Shiloh Acres - RAIN!!!!!!! and maple syrup! ;)

[abifae]

I love being already prepared. The store was a madhouse.

Store runs are scary. Why not realize (for us in Colorado and other snow bound states) that you are going to get snowed in and just stock up early on. It's a given that, at some point this winter, we will have a snowed in weekend. It's not a shock.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I learned that last year living in the mountains.

You WILL BE snowed in. Possibly for loonngg periods. Possibly without electricity and/or water. Possibly without most neighbors, since many of them didn't live there full-time but they were vacation homes.

Not only that, but there was ONE road in. You could ne trapped by earthquake or mudslide even during times when snowstorms weren't a problem.

You STAYED stocked up and prepared there. Food, firewood, water, petfood, any meds, candles ... Everything.

 

[savingdogs]

Yup, that is us. We live on a mountain. One road in. Things will happen. We try to always be stocked up.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I'm glad that I am! Stocked up that is.

I guess this storm has really hit harder than I would have thought. It's not even that much of a "storm" per se, just much colder I guess than they are used to here.

Wind chill is below zero. The highs are well below freezing all week.

Schools are closed, my work is closed, church is canceled. Now get this ... I think the MAIL is not even running??? Whatever happened to that "rain, sleet, dark of night" saying, LOL. Maybe it's just this road ... not sure. But NO ONE seems to be going ANYWHERE.

Thankfully the animals are all ok. The geese are UPSET because their pool is frozen solid all the way though. No way to just break it as I normally do. Changing out all those rabbit bottles and the coop water was bitter this morning. I don't have super-warm clothes, and I couldn't stay out in it for long with the wind chill.

And I hope I continue to have water. I left the faucet dripping and ... it's frozen anyway. I don't know much about plumbing. The water (hot and cold) in the bathroom is fine, but other than that I only have hot to the kitchen faucet, and everything else is frozen solid. The house is on a slab ... I PRAY that no pipes burst. That would be something I can't deal with right now.

Should only last a few more days. Amazingly, the internet is fine, and thankfully no problems with the electricity. I'm having to run a little electric heater in a small room to stay warm ... I have the wood stockpiled but it would burn a LOT to keep the whole house warm so I'm keeping the rest of the house cooler, just enough for the animals and appliances.

I'm from the south, and we're not used to this, LOL. Fortunately, my llama found a nice corner to get out of the wind, and she's happy. And all the animals made it through last night, which should have been the worst. The rabbits were bouncing around like crazy this morning, wanting food (and I'm keeping them WELL fed in this cold) so I think MOST of the animals are actually pretty happy with the cold.

The chickens aren't much interested in coming out of the coop though. And I'm SO GLAD I cleaned the goats' trailer last week and put down nice thick fresh straw. I think they are very cozy in there.

 

[Denim Deb]

I got cold just reading your journal!

 

[abifae]

And I hope I continue to have water. I left the faucet dripping and ... it's frozen anyway. I don't know much about plumbing. The water (hot and cold) in the bathroom is fine, but other than that I only have hot to the kitchen faucet, and everything else is frozen solid. The house is on a slab ... I PRAY that no pipes burst. That would be something I can't deal with right now.

My bathroom pipe froze >.>

Just had the maintenance guy up. 7 pm and he was here ten minutes from when my roommate called.



Luckily it started running almost right away. We have the water running now and will stay running until the freeze ends outside.

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh I hope it warms up enough for you to get some water! Weird to have internet and no water, isn't it?

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Sorry to make you cold, Denim Deb! But yes, it's coooollllddd here, LOL.

Abi ... wonder how he did that? Maybe need to do some internet search. If I can do anything else about the pipes, I'd like to. If I'm only going to have one running in the kitchen, I'm glad it's the hot.

And SavingDogs, yes, it IS weird to have internet (which is usually dicey) and not water (which I did my best to keep unfrozen). A drip has always done it for me in the past. I didn't know ... I guess in these temps it needs more running through it maybe. But hey, I'm GLAD I have the internet. I'm supposed to be at work, so I need some way to connect with someone while I'm sitting here all week.

 

[abifae]

They weren't frozen solid. Turned on the faucet, put a space heater in the crawl space where the pipes are and waited. I've had it take 6 hours and then leak all over. This went fast so therefore, it had JUST frozen.

phew!!!!

 

[Wannabefree]

Yep little space heaters are handy for those kinds of jobs