# I'm still kicking



## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Just a note to let y'all know I'm doing fine. Been working like a drunk dog in a fire hydrant factory repairing electrical services knocked out by Mondays storm. No utility power at home, but I'm not lacking electricity!

I'll be back once things settle down.... whenever that will be. Supper's over.... back to work.


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## T-Man 1066 (Jan 3, 2016)

Thank you for your service. We are in between the Rockford, Hellinois and Janevsville Wi area, it was pretty ugly.


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Keep up the good work and stay safe out there.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

BPH? How did you get drunk in a fire hydrant factory?


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Just a note to let y'all know I'm doing fine. Been working like a drunk dog in a fire hydrant factory repairing electrical services knocked out by Mondays storm. No utility power at home, but I'm not lacking electricity!
> 
> I'll be back once things settle down.... whenever that will be. Supper's over.... back to work.


BPH keep us updated on this.

I didn't realize how bad and widespread that storm was.

Stay safe, dealing with storm damage downed trees/electrical is dangerous.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Power back on about 9:00 last night.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Power back on about 9:00 last night.


Got any pictures?


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Mad Trapper said:


> Got any pictures?


The only thing I cared about at 9PM last night was checking my eyelids for pinholes. 42 hours in 3 days is NOT FUN. Specially in this heat.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> The only thing I cared about at 9PM last night was checking my eyelids for pinholes. 42 hours in 3 days is NOT FUN. Specially in this heat.


Get a good nights sleep. Tell us about it later.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

OK, here goes:

Monday afternoon I'm wrapping the second piddly job of the day... installing an outlet under the kitchen sink for a touchless faucet. Homeowner was tired of buying batteries for it. As I was halfway done, I started to get severe storm warnings on my phone. No biggy, I've been through plenty of storms in my 6 decades of drawing breath on this planet. As we were talking, filling out checks and invoices, I saw it was getting dark, so I headed for home, looking forward to a relaxing afternoon. As I pulled out of the customers driveway, this is what the leading edge of the storm looked like towards the east.









It was breezy, but nothing serious. And just a light sprinkle. I made a couple corners, got on the interstate, and............... I was slammed.









25MPH was going to fast, even though the limit is 65 on this stretch. My war wagon has all the aerodynamics of a 2-car garage. If I had been weaving left and right like I was any other time, I'd get pulled over for OMVUI. I used my 4 external cameras on the van to keep from side-swiping others. I stayed in the center lane, moving over if I was next to a vehicle in the adjacent lane. Took me 45 minutes to make the 12-mile trip home. Street signs were twisting back-n-forth like you see in the news coverage of hurricanes. Couldn't see some traffic lights they were laid horizontal by the wind.

By the time I got near home, the worst was over. I circled the neighborhood, and the worst damage I could see (other than the obligatory leaves and small branches) was a downed flagpole with a shredded Old Glory draped over a deck railing. So it didn't seem too bad.

Once inside, I noticed my power was out. No problem... I installed a solar system a few years back for just such an instance. I walked around my house, and found I had a 14" branch fall off my tree into my yard. Still, nothing major. Just laying in the yard, the 'top' end across the neighbors driveway. Nothing to worry about since the house was torn down 2 months ago. I get out the chain saw and during the last dribble of rainfall I cut the branch up and disposed of the small parts, saving the larger chunks for future firewood.

Then my phone starts exploding. Everyone calling wanting the electrical service on their homes repaired or replaced. I stock enough material to repair at least 4 of them, so I load up a 'kit' and head out. Between 4 and 9 PM I get the first one back in working order, waiting for the utility to reconnect it. I head home with 2 more calls for the next day.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Tuesday:

I get up and still no power. So I turn on my solar back-up system to cool the fridge and freezer down, then head to the first call of the day... another service repair. I arrive and find the eyebolt was ripped completely off the house and the service leaning on a sawhorse. Some of the siding was pulled off by the end of the rafter that was pulled out when the tree fell on the service wires. I spent the next 6 hours reframing the roof rafter, beefing up the attachment point, and standing the downed service riser back on it's feet.









Another day, another dollar. But this one is _special_. The two windows on each side of the corner of the house next to the ladder........ are the windows in what used to be my bedroom. This is the house I grew up in. Seriously. My dad built it in 1968 and that corner was my room. And the guy who lives there now.... was one of my high school teachers. OK, he's set to go.

