Great weather for a parrot

[bill_e]

heh, not even midnight here and we're at -15°F...plus my kitchen sink froze...going to bed, water's off, I'll deal with it in the morning.

 

[bill_e]

Bump!
It's that time of year again where us northerners need to be thinking of what we're going to do in case of a power outage or fire or other emergency.

I have my fleece covered Pak-o-Bird at the ready.

 

[noodles123]

Uhhh...you are smart to think of this because Noodles and I had to flee the house when carbon monoxide detectors sounded at 6am about a month ago (frosted windows and windshields/circa 20 f---not that bad, but really bad for a bird)...I was pretty sure it was a false alarm because she was acting normal, but then the fire department came and said "ma'am, you have to get out of the house, it isn't safe." MY reply (which was frowned upon) was, "well you are in here, so if that is the case, why do I have to leave? I am not leaving my bird and it's too cold to take her outside if this isn't actually a threat so I have to warm up the car first " (EEK...)<---mind you, I am not an idiot, I just didn't like the callousness that I faced prior to that when trying to explain the bird situation...They basically tried to tell me that she was just a pet and so then I got all "I SHALL GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP LADS!".

I also figure that she is like a walking carbon monoxide detector...ALIVE=probably no gas in the house, especially since it took them like 10 minutes to arrive ...I will say we opened windows like crazy and turned off the furnace and water heater so it was all a little muddled in terms of what was actually happening by the time they did arrive.
Anyway, we did end up having to go to the car and thankfully I was able to stall with some other excuses, BUT, it can definitely be an issue and it crosses my mind a lot these days....It turns out it was likely the crappy old detector, but it did end up alerting us to some other hazards in the home (out of code issues) that were then rectified lol.

I was very panicked before they arrived, but my response was slow (and so was theirs) which is why I need a better plan (I was in the shower when the beeping started).

 

[bill_e]

noodles123, I was thinking about cold mostly but Co2 or propane or burning food or anything could drive you out of the house in a hurry.

Having a plan including not having to hunt around for your carrier is a must.

 

[noodles123]

noodles123, I was thinking about cold mostly but Co2 or propane or burning food or anything could drive you out of the house in a hurry.

Having a plan including not having to hunt around for your carrier is a must.

I was talking about the cold too---Mainly because in that situation, the gas threat was primary, but the cold could have killed her too, so I had to judge the severity of the threat because a bird transported straight into those temperatures would do very poorly (as would a bird in a house of gases). That having been said, for there to be enough gas to set off a detector in the hall, there would have been enough to kill her.

Consequently I just was pretty sure that the "gas" was the lesser of the 2 threats, as the alarm stopped and all sources of gas were cut as soon as the alarm sounded---like I said, she would have been dead by the time I ran out of the shower and began bossing people around (and especially by the time the fire department arrived)-- Their tests confirmed that there was no carbon monoxide.

I still want a better plan in the future, but it's hard when your options are: run outside naked with wet hair, your frozen bird and no plan LOL

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

It's a balmy 50 degree's here today But I'm at the ready here with two carriers right next to me incase of an emergency,and out to the car we'd go.

A couple years back,my furnace crapped out,turned out to be a faulty ignitor (oil fuel) I noticed it didn't fire after hitting the reset once or twice. Got a service guy to come in two hours. When he installed the new ignitor he said there "will be smoke",since I had tried to fire it previously. HOLY CRUD!!! when that thing fired in an instant there was so much smoke in the house I couldn't see Amy's house from ten feet away! I grabbed the carriers,hit the car remote starter...BB was easy to get out of his house into a carrier but Amy would NOT come out. I had to grab him and gota good chomp for my efforts..
Once they were safe and warm in the car I opened all the windows,there was so much smoke that my neighbor came running over thinking the house was on fire..scary!

Jim

 

[wrench13]

Great thread that I hope no one will have to use. Fleece pack O bird cover just became a Salty late Xmas present. O Look Salty , Santa left this behind the tree for you! ( our tree is about 1 foot tall).

 

[bill_e]

......HOLY CRUD!!! when that thing fired in an instant there was so much smoke in the house I couldn't see Amy's house from ten feet away!......

Jim, had a similar situation late this summer when I had an oil fired hot water heater replaced. They forgot to install the included burner spacer and when they fired it up the flame was too close to the back of the fire box and bounced the smoke back out of the heater. They didn't realize what they had done and waited 10 minutes for the "new parts" to burn off...needless to say it filled the house with smoke.

I had to grab Nike, put her in the Pak-o-Bird and sit her on the front porch for a couple of hours.

 

[SailBoat]

Sad when no one reads the instruction! So much for the professionals! And, the why Mrs Boats demands that I am onsite when such people are around! Not that I'm an expert on all things, only that if I'm looking over their shoulders, they might check the instructions. Me, I'm watching for the basics, if they are not doing that, there are likely other problems. A vicious circle then ensues...

But, on to the topic at hand! Thank's for the Bump!!! Great topic that more people should consider...

We travel so very often that we have an in home kit and one in SUV emergence kit in the travel cage. With a fleece coat on, I simply place Julio on by left hand and back him into the coat under by right arm. My body heat and the coat keep him warm and since it is the standing practice when we are going some place he settles right in.

FYI: Short the sub-zero weather, modern auto's start quickly and build heat rapidly! Commonly within five minutes there is heat entering the passenger compartment, single digits and below zero, expect 10 minutes.

Regarding having a discussion with Firemen! You are wasting your time and are in their way! Simply get your Parrot out of the house and into your auto ASAP.

We live in a World in which near anyone located near any place of mid-size will need to leave the area ASAP. The list of reasons is near endless.

The Reality of Today and the even sadder reality of Tomorrow. The electrical grid is becoming ever-more prone to failure. Maintenance Money is being slide into the Renewable Energy Systems. When fully in place, we will have a 50 to 70 year old grid that is very prone to failure. The lack of tree trimming is now approaching a fatal level in which even small storms will result in trees /branches causing lines
to fail.

Point is, have an alternative place to go during electrical failures or upgrade your home system to accept power from a portable generator! Note: Solar Energy system that supply emergency power are a waste of money as they need 'full' bright Sunlight! Roof mounted systems have the same issues, plus a few others. Some require the availability of Utility Supplied AC to function. Only those systems that are designed for Off-the-Grid-Use will work in a power outage. FYI: remember that if there is not Bright Sunlight, there is not electrical power.

And while I am pontificating here: If you believe in Renewable Energy Systems you will be finding out that they have serious problems that very few are talking about. Ask yourself why the builders of these wondrous systems are providing extremely short warranties! NOTE: They are failing much younger than believed possible! Wind farm fires in the primary gear box, breakdown of the blades themselves, which in turn result in unbalanced loads of the primary gear boxes, which follow with fires. The warranty no longer in place guess who pays for the extensive cost of replacing the gearboxes and the three large blades - surprise we do. The story regarding solar panels is just as sad!!!

There is a reason this stuff has such short warranty periods.

The likelihood that you will not have electrical power for days and weeks at a time increases monthly. Have a back-up plan!

FYI: I'm not a conspiracy nut! I just read too many engineering failure reports...