Well, that was no fun.

Had a nice ice storm up here. IIRC it started Sat and were without power Sun, Mon and Tues. Kept most of the place going with a Honda 3500 watt genny and was scrambling taking care of other people and hustling wood. The Honda ran for about 20 hours straight before garbage in the carb caught up with it. Got the big 25Kw PTO unit out and hooked it up for the first time. Should have just used that in the first place. Got power back late afternoon Christmas Eve. Got the barn thawed out about 9:30PM that night. Daughters place is still froze up and may be for some time. As it is we can't get out in the fields very well because of the crust on the snow. The crust will actually support my little Jeep! Bad news is when you break through. Then you're really stuck. Very, very hard to get to the round bales.

Anyway, we lived. Lessons learned-

1- The $125.00 PTO gen set (alternator actually) bought at auction needs tires and to be worked with.

2- The $40.00 auction Honda probably needs at least a carb kit.

3- No one sells lamp globes locally any more.

4- Coleman lanterns and stoves are wonderful!

5- Don't put off Christmas shopping till 2 days before Christmas- you may not get a chance to go!

Second time in 15 years. At least you weren't without power as long as the other storm. I was working in Watertown every day for a couple weeks for that one. The generator at Samaritan Hostipal blew up when it kicked on and we had to keep things warm. They test it weekly now.

I remember that storm well. Power was out for a long time here in St. Lawrence county to.
I had a generator that worked for 6 days and began to have some problems so I located a new one in Fulton, Ny and bought it over the phone and when I started the 90 mile trip to pick it up I came upon an electric line truck and crew and stopped to inquire as to when they were going to put my power line back on the pole. they asked where I lived and then followed me home got my service connected. I went to Fulton and picked up the generator because you never know. Used it many times since but not because of power outages. Love these ice storms.

Hey Brent, glad to hear you've got your power back on. I was fortunate, I never lost power here. The one in 1998 got us bad. We had one generator and three farms to take care of then. I ended up milking six times a day. Looks like were getting some snow now. It's going to be a long winter.

I wondered how you were fareing up there, as I hadn"t seen you or Zack post recently.
We got unusually warm weather, high 63F the last day before normal set back in. Snow melted, frost went out, and mud, a-hole deep to a 7" indian, if you had to venture out into a field.
Glad it wasn"t as bad as the storm years back, and you are getting back to normal, if there is such a thing anymore.
It"s snowing hard here now and plows are out, but we"re only supose to get a couple of inches.
Loren

Living in Syracuse area, parents headed up to Black Lake to see how it faired. Mom took lots of pictures. It was bad seeing all the trees amd power poles clean broke off, even the high power transit poles. I go to A-Bay when I can and still see where areas of trees are still making a come back up 81

What does "IIRC" mean? I see it all the time.

I sincerely hope that things improve for all of you that are having such a difficult time because of the weather. I cannot imagine what you are going through because I have never experienced conditions such as those. Stay warm.

iirc-If I Remember Correctly.

The only thing we lucked out on in mid michigan was the fact that it hadn't rained 5 inches the day before the power went off like it usually does. So nobody had to worry about flooded basements and you could leave the house and go somewhere else if you had to. Just had ungodly amounts of ice like never before. And it's been so cold it's like a deep freeze out there. Parents were out of power for 3 days and some will be out for more than a week. We did learn that electricity is quite cheap for what it does and nobody has the right to complain about their electric bill ever again. Putting 15 gallons of gas in a generator every day can get a bit expensive to run a few lights,tv, and a bit of heat.

We had bad one in Indiana Jan 2005. Luckily it
warmed up instead of turning off cold but we lost
power on a Wed and got it back the next Mon. Had
fresh beef just put in freezer but didn't lose it
bought gen that Sat. Never used it again sold it
in moving sale 2010.

In 98 we were 15 days without power. I got a loaned generator about 10 days in. Was working 12-14 hour shifts as a Trooper, then coming home and hauling water. Worst night it was 1:30AM when I hauled my last 55 gallon barrel of water from a neighbor. They were still milking, running (IIRC) 2 bucket milkers off a Farmall H manifold connection. That takes a long time to milk 100 plus head! They were essentially milker 24 hrs a day. Now he has a big 80 or 100 Kw standalone diesel genset.

Brendon, you lucky dog!

Howdy, I'm near Black Lake, about 5 miles south of Edwardsville as the crow flies.

Thanks