If a blizzard hit - how long could you last at home?

From the two freezers alone, about 6 months. There are just two of us. Our "livestock" is 6 ducks and three geese. We have 7 or 8 bags of feed, plenty of wood pellets for the entire season this winter, and have about 3 weeks of wood stove wood on hand.

We could last until Spring no problem at all with food but heating is another story. Our furnace and fireplace are both gas so that would be our big problem.

Glad to hear that I am not too far out in left field, looks like everyone has at least a minimum of 2 weeks + of food and provisions for heating etc.
The reminder about lights was good though, we are down to 2 lamps and LOTS of candles. Maybe a few more lamps would be in order for the house.
Otherwise for heat we use a cornstove and have fuel for the generator to keep the fans and augers running.
I do need to increase our cat, dog, llama and chicken chow amounts up to a month.

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas,
Highplains
Not as far in the outfield as I thought

We could go about 4 months right now, I usually keep between 6-12 months but am low on my stockpile. We would also be warm and comfortable. I would probably need to bring my mom here as her big old house is impossible to keep warm in the cold weather and if she was without power I would not want her there.

I have been reading about people who lost freezer/refrigerator stuff during blizzards and ice storms, am I the only one who goes at that? Do ya not think these people need

Same here maybe 7 months. I have also put by a supply of medicine & seeds.

veme

We'd last until we ran out of coffee. Then we'd turn on each other like a pack of dogs.

If it remained cold enough to keep what we have in the freezer good, I think we could last about a month and a half. There would have to be enough snowpack to melt for water because our well is way to deep.

It probably wouldn't hurt to have a pretend blizzard and eat some of the stuff that's been hiding in the freezer.

Easily a month or two if electric is out, though we'd be terribly smelly by the end of it.

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The difference between Adventure and Disaster is being prepared. <author unknown>

sparrowhaven.blogspot.com

We got another sample of living off the grid this morning. Electric was out for 12 hours. I'm used to it so took it in stride. DD and grandkids woke me up saying, "come on, this is our chance to practice for when TSHTF". I know it was exciting for them, but for me, I'm tired of practicing. I get to practice real often.

I have the routine down pat. Put a pan of water on the wood stove to boil so I can make baggie omlets for breakfast, put a pan of stew or something along those lines on the stove for lunch and dinner. Get a few bottles of water out for drinking and washing up. Fire up the gen to use the pump to fill the tub if needed (didn't actually fill the tub, but could have if we needed to) Flip a few switches and light a few oil lamps. Relax at the spinning wheel for a few hours, read a book, enjoy the slow day. When the electric came back on it didn't take long for everyone to veg out in front of the TV again. Life goes on...

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We've gone through three week snow-ins and simply chosen to stay here on the mountain for twice or three times that on many occasions any time of year. We have the food to go through the winter and worse case we would eat more meat making it last even longer. We heat with wood. During a blizzard it is actually warmer than much of the winter. Below a certain temperature it doesn't snow much and the deep blanket of snow insulates the house.

The few weeks in the deep negatives are actually far harder. Two years ago it was -45°F for three weeks even during the day and we had high winds for some of that. The frost comes through the walls when that happens and makes outdoor work a real chore.

What a blizzard often does do is kill the electricity which means the internet connection is down and no computers after a few days when the deep cycle battery backup goes. We survive.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

For myself, I could last pretty much forever right here without electricity if I didn't get too sick. It is about time for my annual "big buy" for pet and livestock feed that I don't grow. About the first of november every year I fill up barrels with enough feed for the winter so I don't have to haul it around in the snow. We heat with wood and have an artesian well and I have plenty of wood for the wood cookstove. It would be a mighty busy time canning up all the meat in the freezers, but I have the jars and lids if it were to become necessary. I have pretty much lived this way most of my adult life and can not imagine shopping every few days like some do. Come winter you don't see me in a store for months at a time.

Cabin, What kind of set up do you have to not use batteries or solar?
Just wondering, sounds like you guys have it made.

