12 degrees
I hear that this is
going to be a cold winter, and the season is doing its best to keep us
on our toes already. Saturday night dropped down to 12 on our
farm, which is quite unusual for November (and, actually, for any
time). The floodplain froze solid, and so did the chicken waterers (even the heated
one) along with our
own water line (although I did leave the hose
door open, so that's
not a fair test).
On the other hand, the fridge
root cellar held
steady at 34, which is the perfect temperature for our overwintering
carrots, cabbage, and potatoes. I'm not actually sure whether the
light
bulb came on to
mitigate the cold or not, but whatever happened, it worked.
I've also been keeping track
of the night lows in the trailer, something I wish I'd done last year
so I could compare pre- to post-roof temperatures. On cold
nights, I generally get the fire in our little Jotul blazing, stuff it chock full
of wood around 8:30 or 9, then damp the stove way down so the logs are
just barely smoldering. Come morning, all that's left is enough
coals to make the morning fire spring back to life.
I've been aiming for
morning lows at or above 40 since we store butternut squash and sweet
potatoes in the kitchen, and that's what we've been seeing every night,
even this ultra cold one --- 40 degrees inside when I woke up.
I'm pretty sure it would have dropped to freezing in the trailer
Saturday night if not for our new R-30 roof.
I hope you're staying
warm!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I am storing my winter squash in our living room. I did get a light mold around the squash that I grew. I wiped it off and they still look good with a solid feel.
Should I wipe them down with a weak solution of bleach Water.
Mona and Marco --- Some people like to wipe down each squash with a bleach-water solution when they first harvest them. I haven't heard vinegar used that way, but could see it.
I don't tend to do either because our squashes never mold --- I'm inclined to think that if they're molding for you, then it's too moist where you're storing them. They like it moderately warm and dry.
Anna, Have you looked into permies.com and the rocket mass stove that is advocated there? They talk about how damping a fire down makes the stove less efficient. And thier design lets it burn hot but slowly release the heat. Just mentioned because 40 degrees sounds cold for us humans. You two must be very rugged.