How to prepare for a winter storm watch:

You know you’ll wish you could think of everything at once, should a storm come. Here is a starter list, not in any particular order:

1. Go to the store for white bread at the last minute. (Just kidding! Real list to follow!)
2. (For real) make sure you have enough foods to eat that do not have to be cooked unless you have a cooking alternative to electricity.
3. If you have electric heat, only, look into some other heat source, such as kerosene or fireplace or wood stove.
4. If you have a fireplace, consider cooking on it. You will need covered, long-handled pans because of heat and ash, a few bricks and a grate to elevate pots, and really good potholders. Oh, also firewood, which is cheap around here, due to last year’s drought.
5. Rock salt or other means of de-icing porches & sidewalks, for safety.
6. Plastic sheeting for over the windshield, if you park outdoors.
7. Prescriptions filled. Don’t run out during an ice storm!
8. Really good batteries in flashlights. Candles and matches. ETC.
9. A generator would be nice, with fuel for it stocked up. And make sure you know how to operate it without killing a lineman.
10. Extra bedding for cold nights. If one room is warm, you can close it off until bedtime and then sleep under tons of blankets with coats on, just fine.
11. Water for drinking, if power is out over a week and tower is pumped electrically, which most are.
12. Watch the skies and think about livestock and pets. They need more feed than usual and some sort of shelter, if only a piece of plywood leaned against a building. Being wet makes them colder and hungrier, and more prone to illness, and they hate eating snow for their drinks. Many creatures benefit from a little sugar added to water during these times. Chickens definitely do.
13. A bag of wild birdseed, in case your feeder is snowed under. Birds die when they cannot access wild food sources while they are fighting off cold, wet weather. Even if you do not normally feed wild birds, do so, please, when all their normal sources are hidden under snow or ice.
14. If the lights are out, do not open fridge or deep freeze except in emergency. Check it maybe after two days and if it is too warm, use the outdoors for cooling food. Protect eggs, though, from freezing, or they will break.
15. Make sure all vehicles are filled with gasoline.
16. If all your phones are cellular, you must provide for recharging them. Vehicles running with an adapter in the lighter socket is an option. Hand-cranked rechargers are available, sometimes. And there are those little battery things that will recharge a phone; make sure yours are charged up.
17. Read about The Last Snowing Hurricane!

There you have it! Hope you won’t need it!.