I used to live 30 miles from Minot on a unincorporated township road fed by a single overhead power line on a dead end and had a 1945 or so 2wd loader tractor to move snow. First winter out there was 05' when we got nailed with 20+ inches of wet heavy snow early in Oct. and the tractor was at my in-laws getting some work done to it. Was without power for 3 days. Wife was stuck at the hospital working and just stayed there so it was just me an the hound. After attempting to drive to Minot and taking 30 minutes to go 5 miles in near zero viability and not sure I could even get back home, I made my way back to the house and got pretty resourceful. Charged the cell phone with my pickup charger, moved cold stuff out of the fridge and put it in coolers in the garage, frozen stuff went outside in coolers. Pulled the grill through the snow into the garage and had a few propane bottles laying around. Managed to chop up an electrical cord and make a plug so I could back feed the house with a cheap 3,500 watt generator, at least enough to get power to the furnace. Thankfully it wasn't super cold so the house didn't cool down very fast. If I remember right, I actually made a steak and baked potato supper and went through the night before I tackled the generator thing.
Built a new house a few miles from Minot back in 2010, had the electrician wire up a generator panel, switch, and outside plug. Still have the same 3,500 watt generator but it's enough to run the sewer pump, furnace, and couple lights and outlets. Have only tried once or twice in that past 15 years and it was more just to check it out as we were only out of power for at the most, maybe 5-6 hours.
The way I look at it now days, I'm way more resilient that I was 20 years ago, the power grid where I am is pretty reliable being mostly buried cable, way more so than our last place. Frankly, I've only been without power for more than 6 hours 1 time in 20-years. Short of dooms day prepping for an EMP or similar, I could make it a week or more pretty easily, it wouldn't be super comfortable but the pipes wouldn't freeze, the sewer would work, there's enough deer, pheasant and fish in the freezer to feed us and probably all of the neighbors; and I damn sure always have enough liquor in the cabinet to get me through a week long bender, lol. I've considered a whole house unit but when I put it into this perspective, and then add in the maintenance to keep it up, it's hard to really justify when I know I can make what I have work good enough to get me through anything within reason. In a different place, maybe further from town with less reliable power, it might sway me the other way.
Built a new house a few miles from Minot back in 2010, had the electrician wire up a generator panel, switch, and outside plug. Still have the same 3,500 watt generator but it's enough to run the sewer pump, furnace, and couple lights and outlets. Have only tried once or twice in that past 15 years and it was more just to check it out as we were only out of power for at the most, maybe 5-6 hours.
The way I look at it now days, I'm way more resilient that I was 20 years ago, the power grid where I am is pretty reliable being mostly buried cable, way more so than our last place. Frankly, I've only been without power for more than 6 hours 1 time in 20-years. Short of dooms day prepping for an EMP or similar, I could make it a week or more pretty easily, it wouldn't be super comfortable but the pipes wouldn't freeze, the sewer would work, there's enough deer, pheasant and fish in the freezer to feed us and probably all of the neighbors; and I damn sure always have enough liquor in the cabinet to get me through a week long bender, lol. I've considered a whole house unit but when I put it into this perspective, and then add in the maintenance to keep it up, it's hard to really justify when I know I can make what I have work good enough to get me through anything within reason. In a different place, maybe further from town with less reliable power, it might sway me the other way.
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