10:50 – It warmed up overnight. When I took Colin out first time this morning, it was 43F (6C), but the winds were probably 30 MPH (48 KPH) sustained, with gusts up to around 50 MPH. Oddly, it actually seemed pretty warm, even with the wind. I guess I’m getting used to the Sparta climate.
The electrician came out Thursday while I was at the dentist. I had time to talk with him briefly before I had to leave for my appointment. He got the 120VAC receptacle installed for the gas oven, and we talked briefly about installing a cut-over switch for the generator. He said that in his opinion that was overkill, and suggested that we make provision just for running the circuits we really needed, like the well pump.
Afterwards, I talked to Barbara. Her attitude is that all we really, really need to be able to run off the generator is the well pump. She’d also like to be able to run the refrigerator and freezer, but said those weren’t essential. She suggested we just run extension cords to the refrigerator and freezer. We have plenty of long, heavy-duty extension cords, and the generator will sit right below the kitchen window and not far from the back garage window (where the freezer is located). That leaves only the well pump, which (oddly) is a 120VAC unit.
I disagree with Barbara about the freezer not being essential. If we have a power failure that lasts longer than a couple of days and occurs during hot weather, we might have upwards of $1,000 of food (primarily meat) in that freezer. I think being able to power it is essential.
The guy who came out to install the receptacle for the oven said that we really needed to talk to Jay, who’s their go-to guy for generator connection issues. The well pump is currently wired straight into a breaker on the main panel. I think I’ll ask Jay if he could convert the well pump power feed into a standard 120VAC plug and install a receptacle on that circuit. That way, if the power does go down, we could simply unplug the well pump from its receptacle and plug it into an extension cord that runs to a 120VAC output on our generator.
And this from a link that OFD sent me, via Matt Bracken on Western Rifle Shooters. I think it sums things up pretty well.
Obviously, having even a doofus like this banging away at you with his AK held sideways is no joke, as is pointed out in the comments, but Bracken’s point is that on average a whole lot more of the doofuses are going down than good guys.
Re: extension cords
Be sure the ones you have can handle the load. I bet that pump is pretty high amp.
http://www.diybyexample.info/2010/07/what-size-extension-cord-do-i-need/
If you are going to have a gennie – and an electrician to connect things, then you ought to consider a bypass switch for the gennie. It’s like a sub-electrical panel, and the circuits you want to have on the generator are moved (wirenuts and the included wiring in the bypass switch panel) to the bypass switch panel circuit breakers. A plug on the bypass panel is used to connect a portable generator (if that’s what you got), or a bigger gennie.
When the power goes out, turn on the generator, and flip the big bypass switch. Only those circuits on the new bypass panel will be energized, and the generator will be isolated from the external power grid.
Much easier than running extension cords. Bypass panels are about $200-400 (depending on the number of circuits and other stuff). Installation should only take an hour for a competent electrician.
You might also consider a whole-house surge protector on the main panel. The electrician can put that it also. Protects all your electronic equipment and all the motors on everything. Worthwhile investment, IMHO.
Good tips, thanks, Mr. RickH. I was planning on the bypass panel here but forgot about the whole-house surge protector. We need an electrician in here yesterday and I hope we can find a good one locally.
Fairly light but steady snow began around first light and continues. It’s 24, and headed to 30 and maybe up to 40 by tomorrow, a regular heat wave. Changing to rain tomorrow and then more normal temps in the 30s into this next week. Slick road conditions but I don’t have to go anywhere today, and maybe not tomorrow, either. A weekend hunkered down with the NFL, some cleanup chores and laundry, and research. Exciting.
Our well pump draws about 1300 W running at 120VAC. Call it 11 amps, and probably three times that momentarily at startup. We have a bunch of extension cords, including several 50-footers, a couple of 75-footers, and two or three 100-footers. The 75- and 100-footers are, IIRC, 10 gauge. Some of the 50’s are probably 12-gauge. And we do have one very heavy 50-footer. I can’t remember for sure, but it’s 4-wire and either 4-gauge or 2-gauge.
Obviously, having even a doofus like this banging away at you with his AK held sideways is no joke, as is pointed out in the comments, but Bracken’s point is that on average a whole lot more of the doofuses are going down than good guys.
