Good luck on your driving test!

We bought a generator for camping last summer and also used it during our ice storm back in December. Since this was our second experience with a major power outage caused by an ice storm, we were a little smarter this time. We were better prepared than most people. Our experience has also made me think more in terms of emergency preparedness for other situations and what I would want to have on hand.

We've lived in rural area for about 16 years now. Nearly every winter we've had extended power outtages. Abut 10 years ago we bought a generator - mostly to keep the refrigerator and freezer running.

Fortunately we did not need it this winter, but the experience made us think about alternatives when we were planning to build our home. Our hot water heater and cooktop are propane. We have a gas fireplace that runs on propane. Last winter we had a 4 day outtage and were able to be reasonably comfortable - the gas fireplace took the chill off although it really wasn't a good heat source.

This summer we will be putting in a woodburning stove in the basement TV room for auxiliary heat.

I also keep on hand enough canned/packaged foods to make about 6 or 7 meals. We could go longer eating from the freezer.

Food will stay frozen quite a while (nearly a week) without electricity if the freezer door is kept closed. If its pretty full and house is also cold, all the better--for the food. I keep a small bag of ice cubes in the freezer as a check. If they're still cubes, all's well. A bag of solid ice indicates its thawed and refrozen when power came back on.

Relatives in Albany and NJ both need electric to run pumps for water. Guess that's what you mean as far as drinking and cooking water? The worst part of that is that toilets don't flush either. Now that gets old r-e-a-l-l-y fast. Good luck with your driving test, and keeping power. Sandy

I haul water for cooking and drinking routinely - old uncle was a beef farmer and his barnyard was too close to the well feeding the house.

About five years ago, after his wife died and I stayed with him for a couple of months till his cattle went on pasture, I drank the water with him. He'd had three hip replacements and had quite a lot of pain in back, hip and leg so we didn't want to hear of him becoming stranded in a snowbank while doing chores (lacking kids, why he needed to keep cattle in his mid-80s is beyond me: we used to kid him, saying that we figured that he was trying to figure a way to take his assets with him).

But when he died about 3 years ago, his relatives suggested that it would be adviseable not to drink the water (it smells, especialy when hot) and in the tests prior to sale of the farm the house well failed the e-coli test badly, also the coliform test. The well serving the barn passed e-coli, but failed coliform. I drank that water sometimes last summer when watering the garden, without dire result, and my landlord said that he did, same result.

The trouble with hooking most water wells' pumps to a generator is that few of them have a feed line that can be separated easily, e.g. a push-and-twist plug in the line.

As most furnaces lack - which makes it quite difficult to hook them up, as well, as I indicated earlier.

The landlord came early this morning to plough out the lane ... but I wasn't planning to go anywhere. Arranging for a partner driver, and usually needing to drive "naked" to his/her place, even if the roads are mainly rather quiet rural ones, tends to make one avoid it for routine stuff.

I hope that you had an interesting weekend.

Maybe I'll turn my chair 180 degrees to the desk and get some stuff cleared off of it, in the coming days.

ole joyful

We have been lucky, but if we lose power for an extended time during the winter we would just put our frozen items outside on the porch.

I guess that is the good thing about living in a cold area? We have lost power a couple times for it has only been for less than a day, so we just do not open the freezer door.

We have an unheated basement so we could put all our veggis and non-freezer items down there. It is usually about 40 degrees during the winter.

-renee

we would just put our frozen items outside on the porch.

I'm assuming that you don't live in an area with critters? We have a local bear, deer, cyotes, racoons...

In the days after our area lost power due to the ice storms, the daily temperatures went up to around 47 degrees. All the food in the refrigerators and freezers were lost. Many of these people had bought food up ahead in anticipation of bad weather so it made it an even bigger whammy.

Six - eight families with a freezer ordinarily containing a substantial amount of food, kicking in $100.00 each would buy a good generator that could save a great deal of food in a power outage of over a day or so.

One of the families would need to have a place to store it without being too much of a nuisance.

I like that idea of ice cubes in a bag sitting in there, to let one know after power was restored whether thawing had taken place.

As for the problem of dealing with the toilet, apart from putting earplugs up one's nose when visiting ... possibly fill bathtub half full when a storm is coming? Most families would be unwilling to forego bathing for a three or four days after power is restored until all of the water in the tub could be used up for flushing. Maybe visit a relative's/neighbour's house for a scrub?

I imagine that few families would have storage space to store some cans or a drum to fill with water prior to the storm, to avoid having to flush the water in the tub down the drain unused, after the power was restored.

ole joyful

All our items are frozen in glass jars so I don't believe that an animal would steal it.

Our porch is enclosed also (not heated though) so they would not be able to get into it.

We have deer, racoons and strays, no coyotes in my immediate area and only the occasional bear cub. We have turkey that live across the street though.

Most people in our area have gas hot water and cooking stoves. We also have two gas heaters in addition to our furnace. Noone I know here has a well. My brother has a sewage "chopper" as I call it. It needs to run every time it fills to push the sewage from their home out to the town pipes. They had to get a generator just so they can run that. They lost power a couple times and had to go elsewhere because, although they had water, they couldn't use the toilets or sinks as the chopper tank was full.

ugh, boy am I glad I don't have that in my basement!

My Mom often used the back porch as spare refrigeration when I was a child. Overnight it was more of a freezer, so we didn't use it for anything long-term, but for a day or two it was very convenient.

A year ago I moved from an area with underground power lines to one with above ground lines - and lots of trees. We usually have a few severe thunderstorms and ice storms each year, and can count on the occasional power outage. That's one reason we keep the freezer set at -10F. It didn't rise to zero after 8 hours without power, so I think we could go for a few days. In the rare event that there's much room in the freezer, I add jugs of water. Since the freezer may be opened a few times a day, this makes it more efficient to run, but I mainly do it as a precaution for power outages.

We do hope to eventually get a generator - perhaps in co-ordination with some neighbors as joyful suggests - but there are a few other things we need first.

Breenthumb - good tip on the ice cube thing - I never thought of that. Also the gallons of water to make a freezer more efficient. Good stuff.

scryn - where do you live that you have all the other critters including bear but still dont have coyotes? I thought they had spread most everwhere. (Next up, feral hogs, frankly I'd rather have coyotes)

Good luck on your test Joyful. My eyes are awful and I'm 'only' 51.

Also - milk freezes pretty well. So you can stock up a little and not have to drive for that.

Hello marys1000,

Yes, I have some white milk plus some chocolate in the freezer, and some coffee cream. There are little flecks of solid material after milk thaws but I don't mind that much.

That's true also of the cream and it collects on the side of my mug, which I'm not entirely impressed by, and had thought that I'd do less of the freezing of it in future. But that's not a really big deal.

I haven't checked as to which neighbours may have generators, but I'm sure that there are some nearby. My landlord may have one, as he has a fairly large amount of equipment, though I don't recall that issue having been discussed ... if it were, I can't remember it. He has several tractors, so he/(we) should probably get one that is tractor-driven: they, usually manufactured to produce long-term power, are rather expensive.

Good wishes for being able to find the easiest but most effective means of preserving your frozen food.

ole joyful

I live in upstate NY. Some towns do have coyotes (or a mix between dogs and coyotes) but I have never seen one in our town. I guess the turkey prefer it that way! We do have fox.

My town is a swamp land. The coyotes seem to be more in the forest areas around here.

The bears that end up in my town are just traveling through. They are usually cubs looking for their own land. I have never personally seen one.