That afternoon, I head home for another 'kit', and spend several hours rebuilding the next downed service. Only I needed to get some pushaline. I wheel into a local gas station and..........









Prepay.... cash only.

Well, dammit, I'm a prepper. I pull out the cash I have stashed in the van, go in and prepay, and I'm on my merry way. Out until 8PM rebuilding the third busted up service. Still no power at home, so I turn on my solar system while having breakfast and get the fridge and freezer cooled down again. I spend the evening our ancestors used to.









One of the four oil/hurricane lanterns I have. I bought this one about 25 years ago at a yard sale for a buck. Still using the wick that came with it, but it will need replacement soon as it's getting short. make a note of that, I think to myself.... order wicks for all my lanterns so I have spares.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Wednesday.

Still no power, so the solar system is turned on again. I originally planned it to last 3 days, and I'm going into my third day now. Well, the sun is out, cloudless days. The batteries seem to be keeping up. I grab another 'kit', as well as several hundred in cash out of my 'home stash spot', and head out for the 4th repair. Bent riser, 180' from the road. Utility is responsible for the two poles across the property, I just need to replace the riser, flashing, mast clamp and weatherhead.









This is what a bent electrical service mast looks like after a couple trees fall on the overhead lines.









Somewhere on the other side of that mess is the road... with utility power running. Git 'er done!

Home for a quick lunch to fire up the solar system again. I break out the indoor/outdoor thermometers I bought so I could monitor the temperature of the fridge and freezers without opening them. I put in the 2 S76 button cells in each, quickly open the doors and toss the 'outside' sensors across the seals. I look at the digital displays and........ I can barely read them. The button cells are probably 3 or 4 years old now. And although they've never been used since I bought them, they've self-discharged enough to make the display almost unreadable. But I was still able to look at them 'just so' and read the temperatures.

Note to self: Buy I/O thermometers that take AAA or AA batteries. I'll have tons of those fully charged any day of the year.

I head out to repair service # 5. This one's a doozy. Two-story house. Sorry, by this time I was getting too tired to bother taking photos. Besides, it's just a rerun of what you've already seen. Problem is, I don't have all the parts on-hand to effect the repairs.

I spend most of the early afternoon chasing down enough parts to finish up the next 3 services. I only obtain enough for two. Oh well, that's life. Out until 8 or 9PM Wednesday night, and return to an 86°F house. Damn, it was miserable sleeping. I thought shit for sure I'd run out of battery power and couldn't keep the fridge and freezer cool enough to keep up. By this time, all my neighbors were emptying out their appliances, either sending food home with friends and family who had power, or just tossing it out. But my milk still tasted fine, and the freezer was quick to cool down to 5°F, even from 34°.

I never opened my fridge's freezer as there wasn't much in there I would be concerned about. The fridge side, plus my chest freezer, held the 'important' stuff.

I fitfully sleep that night due to the excessive heat and humidity. Thursday, I'll turn the corner. The local utility is working right up the street. Maybe power will be on by sunrise.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Thursday. Nope, no power. If so, the AC kicking on would have woken me up.

Another day of drudgery. Turn on the solar system, have breakfast, turn it off, and out the door to another hot, dirty, sweaty, stinky job. I get the first one done fairly quickly, so I take a nice long lunch at a local cafe cooling off.

I stop by the house, run the solar, then on to job No. 7. This is the one I only have some of the parts needed. Fortunately, the two parts I'm missing are the parts that are installed toward the end. So I manage to get the job 97% done (in terms of time). I ordered the parts Wednesday, and they should have been in today. But.... apparently when the supply house says it'll be here Thursday, they mean Thursday night.... _after they close_.

But I did see something there I haven't seen in years.









For those of you who don't know... it's a _Walking Stick_. The ultimate in camouflage. Put it in a tree, and you'll never find it. Nor will its predators.

But dammit, he wasn't much help. Just clung to the siding like... well, a lump on a log. Chip off the ol' log, I guess.

Get done at 7PM, looking forward to a nice, tepid shower to cool off. Solar system gets turned on at 9 PM, and it scares the shit out me. My AC turns on. WTF? I never wired the AC to this jerry-rigged system. Besides, it only outputs 120v, not 240 the compressor needs. Then I notice the hall light on. And the kitchen light. And the bedroom light. And the yard light. Then I look down the street and see lights in the neighborhood windows.

