Well, last night I shut the generator down about 10 PM, got my CPAP hooked up to the battery about 10:20 and 10 mins later the power came back on. Go figure. Today the power went off again about noon and since I only had about 2 gallons of gas left and they are calling for more snow, ice, low temps and high winds here for the next 4 days, I figured I better make the 20 mile run to town for supplies. After dodging downed trees for the first 7 miles I came across the power company cutting down a huge oak laying across the lines and the road. After a short wait there I'm on my way again, dodging more trees, make it town and back home where it is snowing again.
Looks like I'll be homebound for the next several days.

 

Stay safe! Just got my power back today . Out for three days .

 

You need to hunt down your stepdaughters boyfriend and hand him a bill for your fuel (including the run to town), sparkplug, time (I rate mine at a minimum of $15 per hour), and probably kick his dumb backside for putting your family at risk.

Also lock up the shed....

Far as your stepdaughter she needs a damned good sit down and listen.


It's one thing to get robbed, quite another to be COMPROMISED by an outsider.
Since SHE invited that, and probably went along - I reckon some rules need to be brought to the attention of someone who doesn't understand why they are.

Until her hopefully EX boyfriend pays up, if it was me I would take her cell phone away or something similar. There are many things a young person should be made to know are PRIVELEGES, not RIGHTS.

Bringing a jack-hole home is not a right... And if HE doesn't pay up, you ought to make HER do it.
The price of that single SCREW UP could easily have been written in large dollar signs, if not the loss of something non-replaceable
Somebodies life



So far, there have been no utility outages around here. I think my sleeping bags are good down to zero degrees, doubled up I bet they qualify as native american sweat lodges...

Rufuss is in rough shape, but not because of the weather. I expect he is going to go on to puppy paradise before too much longer. Woola is convinced that everything is normal, and curls up next to me every night - thus increasing the warmth.


Therefore I have not only got a fair amount of insulation if the worst comes - I also have a heater that only uses a few cups of dogfood every day.


But my needs and wants are quite a bit simpler if not downright spare compared to most people, and I know warm weather is just around the corner.


"Survival is a skill that can only be taught at considerable expense. More so if experience is the teacher..."

*The exception to that is if it is taught by family on camping excursions


Again and again I see a lack of self reliance in modern people, not just the young. Schools just do not teach how to stay alive in bad situations. That stuff is just considered "THE OLD WAYS" and is largely ignored until something happens that makes it sorely necessary...

Cell phones, 200+ TV channels, a car or four wheeler at their disposal, the list is near endless. But those are NOT needs, they are wants. And they cost money, as we well know. I have observed time and again over the years that anything that can be classed as a "LUXURY" is generally very expensive.

This is why food (within reason) is fairly cheap, unless you want to live on Pizza and Fillet Mignon.
(Although - most Italian foods are "PEASANT" foods, made by villagers striving to make ends meet. Mexican cuisine is similar, and so is a lot of French food. But you have to know how to make it like THEY do)

I make my own Pizza crusts with a French Bread recipe - I can honestly say that I know how to live on Pizza, and it is cheaper than ordinary meals....

12 cups of flour, 4 cups of water, yeast, and I have the makings of a great dinner. Just plop whatever you want on it and bake it...
It makes three 16" pizza crusts, and is what I do at the end of each month.


Sure hell beats handing a pizza shop $25 bucks for each of them!

So when cash is tight, or GONE I eat like a low born KING (or a "CAPO")


I could share a recipe with you for making Enchiladas or Tamales that uses whatever meat you have, flour, and LARD.

That's it - it's all you need.


Bottom line is that if you have a roof over your head, it's warm, and you have food BE HAPPY


"FOUR WHEELER" yeah, like I need that.



And people these days ask where their money goes....

 

Dutch its even worse. As good as the roads in the Memphis area got very quickly after the sleet/snow event, people were on the news complaining that the city didn't act quick enough or enough at all to mitigate the effect on the streets. I saw brine down on Sunday. Not only are we not self reliant at all we complain when someone else doesn't meet our needs as fast as we want.

