Papaw's Winter-Ready House

Get the house ready before the first hard freeze, the old way, with every number checked.

A 45-page big-print PDF guide:

• Walk Your Walls: keep mice out without poison. The pencil test, steel wool and caulk, traps that work, and the CDC's safe way to clean up after them.

• Stop Heating the Outdoors: find drafts with an incense stick, then seal windows and doors for a few dollars.

• Wood That Burns Hot: stack, season and test firewood, what never goes in the stove, ashes and the chimney.

• Pipes That Don't Freeze: before the freeze, on a hard-freeze night, and what to do if a pipe freezes or bursts.

• The Fall Walk-Around: smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, the furnace, the chimney, gutters and space heaters.

• When the Power Goes Out: the winter kit, one warm room, the carbon monoxide rules, and the food in the fridge.

Plus 6 pages to print and tape up: the Fall Walk-Around Checklist, Where Things Are, the Hard-Freeze Night Card, the Woodpile Log, the Sealing Log and the Winter Kit.

The numbers come from the CDC, the U.S. Department of Energy, Ready.gov, FEMA, the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association. Old Ways Press isn't connected to any of them; we just follow what they publish.

It's a PDF you download, and nothing comes in the mail. It opens on your phone, tablet or computer, and prints at home. Not happy? Write to us within 30 days for a full refund.