After the initial shock and assessment of damages, it becomes time to maintain and manage what's still intact and necessary - ie FOOD and WATER!!
My husband Bob initially set up our one running generator to supply our house with power - mostly to keep our refrigerator and freezers running.
We did not hook up to the power panel in the house, but ran power cords out the windows to the generator running in the front yard, but by day two the animals needed fresh water and our well pump is located at the original house 700 FEET down the driveway, which meant toting the VERY heavy and awkward machine (with NO WHEELS!) back and forth through the fallen debris every day on a two wheeled garden cart!
To make matter worse, the well pump was quite inaccessible; our normal walkways buried in fallen trees!
So over the barbed wire fence we went!
Hooking up the generator initially was no easy matter. Minimal length power cords are ideal for lack of power loss, but the closest we could get with the genny was approximately 60 feet away with a 12 guage, 220 Romex wire.
The generator had been used only once or twice in the past 20 years so the fuel system was not at its most efficient! In other words, only Bob could keep it running with a piece of wire and baling string to hold the throttle open, while I ran to and from each of the water spigots to fill the 15+ tanks of water scattered throughout each of the many animal pens. It was no small task considering that 2 freezers at this end of the farm had to be plugged in with 150 feet of extension cords to refreeze them. This took a minimum of 4-5 hours of running time every other day as we alternated between houses.
Continually, throughout our ordeal we found so many things to be thankful for:
Just 4 days before the storm, Bob had finished building a new breeding pen for the goats. It was the only fenced pen that remained intact afterwards.
and....
OUR NEW MILKING BARN WAS SPARED!!!
I began to journal two days after Hurricane Michael. This is what I wrote:
Friday, October 12, 2018
I feel so good - so at peace. 6:30 PM we just finished netting most of the debris out of the swimming pool, so we're clean and refreshed. The fear is gone and though it's overwhelming I am RIDICULOUSLY OPTIMISTIC!!
Today we:
*worked on 2nd generator
*penned loose goats
*fixed collapsed wall in milking barn
*had chix salad sandwiches with Brad and Jamie (dear neighbors)
*called family
*powered up our fridge and freezers
*cut trees in driveway
Left the key on in the truck so the battery is dead, but we'll fix that once we can get down the driveway.
Bulb broke on chainsaw but we have a second
Found chainsaw sharpener
*The stars are AMAZING - There are absolutely no lights from anywhere!
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