No Electricity??

[Helicopter]

There was a 2 hour Blackout here last night..........couldn't watch the tennis.

Life's so hard.

:rofl

It got me to wondering how folk cope where they have extreme weather conditions, lose power and have no generator?

I had a torch and candles......couldn't even read

:baby

I just curled up on the lounge, cuddled my dog and waited.

Used to have a lantern but it died due to lack of use.

How on earth do people manage? I'm not talking about horses, just talking about living.

 

[minisch]

Mother Nature has been crazy the last 10 years or so. I've been fortunate and not lost it for more than 2 days. My friends have lost their power for up to 13 days and she has 17 BIG horses ! Alot of people have generators now, if you have a woodstove, you've got heat and cooking. If you are smart you fill barrels, buckets whatever (before the storm) for watering horses and toilet use (we are on septic and well) so those don't work without electricity

If you have a health club membership you can shower there (if you can get there) lots of candles, cards, games, booze and a sense of humor that always fades after a few days. It's the pits, we are so dependent of electricity.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

Fire up the generators We store 30 gallons of fuel, plus two full tanks on the generators. Will keep us running a long time

 

[susanne]

We frequently lose power, but I think one of our neighbors has connections within the PUD -- we live way off of the main roads up in the hills, but our power is always quickly restored.

We lost power twice this last week during a major (for Oregon) snow storm. The first time it was back on within the hour. The only problem was that it went out before I made my morning coffee! I was NOT happy. The second time took most of the day, but the entire county was blanketed in snow. It was VERY cold inside, and since I couldn't work, I climbed back in bed. Just when I could sleep no longer, the power came back on!

We try to keep a rain barrel full in case we need to fill troughs when the well is out. No generator at this time.

 

[Carolyn R]

we have a generator now, but if its just a few hours without power, we don't even turn it on. We have two wood/coal stoves, we have cooked on/in them many times. Candles for light, if its winter bring in buckets of snow/ let it melt, flush the toilets with that. Heat up water on the stove, temper it with cold water to wash up. There is a gravity fed running water spigot that is at a constanstant flow into a trough down the road, it drains from the trough and feeds back into a spring. The mill goes back to the 1700's. the water is flowing spring water, same stuff fed to our well, so we would fill up buckets for drinking water. The animals usually got the buckets of water from melted snow that we put in the house. If we were lucky enough to have the township open the roads, we could drive down the road to get the drinking water, otherwise we would take out a sled or two to pull them home, or just carry them, its only 1/4 of a mile. Kids loved it. Never bothered me much, but after a few days it gets a little old. Love having the generator, but I know there are enough local resources and we have enough know how to get by with out a hint of a panic. Now, the city folk that moved to the nearby developement from NYC area, God love them, they think the world is coming to an end when we have power outages that last more than a day.

 

[Marty]

We have flashlights, oil lamps and candles. Lots of blankets and hopefully plenty of food that doesn't need cooking. Sometimes I play the piano by candlelight, I tell horrible jokes and pray we all took our showers before the power went out.

 

[Katiean]

We have flashlights, oil lamps and candles. For heat we have a kerosene heater. Infact, we have used the kerosene heater for our main heat until we got our new furnace 3 seasons ago.

 

[Sonya]

When we first moved to Michigan 16 years ago we rented a duplex, there were major storms all over the state with tens of thousands out of power...since we were rural, we were without power for 7 weeks...yep 7 weeks...we did not have a generator. We had alot of camping equipment and we survived with that...since we had a well, no water...we got 5 gallon containers and filled them at the fire station when needed. We heated the water on our camp stove and used a flower watering can to shower...thankfully it was the fall so heat was not an issue. After going that long, a couple days is nothing. Power is nothing, water is what makes it difficult...no using the toliet, showering, cleaning up. Now that we have a house, we do have a generator, but it is not large enough to run the furnace or the well. We have been without power for a couple days in the winter and we have electric heaters we run with the generator to keep everying from freezing. With the generator we can run half the house as far as power, which includes the tvs

 

[kaykay]

We have been thru many storms and had to endure long power outages without a generator. Both in Illinois and Ohio. The longest in Ohio was two years ago when I think we went 7 days with no power. Its horrible. If I know a storm is coming I fill all bathtubs and sinks with water. And every horse bucket and trough. Since our well pump runs off electricity no power no water.

