Surviving Winter In Our Little Cabin

There is a steep learning curve when transitioning from living in a traditional home to surviving in an off-grid mini-cabin.  Nearly every aspect of your daily life is different.  You quickly learn that we take the simplest things for granted.  Things like warm water to wash your hands!  Or windows to look outside!  Living in a 12×12 cabin without indoor plumbing, grid-tied electricity, running water or a kitchen can be difficult at first.  But after a while, you acclimate, adjust and move on.  You go from “surviving” to “living.”

However, living in a 12×12 cabin in the winter in Appalachia is challenging.  It’s pretty easy when the weather is mild.  Single digit temperatures are a different story!  The weather changes everything.  There is less daylight and those daylight hours are colder and windier!  An outdoor kitchen is great when it’s 60 degrees F but it’s misery when it’s 15 degrees with a 10 mph wind!  The outdoor shower is fantastic on a sunny 70 degree afternoon but not so great after a week of below freezing temps that prevent you from using it!  These challenges and others like them tend to put you into survival mode.  And surviving is key when there are 2 people and a dog living in 144 sq. ft.  Below are some things we have learned to do in order to survive the winter here… and maybe even live a little bit too.

12 tips for surviving a bitterly cold, snowy winter

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Streaming music

We played either Amazon or Pandora nearly every day. There is a saying that music calms the savage beast, but it also calms and soothes mini-cabin dwellers!  Shhh, I actually started playing Christmas music in September.  In our former house, I would start listening to Christmas music after Halloween.  Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures.  Living in a one-room cabin felt like an extreme circumstance to me!   Our Bose wireless speaker fills our little cabin with such great sound.  It barely takes up any space which we love.  It’s been a trooper for years and still working great!

A selfie stick

You may wonder how a Selfie Stick could help you survive a winter, but trust me, it’s a great survival tool too.  We actually take very little selfies.  Living in a small one-room cabin in an off-grid setting, we don’t have a T.V., satellite or cable.  What we do have is YouTube and an Amazon Prime subscription that allows us to watch anything our heart desires from our phone.  You guessed it, there’s nothing better than a selfie stick to hold your phone in place while watching Masterpiece Theater (my favorite) or Live PD (my husband’s favorite)!

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Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP popcorn

What better snack than Angie’s for “selfie stick Amazon Prime night!”  The sweet and salty kettle corn is our personal favorite.  Non-GMO, gluten-free and very simple ingredients.  If you haven’t tried Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP Sweet & Salty Kettle Corn, you really should.  It’s very yummy!

Coffee and teas

There’s really nothing nicer than a hot cup of coffee or tea to warm you up on a cold, snowy day.  We are not coffee snobs, and love the old instant JFG brand.   We had a Keurig in our former home for years.  I tried so hard to find a coffee that I loved in it.  We always ended up loving our instant the best (I know, we’re strange).  We have been using the Bozeman coffee pot to heat up our water on the outdoor cook stove.  I like this way so much better than the Keurig.  The water is always piping hot.

Our dog Charlie

We could not have survived the winter in our little cabin without our best friend.  He is such a sweetheart.  He provides such good entertainment.  Charlie is very persnickety about certain things and he always keeps up laughing.  He’s always ready to give us his unconditional love.  We sure do love him!  He is a very good stress reliever too.

Mad bomber hats

These Mad Bomber hats look crazy, but boy do they work.  Since you lose most of the heat in your body through the head, it just makes sense to have one of these handy for winter weather.  You can actually have less bulky clothing or coats on if you have this crazy hat on your head.   It works like a charm. Warm head equals a nice, warm body!

Quick Dude Shower cloths

When you have winter temps not getting above freezing, guess what, you can’t take an outdoor shower.  We have gone a week at a time when temps didn’t permit a bath or shower.  I have tried several brands of these camping cloths and this brand has been my favorite. DUDE Shower Body Wipes are a nice size and unscented!  You don’t end up smelling like your grandma’s house.  These little beauties aren’t just for those off-grid.  They come individually packaged and are so small, you can toss them in your purse, gym bag, backpack or any travel bag when you might need a little freshening up.

Davis Vantage VUE weather station

Having a weather station in a mountainous area is just about a must.  I have never seen a product that got my husband more excited than this little gem.  We have our own climate on the mountaintop and the weather forecast for us was rarely correct.  Now with the Davis Vantage Vue, we can see in real time what weather is approaching or leaving.  With up to the minute temps, wind speed, etc. it makes planning dependent on weather conditions so much easier.

Down coats or jackets

I own two Down Coats – one lightweight and the other heavy.  I love these coats because you get the warmth of a big coat without the bulkiness.  They are very easy to store and take up less space.  Having two makes it very versatile in our mountain climate.

Camp Stove

Obviously, living in a small one-room cabin, there is no “kitchen” area.  What we do have is an outdoor kitchen that we use in all seasons.  Our Camp Stove has been a total workhorse for us.  Its lightweight and simple design makes it so easy to get a hot meal, coffee and tea or to boil water for dishes.  We have used this cook stove for thousands of meals and beverages and it just never lets us down!  We love it so much and have been so very impressed with it, we have decided we will never spend the money on another “throw-away” gas grill.  The Ambitious Feller did a very in-depth review of our camp stove.

Humor and laughter!

It might sound silly, but it can be very stressful living in a very small space without the creature comforts we are used to.  I am so glad that neither of us takes ourselves very seriously.  Humor, joking and laughter are a part of everyday life in our little cabin.  Do we get on each others nerves, of course we do.  We are not perfect people, but we do make a choice every day to treat each other with kindness, love and respect.  That’s just the way we want it.  This lifestyle will reinforce and strengthen a good marriage or expose and tear apart a weak one!

Mr. Heater

We wouldn’t have made it long in this climate without our Mr. Heater.  It has done such a great job keeping our little cabin nice and toasty.  It is mounted on a wall, so you don’t have it taking up space on your floor which is huge in 144 square feet!  Every inch matters in our little cabin.

So, there you have some of our favorite ways to cope through the harshest of winters!  Go ahead and give one or two a try and let us know what you think.  We would love to hear your thoughts!  What helps you get through those winter months?

~All the best~

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