YAY! I'm back in the 21st century!


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Friday.

Sometime during the night, I wake up when the AC finally kicks off. Fridge is still running. Seems to be taking a long time to cool back down. It then hits me.... I reset it's thermostat to the lowest level when the power went off and turned on the solar. This way it would cool down lower than 'normal' so it could stand without power for longer. I wearily drag my sorry ass out of bed, trudge out into the kitchen and reach in to restore the thermostat back to 8 instead of the 11 it was on. For some reason, 'Spinal Tap' came to mind.

I go back to bed and decide to sleep in past 6. Today's an easy day. Look at 2 more broken services, but they aren't critical. They still have power, but repairs must be made or else the utility will disconnect them. But in emergencies like this, they'll let 'em go longer than normal. Given no one has any parts anywhere to fix 'em with, we're just going to wait until next week and see how the overall repairs to the entire grid is going. No sense cutting them off then having them wait a week for a reconnect...... Leave 'em alone, then when the dust settles, schedule a disconnect/reconnect to get the repairs done.

This is pretty typical for these parts:









I roll up and immediately start swearing at the hack who installed this fluster-cluck. I guarantee there's a coupler buried in the soffit. If the hack had simply put the short piece of pipe on the bottom, and the full 10' stick on top, this would probably never happened. But, since he was a hack, I guess I'll make some serious scratch fixing it. Ammo? Freeze-dried food? Maybe a newer fridge that's more energy efficient. That's right... I got a nice stack of checks sitting on the dash. Ol' BPH is gonna go on a spending spree in a couple weeks.

By mid-morning the one part I needed arrived, so I headed to the supply house to pick it up. Then off to the customer's house and spend 10 minutes finishing that one up. Utility contacted for reconnect. 12:30 PM... time to go home.

Another tepid shower, get into some clean duds, and............ nap time. Wake up at 3:30, head up the street to the local pizza joint for a celebratory pizza. Damn, it tasted good. Warm milk on cereal and fast-food lunches get old fast.

And speaking of meals... when I bought my house, it had a gas stove in it. One thing I checked immediately is whether or not there was a valve in it that turned the gas off if the power goes out. It's old enough to not have this damned safety feature. So light a match, turn the knob, and I'm....... well....... cooking with gas. If I couldn't have done that, I'd have replaced it right away with an older model I could do that with. Glad I did because I was able to use the stove to heat up a quick meal, like a can of Campbell chickee-noodle soup..... the only thing I ate Wednesday. By that time, i was running on fumes. Me n heat don't get along. I can work like a dog when it's cold, even when it's 30 below. But damn... once it starts to get above 80, I start to slow down. Toss in any humidity, and I'm ready to call it a day.

So next week I'll start to get the parts to fix the next 3 services. Maybe more will come in as people call me. I don't advertise. No yellow pages, no paper placemats at the local diners, no radio/TV/billboards. Just word of mouth.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Don't need location BPH but what part of which State? Still trying to put together what areas got hit worse?

Glad to hear your solar backup saved the food stores. Are freezers/friges particular about type of inverter power they get? Can you hurt the compressor motor? I still need to work on that part of my preps. 

Interesting hearing about fixing things, what you had on hand, and what was hard to get. The gasoline payment/having cash on hand is another thing people overlook.

The oil lamp brought back memories of Grandparents farm where the power went out all the time. They were way off the beaten path and didn't get electric until the 1930s. They still had all the pre-grid equipment. 

Nice picture of the walking stick, I've seen them but probably overlooked many. Sort of like preying mantis here, you don't see them often. The matis are great to follow if you have an hour or two to see what they eat/do.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

So the takeaway is:

1: Dammit, folks, don't wait until shit like this happens to go down to Home Depot to buy a generator. Hell, by Wednesday they had huge signs out front screaming "WE'RE ALL OUT OF GENERATORS AND CHAIN SAWS!". Yet one woman didn't believe it. Walked in a demanded a generator. She was told all the local stores were out. She insisted they had some in back. Get a generator NOW if that's what you want. Buying one after a storm is NOT an original idea, unique to just you. Everyone and their uncle will be going out and buying one. Or, at least, trying to find one to buy. Just remember.... if the power's out at your place, it might be out at the gas station down the road as well. So you may be limited to burning the fuel you have on-hand.

