December 27, 2022
This post comes with a warning – offensive language may be present 🙂
Before I start on how we weathered Storm Elliott, I wanted to establish some ground rules. A close friend of mine commented while reading a prior post that she felt “a little guilty at laughing at parts of (the blog)”. As I told her, please laugh! It’s definitely my intent for you to find some humor in our process. Believe me, Greg and I are finding a lot of humor in it. There are days where neither of us can find the humor in it all, but luckily those days usually don’t hit us both at the same time so we can help each other back up from our dive to the dark side. I’m striving to give you at least one belly laugh in each post as we can all use more of those, so laugh away!
We’ve been hearing for several days about storm Elliott coming our way and it’s arrived. December 22’s temperatures went from 43 degrees to below zero overnight. We have prepared as much as we possibly could by adding more insulation to the well tank and making sure the heat line attached to the water line is working. We are happy that all the kids are safely home. Aimee made it from Michigan midday, Jenna was safely at my parents, Sarah, Larry, Alicia and Jake made it safely home from work. So my “mom worries” were put to rest for now. I had been talking to God several times during the day asking for strength to get through this and providing Greg and I patience and guidance on how to navigate whatever we will be facing. Four main concerns.
One, water pipes freezing.
Two, electricity going out.
Three, roads not being passable.
Four, running out of propane used for heat.
Temperatures dropped quickly in the evening, and we had the faucets running slowly as we have been doing each night or day when the temperatures have been below freezing. The precipitation migrated from rain to ice to snow in the early evening. About 7pm, Greg needed to switch out the propane tanks for the heat, so went to exit the RV. He attempted to unlock the door, but the lock was frozen. We quickly noticed the frosted condensation surrounding the interior frame of the door. We didn’t really consider getting trapped in the RV because the door freezing shut 🙄. We started worrying about not being able to unfreeze the door or escape windows to exit. We put the small electric heater we had on hand near the door and successfully unfroze the lock. Didn’t take much effort but definitely made us both start searching the web for “Frozen RV door. Trapped!” Funny thing is there’s a lot of hits, blogs, and you tube videos for that topic. Seriously, Google it. Who would have thought! We decided to not lock the door and open it every couple hours so that it didn’t freeze. Problem number 1 solved.
We needed a distraction as the evening progressed so we decided to watch a few episodes of Netflix show to pass the time. We went to bed at about 11pm with the wind picking up. A little before 4am, I see the bathroom lights on and hear Greg’s movement and then the f-bomb dropping. F-bombs are a frequent noun, verb, adjective and adverb in Greg’s daily vocab out here so I wasn’t too alarmed. But I trudged out of bed and made the long trek to the living room (about three steps) to see what was amiss. The water lines are no longer dripping…something’s frozen. Greg bundled up and braved the below zero temperatures to unplug the well pump so it didn’t explode. He also switched the propane tank over to the second one. The first tank lasted 8 hours. We had 6 full tanks going into the night. We’ll wait until daylight when we may be able to investigate where the water lines have frozen.
All the activity woke Aimee and the pups up. The only creature not moving at 4am was Chava, the 12 year old kitty. She’s tucked away in her bed, oblivious.
We spent the next two hours contemplating our next move and just praying that the electricity stays on. Trying to focus on the positive, we have a roof over our head, food in the pantry, the barn as an option albeit without true heat and electric in it yet, and several options to move to if we absolutely need to. Our large dogs make that a tough move to any of those locations, so we will strive to endure what comes as long as we can.
Greg and I braved the minus 39 wind chill to make a trip into the barn about 6:30am. I had put some food for our Christmas breakfast in the barn and knew the fruit and veggies were probably freezing. Good news, the locks weren’t frozen shut and the barn was reasonably warm, definitely below freezing but handling the wind well. We grabbed the frozen 5 gallon water jugs to bring inside as it looks like we will need those today. We grabbed the food to bring inside and headed back into the wind. It’s amazing how quickly your face can freeze in these extreme temperatures. There will be no participating in “Naked and Afraid-Frozen” for me.
As we investigated the water issue, the line definitely wasn’t frozen underneath the RV. It was somewhere under the hay bail, tarped area of the well and pressure tank. The temperatures were too extreme to be out more than a few minutes at a time so we would just have to go without running water until the temps improved. The fresh water tank underneath was full and still pumping which meant we could have water to flush the toilet for a time.
As the morning progressed, it appeared that we were going through the propane tanks more quickly as they were only lasting a couple hours. The frost inside the RV was increasing, and each window was covered in a thick coating of frost…think your car after sitting in the driveway overnight, but on the inside of the window! Greg ventured out since there was really not much snow to find more propane. While he was away, Aimee and I created our new peephole. That wasn’t enough entertainment so I said we should write “Help Me” on the front window so Greg would get a laugh upon his arrival. We decided that might actually make someone think we needed help and cause a neighbor to call 911 on our behalf. Aimee decided on a different phrase, one that needs a R rating for language, so be warned.
This was a good representation of how we were feeling. Needless to say the message didn’t really reach anyone as you couldn’t really see it from the outside of the RV because there was a thick coating of frost on the outside of the window, too, and she carved it only on the inside. I suppose this was a blessing as to not offend our new neighbors.
Mid day, it appeared that the furnace was struggling so we ventured outside in the extreme temps again to open up the box outside for the furnace components and see if the cell switch was bad. I have no idea what a cell switch is but Greg has become an expert with his research on “anything that can go wrong in an RV”. Do you know how hard it is to unscrew tiny screws in -39 degrees with thick gloves and not lose them in the snow? It was a comedy show for sure. Again we kept our time outside to under 10 minutes with as much of our skin covered as possible…where are my cloth Covid masks when I really needed them?
