Boy, Oh Boy!!!!! Did any of you just come through Ice Storm Fern 2026? We did, and we survived.
Today, I am going to share with you how it got started, how we prepared, what we did to survive, how we got creative, how we learned as we went, and what we are planning to change or prepare for the next one.
For two weeks, we were getting news and alerts that this was coming, so we kicked it into overdrive.
The first thing we needed to do was to have all the cows in one place. Our pregnant cows were in their summer pastures at our son's place, and the rest were here on our place. It was time to move the pregnant ones anyway, so they could be closer so we can keep a watch out for calving season. We are so thankful that we did because when it started, our roads were not drivable.
Let me explain, as you will see in the pictures below. We do not get that pretty, soft, fluffy snow. Nope, we get ICE ICE BABY. Sorry, I am a Gen Xer. Our climate produces ice precipitation, and it covers everything. It clings to the trees so badly that it is all crystallized. It looked like Elsa just came and created her own ice place here on our property.
I missed a lot of pictures and videos because I needed to make sure I saved my phone battery for emergencies.
While the guys were preparing things outside, we girls were preparing inside.
We started by gathering every jug or glass, gallon or half-gallon jars we could and washing them so we could fill them with water. The plastic jugs, we filled with tap water for flushing, washing, or anything else we would need water for. The glass ones, we filled with filtered water for drinking.
We were beginning to order cases of toilet paper, paper towels, plates, and eating utensils, and best of all, baby wipes.
The next most important thing was to make sure we had bread on hand. I started out with two loaves.
We gathered our oil lamps and oil and made sure they were filled.
We gathered some camp lights we had, and these littel led lanterns from Dollar Tree came in real handy. We made sure they had batteries, and they were working.
We got out all our extra batteries and had them handy.
Then we started watching it come down, and it iced all night long. This was the next morning.
This was a few days later, after some ice had begun to melt. You should have seen the trees.
We could not get out of our back door. The ice had come up to the bottom of our screen door, and we had to break the ice off the porch before we could open our door.
It was so thick.
Here is where it got interesting. The trees were bending over so badly and heavily laden with ice that they were snapping in half and falling to the ground, across roadways, highways, and power lines. If you have never heard an ice-covered pine tree snap in half, consider yourself lucky. That's all we could hear the next morning. For two hours, this happened, and it sounded like WWIII outside. It was so eery and we did not dare go outside. These trees were taking down powerlines, power poles, and blowing up transformers, which made everyone on our street, town, our county, surrounding counties, and even a few connected states lose power. We automatically started calling everyone and checking on them. This is the reason for saving our phone batteries. All power company workers (including our oldest son) were called out at 2am. The next day (I believe), everyone lost water because our water supply pumps run off of electricity. Not to mention, with everyone dripping their faucets, our town's water supply went dry. We ran out of water for flushing and any other thing. Even the hydrants that we use to water the cows. It was only then that we started to worry just a little. We were not worried about the heat because we had our fireplace to keep us warm. We closed off doors, drafts, and vents to keep the heat in one room. We slept in our living room for 7 or 8 days.
This is where we had to get creative. I am so glad I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and old shows like that, because we knew how to do some things. First, we had to think about our water supply. We had run out of tap water in our jugs for flushing and sponge bathing. That is where the baby wipes came into play. Dear Hubby was in Desert Storm in 1990, and that is how they kept somewhat clean was by using baby wipes. I mean, in the middle of a war, you don't get to pause and take a shower. In order to flush the toilets, we collected buckets of ice from the yard and brought them in to melt in front of the fire. Then we poured that water into the tub and stored it for flushing. So far, the cows' troughs were still full; all dear hubby had to do was bust ice every morning. We only had to do this for a few mornings because the sun came out for a few days and began melting ice off some of our outbuildings. Dear Hubby, got a bright idea. He moved an extra-big watering trough under the eaves and started collecting melting water. Then we were able to haul 5-gallon buckets up to the house and pour water into the cows' troughs. This was an answered prayer.
Here is how we got creative with eating. We had bread and bologna and non-perishable items on hand, but we got tired of those, and once again, we came up with an idea.
Thank goodness our freezers stayed frozen and cold through this. We took out some pork chops and let them thaw. Dear Hubby, put those onto skewers and roast them over an open fire.
I opened up some of our home-canned produce, and we put a meal together. I opened up some bread and butter pickles and green beans, and we had a slice of homemade bread with butter.
The next meal, we got even more creative. First, we had our fire roaring hot.
