Living Off the Grid - Part 2

Sorry about the delay between Part1 and Part2.  I find it hard to find the time to go online these days even under normal circumstances, and it's even worse now that we're dealing with PPOSD (post power outage stress disorder).

I don't remember the power ever going out back in the Old Neighborhood, but a certain amount of memory loss is normal at my age.  If it ever did go out in the city, at least they have water, but most water in the rural areas comes from private wells, which rely on electric pumps to bring it into the homes.  Similarly, most heating systems require electricity for the controls.  Some wood stoves also require a fan to circulate the heat and prevent the stove from overheating.  We are able to use our gas cooking stove for emergency heat, but we have to be sure to not fall asleep while it's in operation because it's not connected to a chimney.  What we do is run it until the house gets warm, usually about an hour, then turn it off and sleep until we wake up cold again, also in about an hour.  

We don't have a generator because, up till now, we haven't found it necessary.  You might think we would buy one now, but we don't plan to because an event like this is supposed to only happen every hundred years.  Indeed, according to our local paper, the last time something like this happened was 1922, and the rural areas didn't even have electricity in those days.  The only reason I bought the cell phone was to call the phone company when our regular phone is out of order.  Since then, I keep it charged up and carry it with me when I'm away from home.  I turn it on when I need to make a call, and I kept it turned on this time for the duration because our regular phone went down with the power outage.  That has never happened before because our regular phone doesn't need electricity, but the phone company has some equipment out on the road that needs power to operate.  

There was no mail delivery on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.  It resumed on Thursday and provided us with three newspapers, which told the whole story.  Twelve Northern Michigan counties were officially declared disaster areas.  Almost everybody in those counties lost power for at least two or three days, some for as long as two weeks.  I met my neighbor at the mailbox on Tuesday, and he said that the Cheboygan Walmart was open because they brought in a big generator on a flatbed truck.  It took another day or two for the rest of Cheboygan to get power restored.  We are only a quarter mile outside the city limits, but are served by a different company, so it didn't help us much.  Actually, it's not a company, it's one of those REA cooperatives that came out of Roosevelt's New Deal back in the 30s.  I am told that some of our rural areas didn't even have electricity until the 1950s.  

We lost some food from our freezers, but all the stuff from the refrigerator was saved by transferring it to the garage, which stayed between 40 and 50 degrees.  We didn't have a lot of freezer stuff on hand anyway because we get those Meals on Wheels from the senior center.  That shut down too for the first week, which made the canned goods that our daughter brought us come in handy.  Food will keep in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 24 hours if you don't open the door. but then you can't get at it to eat it.  Our oven doesn't work without electricity, but we are able to cook on top the stove.  We have to light the burners by hand because there is no pilot light, it's all electric ignition. 

I will post some more stuff if I think of it. 

Tell us a story Beagles

 First off two questions.

I thought you had a generator.

If you have a phone for emergencies how will you know if it is an emergency if your phone is off?

I think I may have heard something about northern Michigan and meant to check into it but obviously I didn't.

I remember back in the day back in my hood we had blackouts from time to time and everybody came out of their houses and asked each other what in Sam Hill is going on.  Nobody knew.  Probably some wag made up some rumor and then everybody said, oh yeah, that's what it must be.  In a couple hours the power would come back and everybody would go back to their houses.  It was a pleasant break in a boring day or night and it brought the neighbors closer together.

I expect it's not the same in the freehold, nobody to ask what the Sam Hill (wiki is at a loss, Hill was likely a euphemism for Hell, and there were numerous Sam Hills around 200 years ago, and it might refer to anyone, after that wiki shrugs, and asks for a few bucks to maintain their mission) is going on.  And apparently it lasted longer than that in the swamp but I figure Beagles is intending to spin us a yarn and I will let him have the floor.

But first a word about this poor guy spirited off to Hell prison, by mistake even Trump says that.  But, what the hell, the guy was from south of the border and he had tattoos so let him rot.  A terrible miscarriage of the law, but what is anybody going to do about it?  The Supreme Court has said he has to be released but has not set a deadline and so far no move had been made to get him out.

I kind of suspect the Supremes were afraid to set a deadline because what can they do when he doesn't budge?  Call out their army?  

Which goes back to what I was talking about earlier.  If Trump orders dissenting Supremes be brought before him so he can put them in Hell prison, you know that Bondi and Hegseth or whoever will not hesitate to order their people to get him.  Their top guy will tell the next guy who will tell the next guy until it gets to the guy with the gun, and will anybody down the chain, knowing it is an unlawful order refuse?  I don't know.

And now I will give the floor back to Beagles to tell his exciting tale.

Frontier living

Quite the tale, Mr. Beagles.  For some unknown reason it took a day for your post to show up on my computer but I think we are now living in the era of "Anything Goes."  I don't follow TV news much these days but I read a little about the power outage in Cheboygan in the Trib and meant to ask you about it.  And about the bears, and that lawsuit concerning the old paper mill and hydroelectric plant.  Lots going on up there, it seems to me, but it could just be my imagination.

But more than nine days without power?  Jeez Louise!  The situation in Beaglesonia must be dire if you have to ship in water to flush the toilet.  None of my business, of course, but still...

 

Living Off the Grid - Part One

 First of all, we did not leave the grid, the grid left us.  Y'all may have heard about the big ice storm that we had up here in God's Country, but I don't know how many details your local news media provided.  It started on Saturday, March 29 and went on for.....way too long.  Our power went out at 1:00 AM Sunday and stayed out for nine days and 19 hours.  This shattered our previous record of 30 and 1/2 hours, which was set at least 20 years ago.  Our power outages normally last about five hours and occur two or three times a year.  They usually happen in the summer when the trees are all leafed out and catch the wind like a sail.  This time the ice built up on the lines so much that thousands of utility poles snapped off like matchsticks.  It's hard to imagine how this could happen, but I guess the ice made the poles top heavy, which made them vulnerable to the wind.  

My daughter was driving up from a road trip Down Below and figured something must be up when she saw convoys of National Guard trucks and equipment from multiple power companies heading north.  She tried to call us, but our land line phone was also down, so she called her boyfriend Will in Charlevoix and told him to check up on us.  (I also have a cell phone, but I keep it turned off, saving it for emergencies.)  Not realizing how serious this was, I was headed for town to refill the five-gallon water jug that we keep for flushing toilets during times like these.  Will showed up on Monday with a chain saw just as I was trying to figure out how I was going to get past the tree that had fallen across our driveway.  (I have a chain saw, but I have become too old and infirm to operate it.)  Will brought us some supplies, including extra drinking water, which we were also almost out of.  We normally keep about a gallon of drinking water on hand and the five gallons of flushing water, and both have been more than adequate in the past.  Will told me that it was useless to go into Cheboygan, since their power was also out, which almost never happens.  He suggested that I get my flushing water from the crick that flows intermittently past out house. Two days later, my daughter brought more supplies and a device that I could use to charge my cell phone in my truck.  And so it began.