Here’s another post in the prepping series:
Have you ever been without power for a few days and realize . . there’s nothing to do?
My Kindle is one of my best investments. The one I like best is the Paper White, which seems to last forever without needing to be charged. I have a couple of older model Kindles and I do charge them up from time to time and download new books to them so that if the power would be out for several days, I could still have a reader. Also, we have this Anker solar charging device that I’ve used several times to charge Kindles . . just to see if it worked. I also read the reviews of the solar charger and quite a few people used it to charge Kindles, as well as iPhones, iPads, etc.
While we’re talking about the Kindle, if you aren’t subscribed to Kindle Buffet, you might want to check that out. There are so many books available for free or at a reduced rate. There’s hardly ever an issue of the Kindle Buffet that I don’t find at least a couple of books to get for free.
I do not consider myself to be one who needs much entertainment, per se, but I cannot sit and do nothing. I can only imagine what it would be like to go for a week, or longer, without power and have absolutely nothing to do. I figure that most of us would keep busy trying to keep the household running . . food on the table, laundry done, etc. Then we’d be too tired to think much about entertaining ourselves but having nothing to do is never a good option for most of us.
If you have children or teens who are used to being entertained by electronics, what on earth would you do with them if there was no power and no internet?
Not only is it a good idea to have age appropriate games/activities available but it’s important to have things to do as a family. In a stressful time, it’s good for everyone to be able to laugh and enjoy themselves as a family.
When Chad was a young child, one of the games we used to play often as a family was Twister. It still makes me smile thinking about playing that game. I think we laughed more at ourselves than we did at each other but it was always fun. I’m not sure it’s a game old folks should try to play though.
Some of the ideas that come to mind as far as “unplugged” entertainment are:
- Deck of playing cards
- Checkers
- Dominoes
- Horseshoes
- Badminton
- Crayons and Coloring Books (even older kids love to color if they’re doing it with smaller children)
- Paper Dolls
- Drawing pads/pencil colors
If there are children around, it might be a good idea to keep some of the games hidden and bring out only when the power is out so they would be new and exciting.
Not necessarily entertainment, but always keep a notebook/paper and pens handy. We’re so used to keeping all our notes on the computer but if something ever happened and we didn’t have power for an extended period and wanted to keep a diary, we’d need paper.
Susan says
Good ideas, Judy, especially the paper and writing utensils. I remember having 3 days of punishment as a child, mostly stuck in my room, and I wrote a book. I was only 12, so I wouldn’t say it was a good one, but it certainly kept me busy for three days! LOL Besides, there are lots of games to be played with pencil and paper.
Helen Koenig1 says
hmm – my entertainment without power – books (I am NOT fond of Kindle, etc. – does funny things to my eyes!) and lots of them! Also I hopefully have a treadly wending its way to me! Barring that – there are all kinds of craftsy things to do – and, should worse come to worse – I have a garden to take care of, etc.
Debbie in Wa. says
Judy,
Over the years I have learned to keep things here for us to do. For the grandsons, we have puzzles, board games, and lots of books. For the adults we also have puzzles, cards, lots of books and things for me to do alone. I have finally learned to master my feet to use my treadle sewing machine. Hubby, on the other hand, had no issues. He learned on his mom’s when he was younger.
JudyL says
Yes! Puzzles. I forgot about those. I also learned to sew on my grandma’s treadle sewing machine but I am not very coordinated when trying to do it.
Kate says
Ah – you bring back a flood of memories – I grew up on the Atlantic coast, and everytime a hurricane came through, we lost power for several days… I remember them fondly – great long games of Monopoly. I think unplugging now and then is a really good practice… but after reading your post, I am enjoying envisioning you and Vince playing paper dolls by candlelight during a global crisis.. what an image.
JudyL says
Living on the Gulf coast, it was the same thing. There were always surprises or games that we normally didn’t play that came out when we were without power.
