Anyone stuck in the midwestern blizzard?

[Black_In_Mind]

It's been pretty uneventful where I am besides temps getting into the negatives when the sun is down. Snow was mostly melted by 4pm yesterday but almost no one is driving through my neighborhood ATM which is a nice change when the rumbling of 18 wheelers, gunning V8 engines, and blasting car subwoofers have been the norm around here in the mornings and after 3PM.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Its been below zero in north Missouri for days now....im running small space heaters along with the furnace but its getting slightly warmer with sun today...maybe a high in the 20s on Wednesday...next week looks better thankfully!

 

[spiritbass]

This is my second day at home instead of work because the heating system hasn't been able to keep up. I think I'll be able to work in comfort tomorrow as the temps are supposed to rise.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

This is my second day at home instead of work because the heating system hasn't been able to keep up. I think I'll be able to work in comfort tomorrow as the temps are supposed to rise.

What i did was put a small space heater in my hall where the return air duct is for the furnace...this seems to help put warm air directly into the furnace system.

Lots of folks locally are really struggling..im hearing actual temps at 35 to 40 degrees inside...its a mess along with car failure of all types...furnace companies are way behind.

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

First day in about a week that I have seen blue sky.

I used to think I wanted to live where it snows. I've only ever lived where there are 1.5 seasons; "Summer" and "Not Summer" but seeing some of y'all photos, I am reconsidering the proposition.

 

[Ostie]

The snow doesn’t bother me as much as the bone chilling cold and the dearth of sunshine.

 

[EriktheRed]

I used to think I wanted to live where it snows. I've only ever lived where there are 1.5 seasons; "Summer" and "Not Summer" but seeing some of y'all photos, I am reconsidering the proposition.

You're not missing anything except quite bit of hassle and COOOOOOOOOLD.

 

[EriktheRed]

The snow doesn’t bother me as much as the bone chilling cold and the dearth of sunshine.

It's really nice when your car won't start and you have to be outside for a jump, too.

 

[MacGuffin]

The snow doesn’t bother me as much as the bone chilling cold and the dearth of sunshine.

It's just depressing to have below zero temperatures and no snow to brighten up the landscape, or to cushion your fall should you slip or trip on the hard, uneven, slippery ground. Snow has it's own downsides too, but given the alternative I wouldn't mind some snow to brighten things up and give some level of traction over the ice. It's when the snow is deep and drifted that could make me wish for the hard snowless "moonscape" instead.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

It's really nice when your car won't start and you have to be outside for a jump, too.

Ha, i always have a battery charger in house and i wont skimp on a car battery either...i learned the hard way decades ago!

 

[MacGuffin]

Ha, i always have a battery charger in house and i wont skimp on a car battery either...i learned the hard way decades ago!

As a ham radio operator computer geek that grew up on a dairy farm I collected a few battery chargers. I like the Battery Tender brand chargers/maintainers as they seem to be able to extend the life of a battery, sometimes even "resurrecting" a "dead" battery. I have two "junior" Battery Tender chargers that are rated for somewhere around 1 amp. I have a larger 5 amp Battery Tender, and a Sears charger that's rated for something like 30 amps. Then there's my two UPS "blocks" that can provide 30 amp charging too. Oh, I almost forgot my generator has an output for charging 12 volt batteries, but I'd have to look at how much current it can provide.

I keep a spare battery in my SUV because I've had to jump start my own vehicle, and others, many times. It comes in handy for cold weather, and should the electricity be out at home for an extended period.

I know that's a lot of gear in batteries and chargers but each piece of gear was a purchase made after a lesson learned.

I know I need fuel for the generator and snow blower. I neglected that and now I'm going to have to pay for that with some sweat and elbow grease. I'll see if I can delay some of the work of digging out until next week when the temperatures are expected to creep above freezing for a bit.

 

[Ostie]

It's just depressing to have below zero temperatures and no snow to brighten up the landscape, or to cushion your fall should you slip or trip on the hard, uneven, slippery ground. Snow has it's own downsides too, but given the alternative I wouldn't mind some snow to brighten things up and give some level of traction over the ice. It's when the snow is deep and drifted that could make me wish for the hard snowless "moonscape" instead.

I’ve lived in MI my whole live so I’m pretty used to snow. I’ve skied and snowmobiled, played hockey, sledding, etc. but when he wind chill gets down to minus 20 you just can’t go outside. We had very little snow until last Friday, but the temps plummeted so nobody can go out and enjoy it. The ski resorts were hurting, being closed until the storm hit, now only the hardiest of skiers are out on the slopes.

 

[Tim Schnautz]

"The Bread and Milk Effect" perpetuated by Vic Dibitetto, heh.

