No Fear of Power Outages | Cummins Generator Arrives

It's not 8:50. I cannot make this up. The day we're getting our Cummins generator, the power goes out last night. Not once, but twice! Sure, it's a pain to come over here and— turn our clocks back. It's a bigger pain to realize our yogurt stopped. This is supposed to be going at 100 degrees for 24 hours. Stopped twice. I had to reset it twice. I hope it's okay. I want to show you what we're really afraid of. This would be a gigantic disaster. We've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9— count in the cold room— 10 fridges or freezers. I'd say we got serious about installing a generator after we installed our 8th 9th, 10th freezer fridge unit. You guys want to see in this? You want to see in this? Mostly beef, some chicken. Drum roll, please. Boom! This is the pork aisle at our grocery store. Some chicken, we just harvested some chicken, so we've got some overflow. Mucho pork, sausage, hams, pork chop, ribs, shoulders, fat back. Early in the year, we started moving forward towards a generator system. Installing the platform, getting the electrician out here, various whatnots. And then one of you guys, actually a fan, a guy who is also in the marketing at Cummins Generator, contacted me. See what's in our fridge here. Oh, we thawed out some chickens for some butter storage, of cheese. I believe we have some stuff for— yep, some stuff for making broth. Some odds and ends. Oh, a lot of turkeys. Seeds. This is a great way to store seeds. Breakfast, main meat, soups, beans, veggies, pig scraps. 3 more units left. Can you guess it? Well, this is a fridge. Stay with me, guys. Hey, hey, I know it's early. I know it's early, but it's not that early. We got— oh, some leftover chili, some cherries, some broth. Let's call that guy Brayden. Well, yeah, of course. Yeah, that's, that's his name. He reached out Basically wanting to sponsor us a generator in exchange for some publicity. This is what he said about us. Everybody get ready. Everybody get ready to go, "Aww." No, not like, "Aww." More like, "Aww." More like, "That's cute. Aww." Yeah, like that. Get ready. He said, Cummins was actively looking for influencers, that's us, who embodied what we stand for such as dependability, sustainability, values-based, empowering, and caring. We watched some of your videos and could tell that you and your family clearly fit the bill. Everybody go, ah, ah, or is it ah, ah, ah, honey, you gotta hear this. He's got something like that. Ah, all right, back to the program. One more chest freezer. Oh, we have a chest freezer over there. I didn't show you. All chicken, save some veggies. This is 100% chicken, almost I'd say 100 to 120 chickens in here. Another chest freezer. Chickens, mucho chickens. Livers. We put chickens in our chest freezer because that's all that's going to go in there and we don't lose anything. It's only chicken in here. Can you hear the Hallelujah chorus right now? Cold room. Shall we go in here? Turn on the light. This is exciting. This is exciting. We are storing cabbages in here. We are storing carrots in here. We are storing beets in here, oranges. This is where our milk goes after we milk to cool it off and chill it. There's where it goes after it chills. Rebecca's seed catalog is in here. We've hung meats in here overnight. We put our chickens in here after we butcher them before they go into the freezer. It's a transition. Oh, we got potatoes, we got pickles going, we got extra eggs from our chickens, we got potatoes. So I mean, it's one thing if we lost power for maybe up to 8 hours, it's a disaster after that. I mean, it's one thing if we had one or two freezers. For that, you could do a portable generator, but for us, we're gonna need something really serious. Honestly, I brush 99.5% of these things off because one, I haven't ever heard of them, so I'm not using it. I don't believe in the product. And 2, maybe sometimes I feel like they're trying to take advantage of us and of you guys in this wonderful community that we've created. But Cummins was a little different because do you guys remember when we went out on the Great American Farm Tour with our converted school bus Maple? You remember the farm stories mostly. We had some trouble, but the idea was that we didn't want any trouble So we actually bought a Cummins RV mobile generator for our bus and we had zero problems with that generator. So long story short, I said let's do this. Today the generator is coming. All right kids, let's go! It's not 9. I changed the clock wrong. Um, it's 6:40. There, it's 6:40. So we've got to hurry because the generator's coming today at 9. We normally milk at 9, so we need to milk at 8:30. That means we need to get all our chores done rapido. Gideon, how did I get you excited about going with me? Uh, I just want— make me a snack. Let's make you a snack. Some homemade pizza leftover. You happy with that? Have a look at this tomato. This is a big deal today. We coordinated with the local Cummins dealer. He's bringing the generator. We coordinated with the guy who's bringing our wood boiler because he's got the machine to unload this thing. And we coordinated with our electrician, and it's all lining up. 9 AM. But what's the chances that something's gonna go wrong? It wouldn't be It wouldn't be homesteading without problems. Let's just keep everybody careful and just make sure nobody gets hurt. I don't have it, it's over there. Leave it behind, Flossie. Leave it behind. It's that time. We need to get her down, get her milk, get done with that hopefully by the time everybody gets here. Come on, honey. Come on, this way. You're not wanting to leave her boyfriend. Hey, Miss Dang, you had your baby yet? No? You're cleaner. That's what I like to see. Well, we made it. We made it to milking time just in time. 20 minutes till 9. We've been milking for a while. I don't hear any trucks rumbling. You hear any trucks rumbling back? Nope. I think we'll get it done before they get here. We did it, Lily. We got done in time. Bring them on! Come on, let's go! Let's get, uh, Flossie back up there before the guys get here. All right, look, here comes the machine to help move the generator. That's the ticket right there. See, let me show you why we need that. Well, the generator pad's right there. How are you going to get there? Oh, four-wheel drive forklift thingy is how you're gonna get there. There's where the generator's going. Okay, is that all right? Yeah, it's not solid. I think I can get through here. Yeah, it's four-wheel drive machine. Yeah. All right, we got everybody here. Aaron Carolina Energy. What's the name of your company?

