Snowed In - Thank god for the wood stove!

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Waulie

Minister of Fire
Aug 31, 2011
1,012
Nothern Lower Michigan
Twenty inches of really heavy, wet snow landed in the area Friday night. Lost power around midnight Friday and ours didn't come back on until Sunday afternoon. We also lost our phone and cell phone. We were totally cut off. We were able to get to town by Saturday afternoon once the county plows made it to our street, but the town was basically shut down. Some folks in the county still don't have power today and it was cold last night!

Anyway, we were just fine. The stove kept us plenty warm and we were able to melt about 2 gallons of snow an hour on the stove to flush the toilets and wash the dishes (well water here). We could have survived indefinately. After hearing about the emergency shelters being set up and concerns that many people's pipes would freeze last night, I'm feeling pretty darn lucky to have a stove!

I'm also going to have a lot of work this spring cleaning up the damage in the woods. That much heavy snow really took it's toll on the trees. The beech especially didn't like it. Oh well, lots of firewood.
 
Independence in an emergency. Congratulations.
 
Man we lose power like that and the neighbor hood wants to get warm at our place lol we got a very small powder friday night that was all but we did lose power for a while do to the winds. Glad your ok!

Pete
 
Nothing like having a Wood Stove. I am surprised so many go without one. Have you considered a small generator that could run your well pump and maybe your refrigerator? Glad to here things went well for ya.
 
Well, we did have a couple visitors. We don't have many neighbors and a lot of them have stoves too.

The cool part was explaining to my 3 year old the whole no power thing. That's definitely not something he's ever thought about. He did "help" shovel and we got lots of sledding in.

A small generator for at least the well pump would be nice. The stuff in the fridge just went out on the deck in natures refrigerator.
 
So Waulie, I'm also guessing you got to do some cooking on the stove too? We too don't worry much about power outage too much. We do have a generator but it does not get used very much at all.
 
Yay INDEPENDENCE!! ...as long as Husky keeps making saws, Ford keeps making trucks, arabs keep making oil, somebody keeps making saw chain, files, tires, 2-stroke oil and all the other knick-knacks...and nobody sets off an EMP or pulls a nuclear stunt in the mid-east cutting off electricity/electronics/computers/oil - all of which are needed to make all THAT stuff possible. :)
 
Nice. Good job!

Last October, we here in No. Central CT, got hit with early snow storm of 27" of wet stuff.

We were without power for EIGHT days.

Like you, our stove kept us warm and we were able to cook, melt/boil water.

With 8 of us in the house, I could not melt snow fast enough for the flushers....so on the third day I drove 100miles to get a generator. The next five days were pure joy. Plenty of heat, enough juice to power a fridge and our well. I'm on propane heat, so hot showers to boot!

+1 on the generator. You'll be glad you have one for your well.

Doug
 
I felt the same way in October when we got hit by the snow storm, lost power for 6 days, slept on the couch by the woodstove with my dogs for 6 days, couldnt use the blower on my insert but it warmed the family room to a nice comfortable temp. Nothing worse than that heavy wet snow, takes out everything.
 
Great story. And congrats on being self sufficient. I wish my power would go out! :lol:
 
Don't forget about the 50 or so gals in the water heater.... a bit cleaner than snow melt :)

My water setup sucks. It's a community well, about 12 houses on it. Doesn't have backup power to it, would need a fairly large gen set, which the owner would install if everyone paid for it, which nearly no one wanted to do.
When the power goes out, it doesn't take long to loose pressure. Happened one night while I was in the middle of a shower. :blank:

I keep a bunch of water on hand in the pantry just in case and for washing & toilets I drain water out of the water heater.
 
I filled up 5 gallon buckets with snow and brought them in the house for flushing, it melts pretty fast when its 80
 
We lost power for nine days in january 09. That was pre generator and pre wood stove. It was awful having to use kerosene to keep the house from freezing up. Now with the wood stove and generator I dare the power to go out cause I'm ready. :)
 
That storm last October is what pushed us to finally get our insert - got down to 40 degrees in the house after day 6 with no power, and I swore never again! Now I'm wondering why we waited so long to get burning!
 
All good points.

I figure i need to be ready for two seasons when the power may go out.

Wnter - need heat and water. Food can sit in coolers in the garage, etc. need some juice to get my well water.
summer - hurricanes, etc water and some juice to run a fridge to keep things cool.