We use the bathtub water to flush toilets. Luckily we have a wood stove for heat. We stick all the food outside to keep it cold. We also put pans of water by the stove to heat them up and take sponge baths.

We did have to put trash bags in big trash cans and fill them with water at the car wash so we could water the horses.

You tend to go to bed really early when you have no power lol. Theres nothing else to do when it gets dark.

 

[Shari]

At the old place in Oregon, always had power out during the winter. One winter it was off more than it was on.

Had a small fireplace, and a BBQ, so ate well. Had Camping cookware, so we could have tea, coffee.. etc...

Big lanterns's, one that could light up a room (bought it from Lehmans), so it was easy to read or what not. Plus we had our oil lamps.

Water wasn't usually a problem, had what was in the tanks from the Well and the water heater.

We read, played games, cleaned, cooked, spun wool into yarn, I sometimes did Art. Pretty much what I/we do on normal days...

 

[Matt73]

We have a generator. We could run off it for days if we needed to.

 

[Davie]

I have been without power on two different ocassions after Ice/snow storms one time for a week the other for 13 days. I have a lot of camping stuff also, so was able to cook on my coleman stove using those small 1# propane tanks you can get in a 2-pack at Walmart. I always look in their camping section and have found many camping items like florscent lamps that work off batteries. Hunter head lamps that are great to ready by. I always keep a good supply of batteries on hand. One thing to remember if you use a camping stove in the house, be sure and open a window for ventilation or outside. I also keep a battery operated radio, and I have a battery operated cell phone charger (found them at Radio Shack). In case I don't have batteries I found at one of my feed stores a "Red Cross" radio that has a weather station and flash light, that can either be battery operated or by winding it up--forgot I also have two flashlight that all you have to do is shake them to have light.

I have a wood burning stove that heats the house. Our weather service here is great to give us lots of warning, so I always have several cases of bottled water to use for cooking and drinking as well as instant drink mixes, lots of canned (pull tops) that don't need to be cooked. I have several larger ice chests that I can empty my ice box into and put into the garage to stay cold and I can also empty the freezer as well if needed.

I love to read so entertain myself with reading, crocheting, or doing puzzles (have plenty). I fill both bath tubs with water for flushing the stools and keep all my extra horse feed bucks filled with water for the dogs and cats in the house. I have several large water trough (200 gallons) that I only fill up when the weather is going to get really bad and store them in the barn surrounded by hay bales and cover the top with plywood--does a really good job of keeping the water from freezing too badly and of course I break it twice a day.

My neighbor across the street has a generator and he can keep his pump running along with several appliance so if I run short of water he will bring over some in smaller continers so that I can replinish my troughs if needed.

One of these days I want to get a generator for my house, but I just can't justify the cost for the number of times that I've needed it--lived here 35 years and only had two really bad long term outages.

 

[targetsmom]

We just happened to buy a generator when we were shopping for a snow blower this past summer and it was worth its weight in gold a couple of months later when our power was out for a week. It was not as expensive as I thought it would be and our electrician got it all set up for us 2 right before we lost power! It uses more gasoline than we expected, but we don't have to run it all the time either.

We do have a few things that would help even without a generator: a brook and a pond so we could always get water for the horses; a hot tub for water for the toilets (of course we have a well!); antique oil lamps for the house, and headlamps for feeding the horses. We always have some drinking water for people and lots of containers we can fill. During our week without power we fed the horses after it got light in the morning and before it got dark at night to make it easier for us and was close to their schedule anyway. I also discovered that the stackable containers we use for their grain were helpful because they were different sizes and shapes so I could tell by feel whose grain it was.