Carolina Energy Systems.

Okay, and you're a dealer for Cummins? Cummins. Okay, okay, cool. And so he's brought the generator. We had thought about maybe doing it with my tractor. I'm glad we did not. Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to pick up 1,000 pounds of feed that you can pick up off the ground if it drops. Yeah, it's another thing—

that'd be a mess if it dropped. Be a sad day.

This would be a sad day.

We'd just go inside and cry for a little while, probably. Yes.

We'll carry it around on a pallet. We gotta lift an eye on top, set it off the pallet, or—

it doesn't have a lifting eye. We've got these here. I've got some clevises with me.

Okay.

And even some spreader bars, pick it up from the top.

Okay.

I've even got some lifting straps going up here.

Okay. There you are, you get to see it. You get to see it. This is a 4-wheel drive forklift. Look at that thing. He's backing up into the driveway. The trailer trailer will get— be pushed back, and then that way he can load it. I'm nervous. I don't know if he's nervous, but he drives this every day. Get them stars. Everybody we need's here now. We've got Dave, our local electrician. Thing is bolted down to that pallet. That is a serious unit, enough to power the entire house. Not just the 10 freezers and fridges, the entire house.

I was thinking of having a hook to tie it to where it wouldn't slide any, but it'd be all right.

They're taking that panel off so that they can see it when they're placing it. They've got to place it just right over this.

We do— this is 48.

We're gonna try lifting this up. That's why I ran. They're done. How do you think that went, Aaron?

Went great.

What's next, Dave?

I need to come out and wire it, which I still need a couple more days.

Okay.

Before I can get out here.

Aaron, you want to give us a tour of this?

Sure. This is your operator panel that opens up.

Yeah.

You have an emergency stop button behind here. This is the breaker behind that cover. That's where the electrician will hook up. Okay. And that's your display panel above.

This is pretty much once you guys set it up, it's just going to go.

That's right.

Power goes out, it's automatic.

Yes, sir. Within 10 seconds, it'll start to run.

I can live without the grid for 10 seconds. He's opening this. We're going to take a look inside.

This is where your fuel panel is going to be.

