Do you ever feel a little guilty for being prepared ?

Our oldest daughter just had some remodeling done,I mentioned having a small, but efficient generator wired into the house, but it fell on deaf ears. Let’s face it, many are spoiled by not being prepared. Never looking ahead, it’s to bad some are not paying attention, but, some are. I’m pretty independent,, but, sometimes I’m just amazed how people take so very much for granted! It’s a shame the state this nation is in, but, most think the pot is, and will be, always 3/4 full. The day is coming when a lot of them will be caught off guard. Just my personal thoughts.

 

Screwloose yes its has been gusty, but no reports in my county of issues. I traveled a bit yesterday, and the decent size town i planned to stop for gas, seemed to be out on electric. Nt sure the cause.

 

C'mon, man!!! We're all entitled to public utilities and services 24/7.
We don't need no stinking backups .

 

We have a generator had wired to the house. Will run the freezer water pump out in the pump room . Inside small chest freezer, fridge and a couple of extra outlets. Outlets will provide power for my o2 machine.

 

I was blessed...been pooping fire ever since, but those are some delicious peppers you gave me!

 

I personally would never feel guilty in any situation that arose for which I spent time and effort preparing for.

 

I had a jar of pepper mustard for you also, and somehow forgot to give it to you.

 

You are the best Brother...thank you and Julie!

 

So many good points on this thread. When the country shut down with covid there wasn't a worry about tp, kleenex, coffee or whiskey. Daughter was worried that they only had a week of toilet paper left so I offered her a 48 pk since there was about a years worth in storage.

For water, whenever you run a canner (water bath or pressure) and have an empty spot put a jar of water in to take up the space. Next thing you know you have ready made sterile water with no shelf life. There's enough jars in the basement to can everything in the freezers if it's not winter when the power goes out and enough lids to go with. My cooktop is gas, there's a stovetop perculator for coffee (more like 3 total), a stovetop toaster for bread and a woodstove to cook on. There's room for the daughter and her family to sleep in comfort. I have to say, they finally got the stocking up thing through their heads to a certain extent....

More hints and tips from the folks who have numerous/long duration outages? Ours are rare and the longest was 6 hours. I still want to be prepared for longer.

 

This took be aback for a moment until I realized you probably didn't mean "entitled" - as we pay for those services (to the tune of about $200 every quarter for me). So yeah, I expect them to work for the most part. But you are right, people are so accustomed to them working, that they don't think about backup plans. And that is where people in a devastated area start freaking out after 24-48 hours of not having that service (even when warned to keep at least 3 daays and up to 7 days supply before a major event).

 

Thanks for the heads up on the prepping thread! That's going to send me down the rabbit hole of reading/learning.... Best kept for these long evenings. I've been on the canning and gardening threads. Both are something I've done all my life (and hated as a kid). Good thing I like doing those things now.

I'm not hardcore like some but I do try to be realistic for my needs.

 

I work for one of those utilities, and we have to have backup plans and equipment too...but, even the best laid plans can fail...fortunately its not often that you as a customer will have failure of services, if your utility does a good job...but my point is that it can happen to anyone. And then there are a few utilities that don't do a very good job...fortunately its not often that things fail to the degree that people ever have to find out about it...an example of one that did would be the northern state water utility that was in the national news a couple years back.
What most people would be surprised to learn is how vulnerable many utilities are to terrorist attack...fortunately its not been much of a problem here in the states so far...but it could be. Well managed utilities have done some planning for these scenarios, but its extremely difficult to CYA for every scenario...being prepared personally is a VERY good idea.

 

As far as water utilities go I'm much more concerned with their ability to take stuff away!!

 

Our main electric supply to the north end of Vancouver Island is all dependent on one main line. As seen in the last few years, the trees along side of the line are now way taller than when it was first installed and we have had a couple of 12 to 24 hour power outages. RV ownership is quite high around here so everyone camps out in the RV. For us, the RV is covered and winterized so the two generators that campinspecter has keeps the heat, fridge and freezer running. A propane camp stove is used for cooking. But most importantly we have internet, TV and computers running. I must have my FHC fix!!!!

 

I'm not following you...you mean to not provide water?

 

We have a well. I was referring to the subway going to the poo-poo palace.

 

Gee I translated it as water to farmers in the west drought stricken area

 

Ahh, gotcha...yes, that gets people attention pretty quick when that train fails to move!