Another Ice Storm!

[Bret4207]

Wah! Just getting unfroze from another 3-4 days with no power. Never got my Christmas shopping done, daughters house still froze up, can't move in the fields to get hay. Fun, fun, fun. A late Christmas greeting to you all.

[s mac]

Been there, done that. Make the best of it, happy New Year.

[Randy C]

Sorry to here of this happening to anybody especially during the holidays, We have always used our 5000 watt generator It will run the propane boiler furnace and I would rotate a extension cord from the fridge to the freezer we would cook on Colman camp stove and use lanterns in some places. I have a port potty and bottled water.

[sundog]

Yessir, spent part of Christmas day here clearing downed limbs and rebuilding fence. No power outage but some neighbors did. Had to chainsaw my way into my sister's place Sunday past.

[bangerjim]

Well.......here in AZ, I was out back and picked oranges and tangerines for breakfast. I have 2 tangerine, a tangelo, 4 orange, and a grapefruit......all just loaded this year! Temps in the low 40's at night and high 60's daytime. Shoveling sunshine is a bear.

I feel for you folks back in that mess. Was in MI for 14 years and had ice power outages many times up to 6 days long! Had a 400 foot driveway to the highway and had to plow at least twice a day many days.

Yes it is hot in the summer, but ice & snow are much worse. And 112F does not break trees and power lines and create slick roads.

Good luck with the weather. Hope everybody is safe and (eventually) warm.

banger

[WILCO]

Wah! Just getting unfroze from another 3-4 days with no power. Never got my Christmas shopping done, daughters house still froze up, can't move in the fields to get hay. Fun, fun, fun. A late Christmas greeting to you all.

Hang tough Bret! Keep us posted.

[snowwolfe]

Time to have a transfer switch and a 7,500 watt generator with battery start installed and ready to go.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Lost my power Sat. night at 10 pm. Still no edison restored power! Got a whole house generator sucking out my propane pig tank by running this long. Maybe Midnight on the 28th they tell me now. Area looks like a war zone after a bombing raid with all the busted trees. What`s that famous line????? "I`m tooooo OLD for this s**t!Robert

[Garyshome]

Have to have a generator!!!!!!!

[Charley]

Yep, you fellers up north are sure feeling that "global warming is settled science" BS.

[s mac]

Haven't you noticed, when we have extreme cold it goes from global warming to climate change BS.

[w5pv]

I was going to suggest that you get Al(the Internet inventor)Gore to change the weather that he believes in,Feel for you guys we had a ice storm here in the far south during the middle 90's we were out of electricity for eight days and ran on generator and wood heat.The wife was able to do a little cooking on the stove top using one or two small burners.

[Dan Cash]

Sorry to here of this happening to anybody especially during the holidays, We have always used our 5000 watt generator It will run the propane boiler furnace and I would rotate a extension cord from the fridge to the freezer we would cook on Colman camp stove and use lanterns in some places. I have a port potty and bottled water.

You must be from the warm part of ND. It got so cold here in the Bad Lands that the out house froze up and we had to use the indoor facilities.

[Bret4207]

Oh, I had the gen going. Little 3500 watt Honda ran 20 hours straight before I could get the big 25Kw PTO unit out of the shed. We did 15 days without power in the 98 Ice Storm in sub zero F temps. A little 7500 watt unit isn't big enough for the house and the barn. I had to shunt between the house and barn with the Honda, turning all the non-essential stuff off. It just took a lot of work to get the big unit out- a mistake I plan to rectify.

Hardcast- I feel for ya. I was really surprised our mainline came on as fast as it did. Thoughts and prayers headed your way!

Couple things I learned this go 'round-

Coleman stoves and lanterns are great, but a Dietz No 8 Air Pilot Lantern is a lot less trouble to use and is far better than most Walmart type oil lamps. I plan on getting 4-5 more and replacing a couple of the non-air blast types I used this time around.

http://www.lanternnet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=DL

Putting things off is a real bad habit of mine. I just rush from crisis to crisis here. I have GOT to get some things better organized. I'm too old to be doing those 16 hour work days anymore. Got to start working smarter!

