Getting ready for winter

By Christian Probasco, 11-17-08

	Frankestein's Monster: the Heep top. Note primer.

Winter, to me, means skiing or at least memories of skiing, sledding and four-wheeling in southern Utah, when I seem to have most of the wilderness to myself. But I tell my wife, “Winter is death.”

By that I mean if you aren’t prepared for the cold and the snow, they can literally kill you.  I am not a survivalist; I’m speaking from experience. I’ve spent most of my life in places with four seasons and I’ve learned to have some respect for what the cold can do.  On top of that, I don’t like the sensation of being cold.  I’ve had enough of it.

We live in central Utah, at an elevation of about 5,500 feet.  Our house is in town, and our neighbor has a tractor that he can use to plow our cars out, or pull them out if necessary, but that doesn’t lessen our responsibilities for taking care of ourselves.

And then there are the power and gas bills to think of.  This year I tried to get ahead of them.  I installed a programmable thermostat which drops the temperature at night to between 62 and 68 degrees, depending on the day of the week.  The temperature is falling as I type this, at 1:56 a.m., so it must be working. I installed a used storm door in the back and sawed a doggy door in it. During the day, our mutt can access the laundry room addition, which is kept warm by a plug-in, toaster-size “economy” heater. 

I installed a new storm door in the front entrance as well.  I also put in a “low flow” shower head. Works as well as the original.

We plan to insulate the windows in the laundry room with Styrofoam, covered by plastic sheets.  We have a water heater jacket on order. 

I actually rolled up the five big hoses in our yard before they were buried by snow this year.  I filled the air in the tires of both our vehicles and topped off all the fluids. I made sure there were blankets in the trunk.

Winterizing the CJ-5, a.k.a. the “Heep,” was a particular pain in the ass because it has sat in need of repairs for about a year while I’ve been driving a semi all over the country.  The Heep has an improvised cloth cab top with a lot of holes to let the cold air in.  I spent a day sewing vinyl flaps all over the thing to lessen the drafts.  Then I glued and sewed together a vinyl grill cover, because the Heep’s carburetor will freeze up unless half of the radiator’s capacity is gone. I sprayed naval jelly all over the body and then hit the rust spots with black primer. I installed a rain-proof, and hopefully snow-proof toolbox in the bed.

Still to do: throw some snack-packs and water bottles in the vehicles to sustain us should we get stuck. I also have to get the Sorels, the parkas and the ski-gloves out of storage.  I’m working on it! 

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