Is anyone planning to do a Y2K drill?

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I remember a few threads from many months ago about people reporting on their Y2K drills--how things went, what things they were missing and needed to get, what things they had but decided they needed more of, what surprised them, etc. I thought they were really informative.

We're expecting to do our drill in September, and I was just wondering how many others had plans to drill between now and the rollover. Thanks.

-- Don (whytocay@hotmail.com), August 23, 1999

Answers

Don: We did our drill weekend befor last, for 3 days. Went to the power meter base and turned off the power,then unpluged both phone lines (that was the best part). We ran generator twice aday for 3 hrs at a time. This kept the freezers solid and pumped enough water from the well to carry on as usual. Worked in the garden over the weekend and dehydrated fresh herbs while the generator was running. If this was the 3 day "bump in the road" the goverment is talking about I'd say we did pretty good. But this is August and a bump in January could be pretty well covered with ice up here in Alaska...Good Luck..

-- Capt Dennis (capden@hotmail.com), August 23, 1999.

Did my "dry run" last new years weekend. Hauled all my stuff up to the location where I will be this new year. It's in a central MN local, far from any population to speak of.

If I get drunk and freeze while taking a piss, no one will know. That's fine with me. That won't happen though, ther'll be 5 of us(and 4 dogs[emergency rations---just kidding!]). Whatever happens I really don't care, we had a blast up there last year and we'll have a blast this year too.

-- CygnusXI (noburnt@toast.net), August 23, 1999.


We did a few dry runs with the wood stove in January, went a week with the furnace off. The second floor, where all the bedrooms reside, was chilly, but we adapted by wearing multi-layered clothing. We threw a ton of blankets on the beds, and it was actually cozy...as snug as a bug in the rug, so to speak :-) Once we acclimated to sleeping in the cold, we sealed off the rooms that we considered non-critical via blankets to restrict the heat to living room (where the stove is located) and kitchen.

We also went without air conditioning this summer. It was a tad unconfortable when the humidity set in around July, but we managed. However, it wasn't cold turkey, for I had A/C at work. My mother,

We also tested our Katadyn water filters and water purification protocols by gathering water from our stream, filtering it, boiling it, letting it cool, and pouring it back and forth between a couple of containers to get the oxygen back into the water. We cooked, washed and bathed (sponge baths) for a weekend with this water. It took some labor to to all of this, but unless we did this, we wouldn't have discovered this.

We're also getting into the practice of using electrical lights as little as possible...building more bonfires outside, and we hang out, talk, do a little cooking over the fire when we feel like it. We've been making shishkabobs with green peppers, onions, rabbit, and tomatoes. Also, we've been "hobo cooking" by wrapping vegetables and meat in alumninum foil and placing them directly into the coals. Corn on the cob cooks quite nicely this way.

I wish to thank BigDog, Diane, Chuck, Stan, Old Git and the rest on this forum who have emphasized the need to prepare. I was getting very addicted to this forum, and they made me realize that I needed to stop reading about it and actually doing something. Some of the things I've been doing sound sort of hokey to city folks, but I grew up in the country, so it's a refresher course.

Being a programmer, I love this technology and still spend many hours glued to the screen, and I hope to spend many more years doing such. It's as if I lead two lives, IT professional by day, country bumpkin by night. Sitting in front of a fire drinking dandelion wine and chatting with neighbors and family may be "cheap thrills" to some, but to be honest, this is one of the best summers I've had in a while. I've gotten to know my neighbors better, and we're actually coordinating things according to resources and skills. One neighbor is good at welding and working with machinery, while one neighbor down the hill has a generator and is willing to swap power for our water, some vegetables and internet access via my laptop (y2k, according to specs, and software tests). Spike likes to fish in the pond, and he's been dropping off smoked bass and bluegill that he dried from his home-built smoker.

The neighbors down the street have excellent wood-crafting skills, but they're not as active in our little group. Ever since we gave them that black walnut tree earlier this summer, they've been building some interesting kitchen stools that they got from patterns that I found for them on the net.

In essence, you can read about doing whatever, being it setting up a web server or cooking with fire. Just reading about it and having the resources is better than not doing anything at all, but I advise that you practice doing some of this stuff. Practice utilizing your resources, and you will have the confidence to react accordingly versues hoping that you can do it when the situation arises. Once you learn to use the tools you have acquired, you'll become aware of the limitations involved, and maybe even learn to "think out the box" and find new uses for them as well.

I'd prefer to have a BITR and hope that this is the result. If not, we'll be as ready as we can with what resources we have.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), August 23, 1999.


Thanks for sharing your experiences, Tim. Sounds like you're quite the barterer!

-- spirit (spirit@iserv.net), August 24, 1999.

Thanks, Spirit. My apologies for the bad grammar and horrendous spelling. Must've been the dandelion wine. ;-)

Had some emails last night regarding this thread. I lopped off a sentence regarding my mother calling me a wuss because I was able to cool off at work during the day while she was toiling in the garden. Going without A/C was her idea...she thinks that it makes people weak, not able to handle the heat. We've went round and round regarding this, but considering that she grew up in Montana weathering the elements during the Great Depression, I have to give her the benefit of the doubt.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), August 24, 1999.



Tim, I tend to agree with your mom, until the temp gets to 80 or so and the humidity gets to 85% or more, at which time I start looking on breathing as a spectator sport. Something about asthma.

chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 24, 1999.


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