We are braced for up to six inches of snow, but last week we experienced moderate weather. I took advantage of the sunshine to cut firewood three days. I split and then stacked firewood four times. Then I carried the firewood inside where we used the woodstove all but two nights last week. I also covered another pile of firewood with a tarp. I now have four of the six stacks of seasoned wood covered to keep them dry and snow-free.
Prior to this La Niña-inspired arctic blast reaching us, I stacked more than 100 pieces of wood on a plastic pallet in our garage. This is our emergency supply. We will burn it only when it is too wet or snowy to bring in new wood. It should be enough to last at least three days if we use both the wood stove and the fireplace insert.
I went up the mountain and hauled down six logs to cut and split. There are so many downed or leaning trees it would take me years to harvest them all. I will focus on the trees closet to the old logging roads and those blocking the roads simply because they are the easiest to reach. Once we open more of the roads, I can expand my reach.
The only difficulty is sorting out the long-burning hardwoods from the not-so-good wood. I am ending up with far more fast-burning tulip poplar logs than I want. A friend is bringing me a dump truck of logs from land he cleared. I told him I didn’t want any tulip poplar. Hopefully, I will get some oak, locust and maple. All of it will be cut and split this year to burn next winter.
Chainsaws
Last I counted, I had five spare chains for the chainsaw and one extra bar. I am planning to order another bar, along with a carburetor rebuild kit and a new clutch drum and sprocket kit. This, plus my existing spare parts, should keep the saw running for some time. If the world goes to hell in a handbasket, I imagine our chainsaw will become increasingly valuable.
I have only one gas-powered chainsaw plus a smaller battery-powered saw. I keep the electric saw around in case I get my saw stuck and need to cut it out, but it is not powerful. It works fine for cutting logs up to four inches in diameter, but I would not want to tackle anything larger than six inches with it. Its real value is that I can recharge its batteries using our solar power while I have no way to make gasoline.
In hindsight, I should have bought one less gun and one more chainsaw over the years. Of course, it’s not too late to change that equation. As the economy shows some signs of stress, I expect the pawnshops will fill up with used saws.
If Karl can bug out here in a SHTF scenario, I will have to hope he brings a couple of his saws. Of course, I use Stihl, and he uses Husqvarna. That’s OK; my one neighbor has three Echo chainsaws. As long as they cut, I don’t care what name is on the side.
Caches
While I was up the mountain traipsing around, I checked most of my caches. All seven 50-caliber ammo cans survived the summer just fine. More importantly, I found them all and there had been no water encroachment.
I am growing worried about having all our food and supplies in one place. I am tempted to dig a large hole, fill it with a box made from marine-grade plywood, load the box with long-term storage food, close it up, and cover it with dirt and rocks. That’s unlikely to happen, however, so I will have to keep burying ammo cans and 5-gallon buckets.
Solar Power Report
We used about 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in October, well below our average. We produced 870 kWh, giving us a surplus of 170. This meant another negative electric bill, likely the last time we produce more power than we use until March. We have a credit at the utility of more than $125. With any luck, that will last into January.
In 2025, we produced more power than we consumed in March, April, May, June, September, and now October. Our largest bills were in January and February because of fewer hours of sunshine. We used the most electricity in July and August because of our air conditioner. In a grid-down scenario, we would use it less and just be warmer.
Technically, we have a positive electric bill six months of the year and a negative bill the other six, but if we set the thermostat a little higher in the summer and a little lower in the winter, we could get to only four months in which we use more power than we produce.
Of course, our utility has fixed billing costs like a connection fee and a minimum monthly fee, both of which we have to pay regardless of whether we use any electricity. Without these fees, we would turn a profit instead of being close to breaking even.
So far in 2025, we have produced about 9.6 megawatts (mW) and electricity, about 800 kWh more than we used. Sadly, we lack the battery capacity to store more than 30 kWh at any time, so it goes to the grid. If we were not connected to the grid, most of this excess power would have been wasted.
With our system up and running for more than a year, we remain happy we purchased it, especially as electricity prices are rising an average of 6 percent annually.
Right now, we have set our system to keep its batteries powered at least 90 percent of the way. This will give us plenty of battery power if the lines go down from the 45-MPH wind gusts or the heavy snow we expect. Since we may have bad weather into Wednesday, a lengthy outage could mean we will have to us the generator to charge the batteries. Solar panels don’t make power when covered with snow, and I’m not planning to climb on the roof to clean them off.
UPDATE: As of Monday afternoon, we are experiencing near blizzard-like conditions with blowing snow. Our saving grace is the snow remains light although heavier snow is expected later. The wind is blowing so hard it blew the hood off my Polaris Ranger. Temperatures were in the low 20s overnight and I had to break the ice off the chickens water so they could get a drink. I’ll be doing that twice a day until it warms up. Stay warm, folks!
