The question really is what kind of Ice storm are we going to have and that is still up in the air because it could shift and that slight shift could mean a big difference.. what kind of difference?

Are we having this kind of ice storm as we have had in the past?

This kind of storm will drop power lines for days, leaving us to cook on the wood stove and wearing ice cramps on boots for chores and pretty much close things down for a few days to weeks I took this photo from a ice storm here on the farm 11 years ago

Or we could have this kind of ice storm, still going to take down trees, be slippy, work from home but the odds are the power if out will be a day or two and it will melt off without much damage

This type of ice storm means i am out with my camera because while you need to waddle to be safe, its just pretty out there and the odds are highly in your favorite that they will just melt, crack off and have limited damage to trees and more

They are not the same, but the prep for them is, because there is NO way to know what one we will be getting, so extra water needs to be drawn for livestock, for the household, laundry will be fully caught up, extra wood will be brought to the close porch for the wood stove, any extra space in the freezers will have jugs and or any other freezer safe filled and added for extra drinking water if needed but mainly to keep the freezers colder for longer, the camping cooler will come up to act as the temp fridge

We are in the dark purple zone fully, so 10 to 25mm but i am hearing that it could be up to 40 mm

The biggest issue is that the ground water is moving right now and the sump pump is for the first time in 8 plus months running and its running hard which means that when the power goes out, that there will be water in the cellar, its designed for this, everything is raise up for this very reason but its still something that is a pain the , well you know what, unless you run the genny 24/7 to keep the sump pump going, its going to get damp down there.

While its not good for the seedlings and plants to lose their lights, they can be brought upstairs if needed and thankfully i do not have eggs in the incubator yet so i don’t have to worry about that. Charge the battery chargers and so on and plan for possible wood stove cooking and extra uses of the shuttle chefs and we enjoy the sunshine right now and wait!