The furnace didn’t work all day so we relied on the electric fireplace heater and the small portable heater. You know those warnings in the news you see each winter when they tell you not to overload your circuits with electric heaters for fear of fires. We were definitely pushing the limits, but we were watching them closely and using them as safely as we could in such a tight space. We were able to keep the temps between 60 and 64 much of the day. Why is it when it’s a Spring day and it’s 64, shorts and a t shirt are reasonable choices, but in winter that temp seems ridiculously cold inside your home? I had three layers of pants on: my Costco thin insulated tights, leggings layered over those followed by a thick pair of sweats. Plus three shirts: same Costco insulated long sleeve followed by a long sleeve T and a thick sweatshirt. I was trending towards the bundled up little kid on the old weather commercial who can’t bend his arms or legs.
I spent the afternoon making some soup in the instant pot so we’d be able to warm up our bellies but we did have to turn off the electric heaters while cooking so I didn’t blow a fuse. There is a delicate balance between our coffee maker, my hair dryer, the electric heater, and the Instant Pot. Those all seem to get plugged into the same circuit and only one can be running at a time. And this is on a normal day where we aren’t balancing the extreme temperatures. This balancing act was not in my well laid plan, and I now know exactly which fuse to reset because I blow it often. My 54 years of training didn’t include remembering to unplug the coffee maker before drying my hair.
Since the furnace was still not working, Greg and Aimee decided to venture out as he had spied small electric heaters at Walgreens in his previous trip out. I made a list of a few other items including baby wipes since it appeared showers were going to be out of the question for a bit. The baby wipes were Aimee’s idea going back to her college days reciting the phrase “wipe your pits, tits, and lady bits”.
Greg and Aimee came back with some entertainment, a sudoku book for me and a puzzle book for Aimee to help pass the time. Aimee was a trooper….I would have bailed long before now if I were her. We also decided that drinking was a good idea, even though the newscasters had previously mentioned that drinking alcohol is a bad idea when trying to keep warm. Listen, we are in a room that’s no bigger than six foot wide by 15 foot long…three adults, two 100 pound pups and a cat…drinking is necessary!
I’m going to digress a bit before moving on. When we went up to Jake’s family lake house in Michigan for Alicia and Jake’s engagement party, I was a bit surprised by the “no toilet paper in the toilet” sign. It’s understandable given the likely age of the plumbing, but it was a new concept for me. Never did I think I’d experience that same need in my own living quarters less than 6 months later. The fresh water tank eventually froze which meant pooping inside was no longer an option. We could pee as long as we put the paper in the trash, so I was in need of the Michigan cabin sign.
Good news is the pink port-o-potty is still outside for construction use. Funny how I think that is good news. Do you have any idea how miserable it is to use the bathroom in port-o-potty in -39 degree temperatures? But when you have to go, you have to go. It was slightly warmer in the enclosed space away from the wind, and my booty didn’t freeze to the seat, so that’s a plus. We survived that night and were thankful that we had several five gallon jugs of water to use.
We had a Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve but there was no way Greg and I both could go and leave Aimee with the pups with all the things that could go wrong under the circumstances. I was going to make the trip to my sisters with the Jenna, Alicia and Jake, but I needed to be clean as I hadn’t showered in a couple days. Aimee and I ventured to take a shower at a relative’s house and then Greg did the same when we got back.
We had planned to have the kids over for Christmas breakfast in the barn. With no running water, cooking and the clean up would be difficult, plus there was that small detail of only having the port-o-potty in the still below freezing temps. So we changed courses and moved our Christmas breakfast to my parents house. They would be at my sisters for the night so their house was empty. I asked Aimee and Jenna to stay at my parents for the night and do a little meal prep on Christmas Eve. Jenna was in chef mode because she had been with my mom baking for two days straight. And the ask for Aimee was an easy decision because it meant having a working bathroom, running water and her own warm bed to sleep in.
Greg and I packed up the pups and remaining food and gifts early on Christmas morning and headed to my parents. Sarah, Larry, Alicia and Jake arrived mid morning and we had a wonderful breakfast together. We missed Lucas as he had to stay back in Michigan to work. We opened presents and enjoyed the family time. My stocking for the kids are always pretty consistent. Everyone gets socks, girls always get new undies (Aerie thanks me for the 40 pair purchase each year), jammies for the girls, sweatpants for the boys, then a few unique and thoughtful items for each. In prior years, I have not yet embarrassed the son in laws by buying them underwear, but this year I took the plunge. They all got this brand…SAXX. I had not heard of them before but my male business partner has suggested them to all us ladies at the office time and again. Rumor is SAXX have a nice “sling for your package”. Haven’t heard the feedback from the boys yet, but I will be doing a survey soon.
Everyone got a CarCans. Every person in our family has a need for this….maybe not Sarah and Larry…but the rest may have a habit of using their floorboards as trash bins, and Greg and I seem to be living out of our car some days. I also got each an Adventure Challenge book and a set of Question for Humans cards. Those were my inspiration for them to communicate more and enjoy small adventures.
I cherish the opportunity to have all the kids together as it doesn’t happen often enough. In spite of Elliott creating a few stumbling blocks, we had a wonderful Christmas and eventually thawed out. Only 5 1/2 days without running water, no big deal! This adventure is teaching us a lot. The things we thought were difficult and would tick our timers a year ago are proving to not really be that bad, and it takes a lot more to set both of us hot heads off. Everyday brings a new challenge, and we are taking it all in stride. Happy New Year!
Me & My RV 