May 3
Twelve inches, and still snowing. It’s a good thing we stocked up. The animals stay warm and well-fed in the barn, and Sarah makes chicken soup in the crock pot. Outside, the wind howls. Our solar panels won’t do us any good today, but the wind turbine’s working overtime.
We spent a lot of money on our solar and wind, far more than would make it practical from a purely financial standpoint. Electricity from the grid is cheap here, so we might get our money’s worth over the life of the components, or we might not. But as often as the power goes out, saving money was not our only concern. We’re at the edge of the grid, the first to lose power and the last to get it back. A kilowatt of solar generation and 400 watts of wind turbine capacity seem only prudent. It’s not enough for us to run everything we normally would, but it does keep the water pump, fridge, and freezer going, as well as providing internet access and some basic lighting. It’ll also keep the heat lamps going for the chickens.
Last night the power went out for two hours. The only reason we knew was because only half the circuits in the house are hooked up to the battery backup. We were watching television when the overhead light went out. The TV stayed on, of course. But the bathroom lights wouldn’t work and the microwave and toaster were out. That’s no big deal except Sarah wanted popcorn, and you can only cook those silly packets in a microwave. She had corn chips instead.
Since we had time, I mentioned to her my conversation with Steve yesterday morning, and we talked about preparedness. Sarah doesn’t believe things will go to hell, but she does agree that we’d do well to be prepared just in case. And she asked an interesting question: if there were no stores, what would people need to buy? Besides food, which is perishable, we thought of toiletries, paper products, and so forth. Soap might be as good an investment as gold. After all, these days, who knows how to make soap from scratch?
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