I did have a neighbor stop by for water because one of here horses wouldn't drink the water from her pond. (After the snow melted - she used that first). So I am glad we had the generator and the horses got to drink the water they were used to.

 

[Reble]

Got this in an email this morning from a friend:::

duhhhhh why didn't I think of this one........

I have a friend who used her solar lights inside at night when her current was off during the hurricane. She stuck them in a jar or bottle and said they gave off plenty of 'free light'. She put one in each room and would put them back outside in the daytime and bring them in at night as long as the current was off. They are safe to use and cheaper than batteries. Bring in a solar light one night and test it.

Due to a thunderstorm, we lost power for about 5 hours. We were scrambling around in the darkness, looking for matches, candles, flashlights, etc. We looked outside, and noticed our solar lights shining brightly all around our patio, stairs, dock, etc. They were beautiful. My wife walked outside, and brought several of the solar lights inside.

We stuck the solar light pipes into plastic drink bottles containers and they made the nicest, brightest, safest, lighting you could ever imagine.

We put one in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. There was plenty of light. There are all types of solar lights available. We bought ours at Harbor Freight. We put them all around our yard. They look nice and they do not attract flying bugs like the outdoor lights around our doorway.

The lights we have fit into the small (20 oz) water bottles and they also fit into most of the larger liter bottles. If you need a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from tipping over, you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that they put in aquariums, and vases. (you can also use sand, aquarium gravel, etc., whatever you have available).

The lights we have were perfect inside our home. They burn all night long if you need them.

The next day, you just take your solar lights back outside and they will instantly recharge and be ready for you to use again any time you need them.

Perfect for power outages, hurricanes, etc.

I never thought of it and now you don't have to.

 

[kmh]

We have a small generator to alternately run the fridge and big chest freezer, it will also operate the tv and one lamp. We have two kerosene heaters to keep the house pipes from freezing, if we are in for a long haul.

We too have thought of purchasing a big generator to run the furnace and the well, but it is hard to justify the expense when our outages don't normally last that long.

At the beginning of winter we fill several gas and kerosene cans so it is here if we need it. We live about 16 miles from town, so having what we need on hand ahead of time is important...especially if is an ice storm and too dangerous to drive anywhere. We always keep plenty of food in the house at all times.

We have a gas stove to cook our meals. We fill every available bucket and one huge camping water jug for watering horses and flushing toilets. I keep several gallons jugs handy to hold water for household use...cooking, drinking, etc. Paper plates are nice to have on hand too.

We use battery operated lanterns if we need additional lighting.

We have experienced outages for 4-5 days and we get along fine. We have a sofa bed downstairs (we live in a two story house)...so we fire up the kerosene heater, get it really toasty downstairs and get under lots of blankets for the night.

Our livestock (9 horses and 5 head of cattle) are on automatic waterers. That is fine until we lose electricity, then we worry about the underground pipes freezing and bursting. Thankfully that has not happened, but we were getting close the time we were out for 4 days and it was bitterly cold. Since there is no electricity, there is no heat to keep the auto waterers thawed. Thankfully the electricity company was just up the road getting everyone hooked up on day 4. I think if we would have had to go another day with no electricity we could have been in trouble. We close the lids on the auto waterers to try to preserve what heat is there and water livestock by hand.

 

[Bess Kelly]

I, too, think "DUH" -- those solars would be great (if you have sun) and save $$ of batteries and a trip to get them. This is assuming you were not near a store or roads too bad, etc.

Like most of you, I have a well, lots of water options for extra holding, kero heater and lamps, a solar charger for phones, a propane stove heater all built in, candles, batteries, etc. We occassionaly have outages in winter if a bad storm but not often. Summers can be more of a concern here with hurricanes a real possibility. So, solar lights would be fantastic then! I have a couple but will surely pick up a couple more come "see it on sale" time.

I have two large solar hot wire units, which I use daily.

Alternative types of light allow us to use that generator plug for something else!

It's always nice to throw some of these things out there to reference, IMO

After all, animals create some "special" needs for many........