8-24-09 Grid or no Grid, that was the question??

Transformer and Service Panel

Service Panel waiting for completion

I don’t know about you but I think that this is THE question for these modern prepping  ages. We went round and round on this issue for over a year. Should we? Shouldn’t we? Solar seems to be becoming more and more viable  but still quite expensive and we wouldn’t be there full time to monitor the condition of everything. What to do, we can’t be reliant on “the system” but we do want those stinkin luxuries you know! Well we went ahead and took the easy road and sold out to BIG POWER… It isn’t actually big power, its SMALL POWER and I am very happy with the result but still not comfortable with the reliance on the system. We do however have the standard back up options with a Honda  standby generator but I will go into this generator backup issue at greater length in an upcoming post. So now we have made the decision to go ahead and work with the devil. This deceptively nice young man came out to the property and had a look around. He was going to do all the calculations to determine the costs of bringing the power in from the road.  Now, I had already measured the distance that I thought would be required to run the line in. However, his number came in more than 100 feet different? With the rate being $10 bucks a foot at that… What the heck? “Well you know that if we were to bring the line in the way you thought we would”, basically straight up the driveway, “all kinds of horrific things could happen!” After hearing a more realistic explanation on these untold “Horrors” that I might expect, we went ahead and used his plan. It really wasn’t a conspiracy, you know us wacky preppers of doom always believe in those, it was going to be better for some of the large trees in the path and he was trying not to have to disturb their roots. Something about possible large boulders and dynamite being additional considerations as well as a considerable extra expense helped to strengthen going with his plan too! Now, don’t get me wrong I might have paid a little extra to see the whole dynamite thing but with my luck I’d sit around all week waiting and then they’d blow it off when I ran to find the toilet paper or something? So, we had a meeting of the minds and came to an agreement on how the line would run and when he thought they would get it all completed. All that was left was to write another large check… I know, I know – coulda gone along way toward the true independence that we were seeking by putting it into a solar system! Well, I know by now your thinking this prepper guy isn’t for real, spending all this money on grid power? I’m for real and haven’t completely sold out but I’m really for real with having to work inside a budget just like the majority of everyone else… While I wish I had unlimited funds to build this uber retreat all decked out with the latest prep finery but as you will discover I am actually trying to pay as I go and get it done as economically as possible. The next post will be a real tear jerker when I tell you about my experiences with the DEEP DARK HOLE of independence!

Prepper