Given the current political climate, many people are looking to stay the hell away from large metropolitan areas. Those folks out there like me that have to go into the city are doing so knowing they could caught in a bad situation very quickly. If you're one of those... be prepared. You can take that to mean what ever you want. Also, in the middle of my furious typing and post-fest last night I did a little research last night and saw that the terms 'off-grid' and 'homestead' are steadily climbing the search engine metrics for most searched on terms/words.

I wonder, do the people doing these searches have what it takes to go completely self-sufficient? My guess is probably not. Do these people have the first clue what it means to be self-sufficient and live off grid?

Bawaaahhhhhh!!!!!!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system...

Hopefully, next year I'll be unveiling my first of two non-fiction books to help these doe-eyed dreamers along. The working title for this is Preparing to Prepare: A General Guide to Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness. You can read a little write-up about that on the Works in Progress page under the My Works menu option. 

Man! I seriously need to some ADD meds... none of the above has anything to do with the title of this post. Well, maybe...

Sorry about that folks... here we go...

When I saw the search terms that were growing in popularity I remembered a string of texts I had earlier in the day where I was asked my opinion of the effects of an EMP on portable generators. Apparently, this fellow's wife recently gave the green light on the purchase and he wanted to know what he could do to harden it and protect it (ahem Faraday cage).

So, take those two things (doe-eyes and generators) and you have the premise for this post.

Scenario: Say Prom King 'Sparky' and Prom Queen 'Miffy' procure some land in the middle of no where and they need some form of electricity until they can drop a mini turbine into the crik or erect their wind mill or install their solar panels. Well, then they might want a generator. Now assume that the reigning King and Queen don't want to advertise their location. Smart move by Sparky and Miffy... even smarter that they diversified their generation sources (just saying).

Now, knowing that the only forms of silent electrical generation are the three things they have planned on installing, they need to find the quietest portable gas powered generator they can. Here's what I found in terms of articles:

Generator Advisor          Portable Generator Grader          Outdoor Living

Long story short... get an inverter generator. All three sites espouse this recommendation. However, this is a burdensome cost at nearly $1000. A grand for a generator sucks no matter how you slice it.

However, I wouldn't be me if I didn't have a cost effective alternative.

For those of us that aren't from 'old money' and are on a budget, you could always just buy the louder more cost effective portable generator and install a muffler (if the noise is being generated at this location) or build some form of sound baffling enclosure (if the noise is generated from the motor and not the exhaust). Here are some links for you to review on these two sound reduction concepts.

Jack's Small Engine          TractorByNet          YouTube1          YouTube2

Frankly, I'm a redneck and I'm married to a woman that balances the checkbook to the penny... so I'm more inclined to go with the cost effective alternative.