In the SHTF moment, there will be areas of the country where the population is heavily armed, competent at using the weapons for hunting, and wholly dependent on government transfer payments of some time to sustain their lifestyle. The doofii (plural of doofus?) percentage will be much lower and the locals inclined to go along with martial law as long as the power and cable TV are restored.
As I’ve pointed out here before, based on my observations from living there, preppers would do well to avoid the I-5 corridor between Portland and Seattle.
And indeed any other metropolis.
“The doofii (plural of doofus?) percentage…”
As a solid hardcore REM, I will have to go for “doofuses.” Thank you.
“…locals inclined to go along with martial law as long as the power and cable TV are restored.”
Same as it ever was. See “Rome” and “bread and circuses.”
“…avoid the I-5 corridor between Portland and Seattle.”
On this end of the continent, I-95 from Maine to Floriduh. I-90 from Boston to out West somewhere, I forget. Up this way I’d avoid I-89 and I-91, too. They run from Montreal and Derby, VT, respectively, to southern NH and New Haven, CT. And 91 also intersects with I-90, and Routes 2 and 20 in Maffachufetts.
On this note, I should recommend having decent road atlases for your larger AO, street maps for that and your particular AO, and maps of all the rail lines in your AO, too, active and defunct. While we’re at it, we ought to know the types of rail and truck traffic that pass through our areas, too; for the village here it would be milk trucks, “honey wagons,” livestock trailers, gas tankers delivering to the Shell station around the corner, various goods, mail and package delivery trucks, and some of the oddest assortment of farm vehicles and machinery that I’ve ever seen in my life, a few of which I cannot even begin to fathom the purpose of.
And here’s a little early Xmas gift for you folks living and working down there in the great Lone Star State:
http://takimag.com/article/trump_gets_as_serious_as_texas_joe_bob_briggs/print#axzz4T88yTdue
“The doofii (plural of doofus?) percentage…”
As a solid hardcore REM, I will have to go for “doofuses.” Thank you.
I’d go with doofi – single terminal i.
I’d go with doofora.
REM OFD rests his case:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doofus
It’s me and Merriam-Webster against you Latinate addicts.
Doofus once, shame on you. Doofi twice, shame on I.
If you guys won’t accept the correct “doofora”, how about “progressives”?
The collective noun for doofus is “classroom”.
A classroom of doofora. I like that.
[snip] The collective noun for doofus is “classroom”. [snip]
I thought it was “liberals”.
how about “progressives”?
Like the one on an escalator that stopped and they called 911 for rescue.
doofobamas?
“As I’ve pointed out here before, based on my observations from living there, preppers would do well to avoid the I-5 corridor between Portland and Seattle.”
….
“And indeed any other metropolis.”
Well, we do go camping for a weekend each August up in the High Sierras and taking I5 from LA to Mojave, CA is usually the best way.
https://www.facebook.com/Kennedy-Meadows-General-Store-203499716374227/
I usually have a few cool ones on the deck of the store.
I’ll go with doofora as the plural of the forums on huffpo slate and the like.
Sunny and warm in the land of the mouse, with a nice breeze.
Flags all still at half staff for John Glenn. They’ve been at half allot this year.
Nick
“a whole lot more of the doofuses are going down than good guys”
Watch the Vice News Report on Liberia and WROL, and imagine General Buck Naked and his hundreds of drugged up cannibal machete armed “warriors” swarming towards you.
Short of crew served weapons and a good wall you’re going down. If the golden horde has enough time to become that, we’re cooked.
Nick
Fortunately, I do have crew-served weapons, including 0.1-gauge shotguns.
Enough peeps with decent rifles, a good wall and perimeter config, mines, booby traps, etc. Check out “Zulu” and related flicks on the historical events further south in Afrika. A handful of disciplined troops with accurate rifle fire defeated native forces many times their number.
Even if our FSA here went full cannibal/zombie mode and massed for attacks, they wouldn’t get very far out of their own AO’s before being massacred.
I doubt those are gonna be our main problem anyway; more likely gangs and gang warfare, again mostly in the urban areas, and the possibility of State repression of us Normals instead, with troops and cops who DO have crew-served weapons, armor and air support.
