Then and Now

Reflections, Winter

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While we are in the midst of what is forecast to be the biggest snowfall we have had yet this season, I thought I would take a look back to see what was going on in past years at this time.

I found that last year on January 29 we had already tapped maple trees and cooked our first batch of maple syrup.

https://donteatitsoap.com/2018/01/29/making-maple-syrup-2/

And in January 2018 we had so much rain that we were concerned that our garlic crop was going to rot in the ground (it didn’t).

https://donteatitsoap.com/2017/01/28/a-year-in-growing-garlic-part-iv/

In contrast today’s storm total will end with probably between 6 and 8 inches of snow on the ground followed by a mass of bitter cold air by mid week. Over the last few days we took some additional measures to make sure we were ready for what may come.

Driving – As winter approached my husband had taken the van in and had new snow tires put on the rear, but since it is a rear-wheel drive vehicle we find that when the roads are slippery it is best to have extra weight in the back of the van to keep it from sliding. A couple of weeks ago my husband loaded up the back of the van with firewood to add extra weight and when he bought several bags of chicken feed  this past week he left them in there as well. He also filled up the gas tank which adds quite a bit of weight in the rear. I am happy to report that he had no problems driving through today’s snow.

Firewood – We have be steadily using up our supply of firewood so before the snow came my husband wanted to cut up a couple of dead trees. Yesterday after he had them cut down and into logs I joined him at the farm and helped split the logs. Our wood supply has now been restocked.

Water Worries – With temperatures dropping well below freezing frozen pipes and broken water mains are always a concern.

  • We filled up a couple of five gallon buckets with water and left them in the bath tub. We want to have this water on hand in case there is a water main break in our community. This water is not for cooking or drinking (those supplies kept separate)only flushing toilets.
  • When the temperatures drop down into the teens at night we leave the water trickling at night to prevent pipes from freezing.

Fun – My husband charged the snowmobile battery – can you guess what he’ll be doing tomorrow.

How is the weather in your part of the world?

 

 

 

 

 

33 thoughts on “Then and Now”

  1. Hey ruth, I am going through some older posts tonight, I bet the snow mobiling was so much fun! I’ve never done it as we don’t get enough snow to try that here in Ireland!

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  2. Pingback: *Reblog* Then and Now #66 | Its good to be crazy Sometimes

  3. You’re all taken care of and the buckets of water for flushing – smart idea as well. We had a broken water main around the corner from us on Labor Day weekend 2017 … it took over a day to return to normal and I was glad I had on the WWJ traffic report that the water main break at Buckingham/Fort was causing a traffic backup. Heard that before I turned the water on thankfully. Stay safe and warm. I hear no traffic out in the streets – I suspect everyone is hunkered down inside their homes.

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    1. Several years ago we had a water main beak in our community and they had to shut down the water. There was still snow on the ground but it was raining that day. We were able to collect water from our gutters to use for flushing. It worked but it’s not an option when it’s not raining so keeping a couple of extra buckets of water on hand is our best option.

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      1. Great idea – I am glad you suggested it Ruth. Do you have DTE or Consumers Power? I listen to WWJ during the day, but WJR during the Mitch Albom Show. I heard that DTE is asking homeowners to dial down their electrical use because they are afraid of overtaxing the energy grid. This happened to me last Summer. Our side of the street lost power, supposedly due to the grid being overtaxed. I have one room where I work all day – my laptop is in the kitchen … worrisome, so I hope we don’t overtax the electrical grid until this power crunch is over. Look at the 800 schools that are closed and many businesses – surely that is not draining the power grid? They suggested not to use a washer/dryer … I’ve been running a small load about every 6 hours to warm the pipes downstairs along with the drip. A little amazed … I thought DTE had the ability to lower the electricity consumption in the Summer on their own – I hope they go ahead and do it before we tread into dangerous overload territory.

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      2. We do have DTE for electricity but have natural gas heat. Our electric usage really isn’t very high but the furnace has been running quite a bit. We turn it down some over night. This really would be a bad time for the grid to go down – We would survive but some people may not. I pray that doesn’t happen.

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      3. I didn’t know if you were on Consumers or not. Well, I’ve had the news on while working on my post and now the Governor has made a similar plea as Consumers and DTE for everyone to turn their furnace down to 65 to ensure we do not run out of natural gas. It IS scary and I hope the grid does not go down or we run out of gas. I have mine at 73, even though it’s a small house and I just got whole-house insulation, I’m not so impressed with parts of the house … the walls are still very cold to the touch, even if moderately cold temps. I sit at the kitchen table and that is the only room I am in 99% of the day. Yes, not everyone has a fireplace so it would be problematic for sure. I use very little electricity especially since I switched to CFLs and LED lights and live by myself.

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      5. Yes, 65 in the house would make it run constantly – mine goes on every 20 minutes, a little more this morning. It is cold in my house and I will have extra clothes on as well … getting ready to suit up and run the car. The sun is beautiful out there … just peeked out … hard to believe it is this cold.

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  7. That’s a lot of snow! We have cold, yucky weather here in the UK at the moment but no snow in my part (South West-ish), though it is forecast for this week. I’m glad you’re prepared, and it’s good your husband hasn’t had any problems driving today. Good idea on stockpiling the firewood and having water in supply incase too. Freezing pipes was something we had several years ago which caused a lot of nightmares, so trickling water is an interesting idea to help prevent that. I hope you all stay as safe and well and warm as possible. Will we get to see pics of the snowmobile in action?? 😀
    Caz xx

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  9. I do miss the West Michigan snows fro m where I am from. We have only had 1 small snow here in Western Germany, the Eifel area (which is not far from us) has had more snow. Of course Bavaria(much to our South) has had plenty of snow. So, if I really miss it terribly, we can always go for a road trip.

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    1. We are on the East side of Michigan so I am not sure how much snow they have had on the West side of the state. Likely more than we have had since they seem to get the punch from the storms coming over the lake then they often fall apart before they reach us.
      I’d be happy with just a couple good snow falls (8- 12inches) each winter – good snow falls just shouldn’t come with single digit temperatures and negative wind chill readings IMO. LOL.

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  10. We too are having quite the week!! Today we got the snowstorm and ended up with about a foot of new snow. Tomorrow and wednesday we are supposed to have -30 and below temps. Awesome…..

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    1. 🙂 Our forecast was originally for 8-12 inches but I think we ended up with around six inches. The temperature is suppose to drop throughout the day today and the weather people are warning that it will be colder than most of us have ever experienced before. I know it can be dangerous but they do tend to hype these things up. Thankfully it’s only supposed to last a couple days and we will be back to normal (and above) by the weekend.

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  12. We have dire warnings about snow, but most of the scary forecasts never materialize. We, too, let water drip from taps when the temperature plummets. That is one thing we didn’t have to do in NY, because our pipes were in a warm basement.

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    1. Our snow today wasn’t even as much as we had thought it might be of course there could still be some big drifts. We figure letting the water drip is cheap insurance. A pipe burst would be a real nightmare.

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      1. We had a pipe burst the first year we lived in NC. We went away for a few days, not realizing the temperature was going down. Luckily, the water was outside and poured into the crawl space under the house. It wasn’t bad, but we don’t relish a repeat.

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