JWilsonphoto
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cbrandt wrote:
KZinnack wrote:
cbrandt wrote:
Winter .. I'm originally from ND ..
After the death of my father when I was 13, my uncle ( bachelor at the time ) moved my mom and us kids to The Farm as we weren't gonna run the streets of Rugby, ND ( population 2800  Anyway as we grew up, we had yearlings in the barn and a milk cow so we had our chores morning and night .. and when it was cold ...... like 20 below he'd stand at the kitchen window with a cup of coffee watching us walk down and back to the house from the barn - down the hill / city block.
Good ole days for sure !! We never thought a thing of it .. we had coveralls, snow mobile boots, leather mittens and hats with ear muffs !! Just another day and we'd shed our boots / outter clothes in the entry way and put on our school jackets and watch out another kitchen window thru the leafless shelterbelt so we could see that big yellow bus 3/4 of a mile away coming down the main county road towards our place.
We had a coal fired furnace .. I can't remember a time that we ever lost electricity though. Now I'm in MD on natural gas with a 8K emergency generator hooked to Natural Gas sitting outside ready to pop off in 15 seconds - and we haven't lost electricity all year ..... lol
edit .. we weren't allowed on the bus unless we were dressed for winter weather .. ( it's amazing how FAST and COLD a school bus gets when the heat goes off .. and I seem to remember each family had to have a sleeping bag in a bag that we kept behind the back seats ...
Nothing insures uninterrupted power from your utility like installation of an expensive standby generator! I was fortunate enough to spend 3 winters on the flightline at Grand Forks AFB. I got a whole new perspective on wind, cold, and wind chill. While I was there they passed a state law that required you to stop and assist a stranded motorist in the winter. During winter months we weren't allowed off base without your parka and a survival kit in your POV. The thing that surprised me the most was how fast we all adapted to the cold weather. When temps hit the 30's we'd be stripped down to t-shirts.....except the one guy from Guam. He wore his parka all the time except for the last week of July & the first week of August...
For sure .. wasn't a passing thought to spend the cash on this .. but I am happy I have it whether I use it or not ! A friend / Master Electrician at work sells - installs them so the price was pretty good and a another factor was they were offering 5 year warranties versus 3 years when I bought it. Now they give 5 yr with 20Kw and I'm betting in a year that will be standard starting at the 8Kw I have. I remember a year ago in a rain storm power went out for 2 hours and I dipped and hauled 5 gallon pails of water from the sump pump hole under a crawl space, dragged it to the basement so I could stand up and carry it out for an hour till pwr was restored - I knew that wasn't going to happen again !! ..... we normally never had water but settling of the ground around the house opened up some trails for the water to follow ... past summer had back patio steps rebuilt with that plastic lookin' wood .. well there was my hole under those steps so I hauled in 2 pickup loads of dirt and filled / tamped all of that in plus around the back wall ..... that has ended the seepage so far ... but we've got the pump and it was the first of 7 circuits to go on the generator --
but talking about spending money and then the purchase doesn't get used ........ 2 years ago I damn near killed myself shoveling snow .. so I bought a snow blower ...... well it sat all last year ready to go so I had to run it on weekends all summer to use up the gas so I could put fresh gas in it when I use it next. And ... thankfully I haven't used the snowblower either and am happy .. there's a knack to using one so your not going into the wind or sideways so all that stuff blows back in your face ..... lol
I spent my 3 years on NAF AAFB on the Flight Line .. Transient Line myself .... handled every jet Navy had from '71 to Feb 13th '74 including the BA F-4's and before I made Petty Officer where I ended up supervising fire watches at night when it was my turn, I spent a lot of cold nights walking up and down the flight lines in a Navy Peacoat and White Hat in the rain and in the Winter that was dangggggggg cold even in Maryland !! We don't give it any thought when we go to bed, but our military are standing firewatches every hour of the night in barracks, hangars, flight lines, on board AC Carriers, Destroyers, everywhere someone is stationed rain or shine, cold or heat watching out for their buddies ... ! My oldest is in Kandahar, thankfully not pounding sand but his Monday thru Thursday and Saturday is 12 hours and on Friday and Sundays half days - 7 hours plus NCO duty at night, mail handling and escorting in addition to teaching classes. Wears me out thinking about it !!
Never hurts to remind us of their continuing sacrifices Curtis. God bless and keep every one of them around the world.
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z wrote:
