Who else is frozen?

Kicks

Right now its -8F:  wind chill -38F here in western SD and supposed to get lower over night.  My 67+ y/o body does not like it at all.  At least we haven't lost power like we did early Oct for 6 days.  

Its heading east.  What do you do to be prepared ?  I have a well stocked pantry, 55 gal. water, kerosene heater, lamps and kerosene for at least a week.  Our stove is an old gas one so does not need electric to work.  Hubby also has Coleman lantern, stove and heater ( and fuel) that we use camping in case we have to fall back on it.  Also have pplenty of 'winer gear' to wear IF have to.

So what do ya'll do?  

ziggypop

Oh boy - I'm not 60 yet but I live with my mom who is 85 and has dementia. She fills any used plastic milk container, soda bottle, jars whatever, with water and hides them all of the house (all the time) because "What if the electricity goes out.". One of my 'chores' when I moved home was to go around and find the 67 (no joke) gallons, 31 liter bottle and many assorted others and empty them and dispose of them. Since then it's been about an every 3 day chore. I suspect that now that there aren't any left, the electricity will go out, the pipes will freeze, the fireplace chimney will catch on fire, and we won't have any water because I dumped it all out!

flannelette

We had a -11F a few nights ago in southern Ontario. and a few days without hydro but some parts of Toronto without hydro for over a week, during Xmas! I don't mind as we have a high-efficiency fireplace insert and burn wood ( as well as a propane furnace but that needs hydro to run). Also I always have a propane stove, the new-fangled kind, but you can still light them with a match. I have an array of lovely old coal-oil lamps, but all the coal-oil has evaporated and some don't have wicks, so that's a job i keep meaning to do.

When it gets blowing, like tree branches are going to come down, like in the mini ice-storm we just had, I fill various jars, bottles, huge water jugs, some to drink, & some to flush the toilet as we're on a well. Hope I never end up living in an all-electric house! In the great ice-storm of 1999 (8?) i just went around the house breaking off giant icicles and heating them on propane stove for water. quite loved it.

Kicks

Ziggy - Are you inferring that I have dementia because I have 55 gals of water stored?  (LOL)

 My 55 gals is not stored in small containers all over the house but in a 55 gal barrel that is designed for home water storage, has a spigot and a fill hole.   It is in the pantry in a frame that Hubby built.  When I know there is a good possibility that more water might be needed, I fill all tubs and sinks for 'flushing' use.  Worse comes to worse - we can always take the sled down to the Creek about a 1/4 mile away and chop out ice to bring back and melt.

Flannelette - Gotta love those inserts!  Don't have one here but we did yrs ago on Whidbey Island (Puget Sound, WA).  The first one saved my Thanksgiving Dinner.  Hubby had just returned from a cruise and we had a lot of younger guy there when power went out thanks to a major storm and nothing was finished.  I was able to finish dinner though it was late by cooking on the insert.  The next time was Dec 1990, long story short, Hubby was on cruise, it got REALLY NASTY weatherwise but our insert kept us OK and I decided to take the boys and go back 'home' to SW FL til Hubby got back.

All of my kero/coal oil lamps were my G-grandmoms so it's sometimes hard to find the right size wicks for them.

AmyQ

It's 19 below in Minneapolis with minus 45 wind chills and my furnace is broken.  I've got a few space heaters going and the best they can do is 55 degrees inside.  I'm waiting for a furnace guy but sitting under lots of blankets with layers of clothes and a cup of hot coffee.  Bad bad timing for this.