Ok ok! All you guys from up north sneer at us Texans going full anarchy over a week of power outage and sub zero weather. But you have to understand, nothing down here is built for that. It hit negative 4, power went out for people, pipes frozen in their attic, power came back on long enough for the heat to thaw out their pipes, then its raining inside their house, then the power goes out again....THIS happened to 28 million people basically in one form or fashion. Add to that, most people not having the ability to survive without being served constantly, and its a big problem, for MOST.... WE were 100% fine. We started having that "power on power off' stuff, so I just disconnected from grid power and went to generator power wide open for 3 1/2 days until reliable power was restored. BUT, the gennys were not enough to run either 5 ton central HVAC, so we heated the house completely with my 36" Travis Industries Xtrodinaire built in wood stove fireplace insert, which sucks combustion air from the attic via two passive ducts, but draws air from the attic for circulation around the firebox and into the room from the attic via a separate duct and small fan motor also in the attic, SO you NEED power. Otherwise its just another fireplace. So the gennys provided power to the house to keep basic things going, including the wood stove, and my well seasoned red and live oak, with a few "bo dark" and pecan pieces thrown in here and there, provided real nice heat. With a million windows in the house and sub zero or single digit temps outside, I held 65 inside in the half of the house where the stove was, 60 upstairs, and 55 at the farthest point in the house from it. And thats a 3400 sqft home! That stove rocks!! No pipes frozen. All children and wife were comfortable. Had a good time I will admit. Focused on wife, kids, and cattle. Smoked some steaks. Had some great conversations. Checked on neighbors. Basically gained, and didnt lose. Even shot a coyote. It was like the white Christmas I didnt have. A real testament to (1) seasoned hardwood, and (2) a built in wood burning stove insert
Glad you made it through. If this doesn’t make a case nationally for wood stoves maybe not being so archaic after all, then I don’t know what will. One of the only heat sources that doesn’t require electricity, is a renewable energy, and cheap to purchase and run.
Good for you, its something that none of you are ever going to forget and you made it into a good memory. I’ve been wondering How many people down there had a wood stove. I’ve been to lake fork fishing and seen 23 there one time so I know it gets cold there. It would be a disaster if the same situation would have happened in Indiana. Most people have gotten soft and unprepared. The temps that millions of you faced without power had to be grueling.
You, sir should go to the stupid media... No, they should come to you so they could tell folks if they prepare to take care of what they have rather than always depending on others they will be richer for doing it and save a lot of heartache and problems. My hat is off to you.
Glad to hear you're doing well, Tacmed! I hafta wonder (laugh) sometimes at how un-prepared/dependant some people are. People are so busy trying to live big fancy lives they forget to prepare for the most basic of emergency supplies (heat).
Nicely done sir! A man that takes care of family & neighbors with planning & foresight is a rare thing these days.
Almost Latin From my recent fascination/ borderline obsession with finding it, that’s what some people call Osage Orange or Hedge. It comes from French “Bois D’Arc”
Good to read of your triumph TacMed Basic preparedness seems to be a dying skill. What region of Texas do you reside? The division of Drager (my employer) that I work for is based in Coppell. I was down last year for my first ever visit to the state.
Wife's son lives in Lago Vista, pretty much the entire town has flooded houses, no drinking water and no power...He owns a house on the beach in Mexico, so he took an unscheduled vacation done there.
Good for you being prepared and independent. With all this oil barrels in Texas you think some makeshift woodstoves could be fashioned within hours LOL Do have to ask about your insert drawing combustion air from the attic tho. Sounds awfully dangerous to me. If that insert ever reversed draft,,,,,,,,yikes!!
Not because we're better than anyone else: The backdrop: partly because i enjoyed camping, and partly because I grew up with one on hand, when I got married a coleman stove always lived with us. It was just one of those things one "did". A friend ran through scenarios with me, as a youth. What if this or that happened, how would you respond? I learned about event stacking. Fast forward a few years, apartment living and a couple snow storms blew through putting power out for multiple days, twice in a few months time. Seeing the storm coming, we bought propane every day at wallmart, for a week and a half...always fully stocked shelves....till the day before the storm hit...then there was nothing for the last minute shoppers. Like TacMed, that stove got us through: it didnt heat the place, but we had hot meals, did dishes, had hot water for sponge baths, and cooked our food as it thawed. We watched others pack up and leave, spend all kinda money to survive, preserve their food in motel room fridges...those that stayed burned candles in every room (for the first night or two), drive to fast food many towns away.... The difference between disaster and adventure, is preparedness. Sca
Self-reliance is becoming a lost skill that may make a comeback. Good job for being prepared. And people ask me why I have so many stacks of wood...
We have been hearing a lot of empty food shelves at the stores and people in a panic. I guess people don't think ahead enough to have a few days or weeks worth of food at home. "Just in time delivery" may work for manufacturing companies but it should not be used for ones preparedness. We go to the grocery store every 2 to 3 weeks. A few days of bad weather would not have us starving.
Good for you TacMed glad you are prepared and comfortable. Hard for us northerners to fully comprehend snow, cold and loss of power in storms somewhat normal occurrence
Great to hear that there's at least some prepared people living down in Texas. You always have to plan for the what if situations. I read that in Texas, 60% of the population depends on Electricity for heat, while in Wisconsin, that number is only 16%. I also read that the whole enery grid in Texas isn't made to run in temps like that.
Back when I was heavier into studying preparedness, statistically most people had maybe a weeks' worth of food on hand, few had even a few days worth that didnt require cooking to prepare. Before the storms, we kept a lot in a chest freezer. Once the power came back on, we fired up a pressure canner in a hurry. Putting a little back for a rainy day, used to be common practise! Sca
