Got Power?

This may be somewhat of a random post - but it's meant to get you thinking.  On our farm, we just installed automatic waterers for our cow herd - yes, I know this is a horse blog - but stick with me.  We are so excited (and so relieved) to have this project done.  Now, our cattle can have fresh water without us having to fill up the tanks or accidentally let them overflow.  However, the other night we went out for supper with friends.  On the way home, a cousin that lives beside called to see if our power was out.  Once we got home,  it was evident that we had lost power too.

Thankfully, we have a generator so we were able to hook that up fairly quickly to run our refrigerator and freezer in the house, have the well pump work so that we would have running water and have lights.  Unfortunately, our electric fence box, refrigerator in the shop and the new well to supply the newly installed automatic waterers all run off a different electric supply box.  So, we had to run drop cords to the electric fence box and the refrigerator in the shop.  We also knew that if the power did not come back on fairly quickly, we would have to supply water to the herd they way we did prior to the automatic waterers - water hoses and 300 gallon tanks.  Luckily, the power company got the power restored in about two hours.

So, what's the point of all this rambling.  This was not a hurricane or an ice/snow storm.  We actually did not even have a thunderstorm at our house.  A storm did pass to our south, and probably caused a tree to go down.  But this was a random power outage. 

My point is to be prepared if you have animals.  Power outages can happen anytime.  They may need to cut power to repair lines, there could be a summertime thunderstorm or someone could take out a power pole in an accident.    Short outages may not cause much of an issue, but that could be dependent on what type of animals you have.  Some animals are always looking to test an electric fence.

Not everyone has the same situation or can use the same fix for this problem.  But I would encourage you to think about what would happen if you lost power while you're out for supper.  Or if you're on vacation and have someone taking care of your place and animals.  Do you have a generator?  Even if you don't have automatic waterers, you more than likely depend on well water for your animals.  Those wells don't work without power.  This time of year, it would be hard to store much water due to heat and pests (mosquitoes and their eggs).  If you have a generator, do you have enough fuel to run if for a while.  Do you have enough drop cords to power everything you need to power?  Do you have instructions for all this if someone else is taking care of your critters?   Would a stand-by generator work for your situation?

Again, what works on my farm might not work on yours.  Think about what you might do if a neighbor calls to tell you the power is out.