Quite the Blow

[CuttingEdge]

We did not fare too well as the remnants of Hurricane Phillipe blew through Sunday Night (it is Friday as I type this) and we still do not have power, nor will we for awhile. I live on top of a big hill, not far from the ocean and yet looking westerly to Mt Washington 150 miles away...yeah a big hill. Our strongest gust lasted about 10 seconds and hit 80 mph. It blew two barn doors off, ripped the electric wire off the house to the pole, the telephone wire off from the house to the pole, the apple tree in the front yard, killed the power in all directions, and sent my trampoline sailing so far that I could not keep it from flying away and ended up parking the skidder on it to keep it anchored to the ground. Today the electric and phone company came, but while the rest of the street is lit up, having the wind rip the powerline down caused the transformer to blow to our home, so we are the only house on this road without power. Individual houses are not being hooked up until last so they are estimating maybe next week sometime. So we are running this house of 6 people on a 4000 watt generator!

Sadly I had to go to the Dr on Wednesday for a check up and got all bad news:

1) My recent surgery did cause a surgery site infection
2) I have cancer

Then I drive home to find out we will be in the dark for awhile...it was almost enough to make me say bad words.

[B Town]

God bless you. I wish I was your neighbor, I would be there and help whatever I could.. Bruce

[dtoots1]

second that!!! and third and fourth etc.....btown....

i too would get there in a heartbeat too and am sure so would a couple hundred others around a bouts this site.....ohio aint quite as far as iowayyyy

Bless You and Keep you safe.

keeping on sure do get a bit harder as we go on.....

Best to you and yours
dtoots1

[CuttingEdge]

We talked about getting a back up generator for awhile now, but I think we might actually go with a PTO generator like all the other farms use around here. We typically have more diesel fuel on hand then propane, and can get more of it easily. It sucks to put a lot of hours on your bulldozer/tractor just powering a generator, but how bad could it be right? What is the sense to have equipment if you cannot use it to provide for your family when the time comes?

It looks like a Generac propane generator would be about $3500 but a PTO generator of equal sized would be around $1500. It is not on demand and automatic, but I think it would be just fine.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Wow. A triple whammy. With a Twister from the sound of it. I am sorry to hear it.

The main thing I don't like about a PTO generator is you have to run the engine much harder (whatever your 540 PTO shaft speed is) than if it were a direct drive (1800 RPM). First you gear it down to 540, then gear it up to 1800.

For example, my JD 5103 with 3/179 needs to spin at 2400 to get 540 out. A 3/179 equipped genset runs at 1800.

Next comes the power control. The genset is electronic, reading the 60 Hz output of the generator and quickly compensates for load changes. The tractor compensates with the usual governor, but it takes a lot longer to respond. That makes some loads unhappy for both voltage and frequency shifts.

On top of that, if you are spinning a generator with a machine, you no longer have it available for other work. I usually need my stuff for cleanup work when our power is gone.

As far as the other news goes, Fight It Off. I still want a JD350D, but I have already said I don't want to buy it from your widow!

Stan

[CuttingEdge]

You are definitely the authority around here Stan regarding electricity, so you make some valid points. I do have a 6 Cylinder White Diesel engine with a hand clutch sitting on an engine stand waiting for something to do, but I think powering a genset would be slightly overkill! (It is here to repower an old 48 inch rotary Lane sawmill, but I think it has sawn its last board diesel engine or not).

I did as much clean up work as they would let me, but the power company was not impressed with my efforts to help them. We all knew the power was off the lines so we went around pushing trees off with the skidder until a Supervisor came by and advised us against it. That is putting it mildly, apparently they like their overtime because there is no way a person is going to get hurt shoving trees off powerlines with a skidder! I got a dozen off the lines before the jerks stopped me though, and yet they wonder why our electric rates are some of the highest in the country!