Okay. So you're with Carolina Energy Systems?

Yes.

You sell Cummins?

Yes, sir.

And all kinds of energy systems?

We do sales and service of all standby generators from small residential to large commercial.

Okay, and what's your experience been so far?

Uh, with Cummins, we've had great success. We've been a dealer for a little over a year, and we've sold, I guess, about 50 to 70 in the last year.

What? Okay, nice. Oh, oh my word. Oh my, this looks like my, uh, diesel bus that we drove all over the country with. How does that generate electricity? How does that generate electricity? Anybody know that answer? There's a—

what's called a rotor and a stator, together called alternator. And it's this, this big guy right here, that section. So the stator is stationary and the rotor turns inside of it, and it turns over. This engine is designed at 1800 RPMs to where it makes 60 Hertz. And so it turns over and together the rotor and stator provide electricity. It has other components to stabilize it.

Does that make sense to you? I think so. Oh, okay. It made no sense to me. I'm glad you got it. You pay attention, okay? Something goes wrong.

There's your dad's backup.

That's the engineer right there. Oh, here comes the inspector. Grandma, watch out, Dave! Quick, act like we're doing something. There you come. What do you think, Grandma?

Oh my, oh, it's exciting! Yes, last night the power went off and I know you guys—

I know, you started up, huh? So they haven't told me anything to do yet. It's not hooked up yet, but that's it. Dave comes back on Thursday. We got to get some fuel here by then.

Okay, that's another thing for me to do.

Yeah, will they even come out for just 100 gallons?

Yes, they will. I think that's their minimum is 100 gallons.

You feel a little more secure? It's actually as tall as me, especially because it was, you know, maybe it will snow this year. Actually, we've got our snowplow. Last year we're ready with the plow. We got the generator, we got the boiler. You think it'll snow? I hope we have a blizzard. It won't snow for 4 years.

It won't snow now. Now we're prepared.

Yeah, is there something to see over there? So if somebody wants a Cummins generator, they want to get serious about, uh, keeping their harvest safe, keeping their homestead going, keeping their internet going, do they just— they go to Cummins, they find a dealer?

Yes, sir.

So somebody like you would be listed there?

Yes, sir. So we're a dealer in western North Carolina.

Yeah, I was going to say, how far do you go out?

Because we go into upstate South Carolina and through most of western North Carolina up to Boone.

Okay.

And down as far to not quite to Charlotte, but yeah, towards Shelby in that direction.

You've been great. You've been great customer service. You've been responsive coordinating this. This morning you were great. So I recommend you. Carolina Energy Systems for those locals.

Thank you very much.

The benefit of a Cummins generator is you can have it power anything you like. You can get a small portable generator. You can get a large Mac Daddy. These generators can connect directly to your home. The generator I'm getting automatically boots up in 5 to 10 seconds after losing the grid. I know you know how much I love the grid. but I can live 5 or 10 seconds without the grip.

Oh my, that's your overflow antifreeze tank.

Okay, nice.

Just like in your vehicle, it is a Cummins Blue specific.

Nice. Antifreeze.

All right, um, and of course your battery is going to sit right there.

What's, what's maintenance on something like this?

Uh, the battery is recommended to be changed every 3 years.

Okay.

And the engine is recommended to be serviced once a year or every 100 hours.

All right. And the local dealer like you, you're the serviceman?

Yes, sir.

Okay, that's good to know. This thing automatically connects to a fuel source. The generator I have is a 100-gallon tank, so full capacity. I mean, that's a cool thing. If you're not like got every light on in the house, the washer, the dryer, the all the freezers going, all that, it's not going at full capacity and it doesn't burn as much fuel. But at fuel full capacity, 100 gallons, one day, one 24-hour day But we also have the option of adding an extra tank, which I think we will do. And we'll actually use that tank to either, you know, fill up the tractor or fill up the generator. It uses just like an off-road diesel, common, easy to get. It's made in America. It's made in America. It's made in America.

