Right now it is -9 outside, clear, and breezy. I am very happy to be able to stay snuggled up inside. This third morning of double-digit negative temperatures I finally caved and let my two barn cats inside. I know they can weather -12 or so without much trouble overnight with their current setup, but it's always been warmer (at least above zero) during the day, not this continuous bitter cold.
Right now they're happily tucked up in my spare bedroom with the heat register and the door closed...i think it's about 50 degrees in there, so not quite as much of a shock as coming into a 70 degree house. They can't stay there long-term, I use that room for a refuge for my oldest cat...she's been declawed and the others tend to pick on her. It's supposed to get up to about 20 degrees this afternoon so I will probably put them back out then. These cats don't like to stay inside...they like to come in and visit for a few minutes and warm up before they go back out. After a half-hearted attempt to go back out after eating they've been quiet all morning, which tells me a lot about how cold it is outside. I checked them over for frostbite and didn't see anything, but I will keep an eye on them with that in mind over the next few days.
This cold has made me rethink their setup...as much as I'd like to let them come in regularly during extreme weather it throws the social structure of the housecats off and that tries everyone's patience.
They only used their heated box on the porch during the first day until the wind picked up and blizzard conditions started. This summer I need to focus on changing that setup so they don't feel the need to crawl under my house. I want to make it animal-tight this summer--we've had problems with raccoons and possums in the past. They can and have chewed on wiring, torn holes in the heat and a/c ductwork, pulled out floor insulation, and just made a general mess of things on top of creating a potential fire hazard.
Ideally I would like to get something like this for their house: http://www.blythewoodworks.com/store/product/heated_dog_houses Being able to set the temperature of their house at like 35 for the coldest part of the winter would take a lot of worry out of my life. It's not likely to be in my budget this year (they'd probably need a new house to put that in on top of buying the heater), so I've been thinking about how I can make them more comfortable without spending a lot of money.
Their cat house has a sheltered porch area to use as a wind and water break, but the door is big enough for them to stand in and doesn't stop the heat from escaping. I'd like to get some kind of flap on there before next winter. I also want to paint the house a light color to reflect the heat in summer, and hopefully replace their current heated pad with a newer version actually rated to be used outdoors: http://www.blythewoodworks.com/store/product/heated_pet_pads It's almost as expensive as the heater, but I wouldn't have to cut more holes in their house. I will also move the house next to the porch in the winter, instead of on it, and surround it with straw bales and a tarp as added insulation and weatherproofing.
For a more immediate fix to my problem of keeping the boys warm, there's always a DIY insulated house: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Winter-Cat-Shelter/ They're fast, easy to make, inexpensive, and I already have all the stuff needed to make one except for the foam cooler. I might pick one up when I go out later this week and stash it under the house. That would buy me some peace of mind if we get another extended round of bitter cold this winter before I have the money to fix up their house. Once I get the foundation closed back up I can put the styrofoam shelter in the barn as a second refuge from the weather.
Their heated water bowl couldn't quite keep up with the worst of the cold...it starts to rim up with ice at about -10, and while it keeps the water from freezing all the way through, the ice is thick enough the cats can't break it. I need to sit down and do some thinking about that.
My next post...gardening goals for 2014!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Winter Weather!
It is about to get cold here....very cold. Not record-inducing cold...the record for cold in this area was the day I was born, more than thirty years ago. The incoming never-seen-in-twenty-years cold snap? Well, it's not quite there yet--I can actually remember it being this cold before.
So what do I do during cold weather like this? Mostly I stay inside. It's not always possible; people have jobs and livestock to care for, but in this case I am very, very lucky. The worst part of the snow and cold snaps are on my days off this week, so I can curl up inside and stay warm and safe.
Here are a few things my family and I did to prepare for this snow and cold snap.
1.) I filled my woodbox as full as I could possibly get it when they started forecasting snow a few days ago. My wood is stacked outside under a tarp, which keeps off most of the rain, but not all of the moisture. Bringing it in early gives it a chance to dry in the heated area of the house. I also have plenty of other firemakings on hand...paper, kindling, and some homemade firestarters. If they had called for ice with this storm, I would have stacked as much wood as I could on the small porch off my sliding glass doors (a few steps from the woodbox), and covered it with another tarp to protect it from the weather. Walking up and down icy steps carrying firewood is just a recipe for disaster if you're as clumsy as I am.
2.) I am not actually burning firewood atm, and I don't plan to do so unless the power goes out. Why? First off, I have a fireplace, not a wood-burning stove. It goes through a lot of wood. My fireplace is very small, but it does have an electric fan that blows the heat into the house instead of letting it all going up the chimney. I only have about two weeks of continuous-fire wood cut and split, and it can be hard to get more wood here in January and February. It's an hour-long drive to the land where we get wood, and it can be tricky in bad weather. Also the fireplace tends to heat the house up enough to keep the furnace from turning on, but it doesn't heat the whole house, only the central portion. I want to keep regular doses of heat going to my pipes in this much cold.
It's there if I need it, and part of me really wants the comfort of a nice crackling fire today. The rest of me has lived through busted pipes in the winter, and doesn't want to do it again.
Speaking of pipes...
3.) I will turn my sinks on tonight before I go to bed, just enough to barely drip. All of my water pipes are insulated, and most of them are heat-taped. That said, I live in a home that sits on piers instead of a foundation, and they're all above ground. Before there was siding on the house, they would still freeze in weather as low as ten degrees. They haven't frozen since then, but still. Busted pipes in this much cold? A nightmare. I will collect the water in big bowls and pots and use it to fill humidifiers in the morning and water my house plants. As part of my general emergency plans, we also have about a dozen gallons of water stashed in various places in case the pipes do freeze and we're out of water for a while.
