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One of the more important lessons I’ve learned about survival prep is that oftentimes the best teacher is failure. Surviving a bad experience has a way of focusing the mind.

A couple of years ago we lost power in New Hampshire. Becky and I were away that weekend but our kids were staying with my parents who live up the street. When the power went out, my dad and daughter went down to our house to grab something and she noticed that the generator wasn’t working.

The following week I had my electrician check it out and he said all was working fine. I thanked him and started thinking about what if this had happened in the dead of winter. I decided to get more wood delivered.

The thing about generators is they are finicky. Even with regularly scheduled servicing, at the end of the day they’re a machine, and sometimes machines don’t work.

This winter was another cold one in New Hampshire. After a scheduled servicing, my electrician recommended we install a cold weather kit (note to self, who’s surviving here?). The kit basically helps get the generator started in the cold weather. Simple enough. It’s worth noting with my generator there is no warm-up period. It basically has two settings: full speed and off. The cold weather package eases that rough transition.

Once a week, there’s a startling lawnmower sound outside of our house which sets off our dog—a not so gentle reminder that we have a generator. As it runs through its test cycle, it makes me wonder. Is it worth it? I’m not exactly sure.

If we didn’t live where it gets so cold why bother with it? But since it seems to get dark around 4pm in the dead of winter– too early to go to bed– it will make living a whole lot easier. I just hope it works when we really need it.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.
E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.