We had a small snow-sleet event today. Around 4:15pm the power went out. I decided
to implement our basic emergency management plan.... I rolled the generator outside
and flipped the sub-panel from shore power to the generator. That provides basic power
for the fridge, well pump, furnace and a few lights and outlets in a couple of spots
in the house. Nothing fancy but enough to live on.

We took this as an opportunity to go out for supper. (We could have cooked on the
grill or done something else if needed.)

Our builder laughed at us for putting in a generator sub-panel and having a few of
the circuits moved around. He response was that the power never goes out. --Yeah,
right. The power has gone out several times in the 2.5 years that we have been at
the new house. We bought the generator this summer when we had longer power outage
after some big storms rolled through. (We had the panel but did not own a generator
that was compatible with our new home... go figure.)

I wish that we had spent the money when we built the house and bought one of the automatic
cut over systems to have everything on the generator system. Then the generator
would run on the big LP bottle that feeds our whole house.

Overall we can survive here during the standard kind of emergencies as long we can
top of the gas cans once in a while. It probably points out that we should stock up
our food shelves a little more and think through a bigger plan.

If you have a plan the chances are that you will not need to execute on it... if you
don't have a plan Mr Murphy will force you to make plan to execute.