It’s the beginning of March here in the mountains of western Montana. We have made it through our first winter entirely off-grid! The experience of over four months of snow, ice, and temperatures well below 0oF have turned what at first seemed like a daunting task into a magical season well worth the efforts required. I even gave birth to our first baby in the depths of winter right in our camper home. Even as the snow and cold temperatures continue, I feel the Earth waking up from her winter slumber. Spring is here! And while the increased daylight hours bring a fresh, vibrant energy to the frozen landscape of our homestead dream, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the winter season!
When my husband and I moved onto 20 acres of mountain forest land in early October, it was just a couple of weeks before the first snowfall. I was 6 months pregnant and people thought we were crazy to take on the task of staying on our new property this winter. It was a big change of plans from our original idea of following the warmth to Florida, and as a born and raised California girl I had never experienced much in terms of winter weather. I really had no idea what to expect! So first and foremost, the issue of what type of structure to live in loomed before us. Would we be able to get this done in time? We needed something cheap that we could get ready fast. It also had to be able to last us the years it could take to design and build our permanent earthen home. We looked at sheds, but with having to insulate and build all interior necessities from the ground up we felt buying a used travel trailer made more sense. We landed on a 2009 Keystone Cougar with the “polar package”. The term polar package is actually upsetting to me because it’s an utterly meaningless marketing ploy. You’re not going to be doing anything even remotely hardcore without major modifications. A simple internet search on the subject will show you dozens of stories of winter camping trips gone wrong. But the insulation in the walls is decent and the water tank is enclosed. Still, we had major work to do before this thing would be winter capable. We went for it and I am so glad we took that leap! We had challenges and learned some lessons the hard way, but through diligent effort we’ve been warm and cozy inside.
Reenforcing the insulation was our number one priority. We needed to skirt the camper to prevent cold air from coming up from the open space between the camper and the ground. A major investment was in 2-inch foam board which lines the entire exterior, going a foot or two up the camper siding. This is taped on with heat absorbing tape. But we still needed more insulation. We were able to find a guy whose straw bales had gotten wet, so we got a killer deal on several of those. They are placed around the outside of the foam board and also broken down and stuffed underneath both staircases. The final piece of insulation was redoing the weather stripping around both doors. It took way longer than I’m proud of for us to bother doing it, but made a huge difference of course! We’ve also found that keeping the window shades drawn down on cold nights seems to noticeably decrease how often the furnace kicks on. They’re just the shades that came with it and don’t appear to be anything special.
Next up was the decision to invest in a good wood burning stove. There’s nothing like the ambiance and the quality of warmth created by a fire. It makes the space feel like a home, and speaks to something deep in our ancient human DNA. I absolutely love how it enhances the winter season and do consider ours an essential! In practical terms without this we would have spent a (larger) fortune on propane and likely would still have had some pretty chilly times where the furnace wouldn’t have been able to keep up in the extremely cold times. With the wood stove we relax in comfort at night. Sometimes it’s even too hot! When that happens, it gives us opportunity to open windows and refresh the inside air. The main downside to the wood stove is that we had to get a very small one. It can feel that in order to keep a fire burning we are tethered to the camper on constant wood chopping and fireplace loading duty. More wood needs to be placed every 30-45 minutes! And they have to be quite small chunks. Of course, not everyone needs to maintain a cozy internal temperature all day every day no matter the outside temperature. We have chosen to do this work because it provides comfort for myself, our baby, and our dogs, as we are inside most of the time this season. We also ferment small artisan batches of mead which require a consistent warmth. On the coldest nights my husband has even chosen to stay up late into the night to maintain the fire and keep propane use lower. The initial investment in our stove (from www.tinywoodstoves.com) was about $2,000 which is one of our biggest investments. But it was worth it to me as it will provide all this for many years. All our firewood comes from existing dead trees on our property. So, there’s no cost to operation apart from chainsaw fuel. Installation took about half a day for my husband, who has a lot of experience in this arena. He needed to cut down the coat closet to make enough clearance for the stove, and then cut a hole in the roof for the exhaust pipe. All in the middle of a snowstorm! When planning the location of your stove keep in mind this pipe will have to be cleaned very frequently. So if you can do a side exhaust out one of the walls that’s a good option. It’s a little sketchy having my husband up on a ladder in all kinds of weather scrubbing it out. But so far so good!
