We had a day of rain predicted today (Thursday), so yesterday Don and I did a lot of battening down. But it wasn't just battening down for rain; it was the precursor of battening down for winter. In fact, winter has been more on our minds lately after Don "called fall" this week.
Let me back up a bit to explain why this is important to us. In fact, let me back up all the way to 2003, when we first moved from southwest Oregon to north Idaho. 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?
Keep in mind we were far more rural in Idaho than we were in Oregon. 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.
The first couple of winters were fine. We got snow, sure; but it wasn't much and it wasn't bad. Were we overreacting by our "snowed in for three months" rule?
And then the winters of 2005/6 and 2006/7 hit like a ton of bricks. During the former, we had tons of snow. During the latter we had tons of snow and high winds. Combined, they left something of a psychic scar that made us never underestimate the power of winter. Ever.
The winter of 2006/7, we probably got five feet of snow (in areas north of us, apparently it was upwards of 12 feet). While this may sound like no big deal for battle-hardened Minnesotans, the two-mile dirt road we lived on at the time was not county-maintained, so it was up to the neighbors to keep it open. The combined efforts of everyone's mishmash of tractors, pickup truck plow blades, and (at times) snow shovels worked – kinda – but it was constant and brutal work and wasn't always effective.
While we weren't snowed in for three months, we got close. That second harsh winter – when heavy snowfall combined with high winds meant our road was closed under incredibly deep drifts – our remote neighborhood fell into a pattern: Storms came at about weekly intervals that, for whatever reason, always came in on weekends. It took about six days to clear the road (no exaggeration). If a storm came in over the weekend, then we were able to get the road opened by about Friday. Everyone would pour out of their homes, dash into town for mail, groceries, and errands, and make it home just in time for another blizzard to close the road.
This happened over and over and over and OVER. Those who worked away from home had to make endless excuses to their bosses. Many had no option except to work remotely. One person who normally commuted to a city job an hour away had to stay with a coworker for a few weeks because otherwise she would miss too much work. One family whose kids attended the public schools simply couldn't make it out.
Keep in mind these winter conditions also meant commercial roads were also impacted. Sections of a major highway were drifted shut numerous times that winter, so trucks were unable to deliver food, mail, hardware, or other items. Several times that winter, both restaurants and the grocery store in town were closed, either because of a lack of supplies or because employees couldn't make it to work. The local school district took a lot of snow days during those two winters.
Meanwhile our 300-foot driveway drifted shut so many times that after a few storms, there was literally nowhere else to put snow. The smartest thing we did was park our car at the end of the driveway before one of the blizzards. For the next two months, we snowshoed to and from the car, transporting the children (along with mail and groceries) on a hay sled. Had we not parked the car at the end of the driveway, we – literally – would not have been able to leave the house for eight weeks running. As it was, we had to shovel the car out after each blizzard.
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I remember after one particularly nasty storm, a heroic neighbor who lived about a mile away – and who was a heavy equipment operator – got busy trying to clear one heavily drifted quarter-mile section of road not far from our house. He didn't own a snow blower, so he used his good-sized bulldozer to push snow. It took him EIGHT HOURS of hard work to get that one quarter-mile section of road opened, and by the end of it we had nine-foot canyon walls of snow along the sides. (To this day, I regret I never took a photo – it was in the days before I owned a pocket camera.)
For these reasons, we've never relaxed our "snowed in for three months" rule when it comes to approaching winter. In Idaho, you just never know.
Anyway, this is a long explanation of why we're starting to think about getting ready. Will it be an abnormally harsh winter? Don has never "called fall" this early before.
Don read something interesting a couple weeks ago about how global weather patterns are being impacted by one of the greatest natural disasters no one has ever heard of: The Hunga Tonga underwater volcanic explosion that occurred in January of 2022.
This event was spectacularly enormous, "bigger than any other modern volcanic eruption, even bigger than Mount Pinatubo and possibly Krakatoa," according to this article. "The erupting lava instantly vaporized fantastic, unimaginable amounts of sea water, which billowed into the atmosphere, changing the water composition of Earth’s atmosphere and heating it up for years. In just a few days, the superheated water from the Hunga Tonga eruption blanketed the entire globe, pole to pole, East to West. ... Current estimates [for the amount of water blasted into the stratosphere] are three times higher than initially thought: scientists now believe it was closer to 150,000 metric tons, or approximately 40 trillion gallons of superheated water instantly injected into the atmosphere." Scientists expect the effects to persist globally for a long, long time.
So yeah, a hard winter is not outside the realm of possibility.
Therefore yesterday was a day of miscellaneous battening-down chores. It started with a long-overdue repair of a couple of flat tires. Not even flat; utterly destroyed. One tire was on a small trailer we haven't been able to use for some time; and the other, crucially, was on our log splitter.
We have a bunch of wood to split...
...including rounds far too large to use our manual splitter.
Don was able to get the new tire installed. Now the splitter can be moved to where we need it to go.
Time's a-wastin'. We have to get the winter's firewood put up.
Other miscellaneous chores included re-stacking and re-tarping a pile of lumber...
...scrubbing out and refilling the cow's water tank...
...and moving the last of the older round bales into the barn. (The newer hay bales are stacked and tarped in the front driveway; we'll be moving them to the back, nearer the barn, before the snow flies.)
