Off-Grid EBS and Update
4/10/08 - 4th Day - After Breakfast. Hey, this is my 300th post in this iteration of my blog. MichaelBunker.com has been around a whole lot longer than that, but there have been 300 posts since we went to this blog - so if you haven't read them all, then you best get started.
Off-Grid Emergency Broadcast System
Well, we had a pretty good storm blow through last night. Not much rain, but we are glad to get what we did receive. About 1 a.m. we had to activate our "emergency" tornado warning system here in the community, and it worked nicely. For those of you who are new to this blog, we live in a completely off-grid community here in Central Texas. There are seven households here on the land, and we have another brother who lives nearby in Coleman, Texas. So some time ago we developed an emergency response system for storm season, and it has developed over time. During our first few years, when there were only about 10-15 of us on the land, our emergency system was pretty rudimentary. In our first storm season we didn't have a root cellar, so we toughed it out the best we could. It could be quite frightening at times. Before the second storm season I completed my root cellar, so when very severe weather would threaten, we would all call each other on cell phones, and everyone would come over to my cabin. If things got pretty bad, we would all go down to the root cellar. Last year, I think we ended up in the root cellar about 3 times. This got pretty "friendly" when there were 17 or more of us down there. Well, this year David finished his root cellar, so we now are divided into two groups. We implemented a radio alert system whereby everyone has a small hand-held radio that is tuned to a specific channel during severe weather. If we know we are going to have some weather coming, we will call everyone and get them to make sure their radios are on. If it happens suddenly in the night, everyone is instructed to turn their radios on as soon as they detect any rain or high wind. Most of us have NOAA weather radios too, that come on automatically if there is an alert, watch, or warning in the area. So, then we have an alert system. We have an Orange alert, which means that it is very likely that we will soon be calling everyone to report to the storm cellars, so everyone should get ready; and we have a Red alert, which means that everyone should move immediately towards the storm cellars. Half of the people go to David's cellar, and half go to my cellar. Then David and I keep in touch with one another and everyone who is to report to our cellar via radio, and we let one another know when everyone has arrived. Last night, when the tornado warning went off and it was imminent that we were going to have some very severe weather, we activated our alert system - including calling our brother who lives in Coleman. We were able to get everyone up and in the cellars in just a few minutes, and we waited out the storm in safety. I am thankful to God for the safety of everyone here, and that we didn't receive any serious damage. I read on the weather page that some folks lost their roofs in Coleman and there was some serious damage in some other nearby towns.
Anyway, living off-grid does not mean that we do not act prudently to insure the safety of our families and those who are in our care. We make use of alternative power to charge radios, etc., and to power laptops and the wireless internet so we can watch the Doppler radar. David and I stay up on these nights to watch and alert the rest of the group to danger. The whole system worked very well.
Pigs to Butcher
Yesterday we successfully delivered the 3 pigs to the butcher. So we are looking forward to receiving the meat and to processing it. I have been studying processing the bacons and the hams, so I had the bacon and ham left "fresh" or uncured, which will save me quite a bit in the processing fee.
Yesterday I also planted a small patch of corn. I don't know if it will work, or if we will get any corn, but we did stick it in the ground and we hope to get a crop. The rain last night should really help our pasture we planted on Sunday, so we are hopeful to see that crop shoot up very soon.
I have to run, more later.
Michael Bunker
Off-Grid Emergency Broadcast System
Well, we had a pretty good storm blow through last night. Not much rain, but we are glad to get what we did receive. About 1 a.m. we had to activate our "emergency" tornado warning system here in the community, and it worked nicely. For those of you who are new to this blog, we live in a completely off-grid community here in Central Texas. There are seven households here on the land, and we have another brother who lives nearby in Coleman, Texas. So some time ago we developed an emergency response system for storm season, and it has developed over time. During our first few years, when there were only about 10-15 of us on the land, our emergency system was pretty rudimentary. In our first storm season we didn't have a root cellar, so we toughed it out the best we could. It could be quite frightening at times. Before the second storm season I completed my root cellar, so when very severe weather would threaten, we would all call each other on cell phones, and everyone would come over to my cabin. If things got pretty bad, we would all go down to the root cellar. Last year, I think we ended up in the root cellar about 3 times. This got pretty "friendly" when there were 17 or more of us down there. Well, this year David finished his root cellar, so we now are divided into two groups. We implemented a radio alert system whereby everyone has a small hand-held radio that is tuned to a specific channel during severe weather. If we know we are going to have some weather coming, we will call everyone and get them to make sure their radios are on. If it happens suddenly in the night, everyone is instructed to turn their radios on as soon as they detect any rain or high wind. Most of us have NOAA weather radios too, that come on automatically if there is an alert, watch, or warning in the area. So, then we have an alert system. We have an Orange alert, which means that it is very likely that we will soon be calling everyone to report to the storm cellars, so everyone should get ready; and we have a Red alert, which means that everyone should move immediately towards the storm cellars. Half of the people go to David's cellar, and half go to my cellar. Then David and I keep in touch with one another and everyone who is to report to our cellar via radio, and we let one another know when everyone has arrived. Last night, when the tornado warning went off and it was imminent that we were going to have some very severe weather, we activated our alert system - including calling our brother who lives in Coleman. We were able to get everyone up and in the cellars in just a few minutes, and we waited out the storm in safety. I am thankful to God for the safety of everyone here, and that we didn't receive any serious damage. I read on the weather page that some folks lost their roofs in Coleman and there was some serious damage in some other nearby towns.
Anyway, living off-grid does not mean that we do not act prudently to insure the safety of our families and those who are in our care. We make use of alternative power to charge radios, etc., and to power laptops and the wireless internet so we can watch the Doppler radar. David and I stay up on these nights to watch and alert the rest of the group to danger. The whole system worked very well.
Pigs to Butcher
Yesterday we successfully delivered the 3 pigs to the butcher. So we are looking forward to receiving the meat and to processing it. I have been studying processing the bacons and the hams, so I had the bacon and ham left "fresh" or uncured, which will save me quite a bit in the processing fee.
Yesterday I also planted a small patch of corn. I don't know if it will work, or if we will get any corn, but we did stick it in the ground and we hope to get a crop. The rain last night should really help our pasture we planted on Sunday, so we are hopeful to see that crop shoot up very soon.
I have to run, more later.
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 4/10/2008 06:51:00 AM
2 Comments:
Thank you elders David and Michael for all the weather updates and warnings...
Sounds like a great alert system, glad y'all are OK! Praise God for His protection, that you were virtually untouched by any of it.
Pray the corn does well.
Bill
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