2: Yes, there are ways to connect a generator to your house wiring so you don't need to run a cord through a door or windows and drag the cord from your fridge to your freezer to your sump pump to your furnace. But: When a storm hits, the parts needed to do that disappear like roaches when you turn the light on. If you want to install a power inlet and a manual transfer switch, do it NOW.

3. Yes, there are pad-mount generators large enough to run your entire house, including the hot tub. And they can even be fully automatic, turning on and switching over during a power outage or brown-out. But three things: A: They're expensive. _Very_ expensive. Like, _starting_ at $10,000..... and they go up from there. B: They're not a stock item. Most distributors have to order them from a central warehouse. And they're not small. They ship by flatbed. C: It's not something that can be installed in a day. It takes a lot of planning and coordination to make an install go smooth. Between the homeowner's needs and demands during the process, rebuilding your service to install the transfer switch, getting the pad poured, contacting the utility for disconnect and reconnect..... Then there's the permits, inspections etc. And let's not forget one thing: Odds are, your gas service won't provide enough pressure and flow to run the big ones. You're bringing in a new gas line from the street or propane tank. Money. Half my phone calls during this event were about this. Sorry, but it ain't gonna happen today, this week, even this month.

4. If you have a gas stove, can you light it with a match? If not, replace it... or have an alternate cooking method ready to go. Even if it's a 2-burner camp stove on a 1lb propane canister.

5. Cash. Have cash on hand. If I relied on plastic, I'd have been dead in the water, unable to buy gas to get all this done. I have cash in my pocket, I have cash between my phone and case, I have cash in both vehicles, I have cash in my BOB and GHBs, and I have cash at home. No, I'm not filthy rich and I don't light my cigars with Franklins. But I have more than enough to get me through a 76-hour power outage when the stores can't accept credit/debit.

6. If you _really, truly_ want to know how your power outage preps will work, go to your panel and turn off the main. See how long you'll go before you turn it back on. Mine got turned off for me, and I fared pretty damned well for 76 hours without the juice flowing.

My only casualty: About ¼-gallon of ice cream had gotten soft and separated out. Nothing in my fridge spoiled. . Nothing else in the freezer side was affected. All the frozen stuff in the chest freezer was still solid as a rock when the power came back on. I'm now watching my neighbors come home with hundreds of dollars of refrigerated and frozen goods, restocking what they had lost. Sadly, they'll lose it all again if the next power outage lasts more than 24 hours.

Since my solar system proved it's mettle, I'll start upgrading it a bit. Add more wattage up on the roof, and adding more batteries. That way, I (hopefully) won't have to manually nurse it every day. Switch it over, and let 'er rip. The capacity it built into my system. The charge controller can handle 1000 watts and I only have 80. So maybe tossing 400-600 up would be worth it. Another 4 or 6 batteries before the snow flies and I'd be in like Flynn.

This story has been brought to you by the letter D.

As in _DERECHO_.

.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Glad you escaped before we got the ransom money raised. Welcome back.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

@Mad Trapper: Get a Pure Sinewave inverter. With all the electronics in just about everything we own these days, it'll save it. Some electronics get fried with cheaper Modified Sinewave inverters. MSW units are fine for motors and filament light bulbs, but you run the risk of losing control boards in things. PSW is the way to go.

Size the system towards the _start-up_ power draw for any refrigeration you have (freezer, fridge etc). Motors take a lot of power to get turning, and compressor motors even more since they're fighting the pressure of the refrigerant lines. A fridge may run fine at 4 amps, but may take 30 or 40 amps for a fraction of a second to get started. Having too small of a supply system will drag the voltage down and it will take the motor much longer to start and get 'up to speed'. This overheats the motor and causes premature failure. Spend the money now to get enough capacity so your fridge and freezer compressors, your furnace fan motor, and your sump pump motor have what they need to get going.

My inverter is well over-sized: 4000 watts. At 120 volts, that's 33+ amps, plenty to get a household motor going.


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## paulag1955 (Dec 15, 2019)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Thursday. Nope, no power. If so, the AC kicking on would have woken me up.
> 
> Another day of drudgery. Turn on the solar system, have breakfast, turn it off, and out the door to another hot, dirty, sweaty, stinky job. I get the first one done fairly quickly, so I take a nice long lunch at a local cafe cooling off.
> 
> ...


