It's been a wonderful day today at the LittleBill compound. I spent the morning in human interaction. Everything that could go wrong did. The only exercise I got at the gym was walking in from my truck and back out again. That, and complaining about my locker breaking - twice. The good news is, I didn't have to go out in the lobby wrapped in only a towel and a dignified poise. I saw it coming this time and was able to wear clothes.

But this afternoon was even more fun. I am working on some outside wiring so I don't have to drag my generator across a hill for 150' in snow and ice when the power goes out. The temperature has been in the high 20s much of the day, with a cheery breeze blowing from 12-25 mph. And I have been outside in my newly modified and not so well insulated body. Add to that my coat is a lot bigger than it used to be - or really, it is the same size. It just seems bigger since I am smaller in diameter now. So the wind blows up to it and up through it, relieving me of what little body heat I have.

I can hardly wait until Mrs. LittleBill gets home. For the past 32 plus years, she has treated me like her own thermal pile. I have freezer burns on my back from hands and feet placed there over the years. But now, the tide has turned. Positions have been reversed. She doesn't like it. Not one bit. The first cold night we had, I cuddled up to her in bed. Then, just as she has done to me so many times, I gently placed my corpse like hand on her warm body. I think the neighbors heard her scream. My ears rang for several hours. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!?!" I believe that is what she said. It is hard to remember. I was in a daze for a little while.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and that goes for cold hands and feet. If no one ever hears from me again, they were probably too cold.

@@LittleBill - we live on a deadend. When the flooding hit the Midwest in 2011 thousands and thousands were impacted. Our whole house generator sits on a concrete pad, weighs 600 pounds and is hard wired into our home. We have a decorative fence that helps hide it. Thieves were a big issue at many homes that people boarded up and moved out temporarily. We stayed. We packed our things and put them in storage and lived with the bare minimum. The generator was a blessing. Thank God we did not flood. After 8 months we brought our furniture home. It is terrible what we have to worry about during a crisis.

Had lapband surgery 10/12/16

@@LittleBill - we live on a deadend. When the flooding hit the Midwest in 2011 thousands and thousands were impacted. Our whole house generator sits on a concrete pad, weighs 600 pounds and is hard wired into our home. We have a decorative fence that helps hide it. Thieves were a big issue at many homes that people boarded up and moved out temporarily. We stayed. We packed our things and put them in storage and lived with the bare minimum. The generator was a blessing. Thank God we did not flood. After 8 months we brought our furniture home. It is terrible what we have to worry about during a crisis.Had lapband surgery 10/12/16

Wow, that's some serious trouble. We are on a country road that sees a decent amount of traffic from time to time. We have "other methods" for discouraging thieves and looters in the event of societal breakdown, but low profile has been a major component.

Having seen what flooding can do to people, including some family, we purposely looked for a house on a hill. This place hasn't flooded since Noah was a ship captain. I am glad you were able to make it through.

I know what you mean. Fortunately we have been sleeping on a heated Water bed ever since the 1970's and using a very thick down blanket. When I go to bed it is like sleeping in a warm cocoon.

The only problem was right after surgery. Trying to get out of a waterbed right after surgery was extremely awkward and painful.

Thank God for the person who invented chemical hand warmers.

We have been heating our house solely with wood for the past 40 years. I love the heat and warmth from our wood stove.

I know what you mean. Fortunately we have been sleeping on a heated Water bed ever since the 1970's and using a very thick down blanket. When I go to bed it is like sleeping in a warm cocoon.

The only problem was right after surgery. Trying to get out of a waterbed right after surgery was extremely awkward and painful.

Thank God for the person who invented chemical hand warmers.

We have been heating our house solely with wood for the past 40 years. I love the heat and warmth from our wood stove.

We've had an outdoor furnace for 12 years now that burns either wood or coal. We are using our oil burner this year. I did not have time to chop wood before surgery (had other projects to finish) and we weren't sure how long I would have issues lifiting after surgery. Oil is nice for being lazy, but nothing beats the nice even heat of wood. We can't quite cozy up to it like you can, but if we want that, we just repair to our squirrel free outbuilding.