We still have lots to do before winter, including (hopefully) building an awning on the back of the barn to offer more shelter for the livestock this winter.
If it will be a hard winter, we want to be ready for it.
I’m with you on the wisdom of preparing for a tough winter. I will have 2x the firewood typically needed. We are blessed to grow our own hay. So no North 40 purchases needed.
ReplyDeletePatrice, although in an urban environment, we are in a very different climate than the one we have lived in for the last 15 years previous. Last year was definitely eye opening - not so much in the "snow" category as in "the amount of weather you do not want to be out in" category. Certainly being ready earlier is now on the list.
ReplyDeleteI'm in south central Idaho and this has been the strangest weather year we've ever seen in the 10+ years we've lived on the property, and even my husband's family born and raised in this region haven't seen such strange weather in decades. It was a mild winter, and spring was warmer than normal, but the summer temps just were late and not as hot as normal. We've had wind almost every single day, often 15-25mph constant, which when it's hot here in summer, there is never any wind. And usually where we are located we are above 100 every day from the end of May through early September, often around 110, and all summer we have only gotten above 100 for about 30 days of that and even then just between 100-105, not even what we consider really hot. And then nightly temps have gone between the high 40s and 50s all summer long. It's really affecting the fruiting of certain garden plants, peppers and tomatoes are not a fan of the temps this year, usually they thrive for us in the super hot temps and the slightly warmer night temps. However the root veggies are doing phenomenal with these cooler temps. I told my husband fall was already approaching a couple weeks ago when the night temps started dropping into the high 40s and low 50s, just hoping it doesn't actually freeze until mid-September or October like normal. We have red ant hills on our property and their mounds are at least 2-3 times bigger than normal, usually a sign of a hard winter, at least in the way of temps, not always snow. Many of the smaller migratory song birds have already left for their migration over a month early, and the rockchucks are packing on the weight and have their dens ready for hibernation, it's looking like some may begin hibernating in the next week or two. Very strange year. We don't get much snow in this area, but it is looking like winter will at least be long this year. I lived up on the Palouse in the winters you talked about, those were crazy snow years. I worked for a larger grocery store in Moscow and we often had days when the trucks couldn't make it to the store, and we even had to close the store for a day because of potential of snow collapsing the roof, I think we had 3-4 feet of snow on the ground all winter long.
ReplyDeleteI will admit I really enjoyed this Article, Thank you.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I will advise folks to be prepared a little more than the 3 days FEMA advises, or have they changed that to 2 weeks? Either way, make that 6 months or better, and do NOT try to do it all at once and go into debt from it. Slow as ya go. Yes, there are dozens upon dozens of sites advising on how to accomplish a Deep Pantry.
Ok, how about Winter coming, and SNOW!!!
I must shake my head at the fools around here (the Four Corners Area) and around the country, 2 inches of snow and I guarantee you there will be literally hundreds of people running off the road as they go the normal 65-70 MPH on Snow and Ice.
Me???? I have a standard understanding where I work, I WILL NOT be to work the first 3 days of snowy roads, after 3 days all the idiots are done playing bumper cars with the Highway Fences and each other.
Ya should see it if/when we get a foot or two, you would think the entire world came to an end, ohhhhhh except for those that MUST run to the store for food and the likes. AND a new car/truck because they crashed it. UGHHHHH
Ever see the folks in FL when a Hurricane is coming, they are literally fighting for that last Generator or plywood at Home Depot, AND paying 3 times what it’s worth, or the Gas Stations with lines 2 miles long…… One last thing, the Freeways that are Parking Lots….. Really people???
As far as preparing for Winter here. I’m stocking 2X the amount of Firewood, as another commenter mentioned, I will also be making darn sure all the Larder is in order, and most certainly the “critter” food. Also checking backup power is in working order and water, LOTS of water.
So to conclude, I also have a gut feeling of a “Bad Winter” heading our way, but guess what, if it don’t, all those items you prepared are still useable.
BTW, it sure has been a HOT summer, “come on fall/winter, I’m tired of this HOT/DRY.
As the Article says, get ready, tis coming, NO “poor pity me” because you are not paying attention.
Regarding volcanoes, look up 1816, the "Year without a summer."
ReplyDeleteDisclaimer: Not trying to sound like a smarty-pants.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to burn wood (rounds) that've been split that recently, then going forward, think about storing them on their sides (like the ones in front). Those rounds in the back row on the bottom have been wicking up ground moisture like straws.
You are right about the Hunga-Tonga eruption. The lamestreem meejuh is covering up the results of several 10s of TRILLIONS of gallons of SALT water blown into the atmosphere as super-heated steam. The result of that ejection into the upper atmosphere is causing all sorts of strange weather conditions all over the planet, but, the dissemblers in charge keep trying to make it into yet another steaming pile of "man made global warming/climate change.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to Cliff Mass at the cia cutout, oops sorry, University of Washington in Seattle, who is the big Poo-Bah "climatologist there, asking him if he had any enlightment on the matter. Crickets. Btw, UW climatology department was behind the Palo Alto tekkie billionaire's plot to "darken the sun" over the SF Bay Area a while back.
Our last two winters here have been horrid, with low temps around 5 to 10 degrees F with high winds taking down trees all over the place causing the bottom to drop out of the firewood market. Not sure what to expect this winter, but getting ready for the worst, as we are also being chemtrailed regularly.
Miss your column on WND.
M