Read on Twitter
Hardcore prep for the next winter power outage, or How To Turn One Room Into A Cozy Off Grid Sanctuary Temporarily
1) Get a bedtent. They sell commercially made ones! Mine is up all the time, you can save yours for power outages. They're thin fabric that will still raise the temp about 10 degrees F inside, more if you drape a comforter over them.
2) Kerosene lamps! The gold standard for light are Aladdin lamps. This eBay seller is great: https://www.ebay.com/usr/imperial_lighting_co
Vermont Lanterns makes small lamps that will get you by but reading by them will be a pain: https://www.vermontlanterns.com/
Vermont Lanterns makes small lamps that will get you by but reading by them will be a pain: https://www.vermontlanterns.com/
A&P Gaudard in France makes the best non-incandescent lamps that provide useful light:
https://www.gaudard.com/
With any lamp other than Aladdin, the wider the wick, the more light you'll get. If it flickers and smokes, the wick is too high. Turn it down.
https://www.gaudard.com/
With any lamp other than Aladdin, the wider the wick, the more light you'll get. If it flickers and smokes, the wick is too high. Turn it down.
If you can smell kerosene, the wick is too low, turn it up.
Every lamp has a sweet spot, you just gotta tinker until you find it.
Every lamp has a sweet spot, you just gotta tinker until you find it.
If you want to be extremely super hardcore and have the money, get a stove from http://cylinderstoves.com and the window kit. Cut your plywood BEFORE THE NEXT POWER OUTAGE. Installing a wood stove like this is an EXTREMELY FUCKING TEMPORARY maneuver.
But 3) get the wood stove as described above. You will also need some paving stones and two pieces of fireboard. Put down the paving stones and set one piece of fireboard on them to be a platform for the stove. Lean the other piece of fireboard against the wall behind it.
If you get the bottom grid for inside the stove you can use coal or charcoal briquettes in the stove instead of wood. Do not recommend coal as your neighbors will come for you. These wood stoves are designed to let you cook on them so hey, you can have hot food!
However since you have an incredibly jury rigged chimney that does not funnel the combustion gasses up and away from your house, Crack a window open on the opposite side of the room the stove is in. Just, yknow, for safety. Trust me, the stove will overcome the cold air.
4) if your main stove is electric, pick up a propane camping stove. Set it up either outside or in a room you're not living in and crack open a window. Hot food and drinks will keep your morale up and make you feel less like randomly sobbing.
Also it will let you heat water for sponge baths if your hot water heater is out. Keeping yourself clean is also a morale booster.
5) but even easier than sponge baths are these suckers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005PUTH2M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_6TBG44BXYASBZFRJS6B1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
They are my go to when my mental health sucks so much I can't handle even the kind people at WombatHaus and setting up the shower here seems monumental.
They are my go to when my mental health sucks so much I can't handle even the kind people at WombatHaus and setting up the shower here seems monumental.
Keep your body clean and the layer of clothes closest to your skin clean. If you can start to smell yourself, morale will decline.
6) If you have covered the window in your living space for insulation, GO OUTSIDE AND GET SUN. Do it. Sitting in the cold and dark is fucking miserable and will make you feel sad and desperate. You can remedy one of those things. GO SEE THE SUN.
7) Coloring books are pretty great.
8) Insofar as it is possible, stick to your goddamned routine.
9) http://coppercowcoffee.com sells handy single cup pour over coffee thingies, with sweetened condensed milk included. Get a smol kettle for camping to go with it and voila, coffee.
If you want large amounts of coffee, get a stovetop percolator for use with your wood stove or propane camping stove.
Hot water will also let you make instant oatmeal which is filling and good. I buy it plain in bulk and add whatever I feel like adding instead of buying the tiny packets which quite frankly are not enough calories.
10) for the super hardcore power outage option, take your sheep and move to an off-grid yurt and organize your entire life around not having electricity in the first place (this is the least useful advice I have ever given anyone in my life)
This is why I'm telling you to open a window when using a wood stove or propane camp stove indoors. I'm assuming you're a grown adult who owns carbon monoxide detectors. If you're not, WTF get some. https://twitter.com/SvetaPinto/status/1361673885947736065?s=19
I never have the yurt totally sealed up because my life is powered by things burning. At least one window is wrinkled open at all times (they seal with clear vinyl panels that velcro over the screens)
11) Drink water. No, more than that. I don't care if you're not thirsty. You won't feel as thirsty when you're cold but you're still fucking dehydrated so drink some water. More. Good job.
Also thanks @SvetaPinto for making that CO thing explicit, my habits have been geared toward it for so long that we're prob lucky I remembered to mention opening a window.
12) Layering. People are wandering around screaming "COTTON KILLS" but if you are in Texas, inside where you are dry and out of the wind, and have blankets, we are not talking low enough temps that this is an issue and these people need to chill the fuck out.
This is good advice for going into serious winter. While what is happening now feels to us southerners like serious winter, it's really really not.
ANYWAY. If you're a southerner like me, your wardrobe consists of items in varying degrees of tightness, the vast majority of em designed to keep you cool in summer.
Put them on starting with the tightest item first. Pantyhose actually make pretty fantastic long underwear if you don't have the real stuff (my grandaddy used to wear em working outdoors in Kentucky winters!).
You don't want to restrict blood flow so probably stop at 4 or 5 layers, depending. My upper body for lounging first thing before the wood stove gets going is usually tight tank top, tshirt, flannel shirt, hoodie, and a thin wool hat. If it's really serious cold, 2 hoodies.
My lower body is wool socks, tight workout pants (the ones from 90 degrees by reflex, they have pockets!), loose workout pants, tshirt quilt. And sheepskin slippers.
As you warm up, lose layers until you're just comfortably warm again and not too hot.
If you have to go outside, jeans are great for a windbreaker layer but KEEP SOMETHING ON BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR JEANS. They get cold as fuck. They are shit as insulation. I keep those tight workout pants on under my jeans to do chores unless it gets above like 50.
Take the jeans off when you get indoors if they've gotten wet at all. Wet denim sucks the heat right out of you.
13) warm your hands on the neck or groin of the other person in the house who did not have to go outside, depending on your relationship with them. Also works with dogs. Cats may respond with violence, use caution.
14) if you have a cow, pause to warm your hands on the cow while working outside. Cows are very warm. If you don't have a cow, reconsider your life choices.
Do not bring the cow in the house. You do not want that clean up. The cow will be fine outside, leave it there.
