What I learned from the last four days without power

[Denim Deb]

Depends on how cold (or hot) it is for cooking outside! Plus, I don't think I'd want to do it in a blizzard or ice storm!

 

[Icu4dzs]

It is issues like this that make me glad for what I have. Each of these difficult things are the types of problem we all face at one time or another. Fortunately, they only last a brief period of time, but they get us thinking ahead, because statistically, if you get one, you're sure to get a second and probably a third. Each time it happens you find out some thing you might need to make enduring such events just that much more tolerable.
I was in a "used" furniture place the other night and scored a beautiful treadle sewing machine (WHITE) and it had all the attachments with it that included the book for the attachments. I also managed to find an Alladin Kerosen lamp. Those are very different from the other kind because the wick is circular rather than a flat tape. I was not able to get the right chimney for it so I will have to get that from another source but the Alladin company is still in business. The lamp is beautiful. I had been collecting kerosene lamps up to now because of such problems and decided finally to go ahead with the wind/solar power system because of the frequency with which the power goes down out here on the prairie. Ever since that system has been built and running, I have had no observable interruptions in my lights, refrigeration or freezer or heating system (geothermal).
Folks are forever asking me how long it will be to see a return on my investment and the simple answer is "darn near every week". Money invested for reasons other than to make more money is often wise because they can't devalue that in the stock market and take it away from you.
Glad to see your DH is "getting the message" Hinotori. You just keep plugging away and pretty soon, he'll be a "believer" as well
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[Hinotori]

I meant to say earlier before I had to leave, I hope you get power back soon Jamsoundsgood. And keep it! With how the wind is howling here, I'm waiting for ours to go again.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Ah, Ice storms are terrible. We went through one in 1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_ice_storm_of_1998

It was like you say, with the sound of pop-pop-pop of the trees cracking. Mom said it sounded like popcorn popping. For 3 days! Mom and Dad went 19 days without power. Amazingly, the apple trees did fine because the branches are used to the load of apples, so the apple industry here wasn't as harmed as we thought it would be. We lost all our white birches. And I don't mean the 4 we had in the yard. The entire 300 acres around my parents house and the house I live in now- lost ALL its white birches. The tops of 100-ft pines just snapped off and stuck in the ground. The woods are still a mess. I wasn't living in this home yet, but I had just started dating my husband. I was living in VT and lost power for a mere 4 hours.

If you didn't have a wood stove, you were up the proverbial creek. If you know you are going to be without power, fill up all the bathtubs plus lots of 5 gallon pails for flushing the toilets. Baby wipes work well for cleaning the bits and pieces on the human body that get smelly quickly. I'm sure you know all this now, though!

My current driveway is 7/10 of a mile long. My husband was living by himself at the time, armed himself with a chainsaw and cut his way out- Oncehe got to the main road, he just kept cutting. The whole time he was working his way out, things were crashing down behind him- so he had to cut his way back in. Every chainsaw in the northcountry was in use. I can't imagine what it would have been like if he hadn't had fuel for the saw. He was living here with just a little DC power at the time, so he had all the "no power" essentials. He was using the perculator for the stove burners for coffee- he was living large!

Invest in an aladdin lamp- and maybe visit lehmans.com for some other essentials you might need. That reminds me- I need to post a question about where people get their non-electric essentials...

Glad you got through ok. Ice storms are a &^%$#@(*!

Scroll to the bottom of this page, and check out the photo gallery. I'm sure it'll look familiar.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/IceStorm1998/ice98.shtml

 

[Hinotori]

I've ordered stuff from Lehmans. When we visited my hubby's uncle up in Ohio, we stopped by their store. It's a very nice place. I've been looking at the oil lamps. I used to have a few cheap lamps when hubby was in the Navy and we were stationed over in VA. We had to clean down a lot of stuff when we moved back to the west coast and I gave them away to some friends. All those supplies for hurricane season.

 

[sufficientforme]

I have been watching all my friends FB pages about your weather, I was raised in that area, so jealous! I love to use those times to see where we lack and what more we can do. Fantastic that hubby realizes prepping is not so bad, my husband just smiles as I tuck in it the closet quietly thinking to himself we will never use that
For the pellet stoves my parent's ran on batteries for backup because they take up very little electricity to run the auger.

Glad your power is back on

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Thanks for posting about Lehmans. Just today I was trying to remember that company's name! See, I have a wood burning fireplace. Under normal conditions, I either cook in my many crockpots or on our electric stove/oven. But, since I don't want to invest in a wood burning oven/stove, thought I'd look for long-handled cast iron cooking implements. Found a few. That'll work very well. Here on the Colorado plains, we're often without electricity periodically, year round. High high high winds.

I too need to invest in a pump for our well. Contacted the people who installed the electric pump and they refused to help us find a backup hand pump because it was just too stupid.

can you believe it?

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

Thanks for posting about Lehmans. Just today I was trying to remember that company's name! See, I have a wood burning fireplace. Under normal conditions, I either cook in my many crockpots or on our electric stove/oven. But, since I don't want to invest in a wood burning oven/stove, thought I'd look for long-handled cast iron cooking implements. Found a few. That'll work very well. Here on the Colorado plains, we're often without electricity periodically, year round. High high high winds.

I too need to invest in a pump for our well. Contacted the people who installed the electric pump and they refused to help us find a backup hand pump because it was just too stupid.

can you believe it?

Yeah-stupid until you need it. Ugh!

I would love to go to the store someday...

 

[sufficientforme]

I am trying to talk hubby to go through there this summer on vacation just so I can go to their store! I just got a huge order, they were having some great sales this month.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I don't want to sound too dense.....I'm from the deep south and I've only gone thru about 7 hard freezes in my 46 years and I've seen very little snow in my years as well. I understand about outages though because hurricanes can be devastating. What I am confused about is the freezer and refrigerator isssues. Couldn't a shelf be emptied in a shed and all the contents of the freezer be put there? Couldn't an ice chest be partially filled with ice to keep the refrigerator food good? I mean here refrigeration is a major issue during outages....2nd by AC, because it will get hot and muggy (we used our AC today). But for other things that really don't require much electricity anyway, like lights, radios, tvs (unless you have a huge one with lots of extras attached to it), I would think some standby battery power might be useful.
I have a whole house generator and a small generator....well kinda small; its a 13 HP. Smaller than the whole house anyway. Its nice to be able to live as usual, so I'm with you. I just don't get it exactly because we have completely different weather extremes.