Stijn!!

[GH85Carrera]

Good Hump day morning folks.

Mr.s Carrera and the house-guests are going to the top of the 4th tallest mountain in Oklahoma. It is a dizzying 2464 feet. They should not have too much problem with hypoxia. The highest point in Oklahoma is at the far north west tip of the panhandle. Black Mesa is 5,700 feet but that is 355 miles away from home.

Mt. Scott is next to Ft. Sill and one can often hear the artillery shells fired as they train.

[flipper35]

OK, my wife sent this little note to me this morning.

"The other day I was listening to that Christmas song and I said I needed to find bells for it and Jacob said it needed more cowbell. "

Rick, yeah winter tires. They are awesome in snow and ice and I bet they would make good rock crawlers but not good mudders. If I ran them year round they would last about a year with the heat of summer. I had a good set of mudders on the Ramcharger and it did good in the snow but not like the Blizzaks. Plus, the Durango is 2wd and would look like a poser with mudders.

Was 50* this morning on the way to work. S*** this weekend.

Glen, I would suggest these if the spikes don't work.

[Porsche-poor]

morning all. mid 40's here this am but last night was fun. The water was side ways. Wind knocked out the power long enough for me to get home and start the generator.

[flipper35]

At least it wasn't freezing sideways!

[Porsche-poor]

that is true but give it a month and maybe.

[flipper35]

For your sake I hope not.

I always thought that area was calmer weather. Wet, but calmer. One of my old bosses from California has moved up there. Says he loves it. My sister lived near Puywal...Peww.. whatever and they really liked it there but my niece hated it.

[Porsche-poor]

Puyallup. That's about a 15 min drive from here. Mostly wet but once or twice a year we get a good wind storm that cuts power to a lot of people. I have a generator that will hear the house and run the fridge and freezer along with a few lights and the tv. Still not enough to keep the kids happy but it beats being in the dark and cold.

[flipper35]

Dad, can't you put the game console on the generator too? And the router for the internet. And the...

I keep thinking of getting a generator, but the 8 years i have lived here the longest we have been without power is 4 hours and that was after some high winds and a couple tornadoes went through the area. In the winter we haven't been down long at all. 20 minutes maybe. We also talked about a gas fireplace in the basement for looks and heat. The previous owner had a pot belly stove there so it should be easy other than getting a gas line there.

[Porsche-poor]

We went without power for a few days a couple years ago. Snow on the ground, freezing out. We had an older gas furnace that didn't like the power from the generator so once we got it up and running we'd heat the house up till you were in shorts and let it go off.

[flipper35]

I wonder if it is easier for the utility crews around here with it being more rural. Lots of underground lines as well probably helps.

[flipper35]

I think the PO of the house had the pot belly because the house still had the original to 1972 oil burner furnace and hardly any insulation in the attic of the original section. We noticed the snow would melt off the roof in that section and not the addition so we blew another 20" or so in the attic. Still cost a fortune with the oil burner so we put in a geothermal heat pump. It was put in in 2009 and will have paid for itself next year.

Speaking of, we had to have a 200 amp service put in so I wonder what size generator it requires and if I can run it off of propane.

[GH85Carrera]

Every so often I see a thread about generators and start getting the urge to get one. It escalates until I figure I need a Generac or some other full house system and then sticker shock set in. So far we have never had a long period with no electricity. One winter when we had an ice storm in the area we lost power for a few hours. It sucks trying to watch TV in the dark. We loaded up and came down to my office and brought the dogs. The dogs loved it since there were several dead bugs to eat. I called the house and the answering machine answered so I knew we had power back on and went home.

I still have no generator and I think I might just talk myself into a small Honda generator big enough to run the central heater if it is winter or a window AC unit if it is summer.

[Porsche-poor]

I have a 5000watt gen. Its enough to keep the house alive. Noisy as all get out. If the lights go out and the noise quits and its not time to fill it up you don't want to be standing next to it when I come outside......can you say target practice.

[RKDinOKC]

Good day eh.

That's real re-assuring...After the power went off and came back on here yesterday the previously dead disk in my Airport Time Capsule woke up. It worked great for 2 years, then died. It's been 3 years. Had decided then the Time Capsule drives are just not reliable enough for any sort of backup. Now all the sudden after 3 years and a house wide power failure it boots up and wants to work again? I don't think so.

[flipper35]

Morning Richard. It must like the "new" power. Or it got zapped like a disk defibrillator or something with the dirty power when it came back on.

[GH85Carrera]

That is one thing I like about the Honda inverter units. They are quiet but expensive.

[flipper35]

Quiet is good, but I am not sure I would pay that much extra when I could just sit in the basement away from the noise anyway. Honda does make some good stuff though.

[ckelly78z]

I don't have, or really even want a generator (just another mechanical machine to buy, and maintain). Just like Flipper said above, when we moved in, the P.O. still had the original hot water boiler with virtually no insulation in the attic or elsewhere. I contacted the local propane supply company and asked what the P.O.s' budget was for the last year they were there. He said they burnt 2100 gallons of propane in the last calender year and at the time was only about .99 a gal. I went right out and bought a good woodburner, with a double wall metal chimney and have been running that for the last 21 years, and saving at least $2000-$3000 in heating cost every single year.

We have hurricane lamps for light if the power goes off, and often cook stews and soups on top of the woodburner (which heats the entire house nicely). We looked at replacing it with an outdoor wood boiler, but didn't like the idea of an electrical circulation pump, or going out in all kinds of weather to feed the beast, or the initial cost of the unit with it's expensive transmission tubes.

[RKDinOKC]

The only thing I have is my Cayenne keeps the water circulating and heater running after shutting the car off until the water temp drops enough to match the outside temps. Very nice to come back to a warm vehicle.

My house does have a wood burning gas fireplace that might warm a large area. Don't know as I've never lit even a match in it or even opened the flu. Now, 20 years since moving in, would be afraid to light a fire in it until after having a chimney sweep clean it.

[RKDinOKC]

When we are taken over by robots, the Amish are going to be really pissed.