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Food Sanitation Shelter Water Solar Kill Shot Prepping for Cold Climates

S0NWO

S0NWO

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Verified Member
Every climate zone has specific factors that influence how you prepare for the solar kill shot. Since I live in a cold continental climate in the Great Lakes region of North America, I thought I would start this thread to talk about some key aspects of prepping geared toward cold climates in general.

My specific region has unique attributes that I will try and avoid discussing in the interest of everyone else. For example, my region is Boreal / Taiga which is the world's largest natural biome. There is water everywhere, and very little broadleaf hardwood. Interestingly, this natural biome has only existed on earth for 12,000 years. As if something happened that triggered it's creation...
 
I'm going to state the obvious here. The first and foremost thing you should ponder on deeply, is just how much of an effect the cold has.

Folks in other climatic zones may laugh, but one of the big cultural adjustments I experienced when I moved to Canada from New Zealand (a cool, damp maritime climate) was how thoroughly disconnected from the climate most Canadians actually are.

Winters in NZ are gloomy and damp/cold. Houses are not particularly well insulated, and so the internal environment of a typical house is colder and damper than the typical Canadian house.

Cold climate houses are basically hermetically sealed containers that rely on electrically powered air exchange, heating, and cooling systems to regulate internal temperatures. They are heavily insulated (R20), and there is little to no regard for passive solar alignment.

What does this mean if the power goes down in the winter for an extended period? R20 means that it will take 20 hours for temperature to equalize on both sides of the thermal insulation. Specifically, it means that it will take around 20 hours for the temperature inside the house to be the same as the temperature outside the house.

Canadians run their houses hot. Around 22C / 72F. They go from there to their heated car, drive to their heated work / mall etc, and they rarely spend more than 30 mins actually outside in the cold (clearing snow by hand or machine excepted). It's not unusual for me to see people driving in jeans and t-shirt when it's -20C outside. That is how climatically unaware some of them are.

This is why I think the cold is by far the most under considered factor in prepping for this climate zone, unless you happen to be a rural living outdoorsy person.

How many people living in a cold continental climate have thought enough about their lifestyle to realize that in winter, if the power went off, the inside of their house will be as cold as the inside of their chest freezer in only 24 hours? I'll tell you. Very few.

Now think about what would happen if you took all your preps, loaded them on pallets, and drove them with a forklift into an industrial deep freezer and left them there for a week or two...
 
I'll tell you what will happen...

All the canned wet goods will freeze, expand, and split open. You can see for yourself by putting a can of backed beans in your chest freezer overnight.
All the pressure canned food you have painstakingly made and stacked, will freeze. The glass will shatter.
Any stored water will freeze, expand, and split their containers unless they are designed for pressure (like a soda bottle).

Cold climate houses have their water supply come in under the house to prevent the pipes freezing. The water will remain liquid in the main line, but will freeze in the walls, rupturing it, and the house will flood. Any preps, food, clothing, bedding, blankets etc stacked on or close to the floor will become soaked, and then they will freeze solid.

The lesson from this is: Do not stockpile more wet foods and water than you can consume or process in less than 36 hours.
 
S0NWO said:
I'll tell you what will happen...

All the canned wet goods will freeze, expand, and split open. You can see for yourself by putting a can of backed beans in your chest freezer overnight.
All the pressure canned food you have painstakingly made and stacked, will freeze. The glass will shatter.
Any stored water will freeze, expand, and split their containers unless they are designed for pressure (like a soda bottle).

Cold climate houses have their water supply come in under the house to prevent the pipes freezing. The water will remain liquid in the main line, but will freeze in the walls, rupturing it, and the house will flood. Any preps, food, clothing, bedding, blankets etc stacked on or close to the floor will become soaked, and then they will freeze solid.

The lesson from this is: Do not stockpile more wet foods and water than you can consume or process in less than 36 hours.
Click to expand...
Unless you can freeze dry it, or dehydrate it.
 
S0NWO said:
I'm going to state the obvious here. The first and foremost thing you should ponder on deeply, is just how much of an effect the cold has.

Folks in other climatic zones may laugh, but one of the big cultural adjustments I experienced when I moved to Canada from New Zealand (a cool, damp maritime climate) was how thoroughly disconnected from the climate most Canadians actually are.

Winters in NZ are gloomy and damp/cold. Houses are not particularly well insulated, and so the internal environment of a typical house is colder and damper than the typical Canadian house.

Cold climate houses are basically hermetically sealed containers that rely on electrically powered air exchange, heating, and cooling systems to regulate internal temperatures. They are heavily insulated (R20), and there is little to no regard for passive solar alignment.

What does this mean if the power goes down in the winter for an extended period? R20 means that it will take 20 hours for temperature to equalize on both sides of the thermal insulation. Specifically, it means that it will take around 20 hours for the temperature inside the house to be the same as the temperature outside the house.

Canadians run their houses hot. Around 22C / 72F. They go from there to their heated car, drive to their heated work / mall etc, and they rarely spend more than 30 mins actually outside in the cold (clearing snow by hand or machine excepted). It's not unusual for me to see people driving in jeans and t-shirt when it's -20C outside. That is how climatically unaware some of them are.

This is why I think the cold is by far the most under considered factor in prepping for this climate zone, unless you happen to be a rural living outdoorsy person.

How many people living in a cold continental climate have thought enough about their lifestyle to realize that in winter, if the power went off, the inside of their house will be as cold as the inside of their chest freezer in only 24 hours? I'll tell you. Very few.

Now think about what would happen if you took all your preps, loaded them on pallets, and drove them with a forklift into an industrial deep freezer and left them there for a week or two...
Click to expand...
Everything you have prepped would be obsolete. I bought a bunch of wool blankets not cheap, to use for a closet space or small room for insulation away from the rest of the house. My focus would be to seal my closet or the smallest room I have. Ofc to have some animal fur and straw or hay for the floor.
 
I’d imagine that studying how ice age peoples lived would be of great importance. Them and maybe the Inuit Eskimo Klingit or Haida Indian tribes. I used to have an Aleutian designed Baidarka kayak. The frame was made of Douglas fir and willow. The skin wasn’t made of seal skins though. Nor was it as nice as this one.
IMG_0276.webp
 
Pole Shift Princess said:
Everything you have prepped would be obsolete. I bought a bunch of wool blankets not cheap, to use for a closet space or small room for insulation away from the rest of the house. My focus would be to seal my closet or the smallest room I have. Ofc to have some animal fur and straw or hay for the floor.
Click to expand...
I have similar plans for our main bathroom which is right in the middle of the house. But it only buys a few days in my climate. Enough time to hustle up a more permanent ssolution.

For roughly 2 months of the year, it doesn't get warmer than the inside of a chest freezer, even during the afternoon of a sunny day.
Which is why I built this:
odysee.com

Emergency Woodstove

An emergency woodstove I built in case we lose electricity for an extended length of time during the winter.
odysee.com odysee.com
 
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