OK, here we are in the Norther Hemisphere and winter is coming.

Time to run down the Winter Storm Prep list -

Hoses up, Spigots off, Generator tested?

Got salt? Snowblower working? Gutters clean?

Do your boots fit? Did a mouse eat the liners (happened to me)?

Ice storm readiness? In a bad ice storm you can expect several days of no electric.

Got your firewood ready? Or pellets?

I bought a new hat and its nice and warm...

http://www.strikeforcesupplies.co.uk/index.php?method=stock&id=20170

I suspect this winter might be even colder than last year

Funny you mention that. I've been working on a bunch lately!

- Firewood storage, and moving 3+ cords into covered/protected places, and splitting another 1 cord, and then moving it.

- Kindling prep. Since we don't have cold consecutive days day after day like some places we need to re-start a fire every couple days/weeks. This year I`m prepping what I hope is a years worth of kindling. Hopefully this will prevent me splitting in the house making a mess... lol.

- Just had 2 new garage doors installed to hopefully prevent my garage from flooding. Removing my single car worth of concrete from in front of garage too since it slopes into my garage. Depending on weather and time we may put drains in, and put down concrete in front of both car garages.. not sure on cost yet since I want it to handle a car lift too.

- 3 new windows in the garage, currently 2 are open for summer, 1 is still covered in plywood.

- Replace siding on the garage, and get it primed and hopefully painted before winter. (Unexpected, but old siding we were going to paint is actually rotten.)

- Decide what I`m doing for whole-house generator in terms of which generator/transfer switch setup I want to do if any this year.

It seems every winter there is more and more to do even if I think I`m ready.

Winter tires were on the car (Saturday) before the snow came (yesterday). A bit too small margin of error for my liking.


Some minor winter maintenance on the car still pending (silicone on anything rubbery in doors, lots of oil in the looks). No big deal and not really a big hurry.


Canoe still rests on the lawn and should be dismantled and put away. No more canoe trips this year.


Firewood - awaiting a delayed delivery from our usual trustworthy source. I am by no means empty, but I feel much more comfortable when I'm all set for the winter. In 3 days I'll be OK.


Clothes - check. Winter clothes were ready when we needed. In fact, they're always ready except late spring, summer and early autumn. Living in Scandinavia does that to you.


Winter gear (sledge, skis and so on) - check. Having a good size shed means that things aren't stored away into remote cellars or attics for the season.

I have 'frostproof' sillcocks for my garden hoses. A couple of years ago I turned off the outside water on schedule, but I forgot to disconnect the hose from the sillcock. The water in the hose and pipe froze solid and split the pipe inside the house.

The next task will be raking leaves. We have mostly conifers, but there are three gigantic maple trees near the house which are dropping leaves as I write this. Last year they produced two dozen 55 gal bags full of tightly compacted leaves.

Vehicle prep for long distance commuting:

Clean the battery posts in all the cars.
Top off and charge batteries. Buy new if more than 4 yrs old.
Check anti-freeze levels and strength.
Change wiper blades.
Top off washer reservoir.
Check lights and rear window defroster functional.
Put ice scrapers and deicing fluid (washer fluid in a manual spray bottle which softens frost) back in the car.
Throw the Wyoming Tuxedo(insulated coveralls) and chains in the car.
Verify the sleeping bag or blanket still in the car.
Check tire tread and pressures.
Clean inside the windows (they'll fog less)

for those of us who have lived in Minnesota most of our lives getting ready is fairly routine.shut off the outside water and turn over the bird baths,run the snow blower before it snows which i've done.i have a couple buckets of a sand-salt mix that the city gives away.the winter clothes and boots are on the side of the rack in the colsit and just have to be moved to the front.
a new very large dry bag from a yard sale with a old heavy jacket,boots,blanket,gloves and wool hat will go into the trunk of my older car.the big chore will be to get my canoes onto the racks and get the tarps and wood roof over them.over the years i have thought about a small generator to run the gas furnace if we had a major power outage or putting a pipe inside the unused brick chimney so i could hook up a wood stove in the basement to heat things up a bit until the power came back on.we have enough food set aside so we could skip trips to the local store if the city streets went unplowed but Minneapolis does a great job at keeping them clear.all in all it's just another winter.

HOWEVER!!!!

last year the cold snap came on so fast that i did not have a chance to drain the water barrel and had to chop out the ice!!1

Ah, life in the San Francisco Bay Area! We've lived here since '94, and it hasn't been below freezing. We've got our rain gear in the van, but we need some kind of water proof shoes to go with the reflective parka and pants. Gotta make a note of that. Our 3-season sleeping bags and a wool blanket will keep us warm, and the space blanket is there if needed. Candles for heat & light; life raft matches that light anywhere and burn underwater (well, more or less).

No water freezes, no snow, no ice. Lots of rain, though, over the next 5 or 6 months, if we're lucky. Our winter storms are a lot like summer in Iceland during the two brief stops I was there on IcelandAir.

I got in as much firewood as I could, and cut down more fir and spruce branches and piled them up to season and drop their needles for next year.

No hard freeze predicted yet, so haven't drained some of the hoses. Have to wrap and bag the free-standing faucets.

Checked the roof, cleaned the gutters and chimney.

Cleaned branches and needles off the garage roof, cleaned those gutters, too. Plugged the hole in the metal of the attached lean-to (from a fallen branch).

Picked up a few canisters of propane for my Grasshopper stove, and some spray windshield de-icer, and filled the washer fluid with the good stuff instead of the junk that JiffyLube puts in my work van that freezes into a gel on the windshield if you accidentally hit the sprayer.

Mowed the back half-acre for the last time, I hope.

Cleaned out the chicken coop (6 pullets) and spread contents on the garden.

Still putting the garden to bed, a few cherry tomatoes are still ripening. This time I'm laying down flakes of wet straw (they were directly under the hole in the lean-to) over the limed soil to keep the weeds down. I hope they last long enough so in spring all I have to do is rake the straw off, add nitrogen and potassium, and plant. We shall see...

Lined the sides of the largest wire mesh compost pile with two-ply cardboard and have been layering the almost-finished compost with cuttings from the comfrey plants and dandelion tops (both nutrient accumulators), and adding some alfalfa mean, wood ashes and bone meal, covered with plastic to prevent nutrient leaching during our heavy rains.

Bathed both dogs.

Bandaged hand after slicing thumb joint with knife while harvesting comfrey.

Sue

Sounds kinda dull, actually.

I'm kidding, but only partially. We have four utterly distinct seasons; each smells different, the light from the sky is different, the clouds are different, the preparations and routines are different, and the mindset is necessarily different.

I would miss the variety, the changes that are tangible in all of my senses.

Though if our winters were a couple of months shorter, that would be a welcome change. A little break down by The Bay is on my list.