We finally have our electric power back after Hurricane Irene! No damage to our house or cars, thankfully. I'm so glad we acquired all the many camping skills during our youth that came in handy during the five days of roughing it. Having a generator helped, of course; but we ran it mainly to keep food from spoiling and the TV going for storm updates and news.
Preparing in advance of the storm was also a big help. First, I caught up on all the laundry ahead of time while Rick cleaned up the yard. We gassed up both cars and 3 gas cans for the generator the morning before Irene arrived, which was a good thing because many of the local gas stations ran out by the end of the day. Later, some had no power to pump what they did have.
Next, I stocked up on cheese, crackers, fresh milk, meats we could cook on the grill and snacks--also extra batteries for the radio and flashlights. I hardboiled some eggs for myself (Rick is allergic to eggs.) Then I ran the dishwasher in advance of the storm so we'd have room to store dirty dishes out of the way. I decided we could use an extra flashlight, but Walmart was sold out; so I came up with an even better idea: a bicycle headlight! It's small, flat and very bright. Best of all, it runs on 3 AAA batteries and has a life of 50 hours. There were several on the shelf, so I guess nobody else thought of that (heh-heh).
Then I vacuumed and decluttered so there would be nothing to trip over in the dark. We also charged up electronic items like the I-pad, cell phones and DVD player. By the time we lost power Sat. night, we were prepared--just like the Boy Scout motto advises!
Thankfully, the weather after the storm was sunny, cool and DRY! We ate like kings with the grill--steak, roast potatoes, asparagus and even Pizza. We used our single propane burner to boil water for tea and for washing dishes the old-fashioned way. We watched the Yankee games, went to bed early and managed to take care of ourselves without any governmental intervention--imagine that!
After five days of all this, however, we are thankful to have our power back! (...and HOT showers!)
2 comments:
A bicycle light heh! I'm going to look for one of those. Sounds like a wonderful idea! I also froze bread pans full of water. We don't have a generator so I'm for anything that will keep the food cold. Then when we didn't need them, I let them thaw and watered the flowers. Here's to hoping that we don't have any more hurricanes this year!
I'm impressed (and a little late commenting :-)). You guys are real survivalists! Great thinking all around!
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