The third pillar of winter survival is the propane furnace. Its main job is to keep the water tank from freezing. I was surprised to learn that for the water it actually doesn’t matter what the trailer interior temperature is. The furnace needs to run to warm the undercarriage where the tanks are. All the skirting insulation work is key for keeping that heat around! We bought a digital thermometer at the hardware store and were able to drop the probe down beneath the floor to monitor the temperature shifts in the undercarriage. This brings me to the tale of the frozen Solstice of December 21st. I spent a lovely afternoon making and delivering fudge to our neighbors for the darkest night of the year, which would also be the coldest at -30F. That night when the fire died out, we went to bed with the furnace set to 55F and a fresh tank of propane hooked up. Unfortunately, the furnace failed to click on. Cuddled up under our comfy blankets it took until the camper interior was 36F for us to get cold enough to wake up. By then the undercarriage was 0 degrees, and the water was frozen. There was nothing we could do but wait for it to thaw once warmer temperatures returned. I am so thankful that we have a system of keeping three 5-gallon buckets of water for drinking inside the camper. We store them in the shower and use them up during the week. We knew the really cold weather was coming, and made sure to have them filled up. Speaking of which it’s also a good idea to shower right before any major weather system hits! We were without water to shower with for Christmas four days later, but because we had showered before the tank froze we were still more or less presentable at our friend’s Christmas party…at least according to our current standards of cleanliness! Little did we know, that night also froze and broke the ammonia line for our RV fridge. A slow leak occurred over the next few days and late on Christmas Eve, in the midst of merriment, food and games with our neighbors, we discovered that the fridge was totally incapacitated. It was such a bummer! The water tank was still frozen and now this.
Admittedly winter is the best time of year to have something like a fridge failure. But it’s still not any fun. A lot of things were fine outside, but for example, the fresh veggies and milk didn’t like it at all! The typical RV refrigerator runs off of propane and refrigerant gasses including ammonia. We found out after the fact that it’s common for that type of fridge to fail and break in extreme cold. They just aren’t hearty enough and in my opinion shouldn’t be used in any RV claiming to be designed for the cold. The replacement parts for repair were shockingly expensive so we opted to pay a little more and upgrade to a direct current compressor fridge. Which means it runs off of electricity instead of propane. I highly recommend it since in my experience, when the compressor can’t handle the cold, it freezes up but can be warmed with a hair dryer and doesn’t damage the system. Another cool bonus is that we got an additional 4 cubic feet of fridge space in the same spot! This has to do with the extra room created in the back of the fridge hole with an electrical setup. It’s a beast of a fridge that at 10 cubic feet is almost as large as in a house! It’s definitely in the running for my favorite upgrade! So of course the downside is that it runs off of the battery power. Fortunately, we went for a really robust battery system that can handle that output. We have two deep cycle AGM 12V 200Ah batteries (www.renogy.com). For the winter we haven’t been able to get any significant solar. We run our generator daily to keep up with the electrical use. We were doing that even before the DC fridge, and didn’t want to add much electrical draw. Turns out that by changing all the lightbulbs to LED we are actually at a net neutral in energy use versus before the upgrade. I was shocked at how wasteful the original bulbs were. Now the quality of lighting is so much brighter, and without the heat offput. It didn’t even require any rewiring. Wins on all fronts!
Personally, the biggest challenge and annoyance I encountered this year has been the condensation! Because of the difference between our cozy inside temperature and the wintery outside, as soon as we moved in water began dripping down the walls, the windows, and even the insides of the cabinets! I have several water damaged books, and I haven’t been able to use the closet because the clothes get damp. On the very cold nights, there are places where ice forms in the corners of the inside walls. This happens next to my bed, one spot in the corner behind the table cushion, and on the inside of the windows- just above the level of the insulation foam outside. Our pillows even froze to the back wall! We put up foam board inside behind the bed to shield us from that. However, I’m thinking that there’s probably mold growing behind it. Installing the wood stove really helped dry the air inside and stopped the drips down the walls. At least it made things livable. But it did not solve the cabinet/closet issue, and the windows remain fogged up most of the time. These are projects to solve for next year.
Having been invited to sink deep into seasonal and postpartum rest by the long nights and frozen ground, I’ve deeply enjoyed the many days spent managing a fire, bouncing my baby, and watching the snow swirl outside the giant window (that has no business in a camper supposedly designed for cold). It hasn’t always been easy, but the challenges have been well worth the effort needed to overcome them! I’m already excited to do even better next year, and for the adventure having a 1-year-old will add.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, and off-grid dreams!
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