How do you prepare for a Blizzard?

[miss_thenorth]

I went into the barn this morning to do chores, and was pleasantly surprised that it stayed pretty snow-free. I hummed and hawed at closing the door but decided to leave it open due to the direction of the wind. All is well. The kids are upset, (sorta) that today is a snow day, since they had the day off anyways, but they are, all four of them , outside snowboarding down the ditch across the road. Ds had to get out the skidsteer this morning do dig out the drifts, and still has more to do, but since his friends stayed overnight, he can finish up later on this afternoon after they go home. had pancakes, and eggs and bacon for breakfast, and they are having homemade pizza for lunch when they come in. Me, i'm having my roasted red pepper soup. Oh, and I think the roads are terrible, but I don't really care

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Mostly I guess I was already prepared here too. I got only what I was out of at the store. A loaf of bread (the little bakery loaf, because it was going to be too late to bake my own for dinner and it's cheaper than the sliced bread), an onion (I was almost out and wanted that for dinner too) and the only real "stock-up" item ... the largest container of grits I could find, since I ran out of that the other day. I like hot cereal on a cold morning. I usually only eat it a few times a year.

I wanted to have another layer to wrap the rabbit cages, but they have been fine. The geese are NOT happy to have lost their pool for probably the next week or so (maybe much longer), before it's going to thaw enough to maybe bust through. It's frozen solid. I hope it doesn't crack. Their breeding season is in full swing and they are NOT happy to not be able to get in the pool. They also started laying TODAY ... the coldest day we've seen since I've lived here (probably the coldest day in YEARS). What was that about global warming?

I just hope my plumbing is ok. I did leave the faucets dripping, but most of them are frozen up. I have hot water in the kitchen, and hot and cold in the bathroom sink. The toilets still flush. Good thing I did all my laundry last weekend.

I think the town is shut down. There is a thick layer of ice on everything, and I guess they aren't used to that around here. It's pretty crazy. And the store was a MADHOUSE. I'm glad I was only buying 3 things. A very kind gentleman let me go ahead of him since I was buying so little.

But yes, I'm stocked up on library books. My electricity works. I even found a television station my antenna will pick up that plays only shows from the 1970's and before, and I've been watching TV today for the first time in forever, and actually kind of enjoying it.

Might get a little cabin fever though. Church was canceled tonight, and I don't think anyone is going anywhere. I think everything is shut down, pretty much. No one is driving by, and I haven't gotten out since Monday, so I don't even know how bad the roads are. But I don't think the MAIL is even running, at least not on our road. It might get above freezing in a few days though.

They (we) just aren't used to this kinda stuff in the south.

 

[MorelCabin]

Snowstorms and blizzards I have no problem with...they are a very normal part of every winter in Northern Ontario...and I actually get very excited when I hear one is coming I love them.
it's the ice storms that I find terrible. The few of those we have ever had needed preparing for. Losing power for a whole week isn't fun but we lived through it when we lived in the country. I am not sure how we would do here...although I do have a gas cookstove and a gas fireplace to keep some heat in the house. Heat is generally the only thing I worry about.
As far as ever having to run out and get supplies...nope, I am pretty much always prepared

 

[Denim Deb]

I know there are some power outages in the area, mainly on the other side of the river. And, some places may not get their power back until Friday. I'm wondering how they're doing heat wise. The temps are dropping, and are supposed to go below freezing and stay there until Saturday.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I'm with you on the ice storms. We had a pretty nasty ice storm here a week or so ago. It didn't take out power, but driving (no matter how careful) was treacherous, and all the netting over my runs got caked with ice and fell down, tore in some places, and loosened some stakes around the chicken run. I wasn't able to fix it until it thawed, and there was no way for the chickens and guineas to get out into their runs the netting hung so low.

When I was a kid, I used to live at the end of a looonnngg dirt road (about a mile or more) that had only family down there. We had an ice storm that cut off power for 10 days, the school buses couldn't get us, etc. We went out and scooped up ice to melt over the wood stove for water. Luckily the wood stove heated the house and we had enough candles.

It wasn't much fun though. Had a rather spoiled family aunt staying with us, and she demanded my brother and I be made to scoop up enough ice to melt for her to take a hot bath every day.

 

[so lucky]

Here in SE Missouri it is cold as the dickins tonite, with strong wind. but very little snow. I am worried about the little roufus hummingbird we have over wintering at our place. We have a shop light close to the feeder, to keep it thawed. I don't know how little wild birds make it through these cold temps! But every morning she shows up, and returns often for nectar all day, since mid-November. Don't know how *she* prepared for the blizzard!

 

[Denim Deb]

By drinking the nectar.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

We prepare by bedding down all the animals, making sure we have enough feed and water for them (which we usually do). We fill bathtubs and other vessels with water in case we lose power. We're kinda screwed if we lose power, because our heat sources are a heat pump and pellet stove. Luckily we do have a small generator that would run the pellet stove, so we could hunker down in the basement. We've also got a portable propane heater safe for use indoors. We've got plenty of candles. We do make sure we have milk and tp, because we can't stockpile milk and our goat isn't milking at the moment. Then we sit back and wait. Last year we had several blizzards. This year we've been a little luckier, not nearly as much snow.