Winter weather

We just came through a big old snow storm.  We got somewhere around 10-12 inches of snow.  In April no less.  I love snow and I love that we had a couple of freebie days at home with the whole family.  What I didn't enjoy was the lack of security I felt.  Our new house is all electric.  This means that if we had had our power go out there would have been no heat, no way to cook, and no coffee!  This is why we are going to put in a wood stove.  In addition to that there is no water when there is no power.  Our well pump is electric too.  Mostly this means if I think we'll get a storm I do things like fill up any and all water bottles and jugs for drinking water.  I didn't dump the cooler from our weekend bbq.  That water could be used for washing or the dog to drink if we needed to.

I am seeing I'm going to need to be a bit of a prepper here, especially when it comes to water.  Even more so once we have more animals than the dog.  I need to stock up on his food better too.  We are close to being out of milk but I'm not worried because I keep powdered on hand just in case.  I buy groceries in a way that allows us to go a week without going to town for more so when a storm hits it isn't  a huge deal unless it were to hit Wednesday or Thursday, and even then it wouldn't be too bad.  I would just have to get more creative with meals.  I'm seeing with our lack of back up cooking methods I can certainly stand to stock up on some more ready to eat foods.  And/or make some more of my own to freeze or dry.

We don't get these storms often but it seems to me I would rather have stuff on hand and not have an emergency than to have an emergency and have it truly be an emergency as opposed to an inconvenience. 

So here's a small portion of my list of things to change here at the house:

wood stove installed
water storage
dry food storage
animal food storage area
chickens for fresh eggs
dogs for animal and homestead protection
better access to the riding mower that gets a snow plow installed

Otherwise I find our house does quite well in a storm.  We get some interesting drifting but the house is well insulated and comfortable.  I would not have wanted to be in many of the houses we've lived in during a storm like that.

The kids loved the snow.  Actually we all did.  I got to go skiing, we got snow days, and the kids got to drag out the snow clothes.  We also are loving the moisture from this storm.  This will help with the drought.