suek raised some interesting points in her comment on my last scheduled post, "Garden by the Numbers."
suek says:
"No frozen bean resembles a fresh bean."
I'll grant you that. On the other hand, frozen beans beat canned beans hands down.
And while it's true that frozen beats canned, canned takes the energy once and then is done for a year or two storage. Freezing takes less energy to start with, but certainly requires an ongoing input of energy for as long as you store them. Additionally, if you have some sort of electrical catastrophe, your canned items are safe and sound - the frozen ones are toast ... so to speak.
And I will grant everything suek said, and note that I have a few cans of store-bought canned green beans on a shelf, just in case.
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| Plants that produce green/string beans |
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It wasn't too long after we'd Occupied The Farm that we ran into our neighbor-- a fellow with whom we share a property line-- at The Store. He's the sheriff's deputy who turned us on to the election night festivities. Anyway, when we first ran into him in a local social context, he asked if we'd gotten a generator. ... It was on our list, but Ken's explanation of what happens to power lines in the spring was motivating. Our generator runs like a charm. And so I just assume that everyone has one. My bad.
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I vote for pickled green beans. They last forever.
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I vote for pickled green beans. They last forever.
Heh. We used to live in Virginia. Guaranteed that there would be a serious power outage at least once a year. You couldn't predict whether it would be spring or fall, but it would absolutely be one or the other. It usually lasted 1-3 days.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned about living in similar climates:
Never buy a house with an up-hill septic field. (regardless of climate)
Never buy an all electric house. (regardless of climate)
Absolutely have a wood burning stove somewhere in the house, and absolutely have some means of "cookin' with gas". Especially if you have no experience with cooking on a wood stove.
It never got bad enough to affect refrigerated or frozen stuff. Well...I'm not so sure I remember about the refrigerator - it probably meant that I did a complete clean out, which was probably due anyway.
And we had a travel trailer next to the house, which meant we had a useable refrigerator and a gas stove.
We do have a generator at present, but I have no idea how functional it would be, or if it would be adequate. I saw a report yesterday about a "whole house generator" that I think I'll look into. It sits like a house air conditioner...outside. Probably costs a whole lot more than your standard run of the mill generator, but it's also automatic - if your power goes off for 30 seconds (I think) it kicks on, and is hooked into your main power system somehow. Could be cheap insurance...or not. Haven't found it yet.
Hmmm. Wonder how long it runs. If it's automatic, it must run on gas. Wonder what its capacity it.
I'll report. If I find it. In the meantime - what size is your generator? How do you use it? just run extension cords around and plug in what you need?
Found this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/stories/38-How-to-Pick-the-Perfect-Whole-House-Generator.html
It has a lot of info - but maybe not the most important: How much do _I_ need. How do I figure out how much I need if I assume I'm going to limit myself to necessities? It also doesn't talk about lots of info like - what capacity of fuel do you need? but it does seem to have a lot of info if you're totally ignorant and just beginning to look for info - as I am.
Also - they're definitely not cheap! Guess I'll start looking at generators generally and try to learn more about them...
We have a 5500 something portable generator. I did find multiple sites about wattage usage &c.
ReplyDeleteOur biggest concern is food. We want to keep the freezer and fridges running during a prolonged power outage. The generator we have does. Been there. Done that.
I looked into whole house generators, and we decided they were not worth the money, given our climate.
Redundancy is key, as you note.
Don't forget to stock up on charcoal!
Funny you should mention the charcoal...
ReplyDeleteI think we have about 120 lbs in the garage. My husband likes to charcoal bbq. I shop at Costco, but they're not carrying the "regular" charcoal any more...just the "competition" charcoal.
So, last year, when Home Depot had their July 4th sale, I picked up an additional double bag pack...$7.50...half-price! My local grocery store had _one_ bag for that price! And I think the bag was smaller, but I'm not sure. Hubby thinks I'm way over stocked(on everything!). Actually, he doesn't know the half of it! He isn't all that observant...!
That generator site was interesting in that it specifies the amps for each generator, but then starts talking about watts without clarifying the relationship. I know that Volts x Amps = Watts when it comes to light bulbs, but I'm not sure I understand how to evaluate the power requirements needed when making a decision on the generator.
And I agree with you - freezer and refrigerator are the critical items. And probably a couple of smaller generators are probably more efficient unless you're prepared for a $10K+ price, and for most of us, I question whether a $10K+ price is sensible investment for insurance.
I know the charcoal you're talking about. We load up on that every time it goes on sale. Useful.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's my old age, but I'd feel very very nervous if we didn't have "overstock." I'd especially feel that way if we lived in the city (and we once did). I'm working on 100 watt light bulbs right now-- while I still can!
Funny story, sort of related. A few weeks ago our daughter did a load of laundry-- we call them "caroline loads" b/c they are HUGE. Well, guess what? The wash machine quit on her. Not to worry, honey. I showed her the old roller wash tub I have squirreled away. She didn't think it was too funny. But you know what? If the power goes out for a few days and she needs clean undies, it will come in handy! We won't have to run yet another cord to the generator! LOL.