I love Generators!
I've been reading a lot about the ice storm in the east, but they haven't
said much about what it did here in Michigan. In just the single state we
had over 100,000 without power.
At any rate, Thursday afternoon was light rain, turning to freezing rain
with high winds forecast for late evening through most of Friday. I had
gone out to the generator shed and warmed up the generator, topped off the
tank, and checked the oil Wednesday, just-in-case.
At 6:15 PM the lights went out but came right back on. That is when many in
the county lost power, however our luck didn't hold as about an hour later
it got really dark in here. I fired up the generator, plugged in the
_big_heavy extension cord, and threw the transfer switch a couple minutes
later. (I gotta hard wire that thing in as that extension cord darn near
needs two to carry it.)
The cable (internet and TV) held out until about 11:30 to 12:00 midnight.
When my wife called Consumers the expected "power on" was for 11:30 PM on
Sunday. They had it back on at 11:30 PM Friday, but the cable came back on
Saturday around midnight which was about 2 hours ago. (With hardly any one
using the cable I sure am getting some good download times )
At any rate, I had the antennas pointed east with the expectation for
easterly winds and with that expected load of ice up there I wanted it
pointed into the wind. It appears that the antennas are going to stay
pointed east until we get a nice warm day to melt the ice as I can only get
the thing to move a degree or two. We only received about a quarter inch of
ice, but it was enough to take out the power to a major portion of Midland
County. OTOH we can be thankful the winds never materialized. They had
been forecasting 35 MPH winds with gusts to 50 or 60 MPH.
Fortunately I was lucky. Although the Weather channel was showing all of
lower Michigan with winds over 35 MPH and higher gusts it was virtually dead
calm all day Friday. We did have a little wind early Friday morning which
almost cost me dearly. Although not strong it still blew the door to the
small generator shed, shut. The generator is air cooled. About 2:00 AM I
thought I heard the generator bark. I grabbed my coat and headed for the
door when the lights went out. The inside of the generator shed was so hot
you could not lay your hand on anything in there. Apparently the gas in the
carburetor float bowl was boiling and that shut it down. That was a good
thing as it had gotten so hot it blew nearly all of the oil out of the crank
case. It took a quart and a half to fill a two quart system.
I found some concrete blocks to prop the shed door open and after a short
cool down, crossed my fingers and hit the starter. It started right up and
did so without blowing a lot of oil smoke. In fact it ran for another 22
1/2 hours without having to add oil.
I ran a heavy extension cord into the shop (not as heavy as the one to power
the whole house) and tied it into the shop furnace so I at least had heat
out there, but it was too dark even in the day time to operate the rig out
there.
I was going to fill the gas cans Friday morning, but the highway was glare
ice. My neighbor was going in to get something to eat, but the car ahead of
them lost control, crossed the centerline and took another head on. They
turned around and came home. By afternoon the main roads were in pretty
good shape, but every gas station had long lines with most of the business
going into gas cans.
We only had a quarter inch of ice on the trees and antennas but there was 3
to 4 inches of wet slush on the ground and roads. With the cold temps it's
still there, but it's no longer slush. Currently it's just above zero.
At least the antennas are whole if some what immobile, we had heat, food,
and I did get in a little on-the-air time. Considering a lot of people ended
up in shelters and are coming home to frozen pipes I'm quite happy the only
problem is the stuck antennas.
73
Roger (K8RI) It sure is pretty out there though.
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