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Or Kinda Sorta. A week without power in the Dead of Arctic Conditions-Winter is no Picnic. But my power just came back on about two hrs ago. I had "NO" Christmas worked everyday all day trying to save the House and Shops. We are way too reliant on the Power Company. I have a 8000w generator, but that is woefully inadequate. What I intend to do know is to get one of those "Low Time" or dead-nuts rebuilt Military Generators, of about 50,000w +-, convert it to Propane (because it has no shelf life, unlike gas or diesel), buy about 6-8, 2000lb tanks and Dasie-Chain them together. After putting in underground lines, and protecting the system from EMP, I ought to be fairly ready for the next big deal.

What Happened: Michigan got the worst Storm in Michigan History. We had a very Severe Ice Storm about a week ago, couple that with the huge Forrest we have here and Arctic Conditions (it was -5 below the other day), look out Power Lines.

I was standing outside at 4 AM and the trees breaking up, sounded like a Firing Line, with everyone firing rapid fire. By the next day at 10AM it was still going on. Today one of my trees fell and took out another line and this a week after the storm. It won't be close to being over, until we get a couple of days above freezing to melt the 1" of ice we have on everything, before we can stick our heads above the water. I've only described the tip of the iceberg..

Ground-Zero, was on my Ranch.

Ok, youz guys, I now have got to dig out, which will be no small task. So, I'll only be on here, when I can. I gotta do a body search, they've found something like 19 already, frozen in their houses. So, I'll be on sporadically..

For you guys waiting for work from me, well you can see I'm a bit preoccupied. I'll start back up as soon as is possible and I have the SHOT Show to contend with the 14-17th of January. So, hang in there. I might have to throw you guys a bit of a bone here... Hoot has volunteered to wash dishes at your house..wink TSD has said he'll stop making those bricks, he calls S'mores..wink.. and who was saying to make S'mores with Pecans??

..t

Glad you guys are ok Tim. The family there didn't lose power but they got blasted pretty good. Keep us posted.

B.

Glad you got your power back Tim. Got the "C"s yesterday, gathering parts.

I'm glad to hear that you came through and are relatively ok.

Bill

Glad to see your OK and back on line.
What's your address again? I'll ship you a reserve can of electrons for the next time.

Tim watch the government and industrial surplus sites like Municibid and Kbid for a generator. If they were regularly PM'd, they can last more than 20 years. Most emergency generators suffer the most from not being run enough. That and having mice eat the insulation off of their wiring. We have ten remote radio sites in our 911 communication grid at work and all of them have 36-175 kW generators at them. Most are diesel, but due to restrictions in some area, one runs on propane, one on the natural gas main. We have CATs, Generacs and Onan/Cummins units. Surprisingly, the diesel unit that has given us the least trouble is the Generac with it's Mitsubishi engine.

PS I don't do windows, toilets or dishes.

Hoot

Glad to hear you're okay.

Sounds pretty rough... I seemed to escape the ice down here! X2 on the propane/nat gas fueled ones. Nothing worse than pumping out a tank of old gasoline thats gone bad from lack of use, or these days phase separation due to ethanol...

Hoot wrote:Tim watch the government and industrial surplus sites like Municibid and Kbid for a generator. If they were regularly PM'd, they can last more than 20 years. Most emergency generators suffer the most from not being run enough. That and having mice eat the insulation off of their wiring. We have ten remote radio sites in our 911 communication grid at work and all of them have 36-175 kW generators at them. Most are diesel, but due to restrictions in some area, one runs on propane, one on the natural gas main. We have CATs, Generacs and Onan/Cummins units. Surprisingly, the diesel unit that has given us the least trouble is the Generac with it's Mitsubishi engine.

PS I don't do windows, toilets or dishes.

Hoot

Great Advice! I need more to make a proper back country decision..

..t

I have installed several nat gas and propane units . Can't beat the automated systems. Start automatically when the power goes out, does maintenance starts on a timer and let's you know when to change the oil. Pretty much you forget it's even out there. In my area it's predominately Koehler and caterpillar units. Ken