5 Lessons Learned After a Week Without Power
Since we bought the generator, we’ve not lost power. Famous last words, a mantra, maybe an affirmation? Turns out maybe just the way the weather works, but it certainly was a bit of a false sense of security. The worst wind storm in a number of years rolled through and combined with the cursed alder trees, our grid down preparations were put to the test as we ultimately were faced with 5 days without power.
Day .25 - Friday night 10pm: The wind had been going for a couple of hours and while we could hear it a bit, it was a pretty normal night. Finished up dinner and were chilling with the dogs watching some TV. There had been some flickers, but nothing out of the ordinary. We had heard there was a high wind warning and so had brought over some wood from the wood shed in preparation. We also pulled the flashlights to the front of the shelves instead of being in the back. We had a fire going in the wood stove as well and so when the power kicked off, we just watched the fire and enjoyed the sounds. For a while we even open the door in the sun room and just took in the sound of the wind in the trees and the light smell of the smoke. It really reminded us of a stormy day on the coast. We put more wood in the stove and headed to bed.
Lesson - Preparation does allow you to be calm when the storm is raging.
Day 1: That first day we did the normal stuff during the day. We brought in more wood, didn’t flush unless we needed to and we didn’t open the freezer or fridge. I was able to walk the property to check on stuff. We also left the house to go and do some errands, which gave us the chance to charge our phones. All in all, we felt pretty good, though part of that is that we figured power would be back shortly.
Lesson - Spoiler alert: We should have attempted the generator immediately. Also, where we stored the generator turned out to be quite hard to re-fuel and monitor.
Day 2: By this time, the fridge was heating up, so I attempted to start the generator. It didn’t work. So I spent the day troubleshooting. I was able to quickly determine that I had spark, but the fuel wasn’t getting where it needed. I then go to tear down a carburetor for the first time. It was actually pretty straight forward, but there is nothing like a fridge full of food on the verge of spoiling as incentive. Not helping was the fact that our mobile service kept dropping, finally just stopping for most of the day. It is one thing to not have power, it is another to be completely cutoff from communication. I made a couple of attempts at cleaning out the carb, using hardware store trips to charge and pull down some videos to help troubleshoot. But at the end of the day, the generator wasn’t running and the food was toast. I ordered a new carburetor, but it was going to be a couple of days before arrival.
Lesson - I need replacement parts on hand for the main parts of the generator (carb, gaskets, fuel lines). Don’t risk it, just treat the gas.
Day 3: We now we were ready for power, especially since without power there is no water. So we went to the in-laws for the day to work, shower, and do laundry. It was a nice reprieve, though I guess not very self-sufficient. But it really isn’t possible to be 100% self-sufficient, so having a community is part of being prepared, whether that is family or friends.
Lesson - Have alternate places to go, whether that is friends or family.
Day 4: Temps were taking a dive and the worst case scenario for us was in process, below freezing and no power to keep the pump house warm. I ended up taking the day off work because we are in middle of a garage remodel and there wasn’t any insulation. Plus I needed to do more wood splitting to keep the heat going. We took drives around the area to get some music and time for recharging phones and lanterns. I turned over a bunch of ideas in my mind of how to keep the pump house from freezing without power. We had bought a heater that would attach to the top of a 5 gallon propane tank, but I felt that would be a bit of overkill for a 5x5 building. In the end I grabbed a galvanized bucket and stuck a shovel full of coals from the fire and stuck that in the pump house. That did the trick to keep it from freezing!
Lesson - Have many alternatives. Luckily we had wood fire and propane fire, but battery powered heat probably would be safer.
Day 5:I went into the office to work while the wife kept a fire going to keep everything warm. At this point we were quite down with having the power out. Our mobile service continued to be spotty which made it difficult to see what the status of the power and we were getting cranky. A fridge worth of food went into the garbage can and we were using the drive through to charge devices and get food. When the power came on, we jumped in the shower! But I also made the rounds, making sure all the equipment was coming back on correctly.
Lesson - Alternatives for cooking. We had the insert and gas grill, but could really use entertainment/things to do without power and connectivity.
Epilogue: I did get the generator running again, but I still need to modify the shed we have to store it so that I can more easily maintain and re-fuel the generator. I wish we had the budget for a transfer switch, but that will have to be down the road a bit. So far we haven’t had any further outages, but I’m continuing to brainstorm further power solutions such as solar to see how to insulate our water source from power outages.