11.3.2012 Day 5 - We settle into a routine.

Without electric lights, the night and day cycle is more prominent. We get up early, stoke the fire and prepare to install the generator. We have a couple of gallons of borrowed gas that were originally intended to run our generous neighbor's lawnmower.

When we get into the basement and crawlspace to examine our equipment we discover that we can't just turn on the generator and plug things in. The boiler junction box has to be interfaced to a 120V extension cord and the well pump needs a 220V line made of 10/3 or 12/3 to handle the amps.

We stand disillusioned on a lonely aisle at Lowe's, which is emptied of all the parts we came to get, until a kindly electrician from a nearby town takes us under his wing and helps us hack together a solution.

The solution works! After a few cautious hours we have heat and then running water. Everyone gets a shower, flushes a toilet, dishes are washed and bedrooms are warmed. All is good until the gas runs out after about 4 hours.

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