Anyone, no matter where you are, please take some precautions to survive when, not if, the power goes off. I feel like our grids are more and more unreliable, there are more and more people who would love to take out our grids, and once it happens, chances are it’s going to be too late to do much about it. There are many things you can do without having to install a whole house generator. We’ve had those and we aren’t going to have another one. I understand that they are extremely convenient but if you’re counting on a propane truck to come refill your tank, there are plenty of emergencies where they aren’t going to be coming. My family and friends have experienced this during hurricanes. In Texas when the power was on and off for almost a week, the propane companies couldn’t keep up.
Anyway, this morning I had planned to make carnitas in the pressure cooker for lunch but yesterday I was watching youtube while stitching. The videos in my subscriptions were playing one after another and Grains in Small places came on with a video about making pizza crust and that made me think . . pizza sounds good. Then I went out to the fridge in the garage to get something and a package of turkey pepperoni fell out of the fridge. I picked it up, laughed and said “Are you asking me to make pizza tomorrow?” Then Denise and I were emailing back and forth and she had made a pizza. I’m very thankful all those things came together and I made that pizza and had it ready to eat before the power went out.
This morning Vince told me what time the games came on that he wanted to watch today. I said “How about I make a pizza? We can skip breakfast and eat pizza about noon? He was fine with that so I made pizza and we ate right at noon. I wanted to make cookies so I got up from the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher, was creaming the butter and sugar and the power went off. It was zero outside and felt like -16. I waited for about 20 minutes for the power to come back on, then told Vince . . I’m taking a nap.
Vince hooked up a small solar generator so we would have internet and he could watch TV. He got a bigger solar generator out that would run a small room heater. We have the big propane heater that we used in Texas for the greenhouse. It’s in the downstairs garage and it’s supposed to be ventless heater but we do have extra carbon monoxide detectors for when we use it. Quite a few of my quilts have hanging sleeves on them. We have a pressure rod (I think that’s what you call it – where you squeeze the ends of the rod in a window or shower) and we can hang at rod to hang quilts to blog our warm air from going up the stairs and then we’d stay in the basement with the heater in the garage going and leave the door open to the house. That would be enough heat to keep the pipes in the house from freezing. We have sleeping bags that are supposed to keep us warm down to some crazy low temp and we would put those on the bed in the basement and sleep in them.
We’re very lucky the power was only out for about 2-1/2 hours. It could have been longer and I think I read that it was out because there was too much demand so before this cold snap is over, it’s possible it could happen again.
If you don’t have a plan for staying warm, and taking care of your family without electricity, please don’t wait til you need it – come up with a plan now and do what you need to do. Life without power may not be a walk in the park but at least you can survive with a little preparation.
The funny thing is . . when the power came on and I got up, Vince said “Having Cooper sitting next to me was like having a little heater right next to me.” I said “Oscar is the same. Just to be certain we can stay warm if the power goes out again, we should get another dachshund or two!” I don’t think additional dachshunds are part of our future but it made Vince laugh.
Liz says
A few years ago, the electricity went out due to a large quake – the things that were supposed to trip to shut down did their job but it took about an hour for the techs to restart things. What I missed was having a cup of tea to settle my nerves. I had some wine instead.
But, for the next couple weeks, I heated water and put it in the thermos to be able to have a warm drink or fix a freeze-dried meal. I can cook on an outdoor stove, but not at night in the middle of winter.
And, two nights ago, we had a swarm of 19 quakes – two in the 4.1-2 range. All within 3 miles of me, so I was shaken out of bed. I immediately fixed myself that cup of tea but the electricity did not go out!
Stay warm everyone!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We definitely learn from these experiences. A friend told me there were quakes near where she lived but I know so little about the locations in OK, I didn’t think they were close to you. Sounds like they were closer to you than they were to her. Glad your power didn’t go out from the recent earthquakes. Have things settled down now? No more quakes?
vivoaks says
I’ve said the same thing about the electric grid for years. People just look at me like I don’t have a clue…. It’s coming. When I was a kid in New York, there was a huge brown-out down the East Coast because of something going wrong at Niagara Falls power plant, and it was quite a while before it came back. I also lived in NYC when an “Act of God” put out the electric for 3 days. That was a trip!! We have a wood stove, so at least we can keep warm, and I’ve cooked on it, so we won’t go hungry!! 🙂
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I would LOVE to have a wood stove but we never will. We could easily add it to the downstairs garage and pipe it out through an outside wall but . . not going to happen. I’m glad to know you have that.
Pat Anderson says
If you spaced the dachshunds out, you could always have a puppy to cuddle…just a thought!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That would also mean I always have a puppy to potty train, which isn’t fun when it’s -4 outside. 🙂
I would love to have a dozen dachshunds but I think we have gotten our last one. I don’t want to leave behind dogs that Chad will have to inherit or find homes for.
ginnyclyne says
Our family lived through hurricane Gloria on Long Island NY with an infant and a 3 yr old. No electric for 10 day. It was not fun. My husband is a former boy scout and is an engineer we fed the neighbors every night for 4 days with what was defrosting in the freezer fortunately it was in September and not cold. Here in Connecticut we have a portable generator and with that the fireplace and barbeque we stay comfortable. It would be hard otherwise because we are on a well and having no running water is not fun.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That was what Vince ran into in Texas without power a few years ago. Without electricity, our main well didn’t work. He did have a generator so he would run it long enough to fill the pressure tank, then be careful with it and that would last him a day if he didn’t use too much. We have two gas fireplaces but the blowers will not work if there’s no power. The guy we bought the house from said they will work and produce heat without the blowers. They survived about a week here without power, all sleeping in sleeping backs in front of the fireplace.
RuthW in MD says
It’s always good to think about ways to survive – ahead of time, and write down ideas and buy or collect stuff to help you survive. That rod to hold quilts had better be pretty sturdy, they’re called tension rods because the tension on the walls on each side is what holds them up, unless the quilts or blankets are too heavy!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We do have walls on both sides of the entrance to the stairs and they are very sturdy. We bought heavy duty rods and I think they will be fine in the opening to the stairs. If not, about 5 steps up the stairs, there’s openings on both sides where the upstairs floors are and railings going up so we could just stick any kind of rod through those spindles. We have done this before where we didn’t have walls on both sides and we put rebar through PV pipe, ran that through the quilt sleeve and put the pipe between the spindles. We’re pretty resourceful. 🙂
Anne Kirby says
Our furnace is for crap, so when my brother asked how we keep warm, I laughed and said, Cats and quilts!!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Cats and quilts are definitely good heaters. Glad you have them!
joymmealey says
Thank you for reminding us about being prepared. Last weekend our power was out for 36 hours. I put extra blankets on all of the beds and went to sleep the first night. We survived and were comfortable except for my hubby constantly complaining about using a lantern every time he had to go to the bathroom. When we realized the power was going to be out for a while, I packed up to contents of our freezer and fridge and we went to my parent’s house to stay. I grabbed an English paper piecing project to take along and made quite a bit of progress. Probably would have toughed it out at home but my daughter is eight and I didn’t want her getting too cold. Of course there was little snow at that point so traveling wasn’t much of as issue other that watching for limbs and branches in the road. We’re supposed to get another snowstorm over the weekend and there’s always the chance of the power going out. If roads are treacherous, well stay in place and do just fine.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Not trying to give you advice but one thing we did when our power was out for 7 days in Louisiana in January . . but I must say the first two days it was miserably cold and we couldn’t leave because of the ice on the roads and bridges but by the third day, the ice had melted and while the house was not warm, it wasn’t so cold that we were shivering non-stop and we left and went to my parents. They had a fireplace and plenty of ways to cook outside. But here, we have nowhere to go and with three dogs and a cat, we have to be prepared to stay here. Chad had just turned 9 so he was about the same age as your daughter. We closed all the bedroom doors (because there were windows in the bedrooms and that made those rooms a bit colder but we closed the bedroom doors. I took insulated curtains that were on tension rods from the sewing room windows and we put those up between the hallway and the kitchen/living area so basically we had a little “cave” in the hallway. The bathroom off the hallway didn’t have windows so we left that door open. I took a 9 x 13 cake pan, put a couple of inches of water in it, put a couple of candles in the cake pan and kept those lit til we went to sleep. That gave off a little heat and a little light. My thinking was that if I fell asleep with those burning, the water in the cake pan would extinguish a fire if it got started.
We “camped out” in the hallway and I tried to make it an adventure. It was fine for the two nights we stayed there but I’m thinking by the third or fourth night, it might have gotten old. We were happy to get to my parents’ house with warm food and a fireplace!