On this end of the continent, I-95 from Maine to Floriduh. I-90 from Boston to out West somewhere, I forget. Up this way I’d avoid I-89 and I-91, too. They run from Montreal and Derby, VT, respectively, to southern NH and New Haven, CT. And 91 also intersects with I-90, and Routes 2 and 20 in Maffachufetts.
In Florida, anything on the Peninsula is too close to civilization to be considered safe for prepping purposes.
Today’s high was 78 and sunny. Darn nice for this time of year. Well, that happy south wind turned around about 6 PM and came back with a bad attitude. At 8:30 it is 35F.
For tonight, the weatherliars say “Low around 25F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph.” High tomorrow “near 35”. Sure… right.
Ah, better than 13F. And ice. Been there and then the power went out for a week or so until they got the lines up.
“In Florida, anything on the Peninsula is too close to civilization…”
What about the Panhandle? Too many military bases?
“Been there and then the power went out for a week or so until they got the lines up.”
That happens every winter out in the hill and valley area five to thirty miles to our east. And every once in a while a nasty ice storm comes down and slams the Champlain Islands and knocks the power out there likewise; sometimes also closing the bridge about ten miles to our northwest and stranding people out there.
We’ve only been out a few hours at a time here and they get us back up pretty quickly, as the town hall is here and the sheriff’s department just a mile up the road.
What is a 0.1 gauge shotgun ? Sounds like a 4 inch cannon to me.
“Let’s give them a taste of the grape boys”. Shudder.
““Let’s give them a taste of the grape boys”. Shudder.”
Napoleon putting down a riotous mob during the tail end of the French Revolution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Vend%C3%A9miaire
The “whiff of grapeshot” remark probably invented by historian Thomas Carlyle but often attributed to General Bonaparte himself.
Cannonballs were routinely filled with nails, broken glass, etc., and when terrorist bombers, suicide and otherwise are running amok, they use the same tactic, designed to mangle and kill more people, of course. Like a claymore mine.
We just dropped from 75 F to 51 F here on Lavaca bay. The wind is blowing 28 mph out of the north and the temperature is due to drop to 32 F by morning.
“… the temperature is due to drop to 32 F by morning.”
We might be a few degrees warmer than YOU this morning, might hit high 30s or even 40 here, with rain or snow or some combination expected. Imagine that, warmer than Texas!
Got commo?
http://sparks-31.blogspot.com/2016/12/everyone-needs-communications-but-does.html
A lot of this stuff is predicated on the concept that we already have a group or a team, learning and prepping as we go, with specialists in this or that, and regular jaunts down to West Virginia or out to Wyoming for week-long classes in SUT and radio stuff.
A bunch of us may at some point end up as part of some loosely organized neighborhood or town group, and a lot of the commo can be readily and inexpensively set up within those sorts of ranges. Other than, your humble correspondent up here is mainly LISTENING nowadays and learning about antennas and trying to figure out what would work best here for scanners, shortwave, GMRS and MURS, etc. So far the local AO is fairly quiet and the best sw reception is late at night.
Yes, I’m up late; working on o.s. installs for a couple of the machines here that are going to the attic workspace; nothing ever takes the time you’ve alloted for it with these things; I figured a couple of hours, and so far it’s been around six hours, having run into multiple problems and issues and now all SOLVED.
“What is a 0.1 gauge shotgun ? Sounds like a 4 inch cannon to me”
Good calculations. Six-foot 4″ pipes with caps, each of which throws a 10-pound load of metal scrap.
RE: Bypass switch
When I got my generator this summer I had an electrician quote me a bypass that would just power the kitchen, living room, and garage 120v circuits. That would give us lights and power for microwave, refrigerator, and the two chest freezers in the garage. He said it would be about $600, almost twice what I paid fro the generator. So I had a second opinion. This man said he was sure it wouldn’t run over $800. Forget that. I will use heavy amp extension cords. If I were planning to retire in this house I would put one in but I will be out of her in two years and don’t need to leave the investment.
We ain’t moving so I will ask whichever electrician we get here for estimates on bypass switches. I’d want the well pump working, which is just below our living room, and the kitchen, and would then just run the appropriate extension cord from there up to our office and attic to the computers and radios and none of that would have to be on 7×24 anyway.