I go into soup mode, buying ingredients for several types of soup.

And a bottle of a nice Port. My incentive to get the shoveling done is pouring a shot of port as a reward when the work is done. A friend that lives in Arizona is sending me a variety of her favorite Ficklin Ports. I asked a friend that owns a liquor store to order the brand. However, Ficklin does not have a distributor here - I'm not sure how the liquor industry operates. Eileen, could you shed some light on how the industry works?

Good thing my friend Skye has access to it.

Eh, I ignore it. I don't have kids at home, so if I run out of milk it's not a problem. I always have ingredients on hand to bake bread, I buy coffee beans ahead of time because I like Paramount and/or Biggby and I have to drive 30 miles for Biggby or 50 miles for Paramount, minimum. I get toilet paper at Sam's Club, so I'm always stocked up on that and I have a basement full of canned goods and a freezer full of fruits, vegetables, beef, pork, fish.

I'm already ready, I could live for months! (grin) Heck, Elery even filled the gas tank and I have my camp stove and lanterns in case the power goes out.

Annie

During the winter months I keep my basics well stocked. The freezer is always full, my home canned goodies are ready and waiting and non perishables have backup.
When a bad storm is predicted I double check my butter, milk, eggs, flour, sugar,coffee, potatoes and onions.

My biggest worry is an extended power outage and that is pretty unlikely. I live in an area that is used to dealing with snow storms.

The furnace guy comes every fall and does a furnace check and I just had the septic tank pumped. Both cars are all wheel drive.

Nancy

Usually I make sure I have plenty of flour, butter, sugar, and other baking supplies. Now I could walk to the Food Lion if needed, but my Subaru gets me there with no problems. 'Course, the all-wheel drive wagon gets me to the office just 2 miles away with no problems too. We've got to have the switchboard open even if there is no one there to take orders, which makes no sense to me!

Also have to have extra books on hand and batteries for the lantern. But I could also walk to the library....but they would not be open in a bad storm.

Teresa

I don't worry about it either, but I have a well stocked pantry.

And I remember that storm, I was living in beautiful Bucks County, it was Feb 1996. However, did you forget the 2 back to back 2+ footers last winter? Anytime we get 2+ feet here in SE PA it paralyzes the area, this was 2 storms within a week!

Here are a couple pics from last winter... the first is the snowbank in front of the bookstore, the second is my driveway after shoveling LOL!

I don't understand why people don't have a standby power generator. For a couple of hundred dallors for a used one, you will be OK for any power outage. Life would be normal, cooking, lights, refrigerator, TVs, computers, phones, internet ----.

How much money do you have in your refrigerator and freezer?

How much is to repair burst frozen pipes in your house?

At least, spend some money for a DC/AC inverter that you can plug in your car's cigaret lighter and run an extension cord to run the basic house lights, TV and computer. An inverter starts at about $30.00.

dcarch

Posted by caliloo "----- did you forget the 2 back to back 2+ footers last winter? ------! "

Oh yes. I remember the two footer here in NY

{{!gwi}}

dcarch

I don't do anything special either. My pantry and freezer is quite well stocked, Clive would tell you over stocked!

The only thing I get extra of is milk because we like it in our coffee. I would be happy with just my tea in the morning but I don't want to be housebound with himself and no coffee!

Darch, we have generators here and at the cottage. Never had to use the one in the city but the one at the cottage has paid for itself a couple times over.

Hey, it's turnin cold on us here already! It's 71 and supposed to get down to 46 tonight! Yeah, by my standards, that's COLD. Of coures, y'all know I'm in Houston. If it snows here, which it has a few times over the past few years, assuming it's enough to stick, we all just hide under the covers. Or something similar.

To answer your question though, we do go through that same panic mode when there's a hurricane threatening in the gulf. And yes, people at the grocery store go nuts. It's great for the grocery stores, they clear out all their old inventory! Like others above, I have a pretty well stocked kitchen so it's not necessary for me to buy much.

Around here, as soon as the crisis passes, I think the food bank gets a lot of donations!

dcarch, I'll have a generator at the farm, and most people who have farms have them. Can you imagine milking 200 cows by hand because you don't have electricity, now that would really be a problem.

