So me and the wife had some dinner plans this evening. We get seated and just no sooner than later the wind starts whipping up and the lights start flickering. Then it happens, the power goes out! Great... the restaurant starts filing up with that great smell of smoke from the food and the waiter tells us he can't serve us any food. No use waiting in the restaurant in the dark for nothing. So we head out and eat it! Wind whooping really good, blowing power lines around and knocking trees over. Crap, it's getting real! Managed to get the two blocks to the truck and reassess the situation. Started thinking about all the power lines and trees and what to avoid. 2 out of the 4 common roads traveled through town were blocked from downed tree's and power lines. Finally found one of the other roads to travel that was decent enough to navigate to get back home. Been sitting here with the generator running and the only light on around me, haha. Only got the 5gallons in the tank from the last storm we got. This time around the whole area has no power so I can't pump from any stations. Here's to hoping the power comes back on soon! Boy this is more incentive to get the solar powered system like Mike's running!

Well I heard from a couple people now that we are supposed to get either one or more off these systems soon. the news said we should expect up to 48hours before we receive power again. Unless we get another system,then we could be longer! Time to go find more gasoline! Sounds like I need too get my chainsaw running. Lots of free wood to be had!

Since about 2am last night it been nothing but "Rumble, Crash and Flash" a little rain and a light breeze.

 

Like I said I've stocked up on both fuels gasoline and diesel both. These drums are air tight so fuel last MUCH MUCH longer being gasoline like to evaporate. As for the drums I picked them up from my local oil distributor for $20 dollars a piece. The drums had clean engine oil in them.

 

As of this morning I turned off the sprinklers and turn back on the pelton wheel. Creek is getting really low. Gotta keep on a eye on my water flow up there now.

Those storms are rumbling through our area now and have been all night.  I'd say that travel with a chain saw is advisable!!  Tell Hank,Beth, Abe and Stefanie to take care.  Secure all those pooches too.  Love Moparmom

Alright, damage control is not too bad. I notified Union Pacific rail of some stretch of track that had downed trees on their rails. Observed a guy traveling the tracks last night around 2am clearing brush and tree from the rails. Was not until later this morning I got to hear the infamous train horn again!

 

I would estimate that power was restored at around 5-6 am. We went less than 12 hours without power, which is nice considering they estimated atleast 48 hours. You could tell they had alot to turn back on because out power dimmed out about 4 times after ours came on initially.

 

My father in law was out and about clearing roads last night and had some help from other members of the public. All in all it was a positive experience except for a cocky californian with his macho guy attitude. There was a tree over the road and snagged on another tree and my FIL was the only one with a chainsaw. This guy felt it was necessary to try and pull this tree loose with his chain hooked up to his truck. Which after the 4th try of pulling it he subsequently broke his chain!

 

So the guy being the continual idiot that he was, he tried yanking on it while my FIL was cutting on it. The chainsaw kicked back because of it and the brake engaged thankfully but still got himself right above the knee. It tore hist pants and barely went into the skin. Just enough to bleed a little. WHEW!

 

My FIL retorted back by revving the chainsaw up all the way and told him, "I'm about to run this chainsaw up your A$$ full speed! "

 

  That got my laughing when he told me that..

 

Now, these storms are not typical to the area. We may have an occasional summer storm once a summer or every other summer. But the frequency and intensity of these two storms is a bit concerning. This has given me incentive to break out my saw and get it in working order again. I will be keeping some fuel on hand as well as we also not only have the generator to run for our trailer when needed, but if we have an extended outage of more than 4 days, we have freezers to run as well.

 

I have thought considerably more about it and think I may need to invest in a fuel slip tank that I can keep fuel in and it will allow me to keep the fuel refreshed on a continual basis. The solar power idea needs to be put on priority as well.

 

One thing that seemed really odd, was that both days these storms hit, our water pressure was next to nothing before the storm hit. I still scratch my head on that one!