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For those of you that just went through the awful storms, my condolences.
I'm curious, what, if any, preparedness tips that you hadn't thought of initially would you like to share?
For example, I recently secured all of my property access points and electronic verification is needed for entrance. It works really well....unless the power is out. If I'm outside the home when it happens, and nobody's home...well, I've done a pretty good job of securing the place and my generator in the garage doesn't do me much good. So lesson learned, I need one way in with just a key.
Well....I live off the grid anyway, so no steenkin' power outage bothers me!
Unless, of course, I'm low on gas! See, the few gas stations around here are very much ON the grid, and if you need gas, that's kind of tough! So there I am, "King of the Road" in my pickup with a plow blade on the front, and I'm clearing the drive with fumes in my tank! Not good.
Wife to the rescue! Her car just got filled up! Suddenly, I'm the one elected to drive into town for a few groceries, and yes, I can take her SUV, thank you.
I was just out in my driveway looking at it, we have about 8 inches of fresh snow and it is still coming down hard.
We have nowhere to go today, plan on staying home.
On snowy days like this, I generally start up my tractor an hour before sunset and snow-blow the driveway. Just to give me a head start on snow-blowing after the storm passes tomorrow.
Yesterday was overcast so our solar system did not make power yesterday. I have the ability to shift our house back to grid power at any time. I had us on grid yesterday, just to bring our battery-bank up to a full 100% State-Of-Charge. On a day like this, with it snowing hard our photovoltaic panels are covered with snow, so we won't be making any power before tomorrow. I prefer going into a storm with our batteries fully charged. When the grid goes down [and it will] it is better to have full batteries, rather than the alternative.
We do not use much store-bought groceries. Our chest freezers are full. My Dw has a 'Harvest Right' Freeze-Dryer and our pantry is loaded with freeze-dried stuff, along with hundreds of quarts of canned goods. I do not like running the freeze-dryer on days like this, if we have to go on battery power, it can drain our batteries in a couple hours. Then the freeze-dryer stops and we have to start all over again the next sunny day.
Grocery stores stay open during these storms, and there are people who rush out to get stuff. When the road visibility is less than one car length, I think that driving is foolhardy. Besides as soon as the grid goes down the gas stations will go dark, so if you were running errands and needed fuel, you would get stuck walking home, in the storm.
This winter it snowed one night here in Texas. Big flakes like white feathers drifting slowly down. The next morning there was 4" of snow on the ground in woods and fields as far as the eye could see. And most noticeably-- the silence.
We do not use much store-bought groceries. Our chest freezers are full. My Dw has a 'Harvest Right' Freeze-Dryer and our pantry is loaded with freeze-dried stuff, along with hundreds of quarts of canned goods.
We have a load of food put away, also.
What you DON'T have is a wife like mine! Snow?? "Honey, would you go and get us some ______?"
For example, I recently secured all of my property access points and electronic verification is needed for entrance. It works really well....unless the power is out.
You need solar and battery backup
Quote:
Originally Posted by artillery77
my generator in the garage doesn't do me much good.
NEVER keep generator in the garage unless you have a thing about CO poisoning
These last couple of storms were a non-event here. We only got a fraction of what they warned we might see. Initial predictions were for between 4 and 40", and we got just about 4" I believe.
The problem wasn't during the storm for us, it was afterwards, when too many people who didn't have the sense to stay home decided to go on a drive-about and wrecked and caused all sorts of headaches for first responders.
NEVER keep generator in the garage unless you have a thing about CO poisoning
It's just stored there. To be honest it's a little one I've never used as I do plan on getting solar and battery. But...I couldn't get to my garage because the power was out and I have a wall with gate points around my property.
Luckily our power grid wasn't out long...and a few blocks away it was fine, so I grabbed something to eat at IHOP and things were restored by the time I got back.
While there's plenty to snipe at otherwise...braving the elements is all theoretical here. Which is part of the reason why I've procrastinated on some of this stuff on the California place.
It's also "keep your mouth shut" time. This is not a topic for an internet forum. No one in his right mind posts the sort of information that you did.
Oh HIW, I assure you I'm well beyond that. This is merely for gate access to the exterior property wall. I like knowing everyone that's come on my property, when they arrived, when they left.
I had thought the dual battery system at each gate was wasteful and insufficient for an upgrade I wanted to do. So I converted it and bought a little backup generator. I have to rethink that.
Yet anyone that reads my stuff also knows I'm a proponent of storing valuables in safety deposit boxes in a bank.
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