Our youngest had one of these for a pet when she was little. It got HUGE!


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## paulag1955 (Dec 15, 2019)

Back Pack Hack said:


> @Mad Trapper: Get a Pure Sinewave inverter. With all the electronics in just about everything we own these days, it'll save it. Some electronics get fried with cheaper Modified Sinewave inverters. MSW units are fine for motors and filament light bulbs, but you run the risk of losing control boards in things. PSW is the way to go.
> 
> Size the system towards the _start-up_ power draw for any refrigeration you have (freezer, fridge etc). Motors take a lot of power to get turning, and compressor motors even more since they're fighting the pressure of the refrigerant lines. A fridge may run fine at 4 amps, but may take 30 or 40 amps for a fraction of a second to get started. Having too small of a supply system will drag the voltage down and it will take the motor much longer to start and get 'up to speed'. This overheats the motor and causes premature failure. Spend the money now to get enough capacity so your fridge and freezer compressors, your furnace fan motor, and your sump pump motor have what they need to get going.
> 
> My inverter is well over-sized: 4000 watts. At 120 volts, that's 33+ amps, plenty to get a household motor going.


If you have a modified sinewave inverter, is it safe to plug an electronic device into it if the device is powered down?


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

paulag1955 said:


> If you have a modified sinewave inverter, is it safe to plug an electronic device into it if the device is powered down?


Maybe, maybe not. Not all electronics are truly 'off' with no current flow. Consider your TV: it still uses power when 'off' so it can detect the remote signal to turn On.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> @Mad Trapper: Get a Pure Sinewave inverter. With all the electronics in just about everything we own these days, it'll save it. Some electronics get fried with cheaper Modified Sinewave inverters. MSW units are fine for motors and filament light bulbs, but you run the risk of losing control boards in things. PSW is the way to go.
> 
> Size the system towards the _start-up_ power draw for any refrigeration you have (freezer, fridge etc). Motors take a lot of power to get turning, and compressor motors even more since they're fighting the pressure of the refrigerant lines. A fridge may run fine at 4 amps, but may take 30 or 40 amps for a fraction of a second to get started. Having too small of a supply system will drag the voltage down and it will take the motor much longer to start and get 'up to speed'. This overheats the motor and causes premature failure. Spend the money now to get enough capacity so your fridge and freezer compressors, your furnace fan motor, and your sump pump motor have what they need to get going.
> 
> My inverter is well over-sized: 4000 watts. At 120 volts, that's 33+ amps, plenty to get a household motor going.


30 years ago, I lost a very good chainsaw sharpener , to a cheap inverter, it fried the motor. That's why I am very wary.

I


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Got out this morning in the nice cool weather and got the last of the limb chopped up. Small stuff disposed of, large stuff tucked away for seasoning into firewood.


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

Parts for busted-up services are trickling in again. Finished up the last repair that's on the schedule this morning. Tomorrow: Sleep in a bit, then hit the bank with all those checks.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> Maybe, maybe not. Not all electronics are truly 'off' with no current flow. Consider your TV: it still uses power when 'off' so it can detect the remote signal to turn On.


Well, that and they have to power the hidden camera and microphone so they can spy on you. :vs_laugh:


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Prepared One said:


> Well, that and they have to power the hidden camera and microphone so they can spy on you. :vs_laugh:
> 
> View attachment 107983


Well you may be joking, but I don't trust that ALEXA thing, it is always sending what it hears out.

Won't have any of those devices in here!


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## Back Pack Hack (Sep 15, 2016)

SOCOM42 said:


> Well you may be joking, but I don't trust that ELEXA thing, it is always sending what it hears out.
> 
> Won't have any of those devices in here!


People (ca 1972): "Sshhhh. Don't talk around the TV. It's listening to you!"
Same people (2020): "Hey, Siri! Will my dog eat spaghetti?"


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Back Pack Hack said:


> People (ca 1972): "Sshhhh. Don't talk around the TV. It's listening to you!"
> Same people (2020): "Hey, Siri! Will my dog eat spaghetti?"


The Siri/Alexa crap is all run by leftists.

Their "answers" are heavily biased, and yes the device "spies" on you.

First computer I got, with a camera, I put a piece of masking tape over it........

*YOU need to watch this!!! Funny but disturbing
*


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