Ice Storm 2008

It is now Tuesday night. Last Thursday, we got an ice storm that knocked out power to half the State of New Hampshire. What an adventure we have been on, because if you are "cityfolk", you don't realize what happens when you lose power in the winter....let me explain: Your loss of electricity means a loss of heat and water, since you can't pump water from your well. This means no showers, no dishes, no flushing the toilet, no nothing!!!

Luckily for us, we were able to maintain heat in the house by running non-stop our propane fireplace and all 4 burners on our gas stove. We also burned wood in the fireplace at night to take the chill out of the air. Erica and I stayed up two ngihts in a row to keep the heat going (since you don't want to let it run unattended). We washed our dishes with windex, and we dressed the boys up in 4 layers for bed so they would stay warm. By Sunday we had to throw out all of our food in the fridge as it had spoiled. Lots of neighbors had generators, we did not. Generators were actually hard to come by.....here is how we found one:

I put my name on a list at Home Depot and I got a call Monday night telling me I had a generator with my name on it in Plaistow, if I still wanted it. $800 later, I was the proud owner of one. Although I knew the end was near for this storm, there will be another to take its place, so I consider the generator to be a good investment. Next month I plan to hire an electrician to wire my house so that in the event of another storm, I can simply plug the generator into a box in my garage and it will automatically generate power for my well, furnace, sump pump, frig, and a few outlets around the house. At least then I can rest assured that THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!!!! You can't put a price on that guarentee!