[froglady]

I thought this might be an interesting thread considering the recent winter storm in the Midwest.

When we decided to move the frog room we did it for a few reasons. Not the least of which is that it was slightly below ground (cooler in the summer if the AC goes out) and it has a gas fireplace in it so if the furnace or electric goes out we have a way to heat the room.

We had decided that if we could blockade the frog room from the rest of the house and turn on the gas fireplace we had a chance at keeping the room within tolerable temperatures. Yesterday we had to put the plan to the test.

We got up at about 6 am and the power was out. It had been for a few hours. We immediately started implementing our plan and got the frog room buttoned down rather quickly. From what we heard they were estimating up to 3 days to restore power and the temps outside were 23 and dropping. After about 16 hours we had a generator on our way.

Thankfully we didn’t need the generator and the power came back on after about 19-20 hours. We were able to keep the frog room at about 68F the entire time. Sometimes it was as high as 72F, and, if we had to leave the room it got to about 66F for short periods of time. The rest of the house dropped below 50F.

We simply can't thank everyone who helped move the frog room enough.

Everyone is safe and sound and no worse for the wear but it got us thinking. If something like that happened to you, how would you keep your collection safe? Do you have enough heat packs and coolers to evacuate your entire collection to someplace warmer? Do you have enough containers and supplies to do so? Remember too that you have to have enough coolers to bring their food along.


On a side note -- here's a few of our 'furry little ones' trying to stay warm......

 

[Guest]

Great post.You sure have me thinking now.BTW, that grey cat is HUGE :shock:
Mark W.

 

[kyle1745]

Classic picture, I was too busy keeping my kids busy to get out the camera. We too lost out power at about 2am. Here is what I did and all my frogs are doing well.

-About 2:30 am I covered all the tanks with blankets and sleeping bags. While the room temp started to drop.

-Around 8pm the temps in that room started to get me worried as they had dropped into the 50's. I then carried all the tanks, tads, and eggs to the second floor where I also have a gas fireplace which during the day had kept the room around 70 or so.

-As we got later into the night we noticed that even the family room was dropping in temp and was also nearing high 50's. We then put up sheets over the hall way to the kitchen and this helped a great deal to keep the room in the 60's. Between a box window and a sliding glass door the temps dropped fast in the back of the house.

All in all my frogs are all ok, and back on the racks, but I will say I am going to look into a few options for the future. At least a heater or 2 and some heat packs on hand so I can cover them and keep the temps a little higher. From what I could tell the tank temps did not get below 63 or so. I will say though that my imitators and possibly my azureus laid eggs during all of this.

I agree with Sarah that if you have not thought about a frog DR plan (Melissa said this and it cracked me up) its a god idea to be ready. I can say that at a minimum I need more blankets. I plan to look into some generators and other options, but just had to pass on my story also. I hope everyone has a great holiday. In the end we were without power for 23 hours.

 

[kyle1745]

That cat is so cool too, to anyone who has not seen it....

Great post.You sure have me thinking now.BTW, that grey cat is HUGE :shock:
Mark W.

 

[rmelancon]

2 maybe 3 years ago NC got hit with a huge ice storm. Many were without power for up to 3 weeks. We were without power for 3-4 days. I had a generator but at the time couldn't run my central heat (I've since hooked the generator into the main panel but still need to verify that I hooked it into the right circuits.) I ran an electric space heater upstairs for my wife and the neighbors who wound up staying over to escape the <40 degree temps in their houses. I also ran a kerosene heater downstairs (where all the frogs are) for nearly 3 days straight. I stayed downstairs and monitored the temps and was pretty comfortable. My wife was convinced that I was going to die from the kerosene heater and would check on me periodically to make sure I hadn't expired. I did have a couple windows slightly cracked so I wasn't too worried about it. I was more worried about something catching fire. Luckily I work from my house, I don't know what I would have done if I had to go into work. I guess I would have had to take an emergency vacation. What do you corporate guys do in situations like this? Is there such thing as"emergency" vacation?

 

[kyle1745]

I took thurs off due to the snow, had planned to work from home, but could not due to no power. As for today I worked from home.

 

[rompida]

I can relate to Robb's situation, having also lived in North Carolina for the past 15+ years. While living in Wilmington, NC, I had to contend with the hurricanes knocking out power for a week at a time in the middle of summer. I wisely purchased a generator and a window AC unit to keep us cool. This came in handy during several hurricanes. Also, as Robb mentioned, we had the ice storm 2 years ago, and we were without power for 3 days. Our house got very cold. I had let the generator go for a couple years without maintenance, so it took me awhile to get it running again. During those 5 or 6 hours, the temps in the frog tanks dropped to 55 degrees. I was very nervous. Luckily I got the generator working again, and had us all nice and toasty in no time. Did I mention that we all slept (and lived) in the same room for those 3 days? Me, my wife, the dog, 2 parrots, 3 cockatiels, and all the frogs.

