Hey Dan .
I may have to try Cuba !!
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Being retired during the recent Seattle snowstorm is wonderful.
Keep the stove going, keep the hummingbird feeder defrosted, feed the 2 ducks and 4 to 12 wild geese that have started hanging out (and fertilizing the lawn).
Watch the news of the traffic carnage.
I-90 the main E/W pass across the Cascade mountains has been closed for 18 hrs so far and predicted to be another 4+.
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The power was off for only about 12 hours due to freezing rain last weekend. Used single panel and battery solar power system to run computer and modem and charge batteries as needed, cooked on gas stove, toward the end of outage transferred refrigerated items to small gas refrigerator, continued to heat with wood, in advance of outage pumped up bath tub and jugs full of water, used kerosene lamp and flash light. If this had become days there is a small gasoline generator to pump water, etc., if weeks there is charcoal fuel for the generator. While others are wringing their hands, Iām enjoying an adventure.
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As I returned from buying fuel down at the rez, I passed by a rapidly freezing Keweenaw Bay.
Itās time to get busyā¦I have solar power again.
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Yeah, I am indeed smack in the middle of a real mess - trees are down everywhere. After cutting trees on my driveway for an hour I was finally able to deliver my backup generator up to my momās place - there no power on anywhere. I saw one place where 6" limbs were pulling the power lines to within 10 feet of the ground, but still dangling; and a few other limbs or trees leaning on the lines. They say it might be 10 days before power is restored. At least all the ice has melted, and temps have crept back up to their usual 40F.
My internet stopped working, or at least, it comes in gasps. That is about the only thing that has changed for us, though. Despite taking a pounding from branches, my hydro penstock is still working, so electrical power is assured despite it being grey and cloudy. I have enough propane for another couple months of hot showers and laundry for the baby. Wood heat is of course also in abundance, and we pretty much always cook and bake with our cookstove in the winter, so it is all pretty routine.
Honestly, I am a little bit bored 
I have one pretty big widowmaker snag that is stuck in my madrone tree, and I am kind of hoping the wind will knock it down. I hate cutting trees that lean, and this madrone is a real leaner.
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Hi all southerners, i wish i could ship some snow your way, though my snow blower/ riged plow finaly broke,or sheered another key on axel or drive pulleys, working on a reguar snow blower tonight.Got about 11 too 13 inch of snow last night.(upload://geg9VKi5ipIiIWLIILmyla0acCT.jpeg) here in michigan
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Thatās alright Kevin, we didnāt have that much and it is not that cold over here in Washington State. Besides the high fright cost will just not be worth it to ship it on down south. You would have to put the snow in a freezer and ship it in a freezer type trailer. And then when they open it up it would just melt any ways. It cheaper to just send some bottled water from the Amazon store.
Bob
Iām in SoCal so, I donāt have any cold stories. I get lots of cold news from my place in oregon. The train out of Portland couldnāt get through. I do have an excellent sawmill vid.
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Thanks for the video William.
I have been around a lot of folks where their education far exceeded their intelligence. I think this man may be just the opposite.
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And he still has all of his fingers!!! 
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Wayne, these kind of people are few and, far between. If you want to see more like this, there was a TV show that brought out quite a few of them.
"Scrapheap Challenge is a British television show where teams of contestants build a working ā¦ The format was exported to the United States, where it was known as Junkyard Wars. "
There are quite a few episodes of this on Youtube.
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Have some space free here, also stuff to build gasifiers withā¦
Hey, just catching up on the thread. Grid down? Iām off grid. Wood stove has proven fine down to minus 40. Cattle have warm water heated by wood. Propane is convenience for cooking, but the wood stove will do too, just not quite as fast. Hot water is a covered pail on the stove. Solar powers lights and tv when I get bored, though thereās not much good on tvā¦ Next step is to go to a separate 12V system for Edison base 12V lights, step up the efficiency another 30% or so, plus simpler and more reliable. And a pressurized water system based on compressed air, plan is to eventually use a small windmill to compress reserve air for shop etc.
Charcoal heats vehicles more efficiently than a block heater.
The big gap is the dependence on gasoline for vehicles and generators for welding and power tools, battery boost. Plus the million other dependencies on manufactured parts and devices from all over the planet. This site has the obvious answers to replacing or greatly extending gasoline supplies. But weāre sure going to miss gasoline when itās gone.
I heard it was minus 22C in Houston a couple of mornings ago. Minus 24 here this morning. A hard way to reflect on heat and insulation, where your water lines are etc, where the power is coming from.
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Chris, I highly recommend keeping the electric water heater and plumbing it into the woodstove. If you position the tank behind the stove and plumb in a loop you can heat with wood while the stove burns and then the electric when itās not. works well for us.
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Howās the calf doing?
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Hello GaryT.
What an entirely refreshing reasonable approach.
We have what we have in the here and now. Use it. But no reason to toady down to each and every one of the must-haves, demanders, eh.
Regards
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Iāve thought a lot about a wind powered compressor Gary. It would have to be built for torque rather than speed. I wonder if the old Aeromotor pump windmills would have enough torque to do the job. My thoughts were that a vertical axis unit would work better than a Horizontal. Most shop tools including table saws could be run with air motors. It would take a lot of air. Iād be looking for a storage tank like a thousand gallon propane tank.
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I like systems that canāt let you down, at least too far. Here the power utility promotes āhigh efficiencyā natural gas home heating, so they can sell our hydro power into Minnesota for more money. The cold always highlights problems in mechanical systems, and those furnaces are certainly one, frost builds up in the PVC ducts in extreme cold (drifted snow can also be a problem). Then in the start routine the back pressure is detected and the system fails to work. Never mind the pressure switches themselves are sketchy little devices, and then thereās the circuit boards running the whole systems, they die too often probably because thatās a $600 emergency call for a heating tech. And many are dim enough to not realize that they wonāt work in a power outage. Till the day comes, generally in the worst weather and circumstances. Sure is nice to just turn the little knob on the wall thoughā¦
Wood is work, but healthy work. And when will that heating system ever let you down? I donāt consider heat an option or something to doubt. To get really ahead of this, superinsulation is an even safer route, something that is even important in Texas, if not for warm, to greatly reduce AC energy costs. Win win. Better housing makes for better security and lower costs regardless the environment.
Same for other systems, the simpler the better, learn the work up front, then make it easier and better. We have the tech and knowledge at hand to have maybe 90 percent of all that we value from the last 100 years of technology and convenience for just a little thinking outside of the box, and a lot more security.
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Tom,
You may be aware of this already, but the Amish in many areas are doing just what you describe, but often use diesel compressors to pressurize the system. They use compressed air to operate supmersible well pumps, heating system pumps, wood-working shop machine power, ceiling fans, and more. They typically use large decommissioned propane tanks for storage.
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I just watched the video of Ralph Affleck that @wd_breeden posted.
Iāve been to Wayne and Lisaās home last year. If any of you been there, you could see the similarities of Ralph and Wayne. Every time Wayne showed me something he made, I was in awe. Even down to how his front door opens. With a bump of your elbow or hip, his front door unlocks and opens. So when one has an arm load of groceries or firewood, it can be opened without setting anything down. My wife and I couldnāt stay long because we had a long drive home but I left there with my head spinning only hoping I could have 1/4 of Wayneās ingenuity. His sawmill to me, is a work of art.
If you ever get a chance to stop in and say hi to Wayne and Lisa, make it happen.
Imagine if Wayne and Ralph were neighbors the last 30 years.
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