This is the sixth December we have lived up here on the side of our mountain. It has also been the snowiest, by far. This is one of those times of year when you can drive about and see what locals refer to as the “snow line.” If you live above it, as we do, you get snow. Below it, you don’t. It’s not unusual for the weather forecast to say, “Expect a dusting of snow in low-lying areas and four to six inches above 3,500 feet.”
You expect to see snow-laden mountains and snow-free valleys in the Rocky Mountains or mountain ranges in Alaska, but not out here in the Appalachians.
The snow can make our road dangerously slippery. We had to park halfway down the mountain and shuttle to and from the car in the side-by-side two days last week. Not surprisingly, the UTV climbs a snowy road well, but if you go too fast, it will slip a bit going downhill .
I’m comfortable driving the UTV up and down the road and the driveway in a few inches of snow, but I would not want to come down a slick logging road in the Polaris. The vendor who buried our waterline slid down in a couple spots, and his excavator has treads. It also had a blade and bucket, which gave him options I don’t have on the UTV.
Along with the snow, we have experienced multiple cold waves. We expect more snow and temperatures in the single digits on Sunday night and much of Monday.
Cold Chickens = No Eggs
The cold and short days are also hurting egg production. During the coldest weather, we dropped from five to three and then only two eggs per day. That’s barely enough to feed ourselves. This is one of those months where I spend more on feed than I make on egg sales.
It seems like the polar vortex has arrived early this year. We have used so much firewood that I have already ordered more to replace what we burned. I hope not to need it until next winter, but if this cold keeps up, we may run out of our seasoned wood in April. I also have more logs to cut and split, but having it delivered by the trailer load is faster.
No Sun Means No Solar Power
In November, our solar system generated about 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, just 80 percent as much electricity as we produced in October. We consumed much of it and sent 34 percent less electricity to the grid than the month prior. The way this month is starting out, we’ll be lucky to generate 500 kWh. That may change if we get rid of some of this snow. Warmer temperatures are expected late this week and should last through Christmas.
I was worried that our November utility bill would use up our positive balance, but that was not the case. Thanks to not using our heat pump and our various credits, we only spent about $14 on electricity last month. We still have a surplus of $110. We’ll see if that covers us in December.
If we had been off-grid last month, we would have had to run the generator for about 32 hours to make up for the electricity we used but did not produce. I expect we would need to run it 100 to 120 hours if we were off-grid all December, but we won’t know for sure until the month is over.
If we were in a grid-down scenario, we would conserve energy as much as possible, doing laundry only on sunny days. Everything that might draw even a few watts would be unplugged, and the water heater would be off more than it is on. It would be inconvenient, but it would still be better than having no electricity at all.
Water
Every morning, and often again in the afternoon, I have to go crack the ice in the chicken’s water troughs and refill them with warm water. The deepest the ice has been is about 1.25 inches.
Although it is a hassle, that’s good news because I still have two large IBC totes filled with water for firefighting, and I have not yet drained them. They can handle an inch or two of ice, but I can’t help but wonder if the plastic bladder would crack if they froze solid. I’m monitoring the situation. If the winter stays as cold as it has started, I may drain them.
So far, our water supply has not frozen. I built an insulated enclosure for a section of pipe that was exposed near the house, and we added pipe insulation to the exposed pipe outside the spring. We’ll cross our fingers, knock on wood, and hope we don’t freeze up this winter.
Sam’s Club
Last week I spent just over $400 at Sam’s Club, and the only prepping item I bought was a six-pack of canned chicken. Afterwards, I had to order about $70 more goods online because some items were not in the store. Too much Christmas stuff filling the shelves, I guess.
One thing that annoyed me was their normal milk bones were gone and instead they had some joint venture milk bones made with a vanilla coating from Dunkin’. What a stupid idea! Like my dog will recognize Dunkin’ Donuts or needs a vanilla flavor. This product is obviously targeting people, not dogs. I just want the standard bones because I know my dog likes them and is not allergic to them. I have about a six-month supply, but I was able to order more online.
Much of what we bought was for daily consumption and regular household use. This included 12 pounds of thick-cut bacon, lamb chops, and enough chicken for at least 12 meals. I only bought some very thin steaks because the price of beef is so high. Hamburger meat was about $6 a pound. We also got eight pounds of butter at about $2.55 per pound. It went straight into the freezer, which is packed.
I stocked up on bulk packs of paper products, too. We keep at least a year’s worth of facial tissue on hand, and I expect we have enough toilet paper to last two years. I’d keep more if we had more room, but when you add paper towels and napkins, that stuff takes up some serious volume.
I don’t expect to go back to Sam’s until late February or March, but this order should hold us at least that long.
Using the NESCO VS-12P Vacuum Sealer
My daughter got us a NESCO VS-12P vacuum sealer as an early Christmas present. After we got home from Sam’s Club, we used it to seal up about ten packages of meat for the freezer. We have never owned a FoodSaver, so I don’t know how they compare.
I watched a couple of instructional videos, my wife read the manual, and between the two of us, we got it up and running just fine. It took longer to seal the bags than I expected, but it did a good job overall. I expect those cuts of meat will do better in the freezer in a vacuum-sealed bag than they would in a Ziploc baggie. For example, meat in a Ziploc dated July was covered in ice.
My wife complains there is not room for the sealer in the kitchen because of our limited counter space. She is not wrong. The sealer has been banished to the basement storeroom with the electric griddle, the popcorn maker, and other small appliances that aren’t used very often. As a result, we will use the sealer only after big shopping trips rather than for leftovers or fresh foods we intend to consume soon. But that’s OK; most of our leftovers go into sealable plastic containers that stack nicely in the fridge or freezer.
Not for Food Storage
The rolls of bagging materials sold by NESCO are expensive, but there are plenty of third-party bags or rolls out there that should work just fine. It is important to get bags with a textured side. The texture, also known as embossing, allows the air a path to escape when the vacuum is pulled. Smooth bags will lock together, and the vacuum pump won’t be able to suck all the air out.
The bad news about this vacuum sealer is it is not strong enough to seal Mylar bags, which are best for long-term storage of dried foods. That requires an impulse sealer or a stronger machine. If I want to seal a pound or two of pasta, rice, beans, baking mixes, or other dried products away for long-term storage, I will have to keep using quart mason jars with one or two 100 cc oxygen absorbers.
You could use the 4-mil textured bags that come with the machine for food term storage, but I would not trust them for more than a few years. If I knew we were heading into a calamity and food would be scarce, I’d be happy to bag up and vacuum seal dried foods to help prevent them from going stale. I wouldn’t, however, expect them to last more than a few years.