I lost power here once for a week in may because of a tornado. Other than that, the 25 years I've lived "in town", numerous power outages have never lasted more than a day or two, which isn't time for anything in the freezer to thaw completely as long as I fill it with ice and keep it shut. The refrigerator always needs cleaning anyway, and in the winter anything in either appliance can easily go out into the back yard in the snow.

My area gets an average of 60 to 80 inches of snow, but a couple of years ago I stopped counting at 130. Even the minumum is just about over my head. (I'm 5'1 and 1/2)

So I've never found the need for a generator. The thing that most needs to run would be the furnace and you need a pretty substantial generator to run that. No way would a small generator run the fridge, two freezers, the furnace, the coffee pot, the lights, Ashley's hair dryer (hey, it's a necessity, LOL) An inverter plugged into your car sure won't run most of those things, although it might run the fridge and the coffee pot.

Yes, I know this because I had a conversion van and an inverter and I could, indeed, run the coffee pot and charge the cell phones, but the small "camp fridge" was too much for it to handle along with the others I fried two inverters trying to do that then I went back to coolers with ice and coffee in a percolator on the camp stove.

I do have a gas stove and an old gas hot water heater. I also have city water, so I can make a pot of coffee, I can cook, and I can have a hot shower but I have to do it all in the dark. (grin)

Annie

I am more concerned about having snowshovels that aren't broken and plenty of books on hand than getting in food. I do check my milk supply because I can't start the morning without cereal. My grocery store is two blocks away and it's fun to walk there in a storm. There is so little traffic you can walk down the middle of the street, and all the close by neighbors are there.

After being without power for a day in frigid temps last winter, I might consider a generator. That was a brutal winter although I'd rather live through that again than this past summer which was extremely hot, humid and rainless.

Today is warmer than I like it for fall, but lovely and a great day to do some yard cleanup although everything is wet from the rain. I think leaves are easier to rake up when they're wet. I mulch as many as I can with the lawn mower.

LOL dcarch!
That just HAS to be your handiwork.

No winter storms here.
Would love to have some snow sometimes.

Here we do prepare for hurricanes pretty often, though.
So lots of gallons of water drawn in advance,
fill bath tubs, garbage cans, etc, to use for flushing
and dish washing.

Stock lots of canned goods,
things that can be eaten right from the can if need be.

And yes, we DID have a generator.
It either sprouted legs and walked off,
or someone decided they needed it more than we did.
Haven't replaced it yet,
Haven't needed one in quite a few years now.

Hope those aren't the proverbial "famous last words".

Rusty

I've got a little generator-- I think I can do the crock pot, lights, electric blanket, and-- most importantly-- if the satellite dish is still getting a signal and the phone wires haven't come down-- the TV and box or the modem and the computer!!

In the winter, I can put groceries outside, so I just try to pick up some meat and anything I'm out of before the snow hits. And hot chocolate supplies-- that's very important. What I REALLY need to do is test out the generator. I've got fuel for it, and my stepdad explained it to me, but I've never actually fired it up. I have no plan for taking a shower, now that I think about it. I guess I'd be warming up water in the crockpot and taking an extremely shallow bath. . .

Luckily, I'm walking distance from a lot and own snowshoes. If any of the bars and restaurants have power, they'll be operated by whichever employees are walking distance. So that's plan A :-)

ItâÂÂs always amazing going to the HD near me on the days of the power outages.

You see people grabbing every generator they can get their hands on. When they get to their cars in the parking lot and realizing that the generators are too big to get inside their cars.

What on earth can you use a 50,000 watt generator for?

With a 2,000 watt (continuous rating) generator, you can run some house lights, the circulating pump for your heating system, a refrigerator, computers, TVs. Just make sure that you turn off everything and let the refrigerator start first. Induction motors for the compressor takes more power when it first starts. Do not run microwave or hair dryer.

It is very expensive to hook up an automatic standby generator. However, there is a very simple, cheap and quick way to use a generator to power up your house. I cannot tell you how to unless I know that you have a good electrical working knowledge. E. mail me if you are interested.

