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What happens when you lose power? We lost power this last week after a heavy rainstorm passed through. We called PGE to report it, and they said that several thousand people were without power. They did not know the cause which means they had no idea of when the power would be restored.

It was about 5 pm when the power when out, and we were just going to start thinking about making dinner. Instead, we decided we better get the generators out. If the power company did not know when it would be restored, it could be several hours. We started one generator to power the refrigerator & freezer in the garage. The second larger generator powered the 2 refrigerators in the house, 2 freezers in the hangar, the television, and an amplified outdoor antenna (previous blog).

Our larger generator powering house & hanger
Our larger generator powering house & hanger

Once the generators were running, we connected 150’ of hose together and attached the hose line to a hose bib near the orchard arbor that we previously piped about 500’ underground directly to twin 2,500 rainwater collection tanks. These tanks are located up at the animal shelter about 650’ away from the house and 40’ higher, so there is plenty of head pressure to give us all of the water we need (Previous blog). Since we are on a well that requires power, we are able to utilize rainwater in the absence of the well.

Hose bib that is feed from water tanks & hose to house
Hose bib that is feed from water tanks & hose to house

Once everything was hooked up, we relaxed, made dinner, and enjoyed some tv. At a time of Covid-19, social distancing requirements, and power outages, we feel fortunate that our preparedness has made these challenging times easy for us.