We collected hot coals and put them into our ash bucket
I opened up a home-canned jar of pinto beans and ham. We put those into an iron skillet and placed it on top of the bucket of hot coals. This worked great.
Once we saw that this was a success, we tested out spaghetti
Look how this turned out. I even toasted a few slices of bread on top of the lid with butter.
We started heating up some of my make-ahead freezer breakfasts. Breakfast casserole and pancakes a few mornings.
Another meal was Korean Beef Ribs, with a jar of home-canned green beans and home-canned potatoes.
The back of our house is shaded, and we got tired of almost slipping and falling on the back porch and steps, so we got out and literally chiseled ice off.
After 8 long days, our power and water were restored, and we got back to normal. I began washing everything in our living room and cleaning out the fireplace. This was a very bad storm, and there were people who were still without power for up to 14 days. Our son is a lineman, and he worked every single day and was so exhausted. That is not even the right word for all these guys and utility workers. Our state was declared a state of emergency. We had other power companies from other states come in and help restore power. Our community set up warming shelters for people (if they had power).
After normalacy, dear hubby and I were watching tv one night, and he said, "I had fun with you for those days, we worked together preparing and getting creative." I agree with him, even though it was exhausting (manning a fire 24/7 in order to stay warm), we made the best of a tough situation and handled it together. We learned a lot in the process, and we have discussed changes we want to make for the next time to be prepared. We have been discussing future resolutions to situations like this. I have already started preparing for the bad weather we get in the spring and summer.
Now let's talk about getting prepared for the next bad weather storms that may come, whether it be summer tornadoes, winter ice storms, or you may even have earthquakes and hurricanes. Your situation will be different than ours, but these are still some good ideas.
I want to start by saying this: if you have lived in an area or state for so long, you know when your bad weather seasons are normally going to hit. It is your responsibility to get your property, home, and family prepared. With that being said, DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST DAY OR MINUTES TO PREPARE. You have from one season to the next to stock up and prepare. You know how stores get in times of emergencies. Everything flies off the shelves. People will panic and head to the gas stations and buy all the gas out. You will be stuck in lines waiting forever and in traffic.
There are ways you can go ahead and get things together. Whatever you gather and store, you will need to set strict rules that no one dips into these stashes. These will be FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY
One of the first things you are going to need is water. Start saving up water bottles, jugs, jars, and anything you can store water in. Fill them with drinking water and then some with tap water. Your tap water will be for use for things other than drinking. Save drinking water for drinking water only. You can even save your laundry detergent bottles (the big ones with the spouts) and store water in them for washing hands and such. When the time comes, put it around a sink, and people can wash their hands in the sink and rinse. Store all water out of direct sunlight and in a cool place.
A little at a time, you can take $20 to $25 our of each paycheck and purchase toiletry items such as toilet paper, paper towels, paper dinner products, and baby wipes. If you have babies, you will need to stock up on diapers and formula if you do not breastfeed. You will need hygiene items like toothpaste, deodorant, and dry shampoo, etc.
Next, you will need to stock up on non-perishable food items, something that you can just open up and eat, and that does not require electricity. Make sure to take children into consideration if you have picky eaters.
Find a way to start collecting some kind of lights, candles, oil lamps, and batteries.
Now, you will need to find a way to store gas, kerosene, propane tanks, etc., for heat and cooking, and running generators if you have one. Even a grill and some charcoal.
I would really consider putting some cash away. When some places are without power, they can not use their cash registers and debit card machines.
Put together a first aid kit.
You will need to see to any animals outside. Water, food, and shelter.
Now, for those of you who have hurricanes and earthquakes, I am not experienced in that area, but the same principles apply.
We learned some new ways we need to prepare and things we need to stock up on, purchase for the first time, etc.
I will be making an emergency tub to store things in. I will be digging out an old camp stove that was given to us and purchasing some small propane tanks to go with it, and a Little Buddy heater that I use during hunting season.
We are ordering more camp lights, oil lamps, and oil, and possibly a generator.
We are discussing a long-term situation for a source of better heat, such as a wood-burning stove with a flat top.
Get your family together and come up with a plan. Make a list of things you need to start stocking up on and purchasing. Start taking a little money each week, and purchase these items, and put them in a safe place. By doing this, you will cut down on stress, worry, and unpreparedness. You have from one season to the next to do this. I promise, you will thank yourself later, and you and your family will be more at ease.
I hope all this information helps you in some way. It is my prayer that each and every one of you are ok from the Ice Storm Fern of 2026. Check in with me and let me know you are ok, and how you survived, and ways you prepared.
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Smokers and Grills for the guys:
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