The Campfire Trail: January 26 - DIY Homestead - Standing in Defiance of Disaster

January 26, 2023

Day 482 of the Adventure

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My post from yesterday highlighted the benefit of having a back-up system of electrical power in the event of a power outage. This storm was one where the power was out for a relatively short amount of time. For most it was in the 3-6 hour range. For some it was almost an entire day. At only about 30 degrees on average, nothing too critically dangerous was bound to happen. Mostly it had to be classified as a nuisance and an inconvenience. Of course, not to minimize the difficulty it may have caused to some. It's just that, as power outages go, this one was largely benign. My memories of power outages are punctuated by one that affected us in the waning years of the last century. Probably 1998 to be more precise. An Ice storm took down power lines all across the region. Our house was at the end of a powerline run from the west while our neighbors house was at the end of a powerline run from the east. In a cruel bit of irony, our house was without power for five days while our neighbor never experienced a loss of power at all on the line they were connected to. We spent two days trying to figure out how to stay warm and keep food from thawing and spoiling. Moving it all outside in coolers where it was already cold enough to freeze things helped. The remainder of the five days was just spent trying to live with the cold, lack of power to almost everything and the absolute boredom with it all. We had natural gas heat but no electricity to run the furnace. We had a generator but it was only big enough to power a few lights. I was able to finally locate a natural gas wall heater but it basically only kept one room warm. After five days of living like Eskimos, power was restored and life went back to normal.

I have never forgotten that experience and, for the most part, have tried to build up a defense of solutions in the event of a repeat. Until now, that's mostly involved big enough generators to power an entire house along with a few options of propane heating devices. I've never felt completely immune from a major power outage but felt somewhat comfortable in withstanding another five-day event. Our cabin at Camp Run-Amuck was designed and built with a long-term power outage on mind. Will that ever occur? Probably not but maybe so. In either case, some form of disruption is inevitable every year. Occasionally it's more severe and can do damage to property and threaten life itself. The thought that measures have been taken to minimize the effects of a loss of grid power are comforting. Knowing that an indefinite assault by weather (or other forces for that matter) is easily defended by a series of countermeasures brings a confidence to life I'd only fantasized about in the past. While I cannot control many outcomes of life, I feel I have finally taken control over the results of a power outage. In fact. during this last one, I made it a point to stand in the open back door of the cabin in the middle of it all, wearing a pair of flannels, slippers and nursing a hot cup of coffee while the snow was falling. Standing there in defiance of the shot across our bow that the weather had just delivered. Knowing I had lights, heat, coffee, the ability to prepare food and had not lost a single comfort of life. How long could we have lasted?............. 'Til Spring I guess!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

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