snowstorm cooking

[iowa hawkeyes]

Having a hella blizzard today so I decided to make some Christmas goodies. Made mint Oreo truffles. Coconut (Mounds) truffles, and praline candy. Now I need to hide them so they last til Christmas. Problem is, I'll know where I hid it! :santa: :santa:

Kinda going stir crazy here. :banana:

 

[I luv herfrds]

Suppose to snow and have freezing rain tomorrow.

I like to make clam chowder or chili on those type of days. Also do some baking. The bread and rolls never last long on a cold day. ;-)

I hate the thought of doing Christmas candy this year. Need to get some done for the kid's school bus driver. He go nuts for my candies.
Fudge, coconut mounds, peanut butter cups, divinty, chocolate covered cherries and a few others.
Looks like I will be very busy this next week.

 

[Jogeephus]

What ya'll need to do is ship all those goodies down here to me so I can guard them and keep you from the reach of tempation. :mrgreen:

 

[Tea]

Our weather has been pretty weird. One month ago we had 40 mph gusts and wind chill brought it down to 0
Now this might not sound like much if your in, say Browning MT

But we are at sea level and the house and main building are in deep forest with big trees. So it can be kinda hairy.
Anyway we always loose power.

So I made scones on the wood stove. I put a little wire protecter down to prevent the bottom of the pan from burning. Then made a little oven with different sized pots.

It worked great!

 

[kimw]

That's one thing I'm grateful for - I never have to worry about losing power. We are completely off grid here. No powerlines to come down. We were as cozy as ever during that ice storm a couple years ago, except for having to get out and milk and feed the cows.

I really want a wood cookstove anyway...

 

[ga.prime]

That's one thing I'm grateful for - I never have to worry about losing power. We are completely off grid here.

That's interesting. What's the short answer to how that works?

 

[kimw]

Short answer: propane water heater (only for summer, in winter, there is a 100 gallon water heater that the stove pipe goes thru), propane refrigerator and lights and stove, small windmill for well water pump, lights, and a 12 volt chest freezer when the wind is blowing, generator for laundry and occasional electric needs, hydropower for lights, laundry, etc. when the lake is full, solar panels for lights and the 12 volt chest freezer when the sun is shining. Not very short is it? It's called a combination system... We use whatever power is available at the moment, and mostly we just don't use power.

 

[ga.prime]

Cool.

 

[Tea]

Lived without power for many years. Had an outhouse, Even without a well, we would catch water. Luckily where we live there is plenty of rain.
However we always had a wood stove as we didn't trust propane. (I don't even know if propane was availible on the islands then. It is now, but we still don't have it.And we didn't want to buy anything. Put stuff outside in the winter to keep. Put up dried meat. Which always keeps! Made cheese from our milk which keeps well, and had a cool cellar.
I guess we were kinda backwards.

We made lamp oil out of rendered fat, for light.

I still make soap.

But now we are old and we have power, electricity.
But we loose power during the winter due to big trees and strong winds.

I don't think I could live without a woodstove.

 

[3waycross]

Lived without power for many years. Had an outhouse, Even without a well, we would catch water. Luckily where we live there is plenty of rain.
However we always had a wood stove as we didn't trust propane. (I don't even know if propane was availible on the islands then. It is now, but we still don't have it.And we didn't want to buy anything. Put stuff outside in the winter to keep. Put up dried meat. Which always keeps! Made cheese from our milk which keeps well, and had a cool cellar.
I guess we were kinda backwards.

We made lamp oil out of rendered fat, for light.

I still make soap.

But now we are old and we have power, electricity.
But we loose power during the winter due to big trees and strong winds.

I don't think I could live without a woodstove.

Sounds like you have learned to live with a lot less than most people. I grew up with Grandparents who lived that way. It was very interesting.

 

[TexasBred]

Short answer: propane water heater (only for summer, in winter, there is a 100 gallon water heater that the stove pipe goes thru), propane refrigerator and lights and stove, small windmill for well water pump, lights, and a 12 volt chest freezer when the wind is blowing, generator for laundry and occasional electric needs, hydropower for lights, laundry, etc. when the lake is full, solar panels for lights and the 12 volt chest freezer when the sun is shining. Not very short is it? It's called a combination system... We use whatever power is available at the moment, and mostly we just don't use power.

And where would this be?? You don't show a location.

 

[kimw]

Sorry about the slow response, I haven't been on the forum in the last many days. We are in northwest Arkansas - Ozarks. Takes an hour and a half to get to any town from where we are, the dirt roads are terrible. But we are soon moving to Kansas, where there's some beautiful ground. We may still live the same way, seeing as how they want $5000 to hook up to the power grid there, and we already have all the equipment. No hydropower though, :cry2: the land is too flat. I was laughing at my husband that he wouldn't be able to roll start the equipment anymore, until I realized that I was probably going to have to pull him to start stuff... That has got to be my least favorite farm job.

 

[TexasBred]

Sorry about the slow response, I haven't been on the forum in the last many days. We are in northwest Arkansas - Ozarks. Takes an hour and a half to get to any town from where we are, the dirt roads are terrible. But we are soon moving to Kansas, where there's some beautiful ground. We may still live the same way, seeing as how they want $5000 to hook up to the power grid there, and we already have all the equipment. No hydropower though, :cry2: the land is too flat. I was laughing at my husband that he wouldn't be able to roll start the equipment anymore, until I realized that I was probably going to have to pull him to start stuff... That has got to be my least favorite farm job.

You settle over in Kansas the wind can flow hard enought to push start that tractor. :lol2:

 

[kimw]

So, does anyone know if the wind blows just as hard in southeast Kansas? I haven't figured out yet if we should sell the 5kw windmill we bought several years ago and never installed, or take it with us?

That sounds great to me about the tractor! I ALWAYS do something wrong when we have to pull equipment.

 

[Calman]

Lived without power for many years. Had an outhouse, Even without a well, we would catch water. Luckily where we live there is plenty of rain.
However we always had a wood stove as we didn't trust propane. (I don't even know if propane was availible on the islands then. It is now, but we still don't have it.And we didn't want to buy anything. Put stuff outside in the winter to keep. Put up dried meat. Which always keeps! Made cheese from our milk which keeps well, and had a cool cellar.
I guess we were kinda backwards.

Lived the same way until I was 15 yr old then we got electricity.We lived so far up the holler in the Mo. ozarks we piped in sunshine and piped out moonshine.We were lucky on the water though had a spring above the house and a spring house for dairy stuff.Also had a pipe running from the spring to a wooden sink in the kitchen.Therefore running water all time.Some people call it the good old days,but I prefer the push a button system we have now.The only good in it I was a lot younger. :lol:

Cal