Cold Crashing Outside?

I've been reading the large sticky on different yeasts, juices, sugars, etc. Tons of great info there. I'm a little confused about cold crashing though. I have about 5 gallons of cider fermenting now in a primary. I added 2.5lbs of corn sugar and .5lbs of brown sugar to get an OG of 1.071. I'm using Cooper's. I'd like to split this into a couple of batches. The bulk I would like to keep still, but semi-dry. Seems like the crowd pleaser's in Kevin's postings are around 1.006. The rest, maybe 1 gallon, I'd like to carbonate in a bottle using priming sugar.

What are the guidelines for cold crashing? I do not have a refrigerator dedicated to cider and beer making, so shoving a 6 gallon carboy in my fridge is not an option. Finding space for multiple 1 gallon carboys won't work either. It's getting down into the upper 30's at night. Could I just leave the carboy outside? How long does crashing take and what temp? Once I bring it back inside, the yeast is no longer active?

For the gallon or so that I want to carbonate, I assume I would siphon that off before crashing the rest, let it clear, then bottle it in champagne bottles with added sugar and let them sit.

You can cold crash in a keg bucket with some ice. A buddy of mine did that and it came out great. I've found it usually takes a day for the cider to clear up, two days will get it a little bit more clear and not much improvement after that. Remember, rack, crash and rack again, so that you leave all the yeast behind.

JUst a word of caution.......I had the same idea last year and packed a carboy in snow to make sure it it got cold enough. It got a little warm in the afternoon and I didn't get home from work till late and I ended up having to chip a 5 gallon glasscarboy out of a pile of snow and ice!!!