Went to Walmart yesterday and they still didn't have much milk. People are crazy!

 

Wow....I am sorry you guys are in all that mess. But I'm glad that you have the where-with-all to survive.

Fifty4F100 hit the nail on the head----people are crazy. Let me add lazy, self-important and generally helpless to the list of generalities.

Everyone staf safe and warm...it got down to 9 degrees with a -2 wind chill this morning.

 

Dutch, it's not like the stepdaughter is a kid, the 'boyfriend was actually her fiance, he's 40 years old and they were not living with us, and had been together for 2 years. He was a heavy equipment operator, but lost his job before Christmas, and then called off the wedding and moved home with his mother. I'm just glad to have him out of her life.

 

Here's another important bullet:

I just came back from the dollar store across the way (ran outta smokes) and a fella pulled in with antifreeze just BOILING out of his truck....
It looked for sure like a blown head gasket

Had a new pump and radiator, but the cold likely froze the coolant in the radiator if it wasn't all the way good.

I gave him this advice, and it may help others:

Let the engine run for no more than two minutes, then shut it down if it is this cold again.

Doing that will generate some engine heat, that will warm the engine compartment.

Give it about ten minutes, then run it for a few more minutes, but touch the lower radiator hose to see if it is warm to the touch - if it isn't, it may be that there is no flow.


WE DO NOT HAVE BLOCK HEATERS in this area, and some that have to leave a truck outside may have a bad situation with the cold.


By warming the engine a little, it can warm the engine comp enough so that the radiator and heads especially can thaw out any trapped ice, but of course frozen coolant may cause cracked heads or blocks.

To let it run longer may cause damage - at least until the coolant passages are clear. That guys truck looked like Mount Saint Helens, and I'm guessing he started it up and went back inside. Therefore the lack of flow caused heat build-up...

I pray God you all are running at least a 50/50 mix of antifreeze, if not you may be buying a set of heads and gaskets before this is all over.

I read 10 degrees on one of my thermometers this morning, a weak antifreeze solution may not be able to handle that. That is not something we tend to prepare against around here, and I bet the cheap-side "hose water only" in the radiator people are hating life right now. Likely they'll be lined up on the side of the road from here to Missippi and back...


I betcha used replacement heads are going to be in short supply around here after this mess is over with.


Joe: Sometimes the price of good riddance is kindee high, but done and over with is a good thing! I'm glad you had a handle on it and it wasn't a totally bad deal.


*NOTE: Something else you can do to protect your engine is to put a small space heater (electric) in the engine bay. It only needs to keep it above freezing - forty to fifty degrees is fine


I ABJECTLY APOLOGISE FOR BEING LATE WITH THIS INFORMATION
I assumed most people were aware of the risk


* The local store sold off all of its stock of rock salt yesterday. Funny about that, it's good for getting rid of tree stumps and also good for rusting out the bottoms of new cars...
The only other use for it I can think of is in an old fashioned ice cream maker or shotgun shells

 

It was definitely cold last night. Glad to see that warmer weather is just a couple days away.

Everyone have a great weekend!

 

Well it was -4° when I went to bed last night, it's 13° now, but they are calling for a high of 29° today. Tomorrow may get up to 42° but they are calling for a 90% chance of freezing rain so we might be in for more power outages again.

 

I've been lucky with the power situation so far. Last year the local electric company went ballistic clearing trees that were close to the lines out my way.

 

Yesterday's rain has cleared away all the snow and ice around here. There are a couple patches where the snow built up, but that's it.

Hope the warmer weather has had similar results for everyone else.

 

Still pretty ugly here. Main highways are clear though.

 

Hello Tennessee...winter still has a grip, right?

 

Got my water back yesterday . Warmed up enough for the pipes to thaw . Now a swampy mess with all the rain and melting . You guys be safe !

 

Unless it melts a whole lot today, I'll have ice the rest of the week.