One thing about a generator, Jackie, is that if you have it, you need to maintain it.

That means that, during the months and years when you're not using it, you need to "exercise" it periodically, and do regular mainenance on it. If you get one, it'd likely be smart to talk to the sales people about those issues.

We have a generator -- in our motorhome.

We do "exercise" it at regular intervals, so we know it will run well when it's needed. If we had any sort of disaster resulting in a long power-outage, we could use the generator to minimally run the refrigerator, and the freezer. It could also be used to power up rechargeable devices.

Light inside at night is a different thing. We have several antique oil lamps, but nowadays, we don't have most of them filled. We would use, instead, several of those nifty battery-powered Coleman camping lamps. They're very safe, and very effective.

IF the chimney were to remain sound, we could use that for heating.

Fortunately for us, we are far enough away from the San Andreas that it shouldn't be really bad for us. That said, we have a couple of very local faultlines, which could possibly be affected by the San Andreas.

Jeri

Good points, Jeri - we also love those Coleman camping lamps. I don't worry too much about precisely what kind of disaster might happen - I just think of Murphy's Law - it will probably be something I haven't even thought of, but being a good "Boy Scout" will help with anything.

Worst case, we would try to get to our cabin in the mountains of No Cal for a while, which is "off the grid", and has 100% of its own power, propane, water, sewage, etc. Of course, yours is the best, as it is mobile!

Jackie

Back several years ago, we had three back-to-back hurricanes. We had to replace our roof twice, and in the last one we were w/o power for over three weeks--and it was hot, hot, hot. We had a generator, and my brother-in-law jury-rigged a device between our breaker box and the generator. We could run our fridge, freezer, the ceiling fans (thank god), and half the lights in the house on that one generator. We had a gas grill, so we could have meals. That would have been a miserable three weeks w/o that generator. Some of our largest oaks still haven't recovered totally--they looked like they had been poodle clipped, and so did the larger roses, long naked limbs with a poof of leaves at the end.

And you're right, generators do have to be run periodically.

Mom is 89 and still lives alone, for now, I worry about her outside at night. So I have almost Disneyland outside with solar lights. Every pathway, and all through the garden.

Mom feels better that she can see outside at night, the neighbors could see if some one was lurking around her house, and in case of an earthquake at night, she can see to get out of the house. We also know that we could "live" in either the chicken coop run or garden shed for a short time if we had too. Would not be nice, but would be better than nothing. Mom also keeps 5g bottles of water, we have a big stack of firewood, the garden and a bike. Would not be ideal, but better than nothing. We are up on the top of a hill, so flooding is not an issue.

We are considering getting a generator for the power outages that occur on a regular basis through the winters here. We are on a well, but the pump is electrical driven.

The threat of hurricanes or tornadoes which plague the midwest, south and coastal areas is not so much here, but there is a real danger of earthquakes as well as the active volcanoes that are in this area of Washington. A 7.7 earthquake happened last week in British Columbia, not that far from here.

I also agree about being prepared, both to live and to die as well. I could be run over by a truck crossing the street at any time; none of our lives or health or families are in our own hands. We shouldn't take anything for granted and I view my health, my family, my life as a gift from God. But as Job said to his wife, "...shall we indeed accept good and not adversity from God?" Life is full of troubles, just like my garden is plagued with problems. I just do what I can to lessen the problems. And that does include looking ahead, so I appreciate the reminder.

Since I live in wild fire country and power outages are somewhat the norm for the mountains, I purchased a whole house surge protector. We don't have as many outages in my town as we did when I first moved up to the mountains, but the cost of the whole house surge protector is a LOT less than the cost of one appliance.

Smiles,
Lyn

My parents and sister live on Long Island. Their power was just restored yesterday, thankfully. My parents are elderly and we were all concerned about them with no heat and it's cold there now, with another storm approaching. They don't have generators, but even if they did, there is no gas.

We looked at generators yesterday at Home Depot. One is $5K installed. Expensive, sure. But could be a life saver.