Do You Know What’s Even Better Than A Portable Power Generator?

@SethGreene531 oh yeah electric rates are good here with our current company the other company is high tho .. we have a little tankless water heater in our tiny house.. it works well enough ☺

@GoFish Good to hear 😊

The tankless are very efficient, gives you hot water on demand.

@SethGreene531 yeah it's nice and takes up far less space as well

@Thevy29 you’re damned right about that.

@GoFish was it cold in your home during that time?

@GoFish My friend lives a couple miles from me but has a different electric company. One time after an ice storm she and her husband were without power for 6 days. They slept in the garage because they had a natural gas cookstove in the garage. She liked to fry foods and didn’t want to get cooking oil in her kitchen etc. So they kept an extra cook. stove on at night to warm up the garage enough to be able to sleep. They were getting up to go to work every day and taking showers in the cold house, I don’t know how their water kept from being frozen during that time. I wish she had told me and I would have let her come over and shower here after she got off of work and hang out till they wanted to go home. But she kept on like that till they got their power back.

@cherokeepatti wow cold winder showers? 😳 yikes

@Longpatrol yes that boy worries about us because we’ve both had long-term health issues. No good to stay in a cold house when you are past 70 with health problems. I have an electric throw that could be used if I start shivering (which happens sometimes since I am on chemo) that could be very helpful for me in reducing the shivering time which could last for hours without it. His grandpa gets cold and his leg hurts and cramps up so he could also benefit from it as well. We might need to buy another one. Drinking hot teas and other drinks is helpful to warm up too. We had a power outage that last 15 hours after a heavy ice storm one time and they called off all of the schools off for a few days and he stayed home so he has experienced a power outage.

He is a very caring young man. Does more for us than we’ve ever asked and calls to check up on me several times before he comes home from his morning classes, always asks if I need anything from a store too. Takes me shopping when I need to go and lifts and carries everything to the car and brings it inside and puts it away. Helps his grandpa with his business when he can especially computer things and other such things.

@cherokeepatti A good kid!

@Longpatrol He is a blessing to us both. His parents don’t know what they are missing with him. He is very high on empathy for others and helps people whenever he can. Majoring in electrical engineering and just started in August. He was going to the local casino with his friends, playing with a little bit of money for the past few months and usually stopped when he was ahead (or broke even on other times). Started collecting that money and saved up and really wanted to buy a portable generator and solar panel. He is a tech nerd and I tease him about that.

@Virgo79 I don’t know if these had to use an app. He is good with apps though. And those generators charge really fast on electricity and a bit slower on solar, need bright light to charge quicker though.

@cherokeepatti this was a big propane powered generac.

@saragoodtimes well I live in Oklahoma so it would probably be beneficial some time in the future and especially with this record strength El Niño weather pattern rearing it’s head already. They can also be used for camping, going out in your yard to do things and playing a stereo or other corded things that require electricity. I even told the boy that some people who are living in their vans will charge one where they work and use it at night to stay warm with an electric blanket or to heat water or food.

@cherokeepatti El Nino is causing havoc here too. have had more coastal lows than in the past 10 years combined. Thursday had nasty t-storms a few tornados and just south of us 19 inches of hail. looked like a blizzar and had to bring out front loaders to clear the streets. could be a nasty winter if it remains

@saragoodtimes I remember the blizzard of December 1961 in northwest Missouri. My sister didn’t get home from school, it hit on the 22nd of December and she was in first grade. We lived in a rural area and the school buses couldn’t get through the snow, it hit so quick there wasn’t enough notice to cancel school. Fortunately our family was good friends with a couple in that small town of 400. The husband waded snow to go fetch my sister and carried her back to their home. Then he waded snow again to go buy her some Christmas gifts since they had gifts for one another in their house so she would have some to open with them. She was there till several days after Christmas. The snow plow was plowing the black top road that went past our long farm driveway and it got stuck. She couldn’t get home till that road got plowed. There were school children in other small towns in the area that had to stay at their school along with a teacher or other employee till after Christmas was over. I imagine they dined on food from the pantry or freezer in the school cafeteria. And my uncle got pneumonia from wading the snow at least twice a day to take care of the livestock.

It left a vivid memory in my mind and that is why I want to be prepared. Around here the main roads get plowed but this residential area you are on your own. Even if dollar stores, grocery store, pharmacy etc a mile away are open likely we’d have to walk to get there to buy anything…if they were even open.

@cherokeepatti my door is never locked for that very reason.

@Gibbon You can call 9-1-1 and they will send a truck with medics to help you get out of the chair. I used to listen to a scanner and it was pretty common for them to get called to get elderly or handicapped out of bathtubs.

@cherokeepatti if I get that bad... I'll be finding my way out of the chair permanently. And not dependent on it. Sadly, we both know that day is eventually coming whether I like it or not. Personally, I'd rather just quietly pass away in it.

@Lilnonames Well it was good you had a gas grill. Did you have a way to stay warm though? And lights of some kind? We had a heavy ice storm in October of 2018. The power went off before I even woke up. Then stayed off all day till about 10 p.m. Me and the boy did the best we could. We have a fireplace that we don’t normally use that can use wood or natural gas. I didn’t want to use wood due to the boy having allergies. I found the key to the fireplace gas and lit it. We stayed in the living room. Heated water over the fireplace for hot drinks. Got out my little tea light candles and rigged up a way to heat up some leftover enchiladas for the boy to eat over it. I have LED flashlights to use to have some light in the house, it gets dark in the living area when it’s cloudy like it was. I wanted to read or do cryptograms but the light was pretty dim to do that. So me & the boy hung out, wore layers of clothing, sat in the living room with blankets over us. It wasn’t too cold. I have a rocket stove we could have cooked over outside. Have a big covered barrel of dry sticks that would fuel it for quite a few quick meals. Didn’t want to use it due to the ice & cold out there though. We sat around and listened to the tree branches cracking & breaking in the neighborhood and the sounds of the neighbor’s generators (2 or 3). I wanted to drown out that sound, it’s annoying.

I bought a small portable CD player-radio that can run on electricity or CD batteries, stocked up on batteries for that and some of the new LED lights I bought and other things. Purchased a small radio that also serves as a weather radio, has a light, can run on batteries or solar. Have over 100 tea lights to add some extra light and little tea light lamps to put them in. I will have enough light now to read or do puzzles etc. And we can all charge our phones to keep conversations going with others. The CD player will help drown out the outdoor generator noises. And our generator can run the DVD player and TV long enough for some additional entertainment. And can also use the generator for the refrigerator. And to heat up short cooking meals if we don’t want to use the rocket stove.

@cherokeepatti i had two power boxes and a battery radio to keep phone up and run my wifi,house never got too cold as its a block and concrete house that will hold the heat a couple days

@Lilnonames Our house is insulated pretty good but if the wind is blowing hard it will get chilly even if the heat is on so that’s a big concern in the winter.