Edited December 10, 20169 yr by LittleBill

We got about 8 inches on snow in Michigan today.

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We're supposed to get as much as 3" here tonight. That's nothing, and the ground isn't frozen, so it won't stay. Here's a picture of last year's blizzard. The drifts were up past my hips. I took this from the seat of my mighty steed after about three hours of work to clear the parking space.

I had to shovel once then use the snow blower twice after that. They have closed schools for tomorrow already.

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@@Redmaxx So are you going to get even more? We home schooled our kids, so they never got snow days. And, they had to help shovel out. But when I was a kid, I lived for snow days. Sometimes I had to pray for one, on account of homework not getting done, or tests not studied for.

Still under a winter storm watch until 0430 hrs tomorrow. Snowing lightly right now.

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Still under a winter storm watch until 0430 hrs tomorrow. Snowing lightly right now.

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Good luck with it. Around here, the first storm brings out a lot of stupid in people.

Here as well. Here as well.

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@@Treadmillwalker we're in the country too, but a main trunk goes right in front of our house. We've never been out more than 48 hours, and that was in Hurricane Isabel back in '03.

We have a 19th century approach to this stuff. For short stints, the generator will keep the house warm and the food cold. We have an outhouse, a hand pumped well, and an outbuilding (now squirrel free) where we could live for an extended period of time without electricity. A whole house generator would cost us 10 times what we spent for our current setup, and all those lights on would only draw the neighbors.

omg I laughed so hard at ur post that my husband asked what I was laughing at so I read it to him and he laughed. It takes a lot to make him laugh. Lol. And ur lucky we loose electric a lot and already for over two weeks. We have our generator wired into our home to run our entire house at the flip of a switch. We did this after going over two weeks without electric one winter.

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Our setup is similar. I have to manually start the generator (yank the cord), and then throw one switch to switch over the circuits we dedicated to keeping on. That's the heat, the fridge, and the freezer. We have bunches of candles and oil lamps for lights, and the aforementioned 19th century amenities for long term low energy consumption.

With my new arrangement, I can leave it in the tool shed. That saves me time and work to roll it into place, and keeps it secure from generator thieves. The old arrangement had it next to the house, which is right up by the road. Nothing says "here I am!" Like a running generator in a power outage.

When our girls were still here at home, they would complain about the outhouse. I told them they were welcome to use the inside toilet, but I was not hauling buckets of Water up two flights of stairs so they could pee in luxury. That was their job.

we have our done to run the whole house just bc we have three young kids ages 7,11,14 so it makes it rough when no electric. But we don't turn on the internet ha ha we make them play board games with us. Ha ha. My i laws live next door and we bought them one as well. I think most people on our road have one but we live in the country and we loose it so often. And it's weird bc just in the last few months there has been four robberies in our road but most people know we are armed and my husband won't hesitate to shoot. And we lock everything up and surveillance. It seems it doesn't matter where u live it happens now. We have lived here for 22 years and have never locked car doors always left keys in our cars. ETC. Not no more!!!

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@@genn Gee, except for the generator part, that sounds a lot like our house. My oldest daughter even gave me a big sign that says, "If you can read this, you're in range".

@@genn we have owned our country home since 1993. We used to leave everything unlocked too, but now have surveillance cameras and signs up that say no trespassing. Both hubby and I carry on the farm (I don't take it to my office because of company policy) and are licensed. This reminds me we need to renew our Concealed Carry Permits. It has been 5 years since the last renewal.

Had lapband surgery 10/12/16

Edited December 12, 20169 yr by Treadmillwalker

I had no idea there were so many gun toters on this site! We both carry everywhere it is legal to do so. If a bad guy forced his way in the door, it would be a very short confrontation. If a bad guy showed up on the property, he would be very surprised. Like I wrote. We carry everywhere.