How about this weather we’re having?  It’s great if you like long walks and sunny skies. It’s great for getting the stir crazy toddler out of the house.  I’ve enjoyed the extended turnip harvest, I can honestly say I’ve never been able to harvest those in Jan before. There are, however, some aspects of it that are not so great.  Those of us who depend on the cold weather or snow in some fashion need to be able to deal with their absence.

Cold Storage - Those of us with storage that depends on cold temps have a problem when those temps are up in the 50′s.  If your cold storage is a pit outside or something similar, your options are limited.  You can dig it deeper for more insulation, or pile more insulation on top, but if the ground temps are warm, they’re warm, and you’re fighting a losing battle.  Eat the food faster because it’s going to spoil.  Use alternate preservation methods if you start to lose things.  For example I’ve been making large batches of applesauce to handle all the apples I have going bad.  If your nights are getting cold enough you can try letting some of that cold air in and covering it back up during the day.  You’ll get some success, depending on your insulation, but you also might see more critter damage.

Snow cover - It seems counter intuitive, but if there’s less snow cover, you’re going to need hardier plants.  I know I count on the snow to give my overwintering plants another layer of insulation.  Without that layer, they have only the mulch I provide to keep them from heaving/getting too cold/etc.  If I had unlimited money I could go out and buy some more mulching materials and make up the difference. Or, I can make sure my plantings are hardy enough and deep enough to handle the cold without that insulating layer of snow.

Snow melt - Lack of snow also means a lack of snow MELT. Again, this is something I plan on for my spring plantings.  In “normal” snow-fall years I can count on spring melt to be sufficient for my hardneck garlic, for at least the first couple weeks of growth.  Same for peas, I can sow them right in the snow if I time it right, and they’ll take full advantage of that snow melt.  Spinach and other early spring greens, same story. Permaculture plantings, that snow melt is one of the triggers for breaking dormancy.  In a larger sense, commercial farmers count on that snow melt for general soil moisture levels, if not for a specific crop germination.  There are ways to deal with lower snow fall totals.  If you’re counting on the snow melt for a particular crop, move what snow you can find to that planting. i.e. shovel it from your lawn to your asparagus bed, or shovel your walkways onto your pea plot.  You need the exercise anyway right? :-D Redirect roof melt to a veggie bed if you have the materials to do it. Doesn’t have to be fancy, my roof usually melts in one day. I don’t worry about catching it most years, but if I really needed that moisture I would certainly pay more attention and make the effort to put it where I wanted it.

If the weather has tricked your perennials into breaking dormancy, DON’T ENCOURAGE THEM.  Don’t water them, or feed them.   If they blossom, you can’t stop it, but keep in mind that’s one blossom you won’t see in spring.  No big deal if it’s flowers, but a bigger deal if it’s berries or fruit.  If they are sending up vegetative growth, make sure to find some mulch to increase the coverage on that plant.  Anything you can do to protect that growth from the cold that will come the rest of the month will help the plant survive it’s miscalculation.

Do take the time to enjoy it though, even if you can’t get onto your favorite ice-fishing spot. :-D

- Calamity Jane

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Last Sunday Mrs Jarhead and I made the pilgrimage to Augusta to do a little shopping.  She likes to visit the Goodwill and I like to stop at the Army/Navy store.  Luckily they’re just a couple of streets apart, so what I normally do is drop her off and then drive on over to my happy place.  (I’d walk, but the traffic is ridiculous and I don’t feel like getting killed by some inattentive texter.)

Anyway, I wanted to pick up another canteen cup to put in a second BOB and while I was there I found a couple of other really cool items.  First, I found a one quart arctic canteen with a matching canteen cup, which is really important with the time of year we’re heading into – at least here in Maine.  More about the canteen later.

Military Sleeping Bag

The next item I found was a military grade sleeping bag liner for just $39.95!  This is a sleeping bag unto itself and it’s good down to about ten degrees.  This is part of a sleep system that can be used in different configurations.  The whole thing is about $150 and if it’s as warm as the older style bags I used when I was on active duty I can assure you from first-hand experience that you will stay warm in temperatures down to –40 degrees.   I spent a couple of weeks in Minnesota and then a month sleeping outside in Norway (the country) and never got cold while I was in that bag.   The reviews indicate that it’s a very warm bag and it comes with a bivy.  I’ve got about five sleeping bags, but I’m sorely tempted to dish out the cash for this sytem.

The Arctic Canteen

Military Arctic Canteen

I’ve never used one of these canteens and I’m looking forward to giving it a try.  If I remember correctly in my early days of cold weather training we used the standard plastic canteens, which froze up like rocks no matter what we did.

A couple of quick notes about this canteen… instead of a screw cap it’s got a cap that plugs in instead.  The cap is plastic and where it plugs in is made from rubber, which will ensure that your lips don’t stick to the canteen (I hate it when that happens) and that the cap won’t freeze to the metal of the canteen itself.

The only downside I can see so far is that it’s heavy, but winter gear tends to be that way.  Suck it up!

I won’t go into much detail now because I haven’t had a chance to test these items in field conditions yet, but as soon as I do I’ll let you know how they worked out.

If you have experience with this canteen please leave a comment below.  I’ve got a cold weather case for a Nalgene bottle, but when the temp drops below ten degrees or so it starts to freeze up if you let it sit for awhile.

