I'm in the process (everyone SHOULD be doing this) of looking at Alternative forms of power for my home. Sounds like this winter could be a doozy.  I don't want to get stuck with 2 freezers full of meat and no electricity, so I'm looking into ALL my options for getting a dual fuel generator.  Mostly I would use gas (just regular gas-station gas at $5.09 per gallon right now and going higher by the day, no matter what ol' joe thinks is happening across the country - he's a lamebrain - he knows NOTHING about real life) but I would keep a couple of propane tanks handy, as well. 

I am specifically looking at stand-by generators, not the "power up when the lights go out" kind.  This is a unit that would sit on the backyard deck and I would have to go out and power it up to get it going.  Hey, I'm old but I'm not so old I can't plug in a few cords and pour some gas into a tank and push a few buttons.  It's about that simple once they are delivered and the electrician comes to finish the job of installing it properly so I don't have to use extension cords all over the place.  This is going to end up costing about $7,000 but that's a lot cheaper than a generac automatic powered unit that was quoted to me for over $18,000.00 couple of weeks ago.  That's mostly labor, as you might have guessed. 

But I'm getting ready for winter because according to the farmers almanac, it's gonna be a whopper in late January of 2023 through April, maybe even into May.  It's hard to garden when the weather doesn't warm up until the middle of June!!!  Most veggies have at least a 90 day growth period before stuff is ripe enough to pick and there just isn't time.  I've transitioned a bit recently to doing the sprouting thing again, and I love sprouts on lettuce salads and cerain sandwiches.  They're delicious AND nutritious! 

So I've got two options working for me, now I just have to power up the house with a generator come winter if we have another blackout like we had with Winter Storm Atlas in 2013.  That was crazy, without power for over 6 days.  My husband was still alive then and we had a generator (which he used out in the garage when he was dinking around with his truck, etc) but I had no idea how to use the thing and he didn't teach me either.  So I'm like a schoolkid trying to learn all I can about these things from beginning to end.  Since the stroke in 2019, now I have to write down every detail so I won't forget the instructions given to me by the people giving me certain information. 

But it's been a helluva learning experience.  Well worth the time to learn though, because I can pass the knowledge onto my grandkids, since I'm sure they'll take the generator once I'm departed from this world and earn my angel wings.  That should take about 3 days, in my estimation!!  Jesus loves me this I know . . .