and turned.

I have a big pile of wood I plan to split and stack. If only I had a wood stove. We do use our fire place all winter.

I have managed no AC for the past 2 years wish we could forgo the furnace. But that is really the most affordable utility we have.

Not much else for us.

G