Smartie's Bar & Grill #74

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Why ?

 

Yeah , I'll get up when I feel like it. Maybe I'll even run for president ...

 

Propane. When we bought our place the HVAC unit was hooked up to a 500 gallon tank of propane so we hooked the generator up to that, too. If the tank is full (400 gals.) we could live off the grid for weeks, especially with our portable sharing the workload.

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Personally I’d feel more comfortable with propane anyway. They always say the natural gas supply is virtually unaffected by disasters or weather but I don’t want my backups to be dependent on others. On propane you control your own destiny.

I avoid that by hooking my generator into my breaker box. After disconnecting from the grid of course!

Good point.

 

We are planting just common run of the milll stuff. Nothing fancy except some sweet candy onions or candy sweet onions whatever.

 

Planting season is two weeks in on potatoes. We are late. The middle of Feb. is potato planting time down here. You just have to ask the natives. February 14 is not just Valentine’s Day it is potato planting day.. who knew?

 

Does those things you plant realize how you are minimizing their
role in nature.I mean,if grass can grow and like - Hud - { 1964 }
mentioned his brother once explaining to him on a late night
out boozing .. Claiming he could actually hear the grass grow.
When falling down drunk on the grass { used as if a pillow }.
BTW ... be careful of Onions.They are not goot for health.
My proof.Unlike chocolate { Dark Chocolate over 60% Cocoa }
which is good for one but almost deadly for Pets.
Same with Onions.Give a dog an onion and it will make them
very sick.

 

Maybe so but not when the ground is Froze solid.

 

He likes broccoli and it is good for you!

 

Stand in a corn field on a still night and you can hear the.corn grow. It has a quiet crunching sound.

 

I liketh Broccoli also.I remember back in the late 80's and
early 90's when my Old Man's estate had a nice vegetable garden.
And each year w/o planting spring *asparagus and spring broccoli
would pop up.Smaller and slighter but more tender.
If there is such a meaning as " more tender ".
Me Posts range from More less tender to kinda tender.
Y'know like Elvis's First flick - Love Me Tender - { 1956 }.

Cuz it's one them Perennials.

 

Corn I can and do easily avoid.I refuse to eat Corn Chips.
Because ALL Corn { it took a few decades } is Verifiably GMO
enhanced.I also gave up Tomatoes.They enhance arthritis like
big time.A lot of the foods we take for granted are the ones causing
problems.Like Beans.The last time I had beans was a can of Lentil
soup.I payed for it that night.Your body will confirm for you what
agrees with it.One of my Neighbors from Cleveland { My best friends
younger brother } was a Doritos addict.Ate then every day.
He suffered colitis for years but still would not give up eating them
He went to doctors and took meds until finally he had to get an
operation.The one where ... I don't like talking about this kind of
operation.But he had it.He Had incurable Crohn's Disease.
Because he refused to stop eating Corn Chips { Doritos }.
Sugar is also terrible for the body.
Now I'll stop lecturing.

 

So beautiful! Our Nimbus was black everywhere but his belly. He passed from cancer, poor lil' fella. He was young. We miss him; he was special. This was taken during his "I sleep on the toys," phase.

 

I heard corn grow once. I lived in Indiana. Haven't heard it since. It is an almost spiritual experience. Happened to me in wet weather.... at home...

 

I never learned how to hook up a generator to the breaker box. How do you do that?

 

First you have to have a way to disconnect grid service for safety of others. There are approved and unapproved methods I won’t discuss because I’ve done stuff I would never recommend to others, but disconnection from the grid at the meter is best.

Then I disconnect both phases coming into the breaker box and cap them for safety. Then I just hook one phase (it’s a 220V generator) from the generator to each side of the breaker box that I just disconnected the grid phases from. My old generator only has a neutral so it gets hooked to the neutral bar in the breaker box. My newer generator also has to have a ground in addition to the neutral, so that goes to the ground in the box.

Start the generator with all breakers in the off position and then you can manage load by turning breakers on and off. No cords all over and switching cords around to different appliances etc.

When going back to grid do everything in reverse order, working from the breaker box back to the meter. However you disconnected from the grid, when reconnecting, I suggest making sure all your breakers are off and there are no potential loads that will draw current when you reconnect to the grid.

Oh, I just bought the correct male end to fit my generator 220V outlet and made a pigtail of heavy gauge wire long enough to reach from my breaker box to an outside area suitable for my generator.

 

Sorry to hear about your little buddy, CA - my condolences.

Bombays are great cats. We had one who miraculously managed to live to 18 and when he died five years ago I insisted on getting another one. We rescued her and her brother - who looks like a long-haired gray tabby - from the SPCA in Richmond and then dragged them out here to become redneck cats:



BFFs

They were kittens when I took that pic, and don't be deceived by their attempt to look cute - they've grown into stone cold killers. Which is actually a good thing. When we moved out here we had a serious Copperhead problem but after those two wiped out their food supply (field mice) around the house they've gotten real scarce. I feel bad for the mice but we're all safer for it.

 

I've pondered the option of direct hook up.. and I've decided the number of devices I'll be using emergency power for is so few, I just use my many extension cables.\
BUT! to attempt an answer off the cuff:
A cut-off breaker between the power company line and your breaker box would be the first thing I'd look for. I don't have one, it's not code here.. if fact, come to think of it, there isn't much in the way of code here anyway. once you confirm there is no power past the cutoff, run a direct connection to the generator from the the house's breaker box.

 

Thanks. I'm glad I asked - that's a lot more complicated than I expected. Had I listened to what some yo-ho's have told me God knows what would have happened. They made it sound like it was as easy as running a 220 line from the generator into a 220 line in the house, and I always suspected that was too good/simple to be true.

 

Thanks, Todd - I'll have to check that out.

 

LOL.. yeah in an extended emergency I'd just pull the meter off too.. Just ordered a dual fuel 10000KW unit, I've never operated one before, and I intend to push it off, in the box, to one side until I need it. Any suggestions 557?

 

My first cat, eons ago, cured our mouse problem in a matter of days. The house was infested.

 

Cat photos?
They were very effective animal control vectors.. haven't seen them in awhile, have seen the feral cats the cat lady feeds running across by back porch (actually it was sauntering) and all over, but I'd say my little acreage is attractive hunting spot.

 

Oh that works but it kills power company workers because you aren’t disconnected from the grid.

 

Assuming you have a similar system as in the UK with an RCD breaker on the consumer unit.
You could just switch off the RCD and this will completely isolate you from the Grid. Then you could put a plug on the outlet from the generator and plug it in any socket. This would loop up through the consumer board and supply all your property.
In the UK socket circuits are 240V at 13amp so provided your generator was less than 3,000 watts you are fine.
Safety wise you should put an RCD between the generator and the plug. Many outside sockets come with this facility.

 

Sounds like what a faulty relay in an older Volkswagon { VoltsVagen }
can reduce a car to.I'm talking a mere relay,before computers were
installed in cars.You jump start a car the wrong way today { a car made the
last 20 years } and you will probably have a computer problem.Especially
when jump starting two cars,while both alternators are running.