It's Only Cold If You Go Outside
Jan 8-15th 2024
1/8/24
Snowed tonight from about 2 on and by 7pm there is 2 more inches added to our base.
Chopped and split about ¼ of the Doug fir I dropped, splitting is way easier in the low temps. Any water that’s in the wood is ice and it explodes on contact!
Brought more wood to the cabin than usual in preparation for the negative temps later this week.
Andrea went to the Bardwells to stock up on water. She saw wolf tracks on the road and went back afterwards and put up a game cam.
Walk in the afternoon to the upper meadow –attempted to wear out the dogs
Used the generator to top off the solar battery
Andrea resurrected her sourdough starter today, excited for homemade bread soon
Been keeping the inside temp between 70-80 in the cabin
Never got above 20 today, woke up at 5am to 13 degrees
Transitioned from my Romeo boots with micro spikes to snow boots and broke out the insulated bib snow overalls.
1/9/2024
Windy and gusty day. Plowed to the mailbox and back. Lots of snow falling out of trees. Walk down driveway in afternoon, in spots where snow fell out of tree it was like I hadn’t plowed at all. Only 2 small trees down on Day Creek Rd and was able to move them by hand. During large gusts the amount of snow falling out of trees and being disbursed made it seem like it was snowing for minutes on end. Snow is dry, light and airy.
1/10/24
Wolves howling in the early AM. -sorta eerie –they were close. real close.
Chopped rounds into firewood. Got thru all of the Doug Fir and got about 1/2 a cord put up.
Went to Bardwell’s for water and to plow the road up there
Andrea checked her game cam and repositioned it– she’s determined to get the wolves on camera! She put the cam where she saw tracks from the other day. She did get video of a deer.
I carried my .45 with me all day, and was on constant wolf watch both at our homestead and at the Bardwell’s.
still windy and gusty. Snow continues to fall out of the trees.
No significant trees down. Surprised with all of the wind gusts we’re having.
Walked the loop from the cabin to the shop and down to the dug well.
Stew for dinner
COLD
1/11/24
Snowing at 530am stopped about 7 with another inch
14 degrees outside and 68 inside when I woke up, er the dogs woke me up
Snow is light and airy. Won’t hold a snowball or pack. Very spin-drifty. And squeaks when you walk on it.
1/12-1/15/24
Been dealing with negative temperatures these last few days. Multiple days where we never saw above negative 10. The lowest we’ve gotten has been -28 degrees. It’s cold. It’s bitter cold. Even the dogs don’t want to venture outside for very long, just enough to do their business and then they hustle back to the cabin. Awhile later, they forget it’s cold out and want to play outside.
We’ve been staying warm in the cabin, still able to keep it around 70 degrees with the wood stove. It’s been pretty much going constantly since October. We did put towels at the bottom of all the doors. Even with towels and the stove going and the temp up in the cabin, we are still getting frost and ice on the bottom of some windows and on the hinges of doors. Part of this is because we have 2 stock pots full of water and a tea kettle on the stove to constantly add needed humidity our cabin. We backed off to only one pot one night, and both Andrea and I noticed the dryness the next morning and promptly added the second pot back to the stove.
Ironically, with the cold temps, it’s been clear at night with thousands of stars and the Milky Way to gaze upon and the last few days have also been gorgeous bluebird days.
It’s a definite tease to look so wonderful outside, but be so bitterly cold you can only be out there for a short time. I’m glad I pre-chopped a few days worth of wood! The benefit of these sunny days is that our solar array is collecting massive power and our battery is being recharged to 100% every day. At this point, a full battery charge without any solar or generator input will power us for 2 ½ days if needed.
The cold temps have caused some issues besides giving all of us cabin fever. The solar battery got below freezing even in the insulated room, and wouldn’t take a charge but would discharge just fine, it’s a safety thing for LiPo batteries. That was easily rectified by a combination of putting a propane heater in the electrical room, foam insulation in the windows and leaving an incandescent light on in the room. Old school bulbs actually produce more heat than light.
Additionally, The Dodge truck wouldn’t start on Sunday. Our cars had both been sitting for 4 days of serious sub zero temps. The Tacoma, however, fired right up! We took it up to the Bardwell’s property to get our water and it preformed like a champion, even with 200,000 miles. I thought it might be the battery on the Dodge, so I brought the battery inside overnight and tried it again this morning. No dice. I tried to jump it with Andrea’s Tacoma, and it would turn over, but not start. I took the Tacoma to Republic because we needed a grocery run and I stopped at NAPA Auto and purchased a new battery just in case and also a magnetic engine block heater. The roads were pretty good for being 2 degrees outside. I had considered going to Colville, but unsure of the passes, decided to stick to the flatter ground.
Got home, hooked up the new battery and put the heater on the oil pan. I started the generator to plug the heater into since it’s not the most energy efficient. Waited for a few hours and tried to start it. It really wanted to start, but didn’t. I felt defeated. Andrea took the dogs on a water run and I stayed home determined to get the Dodge Ram going. I put SeaFoam engine additive into the gas tank and used some starter fluid in the air intake. IT WORKED! I got it going! Holy Shit!
I wanted to get the engine warm, so I drove the loop from our cabin to the shop and back around. I got to the shop, let my foot off the gas and. it. died. My power steering and power braking went out and the plow clipped the mound of snow I had previously plowed there a few days ago. It did, however, start right back up. As long as I had my foot on the accelerator, and it wasn’t just idling, it would run fine. The minute I took my foot off the gas, it dies. I parked and gave it some gas, thinking that if I got the engine up to temp it would solve the issue. Nope. By then Andrea and the doggies were back and I gave up on auto repair for the day and helped bring in the 50 gallons of water she got. Did you know that a gallon of water weights 8.34 pounds? And a five gallon bucket is over 40 pounds?
Evidently at the Bardwell’s, Andrea was teaching Honey to drive and she (Andrea, not Honey) backed up too far and had to dig herself out of snow to get home. She’s still blaming Honey though.
I did a bit of research and tomorrow’s automotive mission is to clean the air intake valve, which I think is the issue. Seems like a relatively easy fix, so we’ll see. The Dodge is a crucial component to our homestead as it keeps our road plowed and we should be getting some snowfall in the next few days.
Tonight’s sunset was amazing and was a reminder that even with all of the speed bumps we encounter, it’s still totally worth it!
