Moving To The Mountains

PickleMeDickles

New member
May 17, 2015
375
10
Southern California
Parrots
SassyByrd (DYH Amazon) JoJo (GCC) Betty (GCC) DEARLY LOVED fids lost to “Teflon Disaster� 12/17 RIP Pickles (GC),RIP Winston (Sun), RIP Lady PLEASE TAKE 5 MINUTES &TOSS OUT ALL YOUR TEFLON NOW!
Hi All,

We currently live in the armpit of Southern California, where the weather is generally hot to mild. We are planning on moving to a quaint mountain town to an itty bitty cabin. We will be home the majority of the time so naturally, the house will be kept at an ambient temperature.

However, I am always a "what if" person. What if our heat goes out in the winter? What if we leave for the day and forget to fill the stove with wood? (Most of the cabins have wood stoves for heating). I plan on covering my fids with warm night covers but what if? Will my birds be okay?

I am planning on covering up the wood stove with wire mesh so they can not accidentally land on it (no fried chicken for me)....just kidding. I also plan on weatherproofing the windows and doors if need be.

Any other suggestions from our panel of experts? Thanks in advance!
 

itzjbean

Well-known member
Jan 27, 2017
2,572
Media
4
119
Iowa, USA
Parrots
2 cockatiels
I live in the Midwest where there are blistering summers and freezing winters. We live in an old, drafty house and about two years ago our furnace crapped out on us in the middle of a winter storm. IT SUCKED, the house quickly dropped in temp, we don't have a fireplace either, so we were forced to make some quick decisions.

We bought heaters that plug into the wall after this happened and now we always have at least two heaters at the ready to warm up the house should the furnace go out again. Of course you'll need electricity to use them, but they are a great backup for those burrrry days and nights.

Congratulations on the move -- you'll love that fresh mountain air!
 

Kentuckienne

Supporting Vendor
Oct 9, 2016
2,742
1,631
Middle of nowhere (kentuckianna)
Parrots
Roommates include Gus, Blue and gold macaw rescue and Coco, secondhand amazon
We heated with a wood stove the first year we lived in our cabin. It gets the place so hot it will run you out of there, then cools off if the fire goes out - our place is super insulated, plus we had a soapstone stove, so that helped. There is a lot of thermal mass in a wood house/cabin, so once you have it warm it's a lot easier (and uses less wood) to keep it warm than to let it cool off and then heat it up again. It takes a LONG time to warm up a cold cabin.

I assume you have electricity ... we picked the smallest room, a half bath, and installed an in-wall electric heater. A small space heater will do also, preferable mounted up on the wall away from water. When we got home and the house was cold, we put Mr. Greenfeathers in there and turned the heat on while we got the wood stove going. Before we had that, I used to sit in the car with him while J got the fire going, and once it was warm enough I'd bring him in.

If we let the fire go out at night, the house got way too cold by morning, especially with the parrot. So we wound up keeping a piece of wood or two by the fire, and throwing it on in the middle of the night. Which made it difficult to get a good night's sleep, because part of you is wondering...how's the fire... also, firewood always had bugs in it, and the warmth of the house wakes them up. It was a real pain keeping them dead. We leave all firewood outside, and just bring it in as needed, but in the middle of the night you hate to open the door. So just keep the minimum amount of sticks inside. Oh, and don't put them on the wood floor ...bugs will move right into the wood.

We didn't like to leave the house for long because it would get cold. We would heat the house up overly warm. Sometimes leave a log on the fire, which I hated - that's how places get burned down. It's never good to leave a woodstove unattended. We clean the flue religiously and have still had a chimney fire. Dangerous. Even then, we tried not to stay out too long, and made a fire first thing on getting home. If we could take birdie with us, we did.

Check the insulation and beef it up wherever you can. Makes a huge difference. Check for drafts, seal around electrical outlets, doors, windows, etc. And then you must be careful that there's enough fresh air at the same time. Keep carbon monoxide detectors near the wood stove and parrot and in every bedroom. Smoke detectors go without saying.

There are also kerosene heaters which I worry about for birds...I've used them in the day time, always attended of course, but not around the parrot.

Does the place have propane, gas, city water, or electric service? We also have a portable generator that can run off propane or gasoline. Don't need it often, but when you need it you need it. Keeps the fridge running, lights on, can even run a small space heater depending on how you size it. Ours runs the blower for the furnace and the well pump but not at the same time. If an ice storm or wind storm brings down power lines it can get mighty cold and dark mighty fast. You might find a small generator to be a very good investment if you ever need it.
 

SailBoat

Supporting Member
Jul 10, 2015
17,643
10,007
Western, Michigan
Parrots
DYH Amazon
In the last three years we have lost electrical service at both our home and cottage. Since we are back and forth between the two places, it was clear that we needed some kind of notice of whether or not the power was on!

At present, I am running two systems that provide information regarding whether the power is on!
System 1: Simplsafe - Home Security System that provides an email, if power is loss, plus it monitors temperature and provides an email if below a present point.
System 2: Weather Station (indoor and outside Monitors) by Acu-rite. This system reports to a site that can be view (inside and outside temperatures and a bunch of weather related stuff). The neat part is that if the power goes out, it emails that the monitors are not reporting.

Of the two systems, the Home Security System provides faster response, plus it can include the smoke alarm, carbon monoxide detectors, plus water on floor (hot warmer heater or like) and cameras.

We are happier with the Home Security System.

We heat with Propane at the cottage and natural gas at home, but electric keeps them running. Both have Power Panel switch-over allowing use of generators. At present, both are manual. Auto switch-over units with auto-start generators are available and the further out and away you are and the less comfortable you are will operating the generator(s) the more important those systems.

Always have a back-up heat source and/or a back-up electrical supply system is a must in today's world!
 
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