In either season, a generator is really a lifesaver.
 
CT Burner said:
All good points.

I figure i need to be ready for two seasons when the power may go out.

Wnter - need heat and water. Food can sit in coolers in the garage, etc. need some juice to get my well water.
summer - hurricanes, etc water and some juice to run a fridge to keep things cool.

In either season, a generator is really a lifesaver.
Click to expand...

We bought a generator after the october storm too, I can keep the house warm with the stove but it would have been nice to be able to take a hot shower. There was a big run on generators in mass/ct in november 2011.
 
One thing I like about our farmhouse, it's water supply has always come from a spring fed pond, gravity fed to the house and numerous lawn hydrants. We just filter our drinking water in a Berky system. No power, we still have our water supply and wood stoves.
 
cozy heat said:
Yay INDEPENDENCE!! ...as long as Husky keeps making saws, Ford keeps making trucks, arabs keep making oil, somebody keeps making saw chain, files, tires, 2-stroke oil and all the other knick-knacks...and nobody sets off an EMP or pulls a nuclear stunt in the mid-east cutting off electricity/electronics/computers/oil - all of which are needed to make all THAT stuff possible. :)
Click to expand...

True dat and I know you are tongue in cheek so please don't take this as a rebuttal. However, for 10 - 20 days, none of that stuff is necessary if the wood is in the stack, you have some water, and a little food in the basement.

All of our ancestors survived without that stuff. I am not nearly as tough or smart as they were, but necessity would do wonders for those problems. Government doesn't keep the resources on hand to feed and care for anyone in a general emergency. We have to provide for ourselves.
 
A lot of people will get a big wake up call if something major happens. They'll soon see that no one is coming to help. I got to see that first hand when Hurricane Irene came through our town. I was helping a neighbor pump out 6 feet of water in their basement. No power for 5 days, the neighbors came over to my farm to fill 5 gallon pails with water from our lawn hydrants, so they could make hot water and flush their toilets. Your on your own baby!
 
CT Burner said:
Nice. Good job!

Last October, we here in No. Central CT, got hit with early snow storm of 27" of wet stuff.

We were without power for EIGHT days.

Like you, our stove kept us warm and we were able to cook, melt/boil water.

With 8 of us in the house, I could not melt snow fast enough for the flushers....so on the third day I drove 100miles to get a generator. The next five days were pure joy. Plenty of heat, enough juice to power a fridge and our well. I'm on propane heat, so hot showers to boot!

+1 on the generator. You'll be glad you have one for your well.

Doug
Click to expand...



the only problem with the October storm and people running generators was, at least in my neck of
the woods was...gas stations had no power either and no one kept a big enough supply of gas on hand

so by the end of the 3rd day or so...alot of the generators went silent
 
Yeah keeping enough gas around is one thing that deters me from the generator. Without one, we'd be fine for a few days. With one, we'd have to have tons of gas laying around. I guess with a wood stove, winter is actually easier to be without power than summer since you can easily keep perishables cold enough and there is (usually) an endless supply of water in the form of snow.
 
One of many reasons why we heat with wood....

On the discussion around generators, I just picked up one a few days ago - figured it was time to buy one before I "need" it. We have 2 fridges and a large freezer on the way - can't afford to loose the contents...also have a 1.5 year old and another on the way (due March 24th) :)

Something I plan to order very soon is a tri-fuel kit for my genny...this will allow me to run gas, propane or NG during an outage. Since I have NG here, I'm going to run a line outside to supply the generator. Here is the kit if anyone is interested.

http://www.propane-generators.com/tri-fuel_kits.htm

"C kits" require no major modifications and basically "bolt on".
 
MofoG23 said:
One of many reasons why we heat with wood....

On the discussion around generators, I just picked up one a few days ago - figured it was time to buy one before I "need" it. We have 2 fridges and a large freezer on the way - can't afford to loose the contents...also have a 1.5 year old and another on the way (due March 24th) :)

Something I plan to order very soon is a tri-fuel kit for my genny...this will allow me to run gas, propane or NG during an outage. Since I have NG here, I'm going to run a line outside to supply the generator. Here is the kit if anyone is interested.

http://www.propane-generators.com/tri-fuel_kits.htm

"C kits" require no major modifications and basically "bolt on".
Click to expand...

Thats a great idea, thanks for the info, Id love to change mine to propane and just have one big tank to draw from rather than filling up 5 gallon gas cans.
 
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