Hey as snow is pounding down in the northern part of the US I would like to give some advice as an oldish hill billy whose gone through some ass winters in the mountains. I will be tagging this Scarlet Hollow and Black Tabby Games to reach people outside but because I think its thematic and I cant see them minding.
Have stored water. Its best to get yourself some of them big ass 5 gallon jugs. They usually come with water in them. Clean and fill up old gallon jugs. So on and so forth. You want plastic over glass. This is because plastic is able to expand and contract. A lot of modern glass isn't tempered to resist extreme changes in temp, this includes the gold and freezing. Frozen glass can shatter! I know it goes against a lot of what people tell you know with plastic but when it comes to having water to drink, verses having no water to drink, take the microplastics for a little while.
Collect dirty water. Again in plastic. This isn't for drinking or cooking like the one above, this is for flushing your dang toilet. Now this is far more of a problem in the holler where you are on well water but it can and does happen in the city. Trust me you don't want to be using your good water to flush your mess down a drain.
Speaking of your drains. Trickling water through them to prevent them from freezing only really works with certain pipes. I was always told to blast some hot ass water through random pipes to keep them from freezing. NOTE this works best for city folk who aint too worried about the water itself freezing. From Mountain and country folks on well water. That shits gonna freeze.
Which means, COVER YOUR WELL. That bitch should already be as insulated as it can be, BUT COVER IT UP. If it aint flowing into the house, there might be a nice ice cover over top of it that is protecting some cold ass water.
Heating: This is going to vary a lot but if you have a wood burning stove, fire place ect. PULL THEM LOGS INTO YOUR BASEMENT, GARAGE, MUDROOM, or right next to your door (one that ideally covered) Make sure you have enough for a few days to a week. You aint gonna want to walk to that log pile trust me.
Kerosene heaters and other gas heaters are only safe if you can have enough clearance around them to not burn your place down AND you can open a window. I know that seems counter productive but trust me they get hotter than satans taint. You are gonna wanna open a damn window. But also dont get co2 poisoning. Have it in a large room, with no fabric close to it, and a window to open (NOTE: I say this as someone who grew up in a trailer, with a kerosene heater on trailer carpet where me and my siblings would wrap ourselves in blankets and curl up super close to it. If you can dont do that)
Get your blankets, your cloves, your hats, your scarves, and a buddy. Best heater in the world is a good blanket fort and people. We are heaters, we produce heat. In the case of my husband, he produces enough heat for 3 people.
ANIMALS AND HEAT: Now what I am about to say has to do with cats specifically, but it applies to animals. House cats are more genetically close to desert cats. its where they come from. As such, they fucking HATE being cold. To the point they WILL over heat themselves. They will burn themselves. Cats panting aint normal yall. Its easy for them to over heat themselves.
We Covered water and heat now food: Canned. Idk why the US has started to hate canned food but its amazing. get you some canned meat (pre cooked) get you some canned potatos or yams. Things that dont require water to cook. Beans. Good hearty fill you up things. DO NOT PUT AN UNOPENED CAN ON A HEATER OR IN A FIRE I SWEAR TO GOD ALMIGHTY AND ALL HIS ANGELS IF YOU PUT A GOD DAMN CAN OF UNOPENED BEAN IN A FIRE AND END UP WITH THIRD DEGREE BURNS ONCE THAT BOMB GOES OFF I AINT GONNA TELL YOU I TOLD YOU SO BUT I'LL BE THINKING IT.
Other necessities. Batteries. Batteries do great in the cold. Card games, board games, coloring books, craft projects that dont require electricity. Don't go insane in the cold. Toilet paper and septic safe wipes for if you cant shower.
DO NOT SHOWER OR BATH IN COLD WATER. Use wipes, a wash cloth and a bucket (collect the dirty for flushing), but do no get your ass naked, and cover yourself head to toe in cold ass water. You will lower your core body temp and it aint good for you. DO NOT WASH YOUR HAIR. Use cornstarch, leave in shampoo, ect.UNTIL the heat is on in your house. You head is a primary source of heat. Wet hair can shoot you body temp down. again I know this goes against a lot, but clean will come back to you. If you power is off, you aint got heat, and the water is freezing, you got bigger fish to fry than whether your hair is clean or not.
That being said, keep your nether clean. Use them wipes, soap, wash cloth, a bucket or your sink filled with water, and scrub between them cheeks, in the crevices of your legs, around your genitals and if you have it, your labia. Boils, infections, thrush ect aint fun. For some people this will also include under other skin folds like breasts, and armpits.
Still put on deodorant, especially if you life with other folks.
Flashlights over candles. Now it not the time to be burning candles if you don't need to.
DO NOT SIT IN YOUR CAR WITH YOUR HEAT ON IN THE SNOW. This is how a lot of people die from CO2 poisoning because the exhaust is covered and all that CO2 is funneling back into the car
Honestly I could go on and on. Aint nothing worse than being unprepared for isolation without necessities. All of this is good things to do or know regardless of where you live so please reblog it.
EDIT:
My Appalachian ass forgot about emergency services. Keep a phone charged with a bank. This phone ain't got games. Ain't for music. Ain't for none of that. It's for emergency services ONLY. Yes you can still call for emergency services if you ain't got no signal. The horror movies have LIED to you.
Keeping yourself entertained. Battery powered dvd players, CD players. Offline MP3 players. If you ain't got a physical media. Collection and items that work via batteries, start collecting them. This ain't even in case of an emergency thing. It's just good practice.
