Winter storm, do you last minute prep ?

[The Muse]

No, but I live in a city and have a woodburning stove.

When I lived in the suburbs I always found it funny that the milk and bread got cleared out everytime a storm was coming. Never quite understood the logic. If the power goes out, that milk isn't going to be of much use. And the mass hysteria of stocking up was just silly because the roads were plowed on a continuous basis and it's not like we'd me snowed in for any length of time. Anything for excitement, I guess.

Now that I don't have a car, I stock up if the weather is expected to be very cold, but that's just so I don't have to haul groceries home in sub-zero temps.

[ladytoysdream]

I would recommend doing a bit of electrical work ahead of time to make this possible. You don't want to be doing an emergency rewire to get the pump hooked up during a power failure.
A simple, frugal, and safe way to pre-wire the pump is to install an electrical outlet that uses the same style of 240-volt outlet as your generator. The outlet is wired so that it receives power from the main breaker panel. The well pump gets a matching plug, and is normally plugged into the new outlet. When the power goes out, you just unplug the well pump from its outlet and plug it into the generator.

I will copy this and print it off and ask the hubby.

I am not 100 % sure how hubby has it wired up. When we set up our property over 20 yrs ago, the hubby did all the wiring. Wired the main box on the outside pole. Then when we ourselves physically built our 24'x40' garage the next spring, hubby wired all of that, and the breaker box inside the garage.
Because I have severe sleep apnea and sleep with a machine at night ( 5 yrs now), hubby wants a full house generator. My one ENT doctor did give me a prescription for the generator so we could use HSA money to purchase it. My second ENT doctor won't back the prescription. He said I can sleep sitting up in a chair if no power to run my machine. But yet, I have been told not to even nap without the machine on. I asked to have a second opinion due to first doctor wanting to do surgery on me in the spring of 2010. The hubby works for a highway so has to be available 24/7 in the winter. No way can I turn the generator on as the current setup. Or so the hubby tells me. I can however, put wood in the OWB and take care of the chickens

When and if we get a full house generator, a friend of ours, is willing to help the hubby set it up. He was the one who helped with the plumbing part of our OWB. Hubby did the electric part of that.

[annymoll]

We have a backup generator system to our home.It will sense when the electric is out and begin usage of natural gas for power. When the electric goes back on it converts back over. You do not have the interruption.We have three fireplaces in the house, and a woodstove out in the garage.I have candles and a supply of goods to start every winter season.We snuggle in and wait out the storm.