Bowhunting travel question
General Topic
Well,I've been wanting to do some travel bowhunting and I'm single.I've always been leery of leaving the house for any length of time fearing a power outage should occur while I'm gone.only to come home to spoiled freezer and refrigerators and a flooded basement.been seriously considering a stand by generator.anyone ever had one installed.I figure one good outage it would pay for itself. Thanks
I have lived alone a long time. I travel bowhunt a good bit.
Just use a water key and turn the water off in your yard. Water issue solved.
As far electricity. I have never had an issue. Most power outages are short lived. I guess if there was one long enough, I'd bite the bullet and have to pay for new food.
If a generator will ease your mind and you can afford it, install one.
It's great you are considering doing some travel hunting. Trust me, go travel and hunt. Some of my best experiences have been bow hunting in far off places. There are ALWAYS "what if" questions that can make you worry about going. If you wait for the perfect time to do anything, you may still be waiting as you're on your death bed.
Unless it is an extended power outage - like several days - your freezer should be good with no one opening the door.
Have installed a number of backup generators for industrial use. They are not that difficult but you will want to have it done by a certified electrician and that will end up costing you more than you might think. Probably worth contacting an electrician to see what that would run.
You will need to keep up on the maintenance and checking it out regularly to make sure it will work when it's needed. Also make sure you have enough fuel for an extended power outage. It will take a lot if you are thinking about a 5 or 6 day outage. When that fuel sits for a long time waiting on that power outage, it can go bad so you will need to plan for changing it out on a schedule as well.
The costs add up pretty quick when you look at long term maintenance on an installation to only be used in a very rare occurrence.
I'd have the natural gas hookup,
We've got an LPG fueled 22kw GENERAC for the house it's for emergencies and works great for keeping hot water hot, freezers freezing, 1/2 the lights lit and our well pumping.
I highly recommend one for short lived emergencies. Our fuel tank will last about a week from full time use.
It might be more cost effective to hire a house sitter.
I have a 20KW Generac. It runs on Natural gas, but can be converted to use propane by adjusting/changing the carburetor.. Ballpark expense will be in the $8k-$10k range. Not sure one outage would pay for itself, but the peace of mind does have value.
I agree with Milnrick....finding someone to check on the house daily might be an attractive alternative.
We have an Accurite 5 in 1 Weather station. We have several remote temperature sensors...two of which are in our freezers and one in the refrigerator. They read out on the station, but are also linked to our iPhones. Pretty neat to be gone from home and see the temp in your house, outside, in the freezers, cold room and fridge. It cost us about $300 US at Costco if I remember correctly.
I travel a fair amount to hunt, fortunately for me my girlfriend is a bit more of a homebody. When we do leave at the same time I have a neighbor check in a bit, or my nephew stays at the house with the dog. But honestly I’m not really much of a worrier, don’t spend much time worrying about it.
Now that said 4 years ago I was on a hunt in BC and had a fairly significant plumbing leak and ruined a bunch of flooring, but not horrible, it could have been much worse if she wasn’t there to notice it when I was gone for 2 weeks!
But in that case a generator certainly would not have helped, but of course mountainmans suggestion of turning water off would have (but I’m not smart enough to remember). Heck, I don’t even turn the a/c down or lock the garage doors! Come to think of it maybe I’m not very responsible when I leave ;)
It’s the stuff you don’t plan for that bite you in the butt, but honestly most of the time I don’t spend a minute worrying about it! Have fun hunting, worry about the problems if they ever happen!
—jim
I would just have a close friend pop in once in awhile while you are gone and check on things.
I gotta have somebody check in on the bird dogs every day anyway.... I WISH there was a system to take care of all those things.... but nope.
Granddaughters work pretty well though......
I live in the Northeast and have lost power several times for days on end. I have lost food from refrigerator and freezer on several occasions. I now have a Generac 11kw stand by generator that runs on natural gas and powers the whole house and heating system. It starts up and transfers within 20 seconds of a power outage. I have never regretted this investment.
what about a monitoring system that will notify you or someone you trust in the event of a failure? This is the first one that popped up for me.
