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Hey CFF, when you get your electric wiring done on your house, be sure to get a transfer switch or an interlock on your electric panel. You can look these up on the web. These switches let you separate your house electric circuit from the main power lines so you can hook up a generator to your electric panel and not send electricity to the power lines and possibly electrocute people working to fix the power lines when the power is out. That's what I have and I just have to run a thick electric wire to the panel from the generator. You can have the electrician wire the panel to send power to whatever circuits you want. Plus you have control over those with the circuit breaker. No need to run extension cords to everything.
If you go with a big whole house generator, I think there is a transfer switch that would automatically cut the connection to the main power lines to prevent feedback. I'm a cheapskate so I just have a 7500 watt generator to power all the lights and water heater. The generator can't power the house heating system so I just use the wood stove. My cat likes that since he can lie down in front of the wood stove.
Just got back from the nephew's place. Been helping him take care of all the fallen trees. I think he has about 30 lodgepoles that fell. Two fell on his shop. Those were a pain to remove. This is going to be a several week project.
Hi OAR, I guess I missed your post earlier. Sorry about that. Our builder suggested such a transfer switch when the electrician wired our place, so we've got it installed already! We have a generator that can handle the whole house, but we prefer to use the wood stove rather than the electric heaters.
A large cellphone battery charger, and keep it charged. The big ones will charge up to 2-3 cellphones or a cellphone and an iPad.
A little indoors propane heater. It will heat up a small room nicely. (Right, never use a generator or a grill indoors, of course!)
Big battery flicker candles on a timer. They go on at dusk and will keep going for 6 hours, or you can just turn them on as needed. They used to be very expensive, but you can get them now for $15-$20. We set them to light up at dusk, and there's lights on in the cabin when we come home after dark.
An old-fashioned transistor radio, or even better: a wind-up radio.
509: Harbor Freight has a 4-panel solar deal, and we can keep our camper battery completely charged with that, but we also use it to charge a battery that keeps our laptop, iPad, and cellphones running.
Hey, I can just go down the list of all the stuff we normally use in our off-grid cabin!
Stock up on supplies and food, have a generator and use it outside.
Got some photos of the damage from the wind storm at my nephew's place. We're still working on cutting up fallen trees every Saturday. Seems like there's no end to it.
Some hit his shop:
Got those cleared off and looked like minimal damage done:
And here are just some of the fallen lodgepoles:
This one just barely missed his greenhouse:
This one was ready to fall onto the greenhouse so we had to get it to fall backwards:
So the soil was wet and not holding? Or just thin soil there? Surprising that the tap roots do not go deeper for those pines, but maybe it is that particular type?
So the soil was wet and not holding? Or just thin soil there? Surprising that the tap roots do not go deeper for those pines, but maybe it is that particular type?
There are downed trees all over, and when out on my mini-adventures with the pups, would take a few minutes to examine them. Mostly at Farragut State Park and around/in the college and CdA Park. I was mightily amazed at how shallow the root systems goes. Most of them were just one or two feet below the surface level. And those Ponderosa Pines are tall! Currently, the soil moisture only seem to go down a foot or so, and the soil was dry below that. It's a wonder the things don't topple over more often. There isn't much holding them in place.
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Upon reflection, the reason moisture doesn't go deeper might because the topsoil is frozen. It's been in the 20s at night and mostly tops out around freezing during the day.
Our power here in Idaho Falls went out this morning a little after 8:00 and thankfully was restored by 9:45. Rocky Mtn Power first estimated it to be restored at 2:30 this afternoon. I'm grateful for the linesmen who working in single digit temperatures!
There are downed trees all over, and when out on my mini-adventures with the pups, would take a few minutes to examine them. Mostly at Farragut State Park and around/in the college and CdA Park. I was mightily amazed at how shallow the root systems goes. Most of them were just one or two feet below the surface level. And those Ponderosa Pines are tall! Currently, the soil moisture only seem to go down a foot or so, and the soil was dry below that. It's a wonder the things don't topple over more often. There isn't much holding them in place.
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Upon reflection, the reason moisture doesn't go deeper might because the topsoil is frozen. It's been in the 20s at night and mostly tops out around freezing during the day.
Well I read up on Ponderosa pines and they do have a taproot. But it sounds like the soil must be too shallow there. It would be interesting to look at the USDA soil survey and also well drilling records to learn the soil depth.
Most of the trees that go down in my area are lodgepoles AKA Idaho weeds. Ponderosa pines are probably #2. The soil was soaked and soft due to the relatively warm weather prior to the windstorm making it even easier for these trees to fall.
Luckily I cut down and removed the stumps of just about all the lodgepoles in a 2-3 acre area near my house during the first year I moved up here. That sure was a lot of work but the lodgepole stumps pulled out pretty easily.
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We have a generator that can handle the whole house, but we prefer to use the wood stove rather than the electric heaters.
Shiver me timbers".
