Things I've been thankful for this winter.

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Srbenda

Burning Hunk
Hearth Supporter
Dec 27, 2009
117
PA Horse Country
There's no question this has been a tough winter, not only for people in the south with a few storms, but definitely for people above the Mason-Dixon line.

A few things we've been fortunate to have:

After the ice/ snow storm that hit us a few weeks ago, we had trees down all over the place, resulting in closed roads and lots of downed power lines.

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Ultimately, this storm had us without power for 4 days, no small matter in the very low temperatures we had. While I rarely use it, we fired up the Fisher Grandma Bear in the basement.

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Not only does it take huge chunks of wood, it produces immense amounts of heat and burns for a loooong time. With no way to move the air in our house other than the heat rising, we still managed to keep the main floor of our house at about 65f, and the basement stayed a balmy 85f+.

Here's a full firebox for the night.
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We also have a much smaller Intrepid II upstairs that was great for cooking, and having a warm cup of coffee to start the day is always pleasant. So is a warm breakfast to follow.

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Last but not least, with the snowfall we got this year, shoveling would have been a killer. Having a little tractor with a FEL was fantastic, and it really made the chore go by much quicker and easier than doing it old-school.

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We've survived the winter so far, and I am fortunate and thankful that we have the capability to stay sane and warm during "emergencies" that so many others do not.
 
Nice post - we are so blessed!
 
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Snow was in the forecast, high temps in the low 30s. Instead, last night around 11pm it started to warm up a little. 44F now and no snow. Life is good.
 
Mum's home was slammed in '98. My brother kept it from freezing with a generator and 'round the clock supervision. We've always been reasonably "prepared" here on the Compound. Wood stove, adequate dry wood, oil lamps (fuel and replacement parts), access to water. A boiler replacement looms for spring and the forced "hot water" system will be replaced with "anti-freeze". I've been lobbying for a generator, but my squawks have fallen on deaf ears thusfar.

Something about "generator" seems to get confused with supplying full time/full power so that life can proceed as if there was no catastrophic failure in electrical delivery; which is not how I view a generator, at all. I see a generator as the tool that used judiciously will allow you have ready water and a warm shower when you really need one! Other than that? I'm basically cool with wood heat and oil lamps.
 
I thought winter was close to over, but obviously, I am wrong. We're about to get popped with another dose of winter joy, like everyone else in the Northeast. Oh hooray.
 
I'm thankful that right now my upstairs is 85 degrees and it is about 26 degrees outside. The stove room in the basement is 90 degrees!
 
Trees down in the storm. Good deal that means a lot of free firewood.
 
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