I second Medicinemann, finding some one to check on things is attractive, finding someone attractive to check on things is even better :)
In my opinion, you are overthinking it, but it can't really hurt to be over-prepared other than cost. Being gone for a 1.5-2 week hunt here and there didn't bother me too much, but if you are going to be gone regularly for that length of time... say 3 or 4 of those a year, you are probably on the right track. If you have someone available to check on things, I would go that route unless you simply want the generator.
What Jake said is very good advice.
Also, the Nest cameras can give you real time peace of mind. But require power and wifi.
If you are traveling don't tell people you are going somewhere on social media. You never know who is watching. If you need to share tell everyone after you get back.
Leave a radio on playing talk radio.
Good luck on your travels,
Kevin
Unless outages of 5 days or more are somewhat common where you live I’d forget the generator. What happens when you freezer quits. I’d say there’s likely a greater chance of that than a many dat outage. I’ve been through two big outages, one five days, the other 9. The nine day we hooked my welder/ generator up to my grandmothers house and stayed with her for the whole time. A welder/ generator is nice if you would use it because even on a trailer it’s likely cheaper than a generac and you can fix/make projects. It doesn’t self start though, so no good when your gone. Unless your funds are plentiful I’d spend the 10 grand on more hunting. Let’s see an African plains hunt or a generator......
Worst thing to happen to us while I was gone on a hunt was my dog drug a baby skunk, which also lured the parents, and other babies into our home through the old rubber dog door we had-
When I returned 2 weeks later and asked what smelled so much, my wife was not too pleased about the whole circus.
Think I just found my answer,a water pressure back up sump pump.I'm on city water and there is always pressure.freezer can last a few days.
Have a friend keep track of your place, once a week or so - give him a Ben Franklin or gift card of some kind - you can relax, enjoy your hunt instead of stressing while away. About as cheap insurance as you can get.
I would worry more about freezers going out than power outages. A few years ago I bought a new freezer realizing the 30 year old one would quit on me eventually. I used the original for more temporary storage for capes and overflow frozen meat. Well, a couple of months ago my wife informed me the freezer was bleeding. The original had finally crapped out, but luckily everything was still chilled, so no loss. I think I will look into Kurt's system just for peace of mind. Sitting at home just in case that freezer went out would have deprived me of 30 years of bow hunting memories, mounts, and meat. If I had to choose, I think I would take the hunting trips over one freezer of meat!
Never even give it a second thought. I just keep the freezer full ;) A full freezer with frozen items helps keep it frozen, I would bet a full chest freezer could go a week without power and food would be fine.
My wife checked and the Accurite 5 in 1 is now $187 at Costco that I referenced earlier. You do have to have power for it to work so in the event of a power outage all you’ll know is the Accurite as well as a Nest camera system are off line.
APauls, I had a 6 day power outage a couple of weeks ago and had a small "cube" chest freezer with about 60 pounds of lean domestic pork packed in bags (not vacuum sealed) in it. This was in a fully heated (wood stove) home. I didn't open the freezer at all. On day 5 I popped the drain pulg and had a little liquid dripping, so on day 6 I opened it and the meat was softened a bit and shedding some fluid. I sopped up the leakage and packed snow in the freezer and of course as soon as that chore was done the power came on. I spent day 7 canning pork. LOL
Haven't had a generator, always took my chance. What I did is in each freezer and the refrigerator freezer I placed a small bad of cubed ice cubes. Upon my return, I would check all three bags. If all melted and refrozen so the ice cubes are no longer individual but one solid mass, I would throw the meat away. On the other hand, if the ice cubes are still individual, the meat is still good. Finally, I have two brand new freezers, they have passed the test for up to four days recently.
Carnivore, you also can freeze a small plastic box of water, and put a penny on top of the ice, works great. If the ice melts the penny sinks,
I shut off my water and water pump (on a well) if I leave for a trip. Two friends have had major damage from a broken washing machine hose and from a ruptured hose to the fridge ice maker while they were gone.
Also, twice I've come home to find a freezer that crapped out and a fridge that died. Generator wouldn't have helped with either of those, but I was able to salvage the freezer meat. Going to pick up one of the Accurite units at Costco. Thanks, Kurt!