There doesn’t have to be a “global crisis” for us to lose power for a week or more. Vince and I might not be playing with paper dolls but it wouldn’t hurt to have a good supply of entertainment tools to share with someone who might need them. Or, there could be a little granddaughter here! 🙂
Mary in VA says
We have lots to do if the power goes out – books, lots of paper, pens, pencils, crayons, etc., knitting, hand sewing, spinning, the list goes on…. My husband likes to collect and use old wood working tools, and we have a working treadle sewing machine. We also have stuff like cribbage, dominoes, backgammon, and jigsaw puzzles tucked into corners of the house. And if all else fails we have the cats and chickens for entertainment. After adding fish to a small garden pond this past weekend, the cats have been fun to watch as they try to catch the fish without getting wet.
Julie in WA says
And don’t forget about the chickens! They are HIGHLY entertaining! My friend has a large beautiful coop with chickens; she put a table with an umbrella and chairs by the coop–the entertainment is better than what you can find on television!!!
Michelle says
I may go against the grain here, but for short term power outages, I keep extra batteries just for the handheld gaming systems my boys own. Once it gets really dark, and really cold (even with the fireplace roaring, we still wind up piling on blankets at night), it’s nice to have something that will keep them all happily and safely entertained in one place. If there’s light, there’s no problem keeping everyone entertained.
When the power IS out, I ration electronics, for myself and the kids, It’s a lot easier to amuse the family during daylight hours. Once darkness falls, those little backlit screens come on. Yes, we could tell stories and play guessing games, but after a stretch of days of dealing with no running water or power, I’m too tired to play activities director and want to curl up with my own book.
Have you come up with lighting that will let you do much more than cross a room? My oil lamps just don’t cast enough light to do much of anything by, let alone read.
Another thing to put with that pencil and paper — paper phone books! A list of numbers you might need/want to call, and the actual paper book for the ones you didn’t think to put on the list. .
liz says
Ok, I just got one delivered yesterday. I retrieved it from the recycling bin.
Another use for the phone book would be fire starting papers.
Lee says
The fear of losing power ‘forever’ is one reason I’d love to get a treadle sewing machine in good working order. My electronics-addicted son would have the most difficult adjustment of any in my family, but I have to say, at those times when we’ve lost power for a few hours at night, we ‘lit up’ the battery operated lights and played board games or cards and had a nice time at that!
Jo Anne Schnebly says
We were without power for 6 days a few years ago. My teenage son complained about having to eat “cold” cereal the first few days. He was used to a bacon and eggs breakfast. When we think the power may be off, we fill buckets, tanks, etc. with water and I cook food ahead that can been eaten cold. My mom asked if I got lots of books read during that time. No, Mom, it took all my waking hours to keep things going. Husband’s coworkers said we could come stay with them in town til the power was restored. Really? The 3 of us, 1 big dog, 3 cats, 15 hogs, and 20 sheep? Thanks, anyway. We survived and have lots of fun stories to share.
Sherrill says
UGH! I shudder to think of any period of time much longer than a couple of hours without internet, iPhone, TV and/or radio!!!! HAHA
liz says
I have plenty of books, a kindle,hand sewing to do.
After a hurricane, I noticed that I just went to sleep earlier since I didn’t want to fall asleep with the candles burning.
Check out Biolite stoves – I got a camping stove that works on using twigs. I have a container of wood pellets that can be used in the stove. The neat thing is that there is a bit of co-generation. The fire starts the fan going which increases the efficiency of the burning which then charges a battery which can be used to charge phones,etc. I got it to make sure I could get a cup of tea in the morning!
Dianne S. says
We have our kindles and are looking at the solar charger for just in case. I try and keep everything charged here.
Judy, thanks for telling me about the Kindle Buffet a few weeks ago. Love it and I am always finding FREE books to read there.
I have a treadle sewing machine in a cabinet that was a family members. Several years ago, Darrell found a hand crank Singer machine in a wooden case. I had never seen one before. It came home with us, I have to really think when I have used it. Hold the fabric, keep it straight, turn handle to sew on fabric..phew
Plenty of crafty things around here and Darrell has numerous hand tools.
Freda Henderson says
When our power was out a week we charged our phones and my kindle on a booster pack, also all the neighbors phones. When the booster pack got low we charged it on the generator. We stayed busy, and I also sewed with the generator while Lynn watched TV. You tend to get the job done during emergencies.
JudyL says
We have generators but we don’t count on them for anything other than keeping the freezers going and in a long term outage, I’d can everything from the freezers that I wanted to keep.
Our cell phones only work off the microcell and without internet, the microcell doesn’t work so with no power, we have no phones so we don’t worry about keeping the phones charged. IF we were concerned about phones, anything we have that can be charged via USB can be charged with our little solar charging gizmo.
Tinkerfeet says
Since we are already off grid I guess we are always without power but our internet is hit or miss mostly miss so when our kids and grand kids come out we do the unheard of and all go outside and play games like hide and seek, red light green light, mother may I. We do all the cooking outside to. We all have a great time. The grand kids range in age from 6 months to 18 years old. Everyone has fun. We also do ride quads and off road a lot ( we have more grandsons than granddaughters) lol
Vivian says
We were without electricity for 5 days earlier this year. Ice storm caused a tree to fall on the power line. We played uno, phase 10, scrabble, yatzee. And I read a whole lot.
Theresa says
I’ve got a Kindle (graciously donated by my friend Joe) but I mostly use it to play video games. Books feel so much better in my hands, and you can get them used from most bookselling websites, so the cost isn’t bad. We’ve always kept crayons/colored pencils and extra paper for visiting kids, and we’ve got board games. It’s comforting to think that filling your leisure time might be the worst of it. My worst fear is standing in long lines for necessities, and filling my spare time listening to the rest of the line complain.
Dottie N. says
A lot of good ideas! I remember being at my grandparents farm (a long time ago!!) and power outages were a fact of life. My grandmother always made sure she had some water set aside (for drinking and cooking – gas stove) because they had a well and no electricity/no water. We always made sure the kerosene lanterns were filled so we would have light at night. We did play a lot of board games, dominoes, read a little, maybe did a bit of hand work, TALKED and on special occasions, my Dad could be counted on to tell stories. They were always “continuing” chapters until the next trip or the next power outage.
Where we live now we’ve had several outages for various reasons, usually weather related. We also have a well and if bad weather is predicted with downed trees, etc. we fill the bathtub with water so that we have something to flush toilets with. I also set up drinking water for us and the pets, fill the oil lamps and make sure I have some handwork, books, kindle, etc.
Kathy McCrea says
What about building blocks? My son spent hours building with Legos but any type of building block would work. The ideas are great. My understanding from talking with my teacher sister and another friend is that children don’t know how to shuffle cards and deal them, so this would be a perfect time to learn how to do that!
Norece says
We bought a lot of games, puzzle books, coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, pens, playing cards, note cards, paper tablets, etc… at the Dollar Tree. A few years back when Walmart had spiral notebooks for ten cents each we bought 100 of them. I also bought a dictionary to add to the activity box.
Helen Baczynski says
No power is a good lesson on how people lived before electricity became widely available. How did anyone get any sewing or reading done by candle light or oil lamps? We don’t realize now how bright everything is.
Back in the 70’s, the coal miners in England went on planned strikes which, in turn, meant no electricity. We had a solid fuel (type of coal) burning range so the kitchen was always warm. My mother, myself and two sisters, aged about 7 and 4 played endless games of heads, bodies, and legs. We each had a strip of paper. We each drew a head then folded the paper over so only the end of the neck showed and passed the paper to the next person who drew the body. the paper was folded again and the next person drew the legs. This was a great game and gave us hours of laughter. It was something even a young child who cannot read and write can enjoy, which is why we played it. Much better than consequences.
We must have done other things too, but head, bodies and legs is the one game I remember really well. Sometimes power cuts have advantages.
Jan O says
My parents went out for the evening during the Great NYC Blackout of 1965; they almost never went out. I was 10, the oldest of 4 kids. A 17 year old neighbor girl was babysitting. Mom & Dad were stuck on a train in a tunnel all night, so the babysitter’s older sister came over too. We played hide-and-seek in the dark, with candles and flashlights. A very memorable event for all of us!
JudyL says
That’s a very good example of how the “adults” set the tone. If they had been in a panic, that would have sent you kids into a panic.
JudyL says
That’s a very good example of how the “adults” set the tone. If they had been in a panic, that would have sent you kids into a panic.
CJ says
I’m intrigued by all the “treadle machine” comments. What about an iron? There’s not much sewing to be done without pressing.