I'm not saying we don't currently use electricty. But in the case of a blizzard, we would not need it. In fact, we could get by for many months without any electricity of any kind if we had to:

Wood stove/fireplace requires no electricty.

Cooking on the gas range, woodstove, coleman stove or campfire requires no electricity.

Heating water for a bath or garden sprayer shower on the aforementioned heating devices requires no electricity.

Lighting with Aladdin lamps, PetroMax lantern or candles requires no electricity.

Using the outhouse or flushing the toliet with a bucket of water requires no electricity.

Keeping food cold or frozen during a blizzard requires no electricity.

Pumping water from our hand pump well requires no electricity.

Is there anything I'm missing?

Oh geez, I forgot! WIHH's blow dryer! Okay, maybe we do need a generator!

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

We have the food, heat, and lighting, for maybe four months.

But the livestock feed, we are low on. I just bought some today, so we have maybe three weeks of feed.

To be honest, we'd be good for a long while.

a) we live on a lake that never freezes - water up the kazoo
b) we have PLENTY of foodstuffs stored away
c) plenty of meat in the freezer
d) plenty of woodland creatures to shoot and eat

I'd say 2 or 3 months, easy. As far as the heat and electricity goes, we have a woodburning stove, so that heats our whole house easily, and we could cook on it as well. For other stuff we do have a generator.

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"I pursue my faith with a lack of remorse; I stand resolute to embrace the cause." -- Project 86

We have blizzards on occasion, and have never been snowed in for over 24 hours. So, we have enough on hand to get us through about 20 blizzards this winter. By then it would be planting season again.

I'd be ok all winter. I don't like to store a lot of gas around, so when that ran out I would be carrying water from the spring myself. My house is very small and I can heat it with just a little potbelly stove. I don't need a chainsaw. I've got plenty of food, though after a long while it would be reduced to kind of simple fare. Hmmmm...The more I think about it, the better it sounds.

Maybe until spring w/ the exception of maybe milk..dh has to have his milk!! We have enough food (one freezer full of meats/milk/cheese/butter, one full of veggies, one full of fruits/fruit juices/ breads and a nicely stocked pantry w/ canned goods, dried spices, veg. oil and cocoa and sugar (gotta have a treat now and then). We have excess paper products, cleaning supplies. Out door grills, stoves, We have two generators, gas, wood for heating if there was no elelctric (with another 60 acres of standing timber), chainsaws, lg. tractor to plow the roads w/ if needed. Our dogs would have to start eatting wild game

AND ----We have reading material, spinning wheel, wool, knitting needles, quilting, fabrics/yarns etc, digital camera and lots of memory sticks, craft items, gun repair, reloading projects and wood projects waiting on us for entertainment, along w/ other things I can not mention .. I think 9x's out of 10 people forget these things are just as important as anything they have to eat or stay warm!!

"AND ----We have reading material, spinning wheel, wool, knitting needles, quilting, fabrics/yarns etc, digital camera and lots of memory sticks, craft items, gun repair, reloading projects and wood projects waiting on us for entertainment, along w/ other things I can not mention .. I think 9x's out of 10 people forget these things are just as important as anything they have to eat or stay warm!!"

I agree!! Although activities of daily living would take longer without electricity.....carrying water and such......interesting inside activities are really important when looking at any length of time confined without internet or other electronics. I have a generator, but would not use it for entertainment.....just to fire up the freezers if I needed to. We have slowly gotten away from storing huge amounts of fuel......no matter what it would run out in the long haul and being able to live without it is, IMHO, key to long term survival in a SHTF situation.

I'd give it a month easily right now, a month and a half pushing it.

Kat

If a blizzard hit we would be fine for about 2 months. Actually longer if you are talking about food and heat alone, water is what I see can be a big problem for us. If the power were to go off then the water would have to come from the creek. Not to easy to do when you have 8 animals to keep fresh water for and lots of snow to move it through. I did this when we first moved here but it was spring and summer – didn’t have snow up to my bum to walk or drive through.