[Lavoy]

lots of PTO generators around here, have been since I was a kid. The one I used to have was made in the 50's or so. I have a new 12KW in the shed now, have not had to use it yet, but isn't that sometimes the idea. Usually you are only going to need a generator for a short while other than an odd situation like you have now. PTO is by far the biggest bang for your buck, and 12KW will pretty much run the whole house as long as you don't have or use any large resistance heat loads.
We used to run a PTO grand dryer and puts hundreds and hundreds of PTO hours on tractors sitting stationary. Much, much easier on them running in the field.
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

Really sorry to hear this CuttingEdge- you seem like a really nice guy. I will say this- I have a number of friends and family with cancer right now and depending on the type can have a good prognosis. I'll add you to my prayers.

Gary (Tigerhaze)

[CuttingEdge]

Well we are still in the dark as long as you consider candles, kerosene lanterns, and the small generator we use as dark. We saw some tree trimmers come by today, but our issue is not trees on the lines anymore, but actual transmission line issues. In my case a blown out transformer. This makes day 8.

The only tough part is it takes so long to do anything that I don't get to the stuff I need to do, like cut wood! It does not help that our sheep are off pasture now and in the barn so there is a lot more work in doing that. No sitting back watching fluffy white balls of wool, eat green grass, deposit black pellets and miraculously make red meat. Nope now we must push the green stuff in front of their faces, add some blue stuff to a container, and scrape away the black stuff behind them.

[Lavoy]

Everyone here is thinking of you, but I know that doesn't feed sheep. Wish I was closer to help you.
Lavoy

[CuttingEdge]

I appreciate that Lavoy, that was kind of you.

We are okay though, the power company got the power back on today. It seems the line crew kept seeing that we were out of power, but the Supervisor knew the line crew had been here on Wednesday so he thought it was a clerical error so they ignored it.

They flipped the transformer on and it sounded like someone was welding in my smart meter. When the wires had come down from the pole to the house, it ripped them out of the smart meter so it was arcing inside the mast. That was what tripped the transformer off.

The funny part was, the guy said, "you don't have any spare meter parts do you", and I was like, "Yeah I got two you can rob parts off." He was shocked, "You do", he said? He later said he asked that to a bunch of homeowners and I was the only one that actually had the parts on hand. I keep all that stuff kicking around. I got a few spare mast heads just in case...

[dtoots1]

mast heads huh?????

where the rest of the ship? just to light it up a bit..

[CuttingEdge]

Shivering here...mast heads were made of aluminum on the ships I built (US Navy Destroyers) and aluminum is not fun to weld. We would have to crawl up inside these tiny, shiny masts and fry our skin, hair and eyes from the bright light, but when there is only 300 ships protecting 300 million people on all 7 seas, you do what you must have to do!

I welded a lot of ships, and a lot of parts on ships: rudders, masts, missile silos, engine rooms, etc in my ship building career, but of them all, welding on Frame One of the USS Zumwalt was my proudest endeavor. This is the bow of the latest Zumwalt Class attack class US Destroyer and is quite a ship. But when you weld a bow that could see 50 foot seas, or battle, it has to be right. It never left me that 167 sailors were aboard this ship and their lives depended on some of the welds I made.

Sadly I cannot continue the light hearted conversation regarding mastheads though, whether on ships or the start of a electrical connection on a home. It seems cancer might have spread to my liver now. It is not a death sentence per se, but the plot thickens for sure. 2017 has NOT been a good year for me.

[dtoots1]

cutting edge,

dag nab it who we gonna be able to pick on????

Just so you know.....everyone on this board will surely and sorely miss having you when that time comes....not enough is said to those that are suffering through all the additional trials and tribulations that sickness entails......let alone those that we experience simply going through life.

I have been handicapped with a hearing loss since i was 6 years old...have worn many many hearing aids first only 1 ear then 2 ears and now the 1 is totally gone and the last is on the strongest made aid there is...nearly 70 years now..lYou would not believe the kinds of people that make fun of anyone that is different...i had regional managers at a major trucking firm hollering snide remarks and making fun of my hearing, clear across our working dock with over 50 - 60 people working and numerous clients with them.....ignorance can only be ignored..which is what i did and do

I want to wish you and yours the best of all things.....if there is anything any of us can do to help....let us know

and THANK YOU for being you
dtoots1

[Lavoy]

Easy for me to say, but fight it, and everyone here wishes you the best and keep you in our thoughts and prayers.
Lavoy