Off the Grid Part III
Our power is back on! It took over 5 days. After seeing the damage the ice caused, I am surprised that it didn't take longer. Those electric company workers were incredible! I can't believe the work they've done in the area over the last week. Absolutely fantastic.
Now for the clean up. My clean up won't be cleaning up the limbs and branches in the yard, though. Our house is a wreck. I'm glad I at least followed my new schedule for ONE DAY last week. One is more than zero, and something is better than nothing. It will take a few days to get back to "normal".
Here's a summary of the problems we had without power, starting with the worst:
1. Water. Without power, we couldn't run the pump for our well. I hope we can correct this problem so it won't be much of an issue in subsequent outages.
2. More reliable backup power for the freezer, refrigerator, and furnace. The generator we had did the job (barely), but it can't run all 3 at the same time. The kerosene heater worked fine, but the kerosene fumes were bothersome. Not to mention the danger of having the heater in the house with young children around.
3. Gasoline, kerosene, and propane storage. We had enough propane, but the stove we used worked out so well, we should probably keep more of it. The gasoline runs the generator, and with no power at gas stations, it would be difficult to get more of it in an emergency. Also, we got some kerosene at a local gas station that had a red dye in it. My husband says that this is not desirable.
We were very blessed that we were able to leave the house and go to places that did have power - for showers; water; and good, hot, food (I just love good food). If we would have been house bound, there would have been more critical issues than there were. God is good, and maybe he gave us this time to help us learn what things we need to do to better prepare for emergencies. We're working on it! :-)
Now for the clean up. My clean up won't be cleaning up the limbs and branches in the yard, though. Our house is a wreck. I'm glad I at least followed my new schedule for ONE DAY last week. One is more than zero, and something is better than nothing. It will take a few days to get back to "normal".
Here's a summary of the problems we had without power, starting with the worst:
1. Water. Without power, we couldn't run the pump for our well. I hope we can correct this problem so it won't be much of an issue in subsequent outages.
2. More reliable backup power for the freezer, refrigerator, and furnace. The generator we had did the job (barely), but it can't run all 3 at the same time. The kerosene heater worked fine, but the kerosene fumes were bothersome. Not to mention the danger of having the heater in the house with young children around.
3. Gasoline, kerosene, and propane storage. We had enough propane, but the stove we used worked out so well, we should probably keep more of it. The gasoline runs the generator, and with no power at gas stations, it would be difficult to get more of it in an emergency. Also, we got some kerosene at a local gas station that had a red dye in it. My husband says that this is not desirable.
We were very blessed that we were able to leave the house and go to places that did have power - for showers; water; and good, hot, food (I just love good food). If we would have been house bound, there would have been more critical issues than there were. God is good, and maybe he gave us this time to help us learn what things we need to do to better prepare for emergencies. We're working on it! :-)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home