Double check your gear.

We lost power for about 4 hours today due to an unknown cause. Other than sweating a bit, it was just an inconvenience.

Except that the wife had a meatloaf in the oven when it happened. We let it sit as long as the oven had heat, but its internal temp never got high enough to be safe. I got the bright idea to put it in a crock pot powered by my battery back up. I got the converter hooked up, turned it on, and got the dead battery tone. We ended up turning the meatloaf into meatloaf burgers which we finished cooking on my Coleman stove, but still I hate the fact that I got complacent and didn't double check my battery.

After the power came back on, I reassessed, made a run to Wally World to pick up some more D batteries, and plan on recharging my 12 volt in the morning.

Lesson learned - shake out your gear every now and then.

An LP or charcoal grill or LP oven in a camper/RV would do nicely to complete the meatloaf. A generator would work as well since an oven is only 2,500W or so usually and intermittent at that.

Yeah, a genny is the big gaping hole in my preparations. It's on the list, but we've got our third kid on the way which sinks its priority down a bit.

Yes, you do. Sometimes they don't start up properly out of the box–– stuck low-oil switches, sticky kill switches, bad plugs, etc.

Test that thing out, then store it with the carb and tank dry.

Hunt on craigslist. Search daily and sont settle for junk. You will find a sweet generator for short money soon enough.

I've been told by those in the pipeline business that while electric compressors are being introdiced into the pipeline system to comply with carbon emissions regs, there are still plenty of gas powered compressors in the system and the system is still very robust.

crock pot is a modest electrical draw, I think 60 watts on Lo, and maybe 100 watts high.
even a small group 24 marine battery should run a crock pot for 8 hours.
( IF the battery is charged )

Actually in a long term SHTF just about any jenny will be worthless due to fuel of any kind will not be available for a long extended event, you can only keep so much fuel on hand, store only so much propane and natural may be cut off. I only have my Natural gas fired unit as a source for short time events like weather or just a regular power outage.

Unless you know how to make pure alcohol and are proficient at re-jeting carburators...

Then they can run for a long long time.

I pop in on craigslist now and then. Most used gennys around here have either been run to death by contractors or are a year old and have a retail price on them.

And I'll be honest, I really don't know what I want. Some days I just want a small genny to keep the freezer frozen, the fridge cold, and maybe run one or two comfort items (not concurrently). Other days I want a 8500 w that I can wire into the house and keep it humming along fairly well.

We get our NG from Texas. Last cold snap we had (2-3 years ago), TX failed for some reason... and ABQ residents froze. We had many thousands of dollars of water damage to our buildings due to pipes freezing, then thawing.

Shit happens, Defecation occurs, folks.

This !!

I don't think the power has been out at my house more than a total of 4-5 hours over the last 10 years. However, I know what to do and have a plan. I get a lot of practice. The power goes out at our cabin regularly. We've spent on more than one occasion a whole week there with no power. We have an 8.5k generator back fed and it gets tested regularly between uses. We started with a 5.5k, but before long it wouldn't run everything. Not sure where the failure was, but another 3k solved it. Just more proof that you need to test and retest your system. On a nice sunny day, we'd shut off the power and run the generator for an hour or 2 just to make sure the system would work when needed. Also a good time to walk a family member through the process for those times you are not available or busy with other issues. Make a checklist and practice more than once. You'll not only be sure you can use it when needed, but you'll build a better system each time.

Be prepared !