Is The 12x12 Cabin Prepared For A Polar Vortex?!?

Is The 12x12 Cabin Prepared For A Polar Vortex?!?
Welcome to Maple Monkey Homestead, my name is Adam and I am in the midst of finishing my 12x12 tiny cabin in the woods and it seems we are about to be in the midst of a polar vortex for about a week or so, Is the 12x12 cabin in the woods ready to face a polar vortex? I guess only time will tell!
With the impeding Polar vortex coming here at the cabin and at the homestead, I am just getting ready to hunker down for a little while because we have sustained temperatures right around -30 for about a week or so.
Making sure that the 12x12 cabin is set up for the polar vortex, by getting the homestead prepared for the lower temperatures, Im making sure that the chickens have alittle extra protein in their diets to help them stay warm during the colder temperatures, making sure my wood pile is all good to go and have enough wood so I can keep the cabin at a nice and comfortable tempertaure.
Not only is there a polar vortex coming and hitting the cabin but just before that, it just so happened that we got hit with a snowstorm as well, so now there is about 1ft of snow on the groudn to add to the sustained colder weather that is approaching.
The chicken coop is un heated but there arnt any drafts in the coop which could be the main problem, I do layer bedding for the chickens to heat with retaining some heat and adding alittle through docomposition, while I was out shovelling I was adding some snow around the outside of the coop for extra insulation and was able to keep the snow on the roof for an added extra layer of protection.
Its best not to add supplementary heating to the chicken coop because if it ever were to go out in these colder temperatures theres a more liklihood of the chickens not being able to regulate their internal temperatures to fight the cold and they would likely parish form that. Chickens have an internal temperature of around 104 degrees, which helps them be able to regulate their temps more effienctly in colder temperatures.
Thankfully I was able to add the exterior insulation on most of the 12x12 tiny cabin so that is a real big help in the colder weather, while not all of it is done, im far better off than i was last winter with only tyvek being my only berrier from me and the cold, I tell you it was a fighting battle to keeo warm last winter.
The lowest temperatures that i have seen for the polar vortex hitting the offgrid cabin are around -30 with the wind. it's only forcasted to stay for about a week and the back to regular temperatures
With the colder temperatures hitting I decided to get out a pork roast for the dutch oven and am going to cook that with some home grown carrots and potatoes on the top of the wood stove for a nice, hearty and healthy home grown, homecooked healthy meal, ya cant go wrong with something like that on one of these cold winter days.
While im tired of the winter and am ready to start gardening, we are about 1/2 way through winter but starting to see the days getting longer which gives me an added element of hope and being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The woodstove may not be the greatest, but I am pleasantly surprised after going over my wood situation that I haven't even burnt a cord of wood yet! Which is really uplifting to know because I only have a little over 2 cords, with being half way through the winter and having a stove that isnt air tight, it was a big surprise and added motivation that when the cabin is done and the stove upgraded to an actaul air tight stiove, that number will go down even more, good signs all around.
I have plans for next month to be able to get working on getting the temporary kitchen more organised and less cluttered by building a custom set of temporary pine cabinets until I can get the actaul full kitchen addition put on the rear of the cabin, until then this will help in keep the mess more taken care of and keeping things more organised, not only will i be adding the cabinets, I will be adding a sink to make doing dishes and cleaning up that much more easier!
Theres things happening left and right at the cabin, even though we are in the midst of the deep freeze it is still giving me hope to work on the things I can work on until the spring and summer comes around to wokr on what I am really excited about! Not the mention to get the garden started!
Be sure to stick around and see the transformation happen, and hopefully, it can give you some motivation for your own offgrid or homesteading journey!