Thoughts About Gear

Military grade gear tends to run heavier than the ultra-light high tech expensive gear you can buy at the trendy outdoor stores, which is important if your bug-out plan involves a long hike, but there are several advantages to using it:

First, it’s been tested under some of the harshest climates in the world and it’s proven to work.  If it doesn’t pass muster it doesn’t get used.

Second, it’s usually a lot cheaper than the trendy gear.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the trendy stores and high-tech gear.  With some of my winter hobbies I need the lightest stuff I can get, but I pay the price for it!

And third, you can buy most of what you need for a bug-out bag in one place.  No traveling from store to store as long as your local Army/Navy is fairly well stocked.

Did I mention it’s cheaper?

Have you ever shopped at an Army/Navy store?

-Jarhead Survivor

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Cold weather rocks, but are you ready for it?

Another winter is almost here and I heard on the news that heating oil costs are expected to soar this year.  They’re currently about $3.50 per gallon here in Maine right now, but they’re expected to go up to about $3.75 a gallon over the winter.  Ouch.  A typical home oil tank in New England (and I presume elsewhere) is 275 gallons.  How much would it cost to fill your tank?

Today’s prices:  $3.50 x 275 = $962.50.
Extrapolated price:  $3.75 x 275 = $1031.25

That’s a difference of $68.75.

As if things weren’t already expensive enough.

I don’t know about ya’ll, but I want to cut back on oil as much as I can.  There are different strategies you can use, but one of the best things you can do is make sure your house is well insulated.  Here are some tips and tricks on saving energy.  It starts with 7 (really 9) tips, but there are more ideas after that for insulating and so forth.  I won’t go into it too much here, but insulating is one of the best things you can do to help keep the heat where it belongs.

That’s just for the high price of heating oil, which could almost count for a SHTF event in my book.

What If TSHTF?

But this brings up the point about what will people do for heat after TSHTF?  If you’re in New England or anyplace where it gets cold for the winter – and I’m talking about in the teens or below zero at night, not just dipping into the 40’s – you’ll know that running out of heating oil if you depend on it is no joke.

If you are truly dependent on heating oil there are a few things you might want to have around in case the power goes out.

The first line of defense is your clothing.  First – dress in layers.  Wool sweaters and socks, good synthetic underwear, and warm pants are all good ways to help fight off the cold.  If the power goes out at night have some extra blankets or some good sleeping bags handy.  If it gets really cold don’t be afraid to have a family huddle.  Get everybody together in one place and snuggle up under some blankets.

Calamity Jane had a good post about cold weather clothing for women yesterday.

Space heaters

While a space heater won’t keep your whole house warm – unless you have a very small living space – you can hang blankets over the doorways or close the doors to heat only a couple of the main rooms.  I have a small kerosene heater that will keep the edge off when the power goes out.  I’ve also seen small propane heaters that fit right on top of the grill-sized tanks that do a good job of heating a room.

One thing to be aware of is that some heaters can give off deadly carbon monoxide if used improperly, so make sure you read the instructions for your device.  Read here for more info about carbon monoxide safety instructions.

Heating With Wood

Heating with wood is an excellent way to stay warm during the winter months and if the power goes out it won’t affect you at all.  You can cook on most woodstoves as well, so you probably won’t even have to get your camp stove out.

Old school cooking. Do you have a stove like this?

My parents used wood heat during the years I lived with them and many more after I moved out.  I can still remember my dad waking my brother and I up early on fall mornings, pointing out the window at  two cords of wood and saying, “I want that pile to be a memory by this afternoon.”  That’s something I’d like to pass on to my son because those kinds of lessons are what helped me out the most when I went into the Marine Corps, but that’s a different topic.

Anyway, wood heat can be a lot of work, which I’ll discuss in a bit, but it’s extremely worthwhile if you have the means to do it.

Pellet Stoves

When Mrs Jarhead and I moved into our new house a few years ago there was a pellet stove already in place.  I’d never used one before and at first I didn’t care for it, but after the first winter changed my mind and decided that it’s a great piece of equipment.  Our stove holds about 80 lbs of pellets and when we fill it up it’ll run a couple of days before needing to be refilled.  It only needs to be cleaned about once a week and best of all, the pellets come in 40 lb bags.  We keep about six bags in the closet next to the stove with the main storage area for the bags in the basement.

Last summer we bought two tons of pellets when they were on sale for around $215 per ton (that includes delivery), which should last us most of this season.

Pros –

• It’s easy to adjust the feed rate and blower fan to give different levels of heat depending on how cold it gets
• Easy to feed the stove (you need to be able to lift a 40 lb bag)
• Only have to feed the stove once or twice every two days
• Fairly low maintenance.

Cons

• Runs on electricity, but will run off a generator (I’ve had power outages and tested it)

One last note about a pellet stove – you can’t convert it to a wood stove.  Oh, I suppose you could with enough time and money, but when I saw it I thought, “Oh wow.  If the power goes out I’ll convert it to burn wood.”  Nope.  They are two different animals.

Best Bet for Long Term SHTF Scenario

I’ll end here before this becomes the never-ending post.  This is one of those topics I could go on forever about, but instead of doing that I’ll let you chime in with your ideas for staying warm in winter after TSHTF.  C’mon, I know you have some ideas.

Let’s hear them in the comments.

-Jarhead Survivor

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