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Power's Back!

Writer's picture: Rich and Shelley McGlamoryRich and Shelley McGlamory


Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 19 July 2023…

Hey Y’all!


Good evening and happy Wednesday from Air2Ground Farms! It was a hot one again today, heat advisory for index of 106. The humidity was way up there! The electricity came back on around 0730 this morning. About 40 hours without power is special on a farm! We’ve had episodes without power in the past. In Enid, OK winter of 2001/2 there was a really bad ice storm that had us without power for about 3 days. We had a fireplace, gas stove, and gas hot water heater with city water. We were set! We cooked in the fireplace and took hot baths to warm up. In the winter of 2017 in Fairfax VA, there was a winter windstorm that left us without power again for about 3 days. We had a fireplace but were on a well so didn’t have water. We had plenty of bottled water and stayed warm by and cooked in the fireplace. Even with kids, those episodes were…well…not that bad. When the power went off Monday afternoon during a huge thunderstorm, we expected it to be back soon, Tuesday morning at the latest. We milked the cows by hand, which they weren’t very happy about but tolerated. We have a well so had no water, but all of the animals have troughs so we knew they would be good until morning. Tuesday morning when we heard the power lines were down about a mile from us, we knew this was going to take a while. So, we got the generators going, swapping around to keep freezers and fridges running. We had to go to town to get supplies so I could make a cord to power our well pump with one of the generators. We filled the cans with gas and diesel. We were able to get the well pump running on the generator and began filling every container we could find with water. Lots for us and tons for the animals. I was able to slowly add 1 fridge/freezer at a time to the other generator until we had 11 freezers and 3 fridges all running on it and it maintained 120 volts! For the sake of the grass, we moved the flerd to a new paddock, which involved taking up the last paddock and building the new one. They didn’t fuss about the move and it went well. We took a lukewarm shower with the remaining hot water and called it a quiet night. As we were getting ready to go crank the well generator this morning, the power came back on. As far as experiences with power outages goes, this one was by far the most difficult. Concern for the animals getting water in this heat was utmost on our mind. We’ve decided to look into solar/wind for the well. What were the impacts of the storm? We lost quite a few trees. Our biggest/oldest oak fell across our lane onto a high-tensile fence. It looks like the wire stretched so will be ok when we figure out how to get the massive trunk off of it. One tree fell through a 5-strand barbwire fence. One tree missed our RV and pump house by about 20 feet when it fell. The trampoline was probably damaged beyond repair as it flipped and rolled across the pasture until it tangled in poultry netting. The grills were tossed off of the porch into the drive causing mostly cosmetic damage. We found out today that a tornado touched down about 5 miles from us and are pretty sure we had some swirling winds here. We had to give all of the milk to the lambs and pigs because we had no hot water to sanitize the equipment. We had no damage to structures, even the milk barn we built out of pallets! Of course, one of our beef cows had a calf Monday night and they are in a pasture by themselves for a minute since the lane we would use to move them is housing the big oak tree. We’ll get them rejoined with the herd through another gate sometime soon. Today, we put things back together, moving fridges and freezers back into place, rolling up cords, etc. We also made it to the garden to pick since it had been a few days. It took us hours! Loads of tomatoes, jalapeños, cucumbers, green beans, and even some full broccoli! Hopefully, life will be back to “normal” tomorrow after a good night’s sleep tonight. Thank you to all of you that had thoughts and prayers for us!


Cheers!

Psycho & Shelley

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rcgable
rcgable
20 juil. 2023

FYI…I got a quote for a system for the farm. Your well may be a lot less. Look here lots of savings…chat me if you wanna talk more


https://www.rd.usda.gov/inflation-reduction-act/rural-energy-america-program-reap

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Invité
20 juil. 2023
Noté 5 étoiles sur 5.

Omg you guys are unreal. How it all came out and y’all preserved. . Wow. Didn’t y’all build a fireplace in this house? I have gone through several hurricanes and the fireplace was great’ have been without power also several times once in Mississippi for 5 days. Was awful. I was working as a home health nurse and it was a real nightmare for me and my patients. I understand. You guys are amazing people! No wonder Susu and Russ love ya! Katheryn Patrick aka Susies sissy

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En réponse à

We do have a wood burning stove in the house. Thank you for the kind words!

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Invité
20 juil. 2023

Give us a holler if you decide to go solar….we have a friend who is off the grid with his solar setup…

Dobs

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En réponse à

Thanks, Dobs! I've reached out to a local company but haven't heard anything back yet. I'm going to give them a call soon, or just stop by.

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Auntie Fiat
Auntie Fiat
20 juil. 2023

Let me know if you need any help chainsawing. I will be in the area this weekend!

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En réponse à

We will let you know. Thank you!!

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Air2Ground Farms, LLC

Squires, MO

a2gfarms@gmail.com

(417) 543-7844

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