# Powerless



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Being out door type sure helps when the power goes out in a electric home.

Heat isn't a problem if you burn wood like I do and a added benefit is all the ashes to put on slick walks and drive ways. But a Coleman two burner camp stove will keep pipes from freezing as well as cook meals.

You can cook meals on a Coleman camp stove and also the single burner stove like I just bought to heat the deer blind. 

Light you can get from the great old Coleman double or single mantel lanterns. They also produce heat and contribute to keep pipes from freezing.

Heavy, medium and light weight long under wear will keep you warmer in a heatless house just as well as a deer blind or ice shanty.

Warm hunting bibs and a real warm hunting coat also keep you warm in a cold house.

The felts out of pac boots will keep your feet warmer than socks alone but are still light on the feet.

Best of all the 7500 Watt genset bought to provide electric at the remote UP deer camp. It does every thing except run the hot water heater and electric range. Buy and hook up a transfer box rather than afro engineer some thing. Less than $300 at Lowe's and is easy to hook up.

Merry Christmas.

 Al


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## Halfway (Nov 22, 2010)

Very Merry Christmas!


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Merry Christmas! Do you guys have a lot of power outages that last for more than a few hours?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Nope we usually only have outages for a few hours. When we have ice storms and loose power it usually last many days. Some times it will last for days if we get a very bad wind sheer day.
Joys of living in a wooded rural area, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Thanks for the info. Here in northcentral MN it seems like we are getting more ice storms and more wind.


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Yep, I heat with a old wood box stove. Some 90,000 btu's. Heats the house real good and I can cook on top. From bacon and eggs, to beans and roast, and chili and stews. 

I also have a back up generator which I'll fire up during the evenings when it gets dark. I do like to have lights till bedtime.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yesterday I came across the shower bucket I made for deer camp. It is a plastic 5 gallon pail. Drilled a big hole in it near the bottom and installed a engine block heater. Drilled a second smaller hole and installed a O ring grommet that a GM windshield washer pump slid into then there was several feet of small tubing going to the 2 nozzles I hooked to a small board to aim at your body. Had to have a 12v battery to run it but it did a fine job. We hooked up a few peanut bulbs to the battery to provide night lights in the cabin. 

 Al


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Went through weeks with out electric. Wood Heat, Coleman Cook Stove and Lanterns, we collected Water before Electric went out but had a spring, still a bugger to get to but good water. Drained Pressure Tank, Water Heater was ok and Lines inside House.

Our problem was boredom, Board games and reading helped. We had Freezer on Back Porch, open it at night to freeze stuff. Towards the end was starting to Can stuff then Electric come on.

We had County Rescue come check on us. We laughed told them just waiting on it to pass. 

big rockpile


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

big rockpile said:


> Our problem was boredom, Board games and reading helped. We had Freezer on Back Porch, open it at night to freeze stuff. Towards the end was starting to Can stuff then Electric come on.
> big rockpile


That was our problem here a few short years ago when we had a big icestorm that knocked out our power for some 14 - 15 days. We would get bored settin in the dark and end up going to bed early. Early as 7 O'clock maybe. Then we'd wake up about 3 a.m. and would have nothing to do till it got dayllight, which would still be another 4 hours away. After about 10 days we decided to splurg for a generator. Wouldn't you know it, the price suddenly went up about $300 extra on them. Then about 4 days after purchasing it the electric came on. 

I haven't used the generator for emergency yet since then, but have used it on the job a time or two since I purchased it.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I bought a 5000 watt generator to start out with for deer camp. It only had a little fuel tank that seemed to run our right when we were using the most electric. I kept saying I was going to take a gas tank from a parts tractor and build a stand and hook it up so I would have 20 gallons of fuel to start. 
I had a friend that lost his power and borrowed it, liked it so well he wanted to buy it from me. That's when I got the 7500 watt genny with the bigger fuel tank. 
We were using it a lot when we were doing removals but it is heavy and onward to move around a bunch. After a very profitable job and having to wrestle the big genny around is when we got the little 3500 watt one. I drag it all over the place to do jobs with electric away from the house.

 Al


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## Ed Mashburn (Jun 24, 2013)

Good morning to all- Very interesting reading your accounts of power loss and ways to deal with it. I remember winter-time storm time power outages very well. Nothing like being out of power, out of water, with frozen highways and two babies in cloth diapers for a couple of weeks to make you happy when the lights flicker and finally come back on. I don't miss that kind of stuff at all.
Down here where we live now, we lose power when hurricanes come through. The biggest difference is that we don't have to deal with cold, but with heat. Honestly, except for maybe being blown away totally or drowned from the storm surge- I prefer dealing with a hurricane rather than a Midwest ice storm.
I don't like silent, cold darkness- and that's what we had when the lights went out in the Ozarks.
thank you for telling us about your experiences- very helpful- Ed Mashburn


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We don't want for water since we have a creek just 40 yards from the house where we get water for every thing except drinking.
snow can be melted also. You can see the tank I use in the summer hooked to a pump I water the gardens with in the summer. It is to the right beyond the deer.




 Al


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## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

We went through a week-long power outage about 5 years ago due to an ice storm. Then we were living in town, but had the normal camping gear and a wood fireplace. My boy was 5 back then and absolutely loved it, thought it was "indoor camping" with lanterns, Coleman stove, sleeping bags etc. It was "OK" for a few days, then as other's mentioned the boredom set in. 

Out at our 80 acres where we now live, the power line went down in front of the driveway. It was 2 weeks before they could make repairs and based on that, we did some thinking.

When we had our current house built; all electric, geothermal, back-up power became a little more important. We bought a 20KW propane standby generator and a 500 gallon underground tank. It will pretty much power the entire house for about 10 days 24/7. We also have a very nice woodstove, water is a non-issue due to the 9 acre pond out back.

Due to those preps, combined with my normal luck, we are almost guaranteed never to have an outage. :happy2: 10 years from now my wife will be asking me: "Why did we need the generator?"

Chuck


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Had a fellow at the club the other day say I was crazy spending the money I did on gas to keep power to what I feel were important things. Once I asked him how he would have kept 2 freezers' of meat and veggies from spoiling not to mention the freezer attached to the fridge and the stuff in the fridge. Probably 3 to 4 thousand dollars worth of stuff.
Ya we could spend a bigger amount of money at the set up and get a better generator set up but it couldn't be loaded in the pick up and hauled 6 hours to deer camp either. You can't even leave a pitcher pump on the well at deer camp as some one will steal it let along a propane tank and a generator.

I even had them (figure kids) steal eagle shaped bubble levels off the travel trailer when I left it unattended for a week once.

 Al


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