January 2, 2023
It’s 51° F in northeast Ohio on the second day of the year. Unusual weather, for sure, especially when you think about the -3°F we had before Christmas. This weather is easier for humans to tolerate, but the damp warmth of a barn can be fatal to animals as they develop pneumonia and other respiratory problems.
But that is not what this blog is about.
This is about preparing for the frigid, bitter cold that can be deadly to you and your animals. The Farmer’s Almanac and other prediction models are warning of another deep freeze in early February. Is your homestead ready to face 2 weeks or more of frozen water lines and water buckets, chickens with frostbite, homes that won’t warm up, cars that won’t start, and all the rest of it?
Bob and I were discussing this blog post when I got a text from a fellow farmer, recommending the same topic. Both families have been farming for many years and live/have lived in older farm houses. Keeping the family warm and the animals safely sheltered is priority ONE on the farm.
Keeping the Homestead Warm
What are your plans when the electricity goes out? Can you heat your space safely? Can you heat food? Do you have reliable lighting?
Bob bringing in the last of the Black Locust firewood for the season.
A full trailer load will keep us warm through March.
Going beyond this – do you have the fuel to use the woodstove and the indoor space heater (some kerosene heaters are rated for indoor use - do the research now to choose a safe one). Bob gets calls every January “Do you have firewood for sale?” “What? You didn’t know it would be cold in JANUARY? In OHIO? AND you want a 73 year old farmer to go out and cut it for you? UMMM, NOPE!”
For folks without a reliable supply of firewood (someone sells it to you, you don't cut it from your own lot), you may want to consider EcoBricks as part of your preps. These packs cost $5 - 7 each and can be stored along with your other preps in a dry location. It's a good backup plan and you can buy them a few packs at a time, building up your emergency supply.
Check your alternative lighting supplies:
Is your supply of flashlight batteries fresh?
Grab some solar lights from the Dollar Store - you can stick them in a bucket in the sun during the day and bring them in at night.
Now is the time to grab these inexpensive lighting options.
Rechargeable floor lighting that comes on when the electricity is shut off is another option. We bought some of these when my mom was staying with us. They plug into a wall socket to continually charge and come on when the room or hallway darken.
Dollar Tree, Harbor Freight and Rural King sell those fake light switches that come on at the flick of the switch. I believe they mount to the wall with a sticky pad.
Is the propane tank for your grill full? Lots of folks let it run down as Summer ends, but we keep ours full year-round.
Beyond that, is your grill accessible? Do you keep it in a shed or detached garage in the Winter? I don’t even want to think about dragging a grill through snow and getting it on the porch in February.
Do you have food that only needs heating, not a thorough cooking? Canned soups, meats, instant noodle/ramen, emergency food supplies which are “just add water”? We have some of the Knorr brand noodle/rice packs in our emergency food stores. They go on sale for about $1.00 a packet and only need hot water. I can add some canned meat and we have a simple, inexpensive meal.
I know - these are loaded with sodium and not good for you - BUT, when you are hungry and the electricity is out, you need a quick-cook option to warm up the family.
Buy or make hot chocolate mix. I made a huge canister of it every Winter when all the kids were home. When you run out of fresh milk, you can still provide some dairy and warm everyone up. I threw small marshmallows into the canister and mixed them in. After a while they dehydrated and stored without being sticky. There are plenty of recipes on the Internet for the mix – It takes very few ingredients.
Do you have any coolers that are rated for 48 or 72 hours? Those Yeti-style coolers are great for longer term cold storage and can protect your refrigerated food. We bought a Walmart brand knock-off that works great for ¼ of the price of a Yeti. Of course, you can store food outside, but I don’t want my cheese and milk in a solid ice chunk. I can put the food in the cooler outside and protect it from the bitter weather, while still keeping it cold.
