I have signed a power purchase agreement with http://www.solarcity.com/ which means that they are going to install an 8KW grid tied array out in the upper field. This should meet all of the electrical demands of the farm if we are careful. In order to make this happen we needed to have all of the electricity in the house flow through one meter. Previously I had 1 meter per unit and I have been paying 3 electric bills and interconnect fees.
We also lost power twice within 2 months for extended periods of time. Not a big deal except for freezers and fridges full of food that needed attention. We do not love losing heat and water either. After considering many options i purchased a 5KW gas powered standard home depot generator as a mid 
term solution. We had been borrowing a 50+ year old gennie from our neighbor jay and running extension cords everywhere.
Since we were doing the work we decided to get legit about hooking up power to more than 1 thing at a time and make it so we could run our well pump and furnace without having to rewire anything. So to the right you can see a monster box that literally disconnects our house from the energy grid so that we can feed our electical system with home generated power. If living next to the abandoned hospital is not enough, now we have that classic switch that turns off all the power in the house waiting to be flipped.
I found a great local electrician, Jim Mcdermott to do the work. Could not recommend him more highly.
