Living Like The Amish

Bob Spare

Member
Messages
480
The ice storm has done a number on Indiana
They have crews and heard they are added more

  • Kentucky
  • Indiana
  • North Carolina
  • More coming

Been 5 days with out heat or lights

We have taken lessons from the Amish

Wear 4 layers of clothing

Got a power generator
runs 2 small space heaters
electric blanket
Ice box
Internet (got to have that)

We cook on kersone stove

Eggs
Chili
Coffee
................again
Eggs
chili
Coffee

Plus it gives out heat. At night we shut it off, concered
about safety

Here is proof , if you look close enough you can see who
is doing the cooking (eggs) and who is laid back, shoes in the foreground


 
I can feel your pain! We "camped" for 6.5 days last year after an ice storm hit us on Dec 10. I got pretty good at cooking on the grill in what must be similar to cooking on a coal stove. We have three kerosene heaters we used for heat. Thankfully, it was cold enough to put food outside and stayed frozen or at least very cold. We were very happy to see utility crews from Ohio and Indiana in our neighborhood repairing lines for two days before our lights came back on. It certainly makes us appreciate the modern comforts and the folks who work so hard to keep the lines in place to provide the electricity. Hope you are back on soon to enjoy the holiday.
 
Bob, this has to be a very trying time, but you and your "cook" are making the most of it.:thumb:

My parents went through it last winter, but they had an RV to cook and stay warm in with the genorater and propane....your really "rough'in it" :D
 
We don't have that bad. I have never seen this much snow in December. There is a 5' snow drift that starts in the front yard and goes onto the front porch. I had to turn on the natural gas furnace to supplement the outdoor wood stove because of the cold temps the high winds and the fact that the wood pile is somewhat buried. The wife didn't like the 50 degree house. :dunno: Hope your situation changes soon. Be careful about the CO2 buildup danger. I did get out my generator this last fall and fired it up for lighting while I upgraded the electrical service to the house from 100 amp to 200 amp . I was quite pleased with the machine as it fired on the second pull and ran like a top for 8 hours. I hadn't used it for 3 years.

I'm wondering how I'm going to get firewood out of the woods with all the snow we have. I guess it's time to pray for a thaw.
 
Glad to hear you got power back. I got my folks one of those heaters while they were still on the farm. They were on a low priority road, no schoolkids, no dairy. First time the power went out I called to check on them. Heater was in the house ok. When I asked how it was working my mom got real quiet. Then she told me the kerosene was in the barn and they couldn't see it. After that I made sure it was ready to go at Thanksgiving. I live 4 hours away. They used it several times until my dad passed away and I had to move Mom to town.
 
When you look back it will probably be one of the most memorable 5 days of your life.

You know, that is funny how that works.

I used to do a lot of motorcycle touring here in Japan, a LOT, I've been up and down this country, spent a lot of time on the roads here, still, the most memorable trips were the ones where things went sideways (and no one got hurt!).

If I may hijack your thread for a moment, I'll tell you a one story......

It was late November and a group of us got a little further a field than we had planned, on the wrong side of a mountain pass, with night falling and SNOW falling too! :eek: We stopped at a gas stand on the way up to the pass, the old guy at the gas stand told us the he had just heard the it was snowing a LOT harder up the mountain than it was there. Being on large street bikes we had no hope of making it over the pass. We asked if there was a hotel or such around, there wasn't, we had picked our route off the beaten path, as these routes often give us the best riding, "B" roads, little traffic, and a lot of scenery. We were wondering what the heck we would do, when the old guy from the gas stand came out and told us to all park our bikes in the service area, in the gas stand, we figured he was just going to let us ride out the storm in the gas stand, but he told us to just sit tight.

We waited about 10 minutes, and a guy pulled up in a van and told us to all get in, I think there were six of us. He took us to his family farm, they had a HUGE farm house, HUGE, there were three generations living there, everyone made us welcome, they cooked a fantastic meal for us, and we all sat, eating and drinking their beer and sake. Then we had a hot bath, and they made up a spare room for us to all sleep in. Up nice and early, cooked us a great breakfast, and then took us back to the gas stand. We tried to give them something for their kindness, but they would not hear of it, so we got on our bikes and went home to Tokyo. I made sure I got the address of the gas stand, and I sent two of the best bottles of sake we sell in our L shop to the gas stand, thanking the gas stand guy, and asking him to give the other bottle to the family that put us up. The gas stand guy, found us in a bind, and called his buddy that he knew had a nice big house and bigger heart. They took us in, six large smelling bike riding foreigners and treated us like invited guests. I know that no one in the family had ever actually met a foreigner before, so it was very interesting for them too, I guess.

Now THAT was a ride to remember, all the other rides where we went out, put on 500 or more uneventful miles, well they have all faded into memory, but the snowstorm ride, well, that was one to remember.
:wave:
 
While I originally put in a natural gas generator after being on electrically operated medical equipment during the NE blackout in 2003, it comes in real handy for winter outages as well. It runs pretty much the whole house (no AC in the summer and have to be careful what else is running if we use the electric oven) but it's the best $4K I ever spend (albeit I got a great deal on the generator through work). :thumb:

One down side, it isn't hooked up to the panel which runs the tools in the woodshop! :dunno::rolleyes::rofl:
 
I can see the Big Men in the game, but how Are the Colts doing this year ennywho?

Hottest team in the league - 8 game win streak. :thumb:

Oh, and...

"It will be a blast to watch Peytons little brother beat him up in the Superbowl."

Sorry, that should read "Watching Peyton smack his little brother around in the Superbowl" :wave::D:p

-Kevin in Indy
 
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