The City Mouse in the Country

      Imagine the scene, a family fights for survival in a cold and dark world, where the winds blow ceaselessly and the wolves are always at the door.   A ragged man, tired of the weight of the world, exits the home and fights his way through the snow to a lone generator...with a single mighty pull the dark dissipates as the lights come on.  His family inside cheers for now they have heat and don't have to worry about eating cold beans out of a can!        Dramatic music swells.....       Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic.  Maybe the wolves at the door was a bit over the top, but the point is that ever since we lost power for just a tad over 24 hours recently; the idea of a generator has never been that far from my mind.     Plus, I work from home and I depend on power to not only allow me to access my computer and phone lines...but to also keep the pellet stove running.        When it comes to generators however, I quickly learned that I know less than diddly squat about t

 we honestly don't know where to go next. Our power was out for over 24 hours.  Luckily our house held the heat pretty well and we did not lose any food or other things.   It did however present us with some challenges and got me thinking that with winter coming, we are going to need some sort of back up power supply. One of the biggest problems that we have with our home is that it's all electric.  We do have some long term goals to help correct that issue.   Everything from solar panels to switching out the electric range for a propane range and getting a tank for it.  It looks like for now though we are going to have to go with a generator, and if we are going to go with a generator we have to ask ourselves what we want from it. The biggest issue that I have honestly is that I know literally nothing about them!!! I have never used one and wouldn't even know that to ask or where to begin. Here are my questions/concerns:   We have to have the following running come colder

      The Original Look      When we bought this house, a little over two months ago, we understood that the roof was over 30 years old and would need to be replaced.   We actually had moss growing in one part of it, but there seamed to be little damage elsewhere and there was no leakage or damage to the wood underneath as far as we could tell.        There was also a design flaw in the original plans (???), the front porch roof only extended roughly three quarters over the concrete porch.   Since the front end of the porch roof was pitched that meant that any water or snow that missed the gutters was dumped into the final third of the porch.   This is where a diagram would come in handy but sadly, I've not idea on how to draw or attach it to this blog.   Sorry but my sad sack explanation is going to have to do.       Well I understand the basics of roofing, I'm in no way qualified to replace it.      So we hired a contractor and his largely Amish crew to help out, cleaning the

     It's mid September and already you can feel winter in the air, it lurks like a proverbial horror movie villain just outside the windows.  It's presence is felt in the dropping temperatures and the winds that blow across my neighbors open fields.       I had escaped it's grip twice before in my life, moving to North Carolina when I was a younger man fresh from college, and when I moved to Florida shortly after the 2008 housing crash because I could not get arrested in the Pittsburgh job market.     Now I had returned, perhaps for the last time due to aging family and the wishes of my long time girlfriend I easily called "wife."  The first winter would be hard on me I knew.  I loved the warmth, the sun, the longer days of spring and summer.  I was not someone that enjoyed the concepts of being cooped up for three months hunkered down and waiting for the golden rays to return.     However I could survive it.       It's all in how you prepare for it.     For