We had a 4-day electric outage in our town last year. All shops, restaurants, hotels had to close. No gasoline either because pumps couldnâÂÂt work.

dcarch

I have natural gas for heat, and cooking...and my hotwater tank..but we have shared well and they don't hook it up to a generator..so even though I could have heated water..now well working..no water..

So I light the stove with a fire starter to cook and the fireplace/aka only source of heat in the house will come on. I also have hubby keep the propane for the grill on stand by..two full bottles once winter starts to set in.

But like most folks..now a days..power outages for long term are quite rare since most of our electrical is "under ground" now.

We'd likely get through at least a week with what's in the house. And they'd not notice much of a difference in the food choices for meals.

My real problem is cash..I hardly ever have cash on hand..I need to remedy that..and tuck a bit in a very safe hide-y hole.

dcarch, you are right, it's quite expensive to hard wire a generator, at least it is here. The boss had one done and it cost her nearly $13,000.00 by the time she bought the generator. As Terri mentioned, all wiring is underground.

Fortunately, Elery is an electrician, so he'll do it when the time comes.

Annie

It's balmy here also (in the 80s the past two days), and we don't have winter storms (except for rain), but we do have to be prepared for sizable earthquakes, although they do not happen as frequently as winter storms in the North. In 1994, I was without electricity for two days after the Northridge quake, and so I mostly kept my refrigerator door closed as much as possible. Even though it was January 17, it was 84ð that day. I never opened a single can of food that I had for the emergency, and I fed quite a few others with food I had in the fridge, and I got water from the swimming pool for the toilet. It never occurred to me to have a generator, although my grandparents had one back in the 1920s (I think) that powered their entire house out in the country. None of their neighbors had electricity at all back then. I see no need to invest in a generator that I would only use for possibly two days every 20 years or so. I do have propane stored so that I can cook when there is no gas or electricity. Basically, I would just use my camping equipment in case of emergency. The main thing I need to keep ready is drinking water. In the Northridge quake, my supply of water got destroyed, and so I learned that I need to keep it in a safer place. Fortunately right after the quake, I was able to fill up some water bottles with water that was left in the pipes, but that amounted to only about two gallons, and then they were dry. I now have a portable toilet. In Venice I had a pond that I could get water from and purify, and here in Westchester we have a hot tub, but I don't think I would want to drink that water unless I could filter it or purify it in some way. We use kind of O2 sanitizer in it instead of chlorine, but I keep plenty of bleach on hand in case I need to sanitize water for drinking.

I remember hurricane parties in Houston - the last one in September 1970, I think. At least with hurricanes you get some warning.

We keep cash on hand in case of earthquake, and I try to keep my car at least half filled with gas, since gas stations will not operate right after a big quake. I cannot really store drinking water in my car, but if I have gas, I can drive to water.

Lars

Annie, $13,000 is about right for a typical installation. My method only cost $30.00. Elery will understand my method works very well.

Lars, toilet tank water is very clean. A refrigerator full of food is about $400.00, that's more than a generator. My generator is more than paid for. Each time the power went out I sent a request for payment to the power company, and they sent me a check, about $400 each time.

Generator will keep you phones, TV, and internet/computers going, inaddition to all the other things.

dcarch

dcarch, your power company sent you a check? Elery works for a local power company and believe me, they don't pay for any food that's been spoiled by a power outage, you have to make a claim on homeowner's insurance. Then, next thing you know, your insurance premium goes up and it costs more than you got for the spoiled food!

Annie

In NY area, if you back up your request with receipts, they will pay you. But they never really check the receipts. I also sent them a photo of the freezer packed with food.

dcarch

Yeah, figures. Not here. Not that I'd ever have any saved grocery receipts anyway, since I grow and preserve so much of my own stuff.

Nope, here you have to make an insurance claim and talk to your adjuster and prove you had your refrigerator/freezer full, then they send you a check and next month, your bill goes up!

The power company could care less, they figure you should just feel lucky you have power at all, I guess.

Annie