Around here the stores get raided for milk, bread and all the beer
I’m not into alcohol and my wife will stock up some can goods, soup mix’s and stuff you can really eat. There’s no need to go y2-k crazy
Oh yeah, 20 gal of gas in th garage too

 

[DavidEdenAria]

As a ham radio operator computer geek that grew up on a dairy farm I collected a few battery chargers. I like the Battery Tender brand chargers/maintainers as they seem to be able to extend the life of a battery, sometimes even "resurrecting" a "dead" battery. I have two "junior" Battery Tender chargers that are rated for somewhere around 1 amp. I have a larger 5 amp Battery Tender, and a Sears charger that's rated for something like 30 amps. Then there's my two UPS "blocks" that can provide 30 amp charging too. Oh, I almost forgot my generator has an output for charging 12 volt batteries, but I'd have to look at how much current it can provide.

I keep a spare battery in my SUV because I've had to jump start my own vehicle, and others, many times. It comes in handy for cold weather, and should the electricity be out at home for an extended period.

I know that's a lot of gear in batteries and chargers but each piece of gear was a purchase made after a lesson learned.

I know I need fuel for the generator and snow blower. I neglected that and now I'm going to have to pay for that with some sweat and elbow grease. I'll see if I can delay some of the work of digging out until next week when the temperatures are expected to creep above freezing for a bit.

I worked on the family dairy farm decades ago, you learn to deal with all kinds of situations for sure from sweltering heat to freezing cold!

 

[EdO.]

First day in about a week that I have seen blue sky.

I used to think I wanted to live where it snows. I've only ever lived where there are 1.5 seasons; "Summer" and "Not Summer" but seeing some of y'all photos, I am reconsidering the proposition.

Wife and I spent 8 days in the Ft. Lauderdale area 12/19 - 12/27 with our sons family and our new grandson, only sun we saw was on our last day there. The low/mid 70's every day was nice though. Got off the plane in KC to low 20's. Right now low 20's would be most welcome.

 

[MacGuffin]

I worked on the family dairy farm decades ago, you learn to deal with all kinds of situations for sure from sweltering heat to freezing cold!

On the family farm we had a generator that ran from a tractor PTO. With no power in the cold that meant we would not have the block heaters to help start our tractors. We had a couple utility tractors (as opposed to the larger field tractors) with that had glow plugs like I suspect most diesel cars and trucks have today. With that we could run the generator to milk the cows, maybe with some power left to run a block heater on another tractor, and then use the tractors to mill and auger feed for the cattle and pigs after milking was done.

I asked Dad once what we would do if we could not get those tractors started in the cold and the power was out. He said the cattle likely would not be producing any milk regardless. I took that to mean they'd have stampeded off for Oklahoma, got horribly sick, or froze to death.

If the power was out in the heat then we'd need the generator running to keep the well pumps going, and if the animals don't have water in the heat then that can kill them. With no hay bales freezing together in the heat we could manhandle some hay to save on running the silo unloader, that took a lot of power that the generator could barely handle. If the local feed store had power then Dad might take the shortcut of just ordering milled feed than mill our own.

Now as a homeowner I carry that experience to how I maintain my home. The last time I had the power out from a summer wind storm I ran a small generator through the night to run the refrigerator, a couple lights, cell phone charger, dehumidifier, and a fan to keep me cool as I slept. I could hear generators running in the neighborhood where others were similarly equipped to shelter in place that night, not doubt many of them were purchased after the much larger power outage a few years prior. One brother got a whole house generator, and sold me his portable generator for cheap. Now I have two generators, one LP and the larger one gasoline. I don't need two generators but it's nice to have them. Maybe I can make a trade somehow to a tri-fuel generator. The third fuel for a tri-fuel generator would be using the natural gas supply to the house for fuel.

Losing just electricity meant I can still have hot water, the city water and gas often still runs. I can lose any one of the city utilities and manage for some time at home. Lose two services and I can do things like flush toilets using the water from the dehumidifiers, and get heat from either electricity or gas. Lose all three? I'm packing up my truck and paying a visit to my brother with the whole house generator and on-site well.

 

[fhm555]

I got out yesterday as it was above freezing in my neck of the woods for the first time since Sunday evening. I used the break to go get a few supplies that were out of stock last Friday on my regular grocery run because of panic buying. While the roads were clear for the most part, there were some spots where the sun was blocked from the road that were rather squirrelly, but I got my stuff and got home without any thrill rides. It got up into the mid 40s today but we are facing another hard freeze warning until noon Saturday, so I'm settling in for another few days of cabin fever. We've been lucky and have not lost power, but the maps are showing big outages all around us so I'll knock wood and hope for our luck holds.

 

[Fishheadjoe]

If you think you have it bad, well consider to good folks in Buffalo and their annual battle with Lake Erie...
Invalid Link Removed
Fishheadjoe

 

[Patrice B]

If you think you have it bad, well consider to good folks in Buffalo and their annual battle with Lake Erie...
Invalid Link Removed
Fishheadjoe

That’s a lot of snow… even for us Canucks!

Remembering my youth and being used to push through the door to get out of the house or snow hiding the windows (a lot of snow pushed by the cold wind). Born in Chicoutimi, way north of St-Lawrence river…