[MtGun44]

Hang in there Bret. I am surprised that the wick type lanterns are working
well. In my experience, the Coleman 200 puts out about 10 times the light,
but does need to be refilled every 4-6 hours. Never saw any kerosene
other than the mantle type from Aladdin that put out much useful light. The
Aladdin wick-mantle types are great, but getting the wick trimmed and set perfectly
is tricky, and if off, it carbons up the mantle to black coal. The lack of the
loud hiss of the Coleman lanterns is wonderful when they are running right.

http://www.aladdin-us.com/site/1627880/product/Christmas%20Lamp

Coleman doesn't make good lanterns anymore, but they are available on eBay
for reasonable prices. The Model 200A (Red) is great, and the dual mantle
220 is a little brighter, but certainly not double. Mod 220s are often far cheaper
than Mod 200A.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-COLEMAN-LANTERN-200-A-DATED-2-73-RED-/360818862128?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item54027ae830

The absolute best ones are the rare Model 202 Pro, same as the Mod 200 but
nickel plated tank and green top, has all stainless parts and ceramic mounts for
the mantles. These were made for serious backwoods year round living
where the brass and steel parts for the camping lanterns wouldn't stand
up to the long term heat and corrosion. Very hard to find and usually
expensive. Nickel plate tanks don't corrode like the steel ones. I'd bet
that the 202 Professional models are fairly common in backwoods Canada
and Alaska.

Hondas of any form are wonderful machines.

Bill

[crowbuster]

You are not alone bret, a lot of us have a tendency to put things on the back burner. I am tryin to get better as well. Hope things are better.

[MT Gianni]

Heres hoping that the ice storm abates.

[bruce drake]

Glad to hear that you and the farm are getting back to normal Bret.

Those Deitz Lanterns are very good and dependable. From our time in the North Country, we still have 6 oil table lamps, 2 oil lanterns and 2 gallons of oil in the garage in case of power outages. Its amazing how much heat can come from just the lamps alone when they are all lit up in a few rooms in the evenings. I also second the use of a wood stove. When the power is out, that nice elcetric furnace I have in the house won't work no matter how much I look at it and turn the switch. A match, some kindling and a good stack of firewood in the back shed will help offset things until "civilization" returns after an ice storm...

[Bret4207]

The Dietz are fine for area lighting, far better IMO than typical oil lamps. My mom had an Aladdin at one time, don't know what became of it. Aladdins are incredibly expensive to buy and maintain from what I've seen. "Investment" is the word that comes to mind.

The Colemans are great, don't get me wrong. I have one with the spark igniter that's a peach. Have a couple more that need rebuilding. The best of the lot in our area used to be the kerosene model, the one you had to pre-heat. Those seemed to put out a lot more light, but maybe that's my memory playing tricks.

Going to be interesting at the next Town Board meeting. One of the members is a former NYC Democrat guy that's got it in his head our little township of 880 souls needs a Town owned "Emergency Shelter". He's already picked out the old Grange hall as the site. The fact we have no money, that the Grange hall isn't for sale and that no one else has any interest in it whatsoever doesn't seem to phase him at all. Can't wait to see what he comes up with now!

[blackthorn]

The old Coleman double mantel lamps (not lanterns) can be run on "white gas" (Coleman fuel) BUT you have to be VERY careful when lighting them!! With the Kerosene you pre-heated the generator using the little cup that slid down over the generator body, filled with alcohol. Once the alcohol was mostly burned up you just turned on the Kerosene and the lamp would come on as brite as can be. With the Coleman fuel you turn on the fuel and quickly turn it off while holding a lit match close to the generator body. The gas will ignite and flare up. Let it burn almost out and give it another shot of fuel (on-off). When the generator is hot enough the mantels will come on and you are safe to turn the fuel control knob to full-on. The first time(s) you try this you may want to do it outside because you will likely get a 6 foot flame off the top of the lamp! I know I did and it is a bit scary, especially since the lamp was sitting on the kitchen table at the time. Once you master the trick of getting them going all is well. I started doing this in 1965 and have done it this way ever since.

[MtGun44]

Bret,
No doubt that the Aladdins are very expensive, and the wick trimming and setting is tricky, too. To me
the biggest advantage is that they are silent.

I'll have to look into those Dietz kerosene lamps, altho I have an old Onan 2 cyl genset for emergencies
and we are right next to a high line with our transformer on the pole and underground to the house, so
probably less likely to be out of power in most outages.

Best wishes. I can fix Coleman lanterns if you need any assistance on that front. If you ever see a nickel
tank single mantle Coleman, see if it is a 202 model, if so grab onto it. Best ones they ever made. There
are kerosene ones with the nickel tanks, too, I think they were 201s and 242s, but my memory is fuzzy.

Bill

[BruceB]

Very true, about using EXTREME caution when lighting the Coleman gas lamps.

They were our main source of light in those exploration camps which didn't have generators.....which was most of them. The lamps were ALWAYS taken outside the tent or cabin for lighting.... ALWAYS.

I recall one day that we put a two-man camp onto Keith Island on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.... about 90 miles down the lake from our Yellowknife base. No sooner did I get back to the office in town, than I got a rather frantic radio call from that new camp. Seems that they had somehow "forgotten" the ten-gallon drum of lamp/stove gas. No gas....no light, no cooking.

I had to charter a Cessna 185 JUST to fly that ten gallons of fuel out there. That gas probably cost about $90 per gallon by the time we laid it down at the camp........but, they HAD to have it!