Thursday, September 14, 2023

Are we in for a hard winter?

The wild roses are producing tons of rose hips already. As I remarked while walking with Older Daughter the other day, we'll never lack for Vitamin C in this corner of the world. (Rose hips are rich in Vitamin C.)

It was while glancing at these rose hips that I mentioned one of our old neighbors used such signs to predict a hard winter. People have used folk wisdom for centuries to predict what the winter would be like (some of these signs are fanciful, some may have justification). Whether these rose hips are an indication of future weather is anyone's guess.

But this came to mind yesterday when a reader sent an article on how El Niño is anticipated to return for this winter season, and to prepare accordingly. While the article focused on the rain that could hit Western Washington, we can all translate that to the amount of snow that might fall on North Idaho.

Twenty years ago, we moved to North Idaho from the far more temperate southwest Oregon. We moved in June, which meant the weather was lovely. We had about five months, perhaps more, to anticipate what lay in store for us over the cold months. And here's the thing: depending on whom we talked to, the winters were either "not bad" or they were horrible. Which was it?

The house we moved into was a fixer-upper with poor heating systems (an inefficient wall-mount propane heater and an even more inefficient woodstove). We had no idea what lay in store for us that first winter. But with two small children (five and seven at the time), we knew we didn't want to risk their health or safety by not being ready for what, conceivably, could be a hard winter.

So we made a decision: By October, we would be prepared to be snowed in for three months. This meant we would have enough people food, pet food, and livestock food so we wouldn't have to go to the store for three months, and enough firewood to stay warm. Could we do it?

Yes we could, and we did. And boy, did it pay off.

North Idaho doesn't get winters comparable to places like Maine or Minnesota, but here's the thing: Facing that first winter in our new home, we didn't know. We didn't know how cold it might get, or how deep the snow might be, or how bad the (non-county-maintained) two-mile dirt road might get, or a host of other unknown factors.

As it turns out, that first winter wasn't bad. We got snow, yes; but it wasn't much and didn't overwhelm us. Ditto with the second winter. We were being foolish and going overboard with this "three months" rule? As it turns out, no.

The harsh winters of 2005/6 and 2006/7 made all our winter preps worth it. While we weren't snowed in for three months, we got close. Combined, those two brutal back-to-back winters left something of a psychic scar that made us never underestimate the power of winter.

Then we bought our current all-electric home in December of 2020. We knew we were vulnerable without a non-electric heat source (it was before the wood cookstove was installed), so we had to cobble together an indoor propane heater that only warmed about 400 sq. ft. It was a darned good thing we had it, since we learned power outages are far more common here. We had one four-day stretch that first winter that would have been truly alarming if we didn't have some way to heat at least a portion of the house, however inefficiently.


In short, we don't take winter for granted, ever.

I don't know whether El Niño will slam us with heavy snow any more than I know whether all those rose hips mean a hard winter is on the way. All I know is we'll be ready for it it if comes.

So should everyone.

19 comments:

  1. I am wondering as well, Patrice. The squirrels here are already burying acorns for the Winter, and it feels like this is far earlier than they would usually do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Years ago, 1972 I think, I worked with an immigrant from Ukraine. His parents and grandparents survived the Holodomor. His grandfather owned a few acres of land that he farmed vegetables on, mostly beets I think and they had a few acres of woodland that they could use to harvest firewood and sell wood too. He could see bad times coming and would bury (clamp) beets and a few other veggies in holes out in his woods. When it all went bad he hid his son and daughter in law so that the government didn't take them. They took his crops and left them nothing thinking they would die. But they had their beets put away for the winter. He wasn't born yet but the story was they would cook the beets and whatever else they had in the early AM and eat it and burn the residue before sunrise so no one could smell the food or find the scraps. They had one meal a day but really couldn't eat more than that because they were supposed to look like they were starving. Bury your "acorns" where they can't be found. Of course this kind of thing would never happen here...

      Delete
  2. Even down south you never know. There may be a few winters that are no big deal at all. Then wham. Like last year, Below zero temps, howling winds for days, and you hope and pray the power stays on in spite of supplemental propane heating. I can remember a thick ( for us) layer of snow in September 40 years ago. Who knows what the weather will do. But it seems the pendulum for extremes in weather is swinging faster and faster. So it's best to try and get ready for the worst. All of us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm about 800 miles south of you - here the summer was unusually cool and even that is cooling off early; I expect a long cold winter here also...
    Jonathan

    ReplyDelete
  4. If your prepared for a nasty winter everything less will be a blessing is on an old needlepoint my Grandmother passed on to me.

