🔗 The old mountain way through winter was never written down, so I set it down — all four books, warm, fed, lit and safe: https://www.OpalRowe.com/home

Opal Rowe is eighty and lives alone in the Kentucky mountains, and she has seen more winters through without the power company than she can count. In this one she counts down 30 old mountain tricks for seniors living alone, the winter survival tips her mama and Pawpaw Rowe lived by, from a sock full of rice along the bottom of the door to bubble wrap and plain water on the coldest window. Most cost next to nothing, and every one is a way to stay warm without electricity or get yourself safely through a long power outage on your own. And the whole time, a plain quart jar sits in a skillet of sand on her kitchen table, a stub of pipe standing up out of its lid, the one her neighbor asks about every time she comes by. Near the end, Opal finally tells what Pawpaw put in it.

In this one, Opal covers:

• Why you shut the house down to one warm room, and the quilt in the doorway that keeps it warm

• Bubble wrap and plain water on the window glass, and why it holds the heat a thin pane can't

• The little camp stove Pawpaw ran on the porch through the 2009 ice storm, and why it never comes inside

• Power outage tips for seniors: the three-day box, the phone numbers on paper, and the neighbor who calls every morning

• The jar in the skillet of sand on Opal's kitchen table, and what Pawpaw put in it

Tell Opal in the comments where you're watching from, and who taught you to get through a hard winter. What did your people do when the power went out? Opal reads every last one.

CHAPTERS

0:00 The Jar in Opal's Skillet of Sand

1:07 Shut the House Down to One Warm Room

1:57 A Rice Sock Along the Bottom of the Door

2:45 Bubble Wrap and Water on Your Window

3:35 Tinfoil Behind Your Heater

4:26 A Quilt on the Cold Glass at Night

5:18 Wool Socks to Bed

6:12 A Battery Weather Radio

7:01 Open the Cabinet Doors Under Your Sinks

7:55 Let One Faucet Drip

8:42 A Battery Pack for Your Phone

9:29 A Quilt Over the Inside Doorway

10:28 Bank Your Fire Before Bed

11:57 A Hot Stone at the Foot of the Bed

13:18 The Persimmon Seed

15:04 The Nip of Whiskey for the Cold

16:42 Old Newspaper Against the Cold

18:15 A Jar of Hot Water in Your Bed

19:38 A Pinch of Red Pepper in Your Socks

20:59 A Camp Stove and the Porch to Run It On

22:50 Let the Earth Keep Your Food Cold

24:41 Ashes on Your Icy Steps

26:18 Know Where Your Water Shuts Off

28:18 A Warm Sleeping Bag in Your Closet

29:50 Get Up Off the Cold Floor

31:19 Phone Numbers Written Down on Paper

32:56 A Battery Alarm for the Poison You Can't Smell

34:47 The Three-Day Box

36:44 Somebody Who Expects to Hear From You

38:29 What's in Pawpaw's Jar

40:42 The Morning Smoke