I’m as prepared as can reasonably be prepared. If power drops I have a natural gas fireplace that can reasonably heat the entire house. I just did all the laundry and dishes. Spent most of the day grabbing food and preps in case we go a few days with no power.
Depending how much drops on us over the weekend, I might spend a day or so digging out. Have a 4 wheel drive jeep so not terribly concerned. If the streets don’t get cleared I’ll just be bunking down at home eating snacks.
Anyway if I drop off the radar, that’s what’s going on. I knew I should have winter camo’d an AR.
Power grid in IA is actually pretty resilient against snowfall. I’m even luckier, all the lines on my network went underground this summer. Just keep your furnace vent clear if your heat is gas, and use a scraper to pull snow off the roof (this is the part people usually forget). All good.
So snow wasn’t as bad as predicted, even managed to get to Taco Johns today and they were open. More snow might be coming, but even more concerning temps are supposed to get pretty severe the next two days.
In Arizona we are predicting a lawn chair gets turned over in some horrible accident deep in the hood somewherez. Prepping is essential. If shit ever goes down here we will all be so unprepared, its comical. Now, up in the mountains, they get hammered and most folks don’t know we actual have mountains 1.5 hrs away. With real snow and they are supposed to get a bit.
Crazy…the front is supposed to hit us sometime Sunday & should dip into freezing temps overnite for a couple days. You can have the snow & not sure how you guys deal with that & the bitter cold. They say the Steeler game coming up may break a cold record.
Heck, we haven’t even had a frost out at the ranch, mesquites still have their leaves & need to mow camp…it’s usually all brown by now out there where it gets a tad colder.
The last time it snowed in the valley I think was in 2004 on Christmas Day & the time before that was exactly 100 years prior on Christmas as well.
We are supposed to get in to the single digits here early next week which is rare. I can only recall a handful of single negative° days in my life and was out of town on a -25° day.
I’ve done it. Central WI last year. I’ll be off Monday, might leave the rifles in the truck to chill overnight and try again, though only forecast for -11 Sunday night.
Short answer, regular lube was ok to -15 or so, the Cherry Balm lube seemed to cycle smoother. Ammo seemed unaffected. Batteries were ok enough to still power red dots.
Didn’t go to the range today as planned. After my driveway, the neighbors, and the guy across the street I tried a short snow hike with the dog, my Merrill 400g boots, I have others that are warmer but didn’t feel like I would need them, did very little against the knee high snow. It was a slog, which I probably needed after the holidays but only did about 2 miles. I somewhat feel lazy, but also feel like I did too much after leg day Friday.
Went to a vintage rifle match yesterday morning and it was cold. Temperature was 11 degrees with a wind chill of -7 degrees when we sent the first rounds down range. It did not get any warmer over the few hours it took to set up, run the match, then tear everything down. Walking through 8 inches of snow to post and repair targets while dealing with wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour was a bit interesting. The wind pushes you around a bit when you are carrying target boards.
The vintage group at the club is holding another event this morning with wind chills at -35 degrees. You certainly have to dress for the weather in these conditions.
Expecting to get into the single digits here Tuesday. I know I know… you boys up north think of that as shorts and sandals weather but it’s a bit chilly for us hillbillies. Forecasting a couple inches of snow tomorrow which of course has created panic and full parking lot at the grocery. I think I’ve got enough beer to survive.
They are going to make that southern snow day specialty: French toast. At least that’s the best I can figure since the bread, milk and eggs always get cleaned out on impending snow days.