Hope everyone is staying warm!

[dunroven]

It is -17 here this morning in northwest Iowa with a -41 wind chill. Really cold. It is really cold indoors too! We have no furnace and we have no wood stove, only the oven from our kitchen stove, as we have propane. This morning we got up and I turned the oven on and forgot that I had a package of butter I put in there to thaw, and I turned the oven on. Filled the house with smoke of course. I got the butter out, put it in the sink, went to turn the water on to cool the butter down, and wonderful, we have no water. So now we have a frozen pipe somewhere. The smoke in the house was bad, so had to turn on a ceiling fan. Getting colder by the minute! Hopefully we no leaks, but you know how that goes. I do hope it warms up soon. We have a couple of those little heaters that they claim the Amish make, but the amount of heat they put out I could put out by myself without a coat.

No hope for a furnace for a long time, so we have to just weather it, but I'm just hoping our old, crumbling house can weather it. I'm ready for spring, anyone else?

[Callieslamb]

I hope you weather this too! I'm not ready for spring. Spring now would mean another late frost and no fruit. It would mean the bugs would be multiplying too soon. Spring now would mean the garden isn't ready. Thoughts of spring now would make me miserable for 4 more months!! But I can wish it for you.

Find a way to stay warm!

[MichaelZ]

-17F in Iowa is pretty bad! We had about -26F here. But the wind!!!! We have the free standing fireplace going full bore and I also set the kitchen oven on 350 for some heat. Also the furnace is running. All to keep our home a toasty 62 degrees (away from the doors and windows that is).

Normally I do not mind winter, but I am disliking this one! Started too early, and ended too late (last May).

[Delion]

Very sorry to hear how difficult this cold has been for you. I can't imagine how you are able to deal with no heat in this kind of cold. My mother always said "cold is very cruel."

We're experiencing similar windchills, up here in the prairie region of Canada, but we've had this bitter cold for several weeks now.

Right now, our wood cook stove along with an air-tight wood furnace is putting out heat but we still feel the intense cold pressing in on us from every side. I can't imagine what it would be like without this heat!

Hopefully, this cold snap will be a short one for you folks, and the frozen water line doesn't represent major damage to your plumbing system. Kindest regards.

[poorboy]

Originally Posted by dunroven

It is -17 here this morning in northwest Iowa with a -41 wind chill. Really cold. It is really cold indoors too! We have no furnace and we have no wood stove, only the oven from our kitchen stove, as we have propane. This morning we got up and I turned the oven on and forgot that I had a package of butter I put in there to thaw, and I turned the oven on. Filled the house with smoke of course. I got the butter out, put it in the sink, went to turn the water on to cool the butter down, and wonderful, we have no water. So now we have a frozen pipe somewhere. The smoke in the house was bad, so had to turn on a ceiling fan. Getting colder by the minute! Hopefully we no leaks, but you know how that goes. I do hope it warms up soon. We have a couple of those little heaters that they claim the Amish make, but the amount of heat they put out I could put out by myself without a coat.

No hope for a furnace for a long time, so we have to just weather it, but I'm just hoping our old, crumbling house can weather it. I'm ready for spring, anyone else?

i would suggest one of those catalytic heaters( the five plaque model)..cost is not astronomical and they'll heat three rooms great at zero and below, and keep the rest of the house tolerable..Thinking about getting meself one as my crippled old body protests wood cutting something awful anymore..

[MichaelZ]

Wow, I missed the part about no heat! Sorry to hear that. A good quick cheap source of heat is a barrel stove and a leg kit. Then find some good Samaritan to donate some wood. This barrel stove can heat a large home - my buddies in college used it as the sole source of heat in central WI for a large farmhouse.

[Molly Mckee]

That no heat can be life threatening in the temperatures you are having in Iowa. Can you stay with someone? Does the house belong to you? There are ways to get help with heating. Please be careful.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Callieslamb

I hope you weather this too! I'm not ready for spring. Spring now would mean another late frost and no fruit. It would mean the bugs would be multiplying too soon. Spring now would mean the garden isn't ready. Thoughts of spring now would make me miserable for 4 more months!! But I can wish it for you.

Find a way to stay warm!

I'm dreaming of Spring. I've been sitting here all morning learning about starting onions from seed, how to grow them, where to find some good soaker hoses, etc, etc, etc. On line shopping is greart!

But then, a month ago I was dreaming of a white Christmas...
Can you tell I've got cabin fever?

geo

[whipsaw]

Just make sure to bundle up and you'll be fine, though not ideal! I once camped in -25 with wind chill of who knows what. With the right clothing everything is ok, though you move a bit slower.

[ronbre]

yes thank God, we had our 3rd version of our wood furnace installed on Sat (other two died)..so hopefully this will be ok..so far it is doing well

[puddlejumper007]

dunroven,,,over on the survival and prep site , lady cat posted a little heater you can make out of flower pots and candles,,a few of them might help, when my kids were young, we closed off all rooms but one and we all slept in there, we stayed warm, you can do that for a few days... good luck hope you stay ok.

[puddlejumper007]

another thought, if you are heating with your oven, i hope you have carbon monoxide alarm, that is dangerous....

[Molly Mckee]

There is an agency here called SNAP that helps with heat and heating among other things. I think it is federal, I didn't realize all the things they can do until a friend of mine started volunteering for them. They might be able to help you. There is no reason for someone to freeze to death in this country.

[MO_cows]

Oh, dear. You really need to get some heat going in that house. No water means something probably froze. Sorry to say, there's a good chance it expanded and broke when it froze, so will be leaking and need repair when it thaws out.