Extra blankets – get yourself over to Dollar General and stock up on the Christmas-y fleece/microfiber blankets and lap throws. They are usually down to $5 – $7 now. The fabric is basically cold proof. Once you are covered up you can warm up your personal space easily. At night use them against your skin and put the other blankets on top. You will be toasty. Bonus – they are easy to fold and store for next year.
Solar Chargers – these have come a long way. You can buy one for your cell phone that will fit into your wallet OR have a big suitcase model that will run your appliances for a short while. We have a 500-Watt Jackery Solar Generator which charges in about 6 hours in the Winter on a partly sunny day, more quickly when the sun is shining. I wrote a review and gave more details in another blog. It can charge cell phones, Kindles, run lamps, woodstove blowers, radios, etc. Most solar generator websites have a calculator to help you determine what size you need.
Water storage – if your pipes are frozen or the electricity is out, you probably won’t have water. What is your plan? Hauling 5-gallon buckets of water from the nearby creek is just plain awful, especially when the outside temperature is below freezing. We store water in various containers. I have two 5-gallon buckets for bathroom (flushing) water. I fill them up before big storms, blizzard events, etc. anytime I believe the electricity could go off. (We don’t have small kids at home now.) I have a 5-gallon water dispenser that is gravity flow AND a 5-gallon water container with a hand pump. There is also lots of filtered water in my storage. I use ½-gallon glass bottles that have been well washed, rinsed and air dried to store this. I run tap water through my Berkey water filter system, cap it tightly and store it. You can buy gallons of water at the Dollar Tree, too.
Warm clothing – socks, jeans, flannel pajama pants, sweatshirts, hats, mittens, slippers. Be ready to bundle up! I was surprised how warm a shawl can be. I had gotten out of the shower, was only partially dressed and needed something from the laundry room. It was chilly in the house so I threw a large headscarf around my shoulders like a shawl. I couldn’t believe how warm it was.
Seal up those windows. In the 70’s, during the Carter administration, the USA was in the middle of an oil crisis. We were encouraged to set the thermostat at 62° at night and at 68° during the day. That sounds good, except when the winds are howling and the snow is blowing. (Anyone else remember the blizzards of ‘76/’77 and ‘77/’78? Holy Smoke! You wouldn’t freeze, but you won’t be warm either.) During that time, some entrepreneur developed clear flexible plastic indoor window covers which sealed the window air-tightly to prevent drafts and provide a pocket of air which acted as insulation. Remember, many of these homes had been built in the post-WW2 time – they didn’t have double paned windows and leaked air like crazy. Well, they still sell this product today and you can use it around windows which leak. We have one in our bedroom that just won’t lock tightly, so the room is cold. We sealed the window and it’s much better. The product was $5 and has enough material to do 2 -3 average sized windows.
These sealing options are sold at our local Discount Drug Mart and Dollar Tree.
The majority of heat loss comes from the foundation wall and basement sill. (The area where the floor joist sits on the basement block wall.) At least 30% of the total heat is lost here. In houses built before the 1980’s, the base plate 2x8 was set on top of the block foundation. Now a gasket is installed between the two. If there’s no gasket, run a bead of silicone between the foundation and the face plate. Insulate the area where the floor joists sit on your foundation wall. Use 6” of pink, roll insulation. Better yet, apply foam insulation around the complete foundation sill once. You want to do a good job and spot all air flow from coming in from outside.
If you don’t have insulation and can’t afford it, do what the old-timers did – cut rags, cardboard and stuff the area. Use spray foam to seal any bigger open areas.
The U.S. Department of Energy has information about how much heat is lost from these areas. Window heat loss can be serious. Even double or triple pane windows can account for 10% of the total heat loss in your home.
Curtains look good but do nothing to prevent heat loss. In fact, they can act like a chimney pulling heat up and over the cold glass. Use heavy drapes instead. They should start at the top of the window and go to the floor. Some older homes had a decorative cornice box above the window to prevent some heat loss. If you can’t afford heavy drapes, at least put up window quilts. Using older quilts or heavy blankets, tack them above the window. They should be long enough to reach the floor to be most effective. If all else fails, use rolled towels or small blankets tucked above the curtain rod.
