Getting rough over here

[45lk9p459gm-w]

What a great idea! I think we'll try to build one! Where do you find the brick with holes? The stove will be perfect next to a firepit!

Dunno .... I just used some brick that I had around here. Did you look at any of the youtube videos? They will tell you how to stack the brick and several ways to vent the top of the stack where the pot goes. Use a burner ring off your house stove, place four thick metal nuts on the top and set the pot on top of them, most anything will work. The idea is to vent heat through the top of the stack and around the pot so it will draw properly.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Its called cored brick. $0.58 ea at lowes, essentially the same at home depot.

 

[MissE]

I have gone so long with out some modern conveniences if forgot what it's like to have them. We aren't completely off grid my any means, but our main source of heat is the wood stove. We have a well and a pump, but no septic and no indoor plumbing (hope to get that in this spring) so all of our water is in 5-7 gallon jugs. Once every week or two we fire up the well pump and refill everything. I keep 3 weeks of water on hand for us and the animals. If the weather is looking bad, we make sure everything is topped off in case we lose power.

There is constantly a large stock pot of water on the wood stove so it's hot when we need it for washing bodies and dishes. Cook stove is gas. We are in the sticks, so if the power goes out, it can be out for days.

Weather events like this make me glad we chose to live like we do. Even with plumbing, we will still store water and the outhouse will always be available.

Animals handle weather events better than we do. If their water freezes, don't dump it. Bring it in to thaw. Water in the morning and late afternoon. Remove it at night. They won't need it then anyway.

For you and your family, set up a 5 gallon bucket for a toilet. Don't waste resources trying to thaw water to flush a toilet. Move everyone into one or two rooms and close off the others so when you do have access to electric for heat, you are only heating a small space.

When things are back to normal, invest is several water jugs and keep them filled at all times.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I water my animals with harvested rainfall. Have a pair of 275 gal food grade totes connected to the gutter on one side of my barn. 1" of rainfall will fill one. We average almost 60" per year... Fall gets rough, we've gone a month with 1/8th", but otherwise, it more than meets our needs.

and keep plenty of wood on hand for fires.

But i do enjoy my power and 2 bar cell service (good days), and the septic sure is nice.

 

[docdubz]

I feel ya (almost).. it also means no flushing toilet, and here no stove!

I should have invested in a generator years ago.. and maybe it's time you should to?!

We will be replacing our pellet stove that requires power to run the hopper and fan with a wood burning stove that does not require electricity to make heat..

The propane BBQ can be a valuable resource in these times to heat water.

Regarding frozen coop water.. I have seen a poster who composts manure inside a hole and sits the water on top..

https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/15626545

Hope this helps and your rough time passes quickly!

Yea I definitely should have invested in a generator. I've only been homesteading for 7 months now and I was hoping my first winter wouldn't be a shtf scenario so I foolishly put that purchase off. A wood stove would have also been wise. I have a fireplace but that wastes more heat than a wood stove and I've been having a hard time keeping it lit with the cold draft coming down. My biggest eff up with all of this is I checked my electric company account and GOLLY.... My billing cycle started on the 15th and I've only had power for a day and a half total since then and my bill is $130. AND THATS WITH THE OLD RATES THEY ARE SAYING EXPECT AN EXORBITANT INCREASE! I'm hearing rumors that it's gonna be a 10,000% increase!

And, well, the silver lining is through trial and error I figured out a solution to my freezing water problem. I have two 3.5 gal waterers, I put two ounces of apple cider vinegar in each and the water inside the reservoir has remained liquid, I go out once a day with a screw driver to break up the ice in the trough and it's good to go. It hasn't broken above 20 degrees yet and today only one of the troughs had ice.

 

[docdubz]

As for updates on my chickens. So far they've all survived. They are drinking and eating more than normal though, they got a little uppity today and completely destroyed half of the roosts that I build for them and then when I went in to fix it they staged a prison break and took over the 'common area' or my barn. They seem to be doing ok but some of the roosters combs look a little sketchy. I can't tell if it's frostbite or pecking. My favorite rooster, the one that I socially engineered to be the alpha, "George" looks to be unaffected though. Which is great because the others were inevitably destined for the the stew pot, save for a small handful that have won a second chance.

As for water consumption, it seems like my br and wr hens are drinking way more than any of my other breeds.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wierd. Straight ACV freezes between 26 and 28 degrees, depending on the amount of acetic acid. Glad its not freezing on you, whatever the case.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yea I definitely should have invested in a generator. I've only been homesteading for 7 months now and I was hoping my first winter wouldn't be a shtf scenario so I foolishly put that purchase off.

I lose power 2-3 times a year. Getting a generator is a must in my area. At least here it's usually resolved within a day (the main cause of outages is storms taking down trees on top of power lines), but the frequency is what makes it annoying to deal with.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

I lose power 2-3 times a year. Getting a generator is a must in my area. At least here it's usually resolved within a day (the main cause of outages is storms taking down trees on top of power lines), but the frequency is what makes it annoying to deal with.

Same problem here but we also had a family member who was on oxygen for several years. That’s one of the big problems some people are having. The power outages mean they can’t run the machines and you are regulated on how many tanks you can have. And the limit is the same on matter how much you use. For some that amount is a weeks supply. For others it’s maybe 2 days. If you run out they tell you to go to the hospital. But a lot of hospitals are out and that’s even if the roads are passable to get to the hospital.