The dipstick and the filters are on the other side, with the exception of— this is the air filter here.

Okay.

You would check and replace as needed.

Okay, all right, well, thank you, man. There are all kinds of choices in generators, from the small portable, just power a fridge freezer kind of thing, move it out to the field, work your power tools kind of thing, to the full-on 26-kilowatt diesel generator that I've got that powers the entire homestead— well, internet, freezers, washer, dryer, 3 different kinds of fuel systems. What do you want? You want gas, you want propane, you want diesel? They got it.

One thing to keep in mind on this is the fresh air intakes from this side.

All right.

And the exhaust is going to blow out right above that grated area there, so the exhaust and your air that comes off the radiator will go straight up that way.

Okay, but we can't crank it today, but apparently Dave will be done hopefully by the end of next week?

Yes, sir.

Wednesday, Thursday, is that what he said? Yeah, we'll crank it then.

Yes, sir.

Okay, that's the goal. By the end of the next week, we'll fire this up. That's gonna be an exciting day. We'll see you again. The really cool thing about Cummins here is they didn't want to just give me a generator. They actually wanted to bless you guys as well. So we've partnered with them to give away one of their port— let me show you— one of their portable— portable? Not mobile, portable, which you can move around. You— this thing, you could use this out in the field to power your tools, or you could use this as we've used our small generator to power your fridge, freezer, you know, move it back and forth between maybe a couple freezers or freezers, something like that. They're giving that away. That's called the Onan 2500. It's worth $750. They're giving one away to you guys. I'm gonna leave the link for that giveaway down in the description. Guys, you got to enter before August— what is it, August 18th? August 18th. It's available to US and Canada residents. Sorry, sorry everybody else. I'm sorry. It's available to the US and Canada. Also— oh boy, look, it's gonna rain. I hope you guys— hope that's not gonna be too loud. It's gonna rain. And I'm almost done here. Also, if you're interested in getting— come on, stay with me, guys. Stand still, stand still. We're not— I got one more bit left. Also, if you're interested in finding your own Cummins dealer for the portable generator, for powering your entire homestead, home, internet, all that good stuff, there's actually a place on the form when you fill out for the giveaway that you can check that you'd like a Cummins dealer to contact you. It's as easy as that. Best of luck to you guys, and thank you, thank you, thank you to Cummins for believing in us and supporting the community, supporting us and what we're doing, and then offering this giveaway. I didn't— that was, that was your idea. That was your idea, Braden. That was your idea, Cummins. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that, and I'm sure this audience will very much appreciate that. So thank you, Cummins. We really appreciate that. I mean, how many times can I say appreciate that? We thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you. What's another word for that? We're grateful. Or we could just do like my granny would do in one of her prayers: thank you, thank you, thank you. That's enough, right? Look at this, Ben. You're doing all kinds of jobs. I'm gonna doubt— are you making hash browns?

So all the hash browns in here, and then you twist it and get all the water out. So I was watching Hey It's a Good Life on Instagram, and she inspired me that I wanted these to eat good. She also made like this chicken tortilla soup that I'm like, can you please come to my house and make that?

Because it looks really good. It looks delicious. Never done this before.

She told me about that too.

Oh wow, that's handy. Delicious. The test is, did our yogurt go bad? It's done. It actually looks okay. I wonder if it looks a little milky. Rebecca says it's forgiving. It's not too fussy. Now our frozen meat gets very fussy if it doesn't have freezers, if it's not frozen for a while. Hey, we're the two little cooks in here today, Beck. You're cooking the potatoes, cooking the meat, Benj's leftover stir vegetable stir fry, about to fry the eggs. You know, this is really special. Let me get this out of my mouth. You know, this is really special. We all been working together to getting this food on our plate. We even worked together making it. These are Binge's stir fries. He helped a little bit on the potatoes. I made the, the eggs. You kids all helped make this happen. This is special. We're taking a nice quiet meal after a hard morning work, and it just tastes better that way, right? Hunger's the best sauce. Yeah, it really does.