Keeping animals healthy in cold weather
Most fur-bearing animals grow a heavy undercoat each fall. The coarse outer hair sticks out and the downy under layer insulates and warms them.
Cold weather doesn’t bother these animals, but wet, cold weather – think sleet - is a deal breaker. The icy rain coats and flattens the two layers of hair and the animals can’t warm themselves. The smaller the animal, the more susceptible they are to cold injury and should be able to shelter themselves in a barn, box, or shed as needed to warm up. Making a fluffy bed of straw is a good idea for large and small animals in their sheds/barns.
We provide shelter for our livestock, but even in the nastiest weather our cattle will be lying down in the pasture next to the hay feeder. They like to get a cozy spot and will rest on the warmed ground throughout a blizzard. Even the calves seem to tolerate this. We chose our livestock based upon hardiness and cold tolerance. Heat tolerant Senepol, Brahma, or Bos indicus (humped) cattle won’t be on our wish-list. We have British Whites which grow a nice coat and thrive in cooler weather.
Shelter can be a building, an open shed, even a heavy stand of pine trees. Barns should be cold/cool and need good air flow, even in winter, to prevent dampening illnesses like pneumonia. Good air flow does not mean drafty – the animals should be able to lie down out of a draft and get comfortable.
We don’t heat any of our outbuildings. We also plan animal births in the late winter/early spring so we have less problem with cold calves or lambs. We will use a heat lamp when a baby is struggling to stay warm or ill, but that is the exception, not the rule.
Watering the animals
Our cattle have access to running water in a 4-season creek so frozen water troughs aren’t too much of a problem for us. We use heavy, flexible plastic water troughs when needed and have a frost-free spigot to fill it. If the hose is frozen we haul water in buckets.
Flexible rubber water tubs and heated waterers/heating pads are options for small livestock.
To prevent troughs from freezing solid:
Don’t fill all the way. Give the animals fresh water 2 or 3 times a day so they can drink it before it freezes.
For troughs, fill several 2-liter bottles with hot water and ½ cup of table salt. Shake the bottles well to dissolve most of the salt. Cap the bottle tightly and drop it into the trough. The highly concentrated salt water won’t freeze and will bob around in the water, providing an opening in the trough for the animals to get a drink. They can break through the top layer of ice and get water.
You can do this on a smaller scale for buckets and water tubs with 20 oz soda bottles.
Move the trough so it gets sunlight throughout the day.
Cover part of the trough with plexiglass to create a greenhouse effect. You need to secure the plexiglass somehow. I think our cattle would bust this up, but if you have well-behaved animals, give it a try.
For smaller animals, bring hot water in jugs and fill the waterers. It will remain unfrozen longer.
We use the heavy, black rubber water tubs for our chickens and small animals during the winter. They are easy to fill, lots of chickens can drink at one time, don’t crack if the water freezes, and you can turn them upside down to stomp on them to get the ice out.
Feeding the animals well is also important. They use more calories in the winter staying warm and you need to match calories out with calories in. Give them good quality hay, supplemental grain, mineral/molasses tubs. This is also the time many cows/ewes/does will be pregnant and extra feed is needed to keep them in good condition.
Shelter, dry place to rest, water, feed.
One more thing:
We went to Tractor Supply yesterday and the assistant manager told us that ALL winter-related things will be off the shelves by mid-February to make room for seeds, chick supplies, summer tops, and lightweight socks. You won't be able to find mittens, winter boots, flannel pjs, heated waterers, fleece blankets, etc.
Winter items are on sale now. If we get a February or March winter-blast, you will be out of luck.
Plan ahead. Be ready. Winter isn't over. Bob always plans on the 2 weeks before President's Day being the coldest and hardness of winter, then it's maple syrup season and the cycle starts again.
Stay warm.
Bob and Polly
Comments