This week saw the Snowpocalypse moved into North Central Arkansas. The weather was frightfully cold, down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit. As I write this it is only 11 degrees outside. I am so thankful for my wood stove. Although it took several loads of wood to keep us warm, it has done a fabulous job compared to past heating methods.
The wood stove is inexpensive to keep fueled. Oftentimes, I can supplement the fuel with scavenging. Collecting downed sticks and twigs and then bundling them together. Enough of this can keep us warm in a slightly chilled evening or at least cook food for next to nothing. Paul loaded and hauled to truckloads of wood for us just ahead of the storm. He splits it by the day. I paid for half and he paid for half.
We are praying the electricity stays on. Even though we could barely weather living without electricity, it would be difficult. Our lifestyle would fall back to a nearly 1890’s way of life. I would not relish heating water on the wood stove to wash dishes or clean ourselves. Laundry would not happen for quite some time. We would be able to keep the insulin fridge running on the generator and maybe…maybe a freezer for a short period of time. (Not long enough to can everything)
I am still sorting dishes. I am still cleaning while we have electricity. I am still working from home. I have two canning projects that need to be done this week, and if the wood stove stays blazing, will. I have dishes to wash. I have three Amazon Vine items coming in that will need a review. I ordered St. Patty’s Day dish towels from Amazon Vine because I really need dish towels. They come in at the end of the week. I don’t care about the design. It looks cute enough.
Then I filled out quite a few surveys for moms of autistic kids, Simon’s Searchlight, and Spark. I didn’t realize they give gift cards to you! I ended up with $10 for gasoline, $10 for medicine at Walgreens, $15 for Starbucks coffee, $15 for Amazon, and $15 for Kroger. Plus, I already had gift cards on my Amazon account from other surveys.
I was going to buy nothing non-consumable, but life throws curve balls. The first surprise was our tiny space heater caught fire. Yes, bangs and sparks flying…then a small flame. It was the cord that caught fire. That space heater was thrown away. We didn’t absolutely need it to survive, but it did provide supplemental heat for Illyan. I got a new one to replace the old one from the gift cards on Amazon.
The second non-consumable thing I got from Amazon was some light summer pants for Illyan. He is two sizes too big for his current summer clothing. In the middle of winter is the best time to find deals on summer clothing. Illyan only has two pair of sweat pants and bib overalls that fit him. By the time summer rolls around, he will be sweltering if he doesn’t have summer clothing. I am going through all his clothing now because he had a growth spurt.
The third non-consumable thing we got was gloves for Illyan and me. I had no gloves and I don’t want to be out in this weather without gloves. Illyan’s gloves were holey and threadbare. I posted on Facebook how bad they were, but I may share it here. He needed gloves, too.
Here’s hoping you all keep warm and the electricity stays on!