    This weekend the 3rd year of firewood is being dump trucked to my place. Might be mid spring next year before I get it all stacked. Cannot hire anybody for a day of firewood stacking anymore so this old man does it a hour or so a day between other more needful tasks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You work the same way I do. Whittle down this or that which needs doing eventually, and do the must do daily tasks daily.

      Delete
  5. Live in N fl., and my neighbor's Quinces are already ripening normally not till late Oct. Also 2 of my horses have started winter coats, and we had a very humid summer this year. So yea it is time to be careful for the winter. But I can also remember stories from my parents friends of as bad and worse than what people are scared of today. Oh, I am 71 Y.O.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I live in northeast Florida, and daughter (in emergency management) told me that they have a plan for if the St. Johns River freezes. It hasn't frozen in anybody's lifetime but I suppose it is nice to know that there are plans for if/when it does. (In 1835, the St. Johns River near Jacksonville froze 50 feet from the shore.)

      Delete
  6. Here in east Kansas we get ice storms as well as snow. I always have a well-stocked pantry and firewood supply due to many years living in the mountains of Colorado. And everyone should have learned from the covid lockdowns to ALWAYS have a 3-month supply of everything you need. Doesn't matter if it's winter, lockdowns, or whatever. Take responsibility for yourselves and your families. Just "get 'r done"

    Mama J!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I know you guys aren't jam/jelly people, but dried rose hops also make a delicious and Vitamin C filled tea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Celestial Seasonings makes a rea called Red Zinger that's made of rose hips. It's good and a very pretty color.

      Delete
    2. Another tea with vitamin c is pine needle tea. It tastes pretty good too. Pine needles are green year round too.

      Delete
  8. I live out in the Pacific Desert Southwest, and the guys who live in the mountains commented that the leaves were turning MONTHS early. Add this to the stew and stir.

    Given that we live in earthquake country, we keep our larder deep enough to keep us fed for quite a while. Unfortunately, most other folks here don't. They just don't understand how thin the veneer of "civilization" is... One news report saying "no way in or out for at least a month" will be all it takes for the rioting and looting to start...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Here on the East Coast, we are seeing all the rodents invading homes and businesses. The hornets are moving nests inside of house walls. The signs that this is going to be a winter to remember are there!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Chipmunks, mice, and voles have been invading my vehicles. BUT. I finally found the solution. Pine Sol or Pinalen. They hate the smell. It is supposedly OK for carpets and such . Check the website. Anyway, I scrubbed the carpets with Pinalen full strength and let it dry. The smell gradually dissipates. There have been no droppings for a while. Now that it has disrupted them, I'm going to shampoo with it, ( safe for carpet shampooers) and rinse this time, then make sachets soaked in it for points of entry. And talk to the dealer to find a safe way to get that oder in the engines. Replacing wiring has been expensive.
    I hope this is helpful for any other country folks getting their vehicles ready for winter.
    If you live in the country and haven't had to deal with this yet, it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and make sachets. Might save you thousands of $. I'm also spraying it around where I park.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I sometimes use the blog lists and go look for new blogs or anything interesting. Today I followed the link to "Survivalblog". I didn't recognize the name I had dropped them some time ago because they ended the comment option. Don't get me wrong, I get it, there are jerks who comment and they were tired of bad comments. But... that was the most interesting part of the blog for me, that is what people had to say including the arguments. I would post this on their blog as possibly useful feed back but... I can't because they ended comments.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Even the government and news organizations give prep lists nowadays for various scenarios. Strangely, the news had a prep subject the other day that I hope was because we're entering a season of really bad weather.
    The subject was what to do to prepare for an extended power outage that lasted more than a few hours or a few days. To me it kind of skimmed the surface, and seemed also to assume most people had generators.
    I didn't hear anything about water storage, but maybe it just slipped by me. The fact is , in cities, towns, and some outlying areas, water stays on during an outage, but your shower might be cold.
    I found the most interesting part was that the news raised the subject. In terms of addressing their topic I'd have to score them pretty low, except that children watching would be interested, not alarmed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. With that portable propane heater do you have to cracks window or does it not produce enough CO2 to be a concern?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's designed to be used indoors, but ventilation is always necessary. If a house is too tight, the heater will burn a lot of oxygen and essentially shut itself down.

      - Patrice

      Delete