So sorry you are in this spot!

[Tango]

Originally Posted by dunroven

It is -17 here this morning in northwest Iowa with a -41 wind chill. Really cold. It is really cold indoors too! We have no furnace and we have no wood stove, only the oven from our kitchen stove, as we have propane.

No hope for a furnace for a long time, so we have to just weather it, but I'm just hoping our old, crumbling house can weather it. I'm ready for spring, anyone else?

I hope that spring enters your home in many blessed ways. That's a tough situtaion. Eight years ago I built a log cabin little by little and the first winter had no insulation and though i had a gas heater the heat would go straight out the open ceiling. a ridiculous waste of money and no heat. When I turned over in my sleep, my face would hit an icy pillow twas cold then but not -17.

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by geo in mi

..............But then, a month ago I was dreaming of a white Christmas... Can you tell I've got cabin fever?...........

that's a lot time to have cabin fever! Hope you survive it. I won't allow myself to get it. I have to live with people - or rather, they have to live with me.

[dunroven]

We can't really do candles as we have cats that are inside dwellers and they sometimes get up on stuff and knock things down. A funny note here (kinda). We had a cat in the summer get up on the TV and knocked over an already blown out candle. Of course the wax went everywhere including on her tail. She got a new nickname, cause she had long hair and it wouldn't all come out. We named her Scentsy! LOLOLOL

We have no carbon monoxide detector, but we only have the oven on while we are awake and it is off when we go to bed although with our house, there is a constant wind that blows through. Very old house, no insulation and just extremely cold. Not safe enough for any kind of wood burner here either. But the cold snap will soon snap, and it will be warm again. I told my husband in the spring I want to get a 5th wheel and put it in our Morton Building (Oh for the one who asked, we will own this pile of rubble in about 8 months), and then bring in a bulldozer or strike a match and get rid of this place and buy a modular and put it in here. We'll see, but I sure am tired of what my husband calls "camping." This is our second winter without a furnace.

On a brighter note, the cold water was what was frozen. the hot water worked most of the day and its now 7:57, about 10 minutes ago the cold water freed up, so I'm going to leave it at a trickle for the night, which is what I should have done last night. Oh well, live and learn huh? But my hide is getting too thin for this kind of camping. I'm ready for a nice, at least solid, house.

[CurtisWilliams]

Dunroven, I can emphathize with you. Here 60 miles south of Sioux, it was -12 at 6:30 this am. Reached a high of 0. After the -12, 0 degrees actually felt pretty good.

My furnace wend down a couple or four years ago, and I need to replace my foundation before I can replace my furnace, so it will not happen any time soon. So
I know what you are up against. In the mean time, I have been installing blue flame vent free propane heaters. They work great, and are almost 100% efficient. They are incredibly easy to took up with VERY basic plumbing skills.

I have a brand new Pro-Comm 30,000 btu, dual fuel heater that has never been out of the box. If it will help you through the winter, you are welcome to use it. I also have about 100' of extra heat tape for your frozen pipes.


I am in Tekamah, NE. Let me know if you are interested. I wish that there was something more that I could do to help.

Peace,
Curtis

[Studhauler]

Originally Posted by dunroven

No hope for a furnace for a long time, so we have to just weather it, but I'm just hoping our old, crumbling house can weather it.

I use a catalytic wall heater for a back-up heat source, but it would work just fine as a primary heat source. Mine is mounted on my living room wall of my mobile home, right next to the hall leading to the bedrooms. It was −31 (strait temperature) last night and it kept the front half of the house nice and warm and the bedrooms just right for sleeping. It burns propane, so you are already set up for that, whether it is from a 100 lb bottle or a 1000 gallon tank. I think they cost around $200 now and can be installed in a couple of hours.

[calliemoonbeam]

You need to get a few of these heaters: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Patton-Ele...0-WM1/17808701

They used to be called milk house heaters in the old days. They only cost $20, but put out an amazing amount of heat. The so-called Amish heaters, no matter how pretty the surround they're in, don't put out any more (and usually ess) heat than these. Those things are a total rip off.

I have a furnace, but it runs on propane, and my first winter here it was costing me $400 a month to heat with it, yikes! Then I started supplementing with these little heaters and then finally discovered I could heat my whole house with them. They're not pretty, but they work! Oh yeah, they are not hot to the touch, and if they get turned over they automatically turn off until righted again, so they shouldn't be a problem for your cats.

I heat my entire six large rooms house with nothing but these, three most winter days, four if it gets really cold. It got down to 2 degrees here last night. I'm not sure what the wind chill was, but it was blowing pretty hard. My house was completely comfortable at 72-74 degrees all night with three heaters, with my ceiling fans on low in the clockwise direction to help distribute the heat throughout the house (you should run them in counterclockwise fashion in the summer).

I keep one going in the kitchen and one in the bathroom, with the under-counter cabinet doors open where the pipes are so they get more heat, and I've never had a frozen pipe. The third one I keep in my office, since that's where I spend the majority of my time. When I need the fourth one, I put it in the living room. Just make sure you don't put two on the same breaker load, and you should have no problem.

My winter electric bills run around $125-150 (compared to summer bills of $250-300!) depending on how cold it is, and my killowatt hour rate is pretty high. I realize it doesn't get as cold here, but I live in a 30+ year old mobile home with an add on, so if it works for me it should work for you too. You may just need more heaters than I do, but it should work.

Lastly, when you know it's going to be colder than usual or with more wind, leave your faucets running a tiny bit of cold water. It doesn't have to be a stream, just a tiny bit more than a drip. It will keep them from freezing. Hope this helps and good luck!