Gorgeous day for a drive

[Nickodell]

Another horse in snow pic

Another pair of my mounts.

I lied about the horses. None of them are mine. Saw them online; they seem to be having fun.

 

[Bill Blue]

We got hit with the freezing rain/sleet/snow. Power was out for 41 hours and 5 minutes, but, hey, who's keeping track?

We did all right, keeping warm with a nifty little kerosene heater, camping stove and a Chinese version of a German kerosene lantern. Wonderful contraptions all. Do not need one electron among them!

The basement kept reasonably warm, so I was able to get a little done on the DuraPine, using an LED headlight.

Bill

 

[Green67Alpine]

We got hit with the freezing rain/sleet/snow. Power was out for 41 hours and 5 minutes, but, hey, who's keeping track?
The basement kept reasonably warm, so I was able to get a little done on the DuraPine, using a LED headlight.
Bill

Bill, Your a trooper.
We dodged a bullet, only got cold rain, had it been any colder Atlanta would have been shut down for weeks..
Tom j

 

[AlpineII]

There is a Series II under that.

 

[Nickodell]

We got hit with the freezing rain/sleet/snow. Power was out for 41 hours and 5 minutes, but, hey, who's keeping track?Bill

We get a lot of outages here in rural Chester County, PA - usually brief, sometimes for a few hours, and very occasionally for a day or more. I had a gasoline-powered gennie for some 14 years; 5kw, just enough to keep the freezer, refrigerator, well pump, garage door openers, heating boiler circulator pump and a selection of lights running (and the TV, or course!) The standing joke was that by the time I got it running (often only by doping the cylinder with lighter fluid, acetone or whatever was handy), usually in rain or 20 degree temperatures, and switched from utility to gen the power would come back on. ^&$#@**&^!!!

The longest outage, up to three years ago, was in 1996, which lasted almost two days. Trucks were placed at strategic points in the area with dry ice to put in your freezer, but wherever our next-door neighbors went they were out. And so they lost $100s of frozen food. My main complaint was having to shuttle back and forth with gasoline cans, since the gen used 6 gallons every 24 hours.

In 2008 we got the biggie; almost three days. After battling to get the gen going, in a thundestorm with lightning locally, I went out as usual to get more gas, and found all the stations in the district (along with supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants etc.) dark too, so I had to treck 11 miles to find a gas station open, wait in line an hour, then repeat the process the next day. And the next. Never again.

Last June I ante'd up $4,000 for a 10kw, propane-powered automatic generator, and had the propane company hook it up to a 100 gallon tank - enough for three full days - and an electrician fix up the automatic switchover box. It starts itself 20 seconds after the utility goes down, and powers several more things, including the central air (the big outage in 2008 was in July, and we sweltered.) When the utility comes back, it auto switches back. It also starts itself every 2 weeks, checks out its functions and software and keeps itself in good shape.

Two hours after the electricians left after hooking up and testing, the utility went down and it started up. "A did the Homer Simpson 'WHO HOO!' that's good timing." Then the utility came back on after 1 minute 20 seconds (they must have thought I was out there as usual, yanking on a rope-starter.)

And that is the last time the power has gone out. All the way through the Autumn storms bringing trees and boughs down on utility lines in the area, all the way through 2 months of snow and icing, with the lines and line poles coming down. People all round us have had outages; 20 miles away they were out for 2 days.

Some investment! I almost wish the bloody power would go out here for a couple of days just to make it worthwhile, even if it cost me $200 in propane. Then I think of the inconvenience and danger to others ....

 

[AlpineII]

I hear you. I live out in the "country" and we are used to frequent short outages in bad weather. Back in 1998 we were hit with that big "Ice Storm" and it took out the power to my house for 19 days. We heat the house with wood so had no issue there but water for drinking had to be trucked in while I used the water in the sump well to flush the toilets. I swore after that I would put in a generator but there always seems to be another priority for my money (Alpines being a big part of it). I still don't have a generator!