(That's my clothesline you see above...coated in ice!)
After being without power for 7 days and counting, here are some of the things I've discovered that we need to have on hand at all times:
a generator
gasoline for the generator
several bottles of fuel for the Coleman Camping Stove
LOTS of batteries & candles
bleach (for washing dishes)
bottled water (we were under conserve water orders)
an inverter (device that allows you to charge items in your car with a regular plug)
extra propane for the gas fireplace
TOILET PAPER!!! (I'm so thankful for our neighbors over at WatSourced who shared their TP with us!)
In a perfect world, I'd have a lovely wood burning stove; but I don't have one or have space in my house for it, so that's out. This summer I'll also can more of my veggies so that the freezer is not AS essential...although it'll still be used for meat and stocked up sale items. I was so upset when I thought I'd loose everything in both freezers, but Homestead Man saved the day by buying us a generator! As long as we've got gas, I don't have to worry about that again.
(The top of the chicken coop...poor chickens! I let them out and cleared all this off when it started to melt as I was afraid one of them would be impaled with ice!!)
We had plenty of food and even instant milk, but absolutely no way to bake...that was a challenge. With the generator, we also purchased a toaster oven...but I'm not sure how it would handle loaves of bread, etc.
If we'd had the Airstream ready for camping, we could have stayed in it, but we are still doing some repairs and checking to be sure the heat, oven, etc. are safe to use and in good working order...that'll be another option if we ever are in this situation again.
We also had plenty of blankets and warm clothes, but the girls needed mud boots...that's already been remedied as Homestead Man took them in to Atwoods to get outfitted for heading out to Willow Run to check on the horses & cattle. Oh, and just wait till you see the ponds out there and how much water they caught! (I have pictures to post later!) We do have some clean up to do out at the land as we lost a lot of limbs from the willows, but nothing that can't be handled after it warms up and dries out a bit.
I'll leave you with a parting shot...isn't she pretty? Well...she would be if you'd been without power for a week!! Trust me!!
3 comments:
When we were shopping for houses a couple of years ago, there was one place that had a big ol' generator in the garage that was going to come with the house. When we lost the place to another buyer, I wondered if that person would really appreciate what they were getting - or if they even realized what it was!
Oh my...Your in my prayers..2007 we had an ice storm and were with out power for 2 days..when 2000 approached and all the things that were suppose to happen we bought a kerosene heater..when we lost the power for the 2 days we used that..Generators are a life saver. You are an inspiration because you sound chipper in all what your going through. Again your in my prayers..Lisa
Love that generator. What a beauty! The children used to look forward to the power outages because they got to stay home and we were prepared and we all had a great time. It was kind of like camping out, only it was at home. Having a generator would have made things a lot easier.
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