Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We are in Rhode Island, visiting the daughters and grands. The house we're staying at is connected to the grid. Along comes a nor'easter, wind blowing up a storm, rain pelting the windows, skies dark and brooding. No wonder my wife named me after such a storm!
Anyway, at 2 or 3 am, the power goes out. Tree by the main road falls, takes a power pole with it, all fall down, go boom. No lights, no furnace. Fridge is out. Both daughters' homes affected, too. I go out to the truck, and get my generator. I travel everywhere with a genny and a chainsaw, always. So we go back to sleep, warm, nightlights on, cold food in the fridge, and awaken to the sound of chainsaws a couple streets over.
Long story short, one daughter's house still has no genny. Other daughter's husband is on the road, and she can't get hers started. Geez. So I loan my machine to the one daughter, who complains it won't run 2 hair dryers plus furnace and fridge at the same time. Then on to the other daughter, to help her start her machine. At least no complaints there.
Power is restored tonight. Tomorrow I head back to Maine, where my comfy little ranch house - off grid all the while - awaits me. Will the power be out up there too? Who knows? Who cares? I'm just glad that all this city grid nonsense has no affect on me!
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,953,657 times
Reputation: 16466
You have lucky daughters. But, they need more training. What would have happened if you weren't there?
In cold they need alternative heat. Refrigerator I guess you could take stuff outside. Candles and oil lamps.
Our area heat is the issue. Our generator will run an ac to keep one room cold, plus refrigerator and a few lights. We could survive. Not in style, but alive.
I tell ya, it's the same old story. These ladies are about age 40. It's not like we haven't been over this, time and again. Up in Maine, I can get wood stoves for the taking. New gaskets maybe, but otherwise fine. No. Don't want them. I'd even install the damn things. They might consider a pellet stove, which is more fashionable. But those won't run without power, either.
My husband was career military--lots of wet, cold and hungry there--and we always had a fireplace, big pile of wood, Coleman stove, single burner, plenty of candles, too many flashlights, lots of batteries, and enough food to last a year. He also owned a lot of tools, and I mean a lot of tools. We had at least six ladders.
If at any time in your life you've been cold or hungry, you'll do something about it. My father was young and poor during the depression. He liked his heat and food. I thought it was pretty damn cold in the morning in his house when I was little, but the coal furnace hadn't yet eaten breakfast. No stoker. I learned how to tend the furnace when I was 5. You're all in or there isn't going to be any heat.
If at any time in your life you've been cold or hungry, you'll do something about it.
That's the problem, right there.
Our daughters have never known a poor day in their lives. In contrast, my family never had any money when I was young, and I started working at age 12. I knew nothing BUT poor days. I was determined that my wife and kids would never do without. This is the result.
Next family get-together (and we do have them), this is all going to be hashed out. Guaranteed.
My cabin doesn't have any power, and my power needs at my work house are minimal, so a couple years ago we got hit with a micro-burst that took out 12 power poles.
Except the fact the TV went out, we wouldn't have noticed, (the wife is very sensitive to that ).
So I went out to the shop, started the generator, and we were back on line. Only house in the neighborhood that had lights that night.
Wouldn't have been a big deal anyway as we have kerosene lamps all over the place, I have chest freezers so they keep the cold even when you open them pretty well, and I don't keep enough perishable in the refrigerator to be an issue, but a couple jugs of ice from the freezer keep it cool in there for a long time in summer. In the winter, it's warmer inside the refrigerator than outside anyway.
Got a good woodstove for heat and cooking and propane backup.
If you normally live like you don't have much power, it isn't hard to replace if it's gone.
Our daughters have never known a poor day in their lives. In contrast, my family never had any money when I was young, and I started working at age 12. I knew nothing BUT poor days. I was determined that my wife and kids would never do without. This is the result.
Next family get-together (and we do have them), this is all going to be hashed out. Guaranteed.
We had some lean years. There was food on your plate at dinner, but there certainly wasn't going to be a second serving. When I started working, mom told me to save my money because I'd need it for something. She was right. Dad lost his job that year and my money bought shoes, a winter coat and school supplies among other things. When you're young, you don't want to hear, "Be thankful that you have a roof over your head" when you were hoping for a new shirt to wear to the school dance.
At the very least, I know how to be poor.
Checkmate. This past holiday season, my son came to my house for dinner and brought the secret Santa gift he'd received in an exchange. There were several wrapped items in a corrugated cardboard box. He tore them open with enthusiasm!, then asked me if I had any paper for the gift he needed to wrap for the exchange at work the next day. I laughed so hard I started choking. Well, yeah, we had gift wrap until you tore it to pieces. Ohhh... I should have taken a picture of that expression.
That independence from the grid is so satisfying, isn't it! We were on total solar (battery back-ups) for decades in our tiny community. Lights would be out all over but we carried on, never even knowing.
Wood stove for heat, swamp cooler for a/c. As you said, you just don't run all the electric at once. And no clothes dryer. Big deal. I prefer to hang my clothes to dry anyway.
I will say, the wood-gathering and chopping got old when we did, though. I admire you retirees who can keep that up, especially in the snow and ice.
Now here, I wish we had a generator as the power goes out frequently, usually for many hours.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
