We got 14 or so inches of wet heavy here. Power is out all around us, and it went out for us at 1100 hrs. After snowblowing and roof raking I hauled the generator out at 1500, hooked it up and fired it up. The power came back on 30 minutes later. My brother then called me down in Mass. and said a tree came down across his driveway, could I help him out. Scored a 10" dbh Cherry for a few minutes of work. Very dark in northern Mass.
10 or so years ago I bought an outdoor pellet boiler. We lived in Lebanon, ME, and had a power failure about every week. I was buying antifreeze for the system, but found the cheapest way was to buy a few gallons at a time from Home Depot. I needed 45 gallons, at $11/gallon. One day they had a bunch of generators on sale. I did the math, returned the antifreeze, and bought a nice homelite with a Robbin engine. Saved us that winter when we had a big ice storm and no power for five days. I've been considering selling it since we never loose power here, and have city water, natural gas, and the wood stove. This is the second power failure here in 6 years, having a generator and a wood stove makes us better off than most of the neighborhood
Definitely not going anywhere now. Twice in six years is enough to justify keeping it. I even bought the plugs to connect it to the range plug for next time
Our cook stove is propane, so all we need is a match if the power goes out. Very useful over the years, trust me.
First time scrounging in the snow. Big oak limbs hooked into the power cable to a house. I used a pole saw to cut away the hooked limbs, nice not worrying about getting zapped, the whole street was out. My son and I made quick work of the first limb. And the second, making a nice trailer load.
back home, I used the ice fishing sled to move the wood across the yard to the rounds pile. The front row is today's first scrounge. My son uses the sled for bringing in the firewood in snow. I found it in a snowball by the highway during a scrounge a few years ago. Much thicker plastic than a kids toy sled
Ah, fun in the snow. That's good score for sure. It looks more like Maple from where I'm sitting though. Keep at it!
I've always used my 490 as a backup saw, not giving it much credit. The 590 is down, I think I melted the oil gear, so I'm depending on the 490. It's actually a great saw. I got sick of those anti spill spouts, so I used an outboard motor fuel hose. The primer bulb is an easy way to pump gas into the saw without spilling . Some hoses have bigger bulbs, and would pump faster, this works for me.
My problem is overfilling the oil a little now and then. I just have to slow down a little, I've been good lately.
Lots of good things happening, Got home to discover the power was back on. Then Fishingpol stopped by right after I emptied the trailer of the first load. He bought two bundles of my son's campfire wood, and gave me an old air conditioner to scrap, thank you! Then my wife told me about a tree blocking the road, almost across the street from my house. Using on of my trailer sides/ramps to load some great maple from the second scrounge. Best part was the tree is under a street light, my phone just had trouble in the low light. About to head out again!
You're making us proud!!! We have to strike when the iron is hot. And you are certainly doing just that.
I use the tip of the scrench to poke four holes in the foil seal, they keep the flow manageable, actually needing me to pump the sides of the bottle. Of course I still tend to overfill. ..
I had a busy week at work, including a trip to Plattsburgh, NY. My wife called to say that the generator quit, so I left work around 9 AM to check on it. I already had over 40 hrs for the week, so enjoyed the day gathering firewood. My wife had already restarted the generator by the time I got home. I think it has water in the tank, it dies, but restarts on the first pull. Time for some dry gas
I tend do better with winter oil, it pours better. I do worse with summer oil as you know it's thicker and that last little bit is too much.
Natural gas here, unfortunately, the water heater has a power vent, but it ran on the generator just fine. We did find out that the washing machine computer can't run on generator power, but the dishwasher can. I liked the old washer with a simple timer, it ran just fine on the generator. We also found that the modem couldn't run off the generator.
We have living without power down to a science here. Our house was built in 1880 before electricity, so it is still capable of functioning as my relatives did back in the day. Of course, we do have a generator now. But 15 years back we didn't have one.
Don't have a dishwasher here that runs on electric but the wife works well when power is off the same as when the power is on. Washing clothing can wait until power is restored. Modem and computer run well on generator power here.
