Northern Mexico - No Gas and No Electricity

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I know for a fact that the southern part of the U.S. is experiencing the arctic blast.  My brother in Kansas City is reporting -13F at night for the last week.  Now there are rolling blackouts.  In Texas, friends have not had electricity for more than 48 hours and their stockpile of wood for the fireplace is running low and no resolution in sight.

What's happening here?  We lost power yesterday morning for about 45 minutes.  By that time I had the generator hooked up and running.  We had internet, television, lights and chargers going and then it came back on.  We could have used solar but very limited as the days have been pretty cloudy.  We end up with about 12.4 on the batteries.  Today I will hook up the trailer to keep it charged just in case other methods might fail.  We have fuel for the generator and two very long extension cords which power everything we need.  2.7 million customers were without power here for two major reasons; freezing gas ducts and U.S. had to cut us off to conserve energy in the states.  

Our radiant heat is burning the LP but the house is warm (considering it's cement block).  The heat pump is running in the bedroom so as long as there is power we're good.   We also have the backup of the Mr. Heater Buddy in the trailer and I can move that into the bedroom if the power goes out again for any length of time.  Our radiant heater in the living area is 24,000 btus.  I'm sure in the worst case we could, with the help of a fan, keep the house and one-bedroom warm.   I'm just trying to balance the power to keep the electricity down and also regulate the LP use.  

We have had snow at the 1000 meter level and there are lots of pictures.  Our in-town national park, Chipinque, was full of visitors playing in the snow.   Yesterday I had to get out and go to the bank to make my social security payment.  Ice was on the SUV so I warmed it up.  The defroster took some time to melt the ice.  No one on the streets and the bank was empty.  Being the 15th of the month I was for sure thinking there would be a line.  These days, most payments are made online, and paychecks and social security checks are paid via direct deposit.  

I haven't been out for my exercise since Friday but at -4C it's too cold for me.  I could bundle up but someone told me I couldn't go out to play 😀.  I made chili which we've had twice to go with the cold.  I'm actually enjoying the time.  I like cold weather.  It reminds me of the weekly hikes we took as kids.  That was my dad's way of entertaining us and getting out of the house.   It was a good introduction to nature.  Between those hikes, camping and Boy Scouts, I learned a lot along with my siblings.   So much so that we have a botanist, marine biologist, environmental science to mention a few.  Lots of bird watchers in the family and I enjoy that but never made it an official hobby.  I prefer digging in the dirt.

The cold here is definitely not like the U.S. or Canada now and we feel for everyone who is suffering from the effects of the arctic blast.   Let's hope don't have another one this season and a few years before the next.  

Friday the 12th, we celebrated 36 years.  We had a nice dinner here at home ordering from our favorite Italian restaurant in town.  Very good food, nice table setting, and music.  A lot of fun and it continued through the long cold weekend.  Be safe out there, keep your distance and please, please keep your mask on!