Misty Zaugg's Blog - Posts Tagged "cold"

Feb. 4, 2022
Hi friends,

If you're on the northeastern side of the United States, it's likely you got a bit of snow this week.

Here's the start of our big, scary snow storm. We had winter warnings and expected 10 - 14 inches overnight.

I found it kind of funny that schools had all shut down in anticipation, dance classes were cancelled, the grocery stores were flooded with last minute buyers only to wake up in the morning to this . . .



Needless to say, we were less than impressed.

However, here's a pic of what we ended up with by the following morning:



In the end, we had to shovel three times, the roads were indeed a bit of a pain, but our awesome road crews had them in decent shape in no time.

But, it's always good to be prepared for the worst.

So, I had a simple tip I've always remembered about how to stay warm indoors during a power outage where you have no heat.

Stay warm when the power's out! - Be prepared Tip #9

Think small!

Instead of trying to keep your whole house warm, pick a single room everyone can fit in, preferably a small one with a door that closes.

Dress in layers, spend your time together in the closed room, sharing heat and snuggling up together.

The fun tip that always stuck in my mind was to make an even smaller space to keep warm by setting up a tent in this room and spending your time staying cozy in there.

I'm sure the idea of camping indoors was what appealed to me when I heard that tip as a kid, but it's an easy idea to keep in mind should you ever find yourself needing to stay warm for a bit until the power comes back on.

What about you? Any other good tips for staying warm inside when the heat is out?

Stay warm out there! <3

— Misty :)
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Misty's Writing Update:
Wow! Thanks for all the answers to my questions about what length of book you enjoy reading.

What do you think the majority of you voted for?

. . . more, more story! Just like me, most people voted for #4, full-length novels or #5, series or long books.

A few mentioned that they like a mix of lengths, depending on what they're in the mood for, or if they like a particular author, and I'd have to agree on that, too.

Mostly though, if I get to like a character and a story, I'm disappointed when it ends too soon.

And, for all of you long book readers, you'll be pleased to hear I just crossed the 100k mark in the book I'm writing right now, and I'm not even close to the final climactic moment, so it'll likely be my longest book ever.

Woohoo!

Thanks for your support and especially to Pvt Rym who took the time to leave a review of the first book in our pandemic series: Deadly Lockdown:

"I couldn't stop reading once I started this series. So much going on, it held my interest all the way to the end!"

And thanks to another reader who wrote:

"Very good pandemic series. This book is well written, interesting and tough to put down. Thank you for a good book."

Your reviews are so helpful to the series and even just clicking the "Helpful" button on the nice reviews makes a difference.

Thanks for your support and happy reading this week!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Hi friends,

For those of my friends living in the states, isn't it nice to see little glimpses of spring? We had a beautiful, sunny day last week, warm enough to go out in t-shirts.

Neighbors emerged from homes like prisoners freed from jail. :D It was so fun to enjoy the beautiful outdoors after months of cold, huddling inside.

Of course, we immediately had a spat of dreary, cold and rainy days afterward, but we're hoping for more sun soon.

Last week, I got a great email from a reader, Patricia, in response to my email about making medicine kits. She mentioned how she makes a lot of her own herbal health remedies and uses those preferentially. Her favorite is elderberry syrup, which I also love! So, I thought I'd share some of the little I know about it.

Elderberry - A natural anti-viral!

This berry is small, purple and rather tasteless or bitter, if you try to eat it raw - exactly the kind of berries kids are warned not to eat in the wild.

And with good reason. Elderberry leaves and twigs, in particular, can actually be deadly and the raw berries can also be dangerous.

However, if you cook the juice extracted from the berries and don't get any twigs and leaves into your concoction, you'll have a pretty potent antiviral.

Here are the steps we go through to make elderberry juice from the bushes growing on either side of our house:

1. Pick the clusters of berries when they are purple and ripe in later summer/early fall. (You have to beat the birds)
2. Enlist friends or kids to help strip the berries from the twigs. We've found using a fork works well, or just fingers if you don't mind purple-stained skin.
3. Buy or borrow a boiling water steamer that extracts the hot juice from the berries, making it now safe to ingest. Without this piece of equipment, you can also cook the berries, smash them with a potato masher and put the hot slush in a few layers of cheesecloth to squeeze once it cools. Hot and messy, but no special equipment required.
4. Bottle the juice as is (requires a pressure canner), freeze it as ice cubes to add to drinks when someone is sick or cook up with sugar to make a syrup that you can then also bottle or keep in the fridge for quick use.

Of course, the beneficial properties of elderberries have become well known recently, and you can usually pick up a bottle of syrup or extract at the local drug store or online. Pricier, but much easier! :)

Have any of you used elderberry with good success? Made your own juice and/or syrup? I'd love to hear how it's worked for you.

Good luck and stay healthy out there!

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Misty's Writing Update:
I'm at the point in this HUGE book that I feel as if I'm constantly 5 - 10 chapters from the end.

I did wrap up the big battle, but now there are a bunch of plot threads that need tied off before the end. It seems that I keep remembering another one.

I'm currently deciding how much trouble I want the bully and other antagonists to cause for our main guy and his friends here at the end. I figure the good guys need a nice influx of loot and success, but nothing in a good story comes easily without opposition.

It is kind of fun though to play with the balance between rewards/achievements and tension/conflict as I finish this book.

If things go as planned, I'm hoping to finish up the first draft in another week, but tune in next time to see.

I just hit 160k words and with a regular paperback having 250 - 300 words per page, that makes this book between 540 and 640 pages long. I'm wondering exactly how much it'll cost to print this in paperback. Eeek!

Enjoy reading this week!

— Misty :)