4.) Windows. I have fairly nice windows, but they're almost fifteen years old, and getting drafty. I have all my blinds pulled, curtains drawn, and blankets draped over the curtain rods on windows that I know are particularly drafty or facing the direction the wind is coming from. It doesn't look pretty, but it helps. One of my planned projects for this year is to buy a roll of mylar-coated bubble-wrap insulation and make frames for the windows..something I can just set in and out of the windows in extreme heat and cold.
5.) Animals. I have no livestock atm to care for, which I am extremely thankful for atm. I do, however, have two barn cats, and the barn is not exactly the most weatherproof building there is. My outdoor cats have a decent sized box for them to curl up in, lined with a few layers of the mylar insulation and with a heated pet bed in the bottom. The bed doesn't get very hot all, but it does provide some warmth the cat doesn't have to provide itself. They also have 24/7 access to two different heated water sources, and I know for a fact that they can and have gotten under the house to sit on the heat-taped water pipes and snuggle up in the insulation there. I've put a large amount of dry cat food in their house, so they can eat free-choice out of the wind, and during the extreme cold I also feed them soft food (a can split between the two of them) twice a day. If I think they need it, I will give it to them three times.
While there is a lot more I could do (and probably should) this is what I managed with the time, supplies, and funds I had on hand. I'm secure that my family has enough food, water, and heat to weather out this storm, and for that I'm very grateful.
Coming soon...goals for 2014, craft projects, and garden planning!
So what do I do during cold weather like this? Mostly I stay inside. It's not always possible; people have jobs and livestock to care for, but in this case I am very, very lucky. The worst part of the snow and cold snaps are on my days off this week, so I can curl up inside and stay warm and safe.
Here are a few things my family and I did to prepare for this snow and cold snap.
1.) I filled my woodbox as full as I could possibly get it when they started forecasting snow a few days ago. My wood is stacked outside under a tarp, which keeps off most of the rain, but not all of the moisture. Bringing it in early gives it a chance to dry in the heated area of the house. I also have plenty of other firemakings on hand...paper, kindling, and some homemade firestarters. If they had called for ice with this storm, I would have stacked as much wood as I could on the small porch off my sliding glass doors (a few steps from the woodbox), and covered it with another tarp to protect it from the weather. Walking up and down icy steps carrying firewood is just a recipe for disaster if you're as clumsy as I am.
2.) I am not actually burning firewood atm, and I don't plan to do so unless the power goes out. Why? First off, I have a fireplace, not a wood-burning stove. It goes through a lot of wood. My fireplace is very small, but it does have an electric fan that blows the heat into the house instead of letting it all going up the chimney. I only have about two weeks of continuous-fire wood cut and split, and it can be hard to get more wood here in January and February. It's an hour-long drive to the land where we get wood, and it can be tricky in bad weather. Also the fireplace tends to heat the house up enough to keep the furnace from turning on, but it doesn't heat the whole house, only the central portion. I want to keep regular doses of heat going to my pipes in this much cold.
It's there if I need it, and part of me really wants the comfort of a nice crackling fire today. The rest of me has lived through busted pipes in the winter, and doesn't want to do it again.
Speaking of pipes...
3.) I will turn my sinks on tonight before I go to bed, just enough to barely drip. All of my water pipes are insulated, and most of them are heat-taped. That said, I live in a home that sits on piers instead of a foundation, and they're all above ground. Before there was siding on the house, they would still freeze in weather as low as ten degrees. They haven't frozen since then, but still. Busted pipes in this much cold? A nightmare. I will collect the water in big bowls and pots and use it to fill humidifiers in the morning and water my house plants. As part of my general emergency plans, we also have about a dozen gallons of water stashed in various places in case the pipes do freeze and we're out of water for a while.
4.) Windows. I have fairly nice windows, but they're almost fifteen years old, and getting drafty. I have all my blinds pulled, curtains drawn, and blankets draped over the curtain rods on windows that I know are particularly drafty or facing the direction the wind is coming from. It doesn't look pretty, but it helps. One of my planned projects for this year is to buy a roll of mylar-coated bubble-wrap insulation and make frames for the windows..something I can just set in and out of the windows in extreme heat and cold.
5.) Animals. I have no livestock atm to care for, which I am extremely thankful for atm. I do, however, have two barn cats, and the barn is not exactly the most weatherproof building there is. My outdoor cats have a decent sized box for them to curl up in, lined with a few layers of the mylar insulation and with a heated pet bed in the bottom. The bed doesn't get very hot all, but it does provide some warmth the cat doesn't have to provide itself. They also have 24/7 access to two different heated water sources, and I know for a fact that they can and have gotten under the house to sit on the heat-taped water pipes and snuggle up in the insulation there. I've put a large amount of dry cat food in their house, so they can eat free-choice out of the wind, and during the extreme cold I also feed them soft food (a can split between the two of them) twice a day. If I think they need it, I will give it to them three times.
While there is a lot more I could do (and probably should) this is what I managed with the time, supplies, and funds I had on hand. I'm secure that my family has enough food, water, and heat to weather out this storm, and for that I'm very grateful.
Coming soon...goals for 2014, craft projects, and garden planning!
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