I went over to HomeBase today. (HomeBase is a major hardware retailer, for those
who live in areas without them.) I was looking at generators. Lorain has both
a refrigerator and a separate freezer. She stocks up on things like frozen juice,
vegetables, bread, and meat during sales. If the power goes out, this will be a
problem.
There seems to be two problems involved in the purchase of a generator. The first
is that they are rather expensive. The ones I saw were in the several
hundred-thousand dollar range. The other is that they seem to have about the same
fuel requirements: about a gallon of propane per hour. If the power were to go out
for even two days, we would need almost fifty gallons of propane to run our freezer.
Where, exactly, are we going to store fifty gallons of propane?
This may not be an issue in someplace like Arlen, Texas. Here in California, I
have serious concerns about storing large amounts of flammable materials near the house.
We discust this, and agree that the best way to deal with this is to eat down the
stored foods right before the holidays next year. Use up the frozen stuff.
Replace it in the freezer with bags of ice. If the power goes out and the
freezer isn't opened, the food will probably stay frozen for up to 12 hours. If the
power still isn't on, we hold the biggest darn barbecue you've ever seen.