Winter Fun Scenario

[Steve]

I think the first thing I'd do would be to move a significant amount of coal inside the house, it's just too important to leave outside, even though I'm out in the sticks. I have a lot of water stored in IBC containers, but they would freeze so I'd arrange them around a small fire, probably my garden chiminea as it burns very cleanly and makes hardly any smoke. The water that I could get out would be filtered through the berkefeld and stored near enough to the stove that it didn't freeze. All cooking could be done on the solid fuel stove or on the LPG stove, which runs from a 1200ltr tank. Propane is good down to way below zero. I think I'd try to conserve the propane, it burns so clean I could use it in daylight, whereas the coal and wood smokes when first lit. Propane might make steam, I don't know, in which case we'll cook at night and keep a meal warm in the haybox for daylight eating.

I think I would sheet off the top half of the house and live downstairs, we have all we need downstairs and it would save fuel. The toilet should still work, but if the external pipes froze up we'd have to empty empty a pot into the soakaway manually.

Battery powered radio and books by candle light would provide entertainment. If it looked like a long haul I'd rig up some LED lights from vehicle batteries.