Winter Ready

I feel adequately ready to embrace the coming winter.  Nothing reminds me of how blessed I truly am than to be winter ready.  Our pantry, our chest freezer in the garage and the freezer in our kitchen are very full at the moment.  I've even got almost all I need for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and well into the New Year.  We will definitely not go hungry.

Our garage is well supplied with pet and chicken feed and all the supplies they should need.  We have plenty of propane and other fuel sources should the power go out for any length of time.  There is a new bag of briquettes in case we need or want to grill outside too.

The coop has been cleaned and fresh bedding added so the girls will be snug and warm.  We employ the deep bedding method in our coop so it stays dry and produces its own heat.  There is also a heater in there should the temperatures dip into the single digits and they need to be warmer.

I picked up these items on sale super cheap for Christmas baking

We have plenty of warm weather clothing, boots, coats, hats and gloves.  Fuzzy socks and warm winter pajamas as well as robes and slippers.  We've added our winter blankets to our beds as well so we are ready to sleep through some chilly nights, which we've had quite a few of already.

There are plenty of toiletries, medicines, tissues and toilet paper, laundry and cleaning supplies as well as candles, batteries and matches stocked in the house.  I don't expect to need to purchase anything until the spring.  I think the only thing that would compel me to do so any sooner would be a really good sale and some coupons.

Our vehicles are winter ready as well.  Both my car and the truck have good tires and batteries.  They've had their preventive maintenance and all the fluids have been topped up.  I'd like to replace the wiper blades on my car soon and will add snow chains and our jumper cables to the truck so we have them should they be needed.  Both vehicles have ice scrapers and plenty of anti freeze in the radiator.

Snowmaggedon 2017

Our snow shovel is beginning to show its age so I've got it on my list to get a replacement this year.  There is a new bag of ice melt as well as a partial bag so we are good to go there.  In the meantime, before the snow flies, we are doing our best to keep up on raking the falling leaves and keep things tidy.  The hoses and sprinklers have been drained and put up and I've pulled up all the spent flowers and plants from our planters on the porch.  I usually have flowers until Thanksgiving, however not this year as we've already had some good hard freezes.

Warm bedding helps us sleep well when the temperatures dip

Knowing we have much of what we need takes a load off of my mind and frees up my money to go toward the higher electric bills we will have.  This year we are about a month early on using our heat so I am expecting the higher electric bills to start arriving next month through March or April.  Our coldest month is typically January with our highest bill arriving at the first of February.  This year we may see some of those cold temperatures much earlier.  It is hard to say, but I am prepared for it.

I sure hope we don't see snow like this again anytime soon

Are you prepared for winter?  What are some of the things you do to get ready?