Bottom line - if you can afford it, get a generator. You can buy them as cheap as 300-400 dollars (new) at Lowes. Mine has paid itself off several times.

 

[kyle1745]

So did you just power a small space heater with the generator or the whole house? I found some whole house ones, but they start at $1900. Don't they make camping heaters and ACs that run off of propane?

After this past experience I plan to do something as this is the second time since I have had frogs that I have had no heat.

 

[geckguy]

In a combustion reaction with limited oxygen, one of the products is CO, or carbon monoxide so you have to be very careful. A generator is a wise investment. Luckily during the hurricanes here in Florida my dad brought his generators over, one is a huge industrial honda generator that produces about 15,000 watts, and a smaller one which I used to run my frog room airconditioner, which put out about 3,000 watts. They definitely paid off knowing that my frogs wouldnt be cooked in the heat after the rain stopped. They make large standby generators that put out about 13000 watts, that kickon as soon as your power goes out, which is a good idea if your power went out why you are at work. But they will cost alot of money to buy and install In the winter you could use a large electric space heater powered by a small generator, about $400-500, and have a fan circulate the air. I use a small 1500 watt space heater to heat my frog room during winter and it works well and has a built in thermostat that works well. But generators also produce carbon monoxide so they have to be kept outiside when they are running.

 

[froglady]

What do you corporate guys do in situations like this? Is there such thing as"emergency" vacation?

We've both been known to call into work to tell them our electric was off and we would not be in until either it came back on or we packed our entire collection and got it to a safe location. Amazingly neither one of us has gotten into trouble for doing so. Melissa's work is very understanding. Mine isn't but they know my frogs are more important to me than any job and I won't sacrifice their safety for anything.

Yesterday my work called and said they were 'strongly discouraging' people from coming in - I told them not to worry about because I wouldn't be in :lol:. Melissa had already planned to work from home (just like the rest of her department) -- of course it was a mute point since we had no power.

In short, even if I didn't have vacation or personal days I'd take the day off. If I lost my job at least my collection would be safe which is the most important thing to me. (You can get a new job -- you can't replace a life.)

Our plan worked beautifully and we know now that we can go at least 20 hours with no heat in below freezing weather. Our basement is cool enough in the summer we can move the collection down there if we need to. But that won't stop us from researching what generator will meet our needs best and getting it ready in case we lose power for longer periods of time.

Kyle -- next time your more than welcome over here. Your daughter can spend hours telling us what colors all our frogs are and helping us put them away :wink: :lol:

 

[bjdwa]

That cat is ENORMOUS, how much does it weigh?

 

[melissa68]

Here's another picture of Charlie (the really big cat). We put him on the scale this morning and he weighs 12.16 pounds.

We thought he would outgrow this, but he hasn't! He still enjoys his fishbowl!

Melis

 

[SMenigoz]

Melissa,
Thanks for posing an interesting situation/solution most of us hope never happens. Make me realize how dependant I am on electricity for keeping my frogroom at a suitable temperature.
As big as your grey cat is, I think I've got that beat! At just over a year old, my male Maine **** cat is 18.5 pounds...and still growing. My female **** is a svelte 13 pounds.
Wishing everyone a happy Christmas,
Scott

 

[dmartin72]

I can attest to the size of Scott's cats! They are Big and Beautiful! Why don't you post a couple of pics?

Scott, do you have an emergency source of electricity/heat? I'm worried that our area is going to get hit big once this year and lose power for a week!

Happy Holidays!!!!

 

[Guest]

This is a great thread and it deffinatly made me think of a plan incase this happens to me. Thanks for posting it. Oh and by the way beautiful shorthair (ive got one too )

 

[Angieownsbatman]

Yeesh, stuff like this makes me infinately glad that I live in Southern California, where people think the apocolypse is coming if temps drop below the high 40s. :roll: .

 

[*GREASER*]

Agian I must thank all of you guys for making me feel like im not alone. Im always nagging my brother and calling him when im out or leaving him notes to keep an eye on the temps in my room and to control the heat or air condition accordingly. The thing that sucks is that I dont feel like I can really count on him to do a very good job.

I was able to get my hands on a space heater and it has been a life saver. They are a great way to supliment heat as long as you have power. The other nigth some how a switch was moved that controlls the amount of heat that is let out of the heaters and it was barely letting out any heat at all. It took us a couple days to figure it out and if it wasnt for my little space heater my situation could have been alot worse.

 

[SMenigoz]

I can attest to the size of Scott's cats! They are Big and Beautiful! Why don't you post a couple of pics?

taking baby steps... if I knew how to post a pic with this reply, I'd do it! If you care to see my Maine *****, I posted them in my gallery (SMenigoz).

 

[dmartin72]

Here are Scott's beasts!

 

[kyle1745]

Ok so for the propane indoor heaters does anyone know how long they run? They seem small and compact and I plan to pick up 1or 2 of them with a few tanks. I think that some last about 8 hours so a small stock of tanks should last through anything we would get.

Any ideas on this?