Laine's Letters. Very dark windy morning...
Dear Sisters,
We live in Southern California, so it is possible that we can lose our electricity due to high winds or threat of fires. It's something we have to be prepared for, so I have been preparing for some time. Little by little each year I add to things already on hand for the next potential blackout. Much like building my pantry, only for electrical outages in this case.
Last Wednesday we were sound asleep when our power went out. I had heard there was a possibility the day before, but I had received no notification so I assumed we weren't on the list. I assumed wrong. (A lot of people did not get notified this time around.) I am usually very prepared as my diet requires a lot of cooking and a lot of preparing with certain small appliances. But this time I was half prepared. Lesson learned for future outages! Our power was out until Friday afternoon. It was supposed to be a four day blackout, so we were very happy when the power was back on by Friday.
The good thing is we have a generator that I had bought some years ago at a garage sale as a surprise for my husband . So early, the next-very-dark-windy morning, around 4:30 am, my husband was hooking up our generator. I was able to grind my cashew nuts to make cashew milk in my blender, which I have with coffee. All these appliances hooked up to our generator. I also made my lentil flatbread in a small toaster oven. I made my husband breakfast over a small hot plate. The generator is so helpful. I kept my fridge running, charged our phones, heated up our lunch in the Hot Logic, and charged my computer. My daughter, next door, cooked her dinner in an Instant Pot with her generator, besides keeping her fridge and freezer going all day.
Something else I found invaluable were my hanging solar light bulbs. I bought four of them this past summer. It's a light bulb that is solar which can be screwed into a lamp after charging in the sun or hung by its hook wherever you need it. So my husband and I could still read in the evening. I hung one in the bathroom so that we could see when we went in there. Lucy brought in all our solar garden lights from outside and lined our hallway with them. That helped a lot as we went from one room to the other. I put one in the living room as well, besides candles. The other light source we had was a battery operated lantern which gave out a lot of light. I also used a solar flashlight, a rechargeable headlamp, and two other small rechargeable flashlights which I had recharged with the generator.
Just as we were going to bed the first night of the blackout, Lucy accidentally knocked over a glass in the dark. There were shards of glass everywhere, and both her and her dad were in their bare feet next to the glass. We had every flashlight and the lantern down on the ground as we picked up small pieces of glass. Then I pulled out my rechargeable vacuum. My husband was amazed as I quickly sucked up the fine pieces of glass left. I had recharged it with the generator just in case I would need it. He was so glad that I did!
Yesterday we heard that more high winds are coming, and that there is another threat of an electrical shut down. I did all my vacuuming in the house, made a fresh batch of lentil flatbread, made some cashew milk, cooked up some veggies, and my husband grilled some meat. We have gas in our generator. So we are more prepared this time around. I have all the food warming in the Hot Logic should the power suddenly go out.
Here is my list of items that I am so glad to have on hand for an electrical outage:
Generator
Solar Light Bulbs (with a hook on the top to hang up)
Solar Flashlight
Solar Garden Lights
Hot Logic (used to heat food)
A Hotplate
A Toaster Oven
A Solar Radio
Candles
A Rechargeable Vacuum
Rechargeable Headlamp
Rechargeable Small Flashlights
Battery Operated Lantern
Batteries
Insignia Phone Charger
Medicine Chest (which I would have used if someone had cut their foot on the broken glass)
Gas Range (We have this on our property, so I use this for cooking as well.)
Hiking Stove with fuel (This was used before we had the gas range and generator.)
Ice Chest (I used this when I didn't have a generator to keep my food cold.)
Solar Oven (I use this a lot in the summer.)
There are a few more items I am adding to my list this year, but they will be under the Christmas tree for my husband and Lucy. (Shhh don't tell them!😊) Art is getting three rechargeable fans in case an outage should happen in the heat of the summer. I also bought him an inverter which can be attached to the car battery and used to power items in an emergency. He loves getting these sort of things. (He has used the solar radio over and over which I got him one Christmas.) I bought Lucy a hand crank radio, which also has a light on it. Lucy does not like the power outages, nor do my granddaughters next door. It is good to give the kids something to help the family with when it gets dark. I have two hand crank flashlights as well should I am unable to recharge or have no batteries.
So far we still have lights as I am typing this, but I am ready should we lose power again.
Love,
Laine
(The photo is our fire last year and yes the power went out! Annabel.x)
Yes, we are grateful for a generator and for years of bush camping experience. When the power goes out here it is usually out for a long time - 24+ hours, so with that, and a few other things in mind, I started moving from frozen food storage to more shelf-stable food storage. Finally saved enough to buy a pressure canner and it is by far one of the best kitchen investments we've made. It's working so well that last week we sold one of our freezers! That's something I never thought I'd do. We also have solar lights, but we also have wind-up lanterns and torches and a radio, solar and car phone chargers, portable solar panels and an inverter, gas cooking and hot water, gas bbq and portable gas stoves. I kept the baby bath and it works well for a solar shower (we have a portable hot water heater too). This winter we added a portable diesel heater to our supplies, it will be great when winter camping but will warm part of the house too (with the heater outside and ducted into the house). My next goal is to get enough water put by to last us at least a week, then build on that.
ReplyDeleteSuch wonderful ideas, and such a fabulous list. Thank you for posting Laine and Annabel. I will be adding to my list of preparedness. I really like that you included the children too. The radio and the hand cranked torches are such a great idea. I also like the idea of the solar lights, as I love reading at night too. Thank you for your wise encouragement. Love, Lily
ReplyDeleteLaine, can you share the brand of solar light bulbs you like?
ReplyDeleteThanks
I asked Laine... She says she got them on Amazon. The brand is Excmark. LED solar emergency light. 7 W 1200 ah Brightness 400 lumens. I hope that makes sense. She said her daughter got two of them and wishes she got 4 they are good! xxx
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI think we all should be prepared like that especially now. Hope y'all stay safe.
ReplyDeleteWe lost power in same shutdown. We did get a call to warn us. We have solar phone chargers off Amazon the worked great. Solar lanterns from there as well. We bought a whole house generator for the next time this happens. So glad we did not loose our frozen food.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious--is your generator portable, or wired into your house? I'm more interested in a portable, but not sure I could use it to power both a refrigerator and freezer. I live in a fairly cold climate, but the power does not go out often due to underground utilities. We built this house with a gas range because you can light the burners (but not the oven) with a match if the power goes out, and we also have a gas fireplace. The blower wouldn't work, but we could camp out in front of it. The gas furnace would not work.
ReplyDeleteI believe Laine's generator is a portable one. With the refrigerator we only do 15 mins in the hour each to keep them going well enough. Actually in the case of the freezer if it is frozen solid and full and you dont open it I think a few hours every 24 hours will keep it solid. So the generator buys you a lot of time! We are working to have a wired in whole house generator but out portable ones have saved us many times! Love Annabel.xxxx
DeleteWe just bought a generator this year to keep our wood pellet stove going during the Winter since it is our only source of heat. We do lose power here during the Winter sometimes. When it is not powering the pellet stove, I can run the freezers or refrigerator off it to keep them cool also.
ReplyDeleteGreat list- thank you for sharing. I am curious - it seems silly to ask, but what do you use the radio for? I find we do not listen to the radio (so liberal and awful!) but if in an emergency, is that why you have it? To hear news?
ReplyDeleteDear Gigi,
DeleteI will ask Laine also but for me a radio is an essential. In an emergency situation the government will broadcast updates and advice. Normal programming would normally be suspended. When phone and TV is out, internet is out, it is all you have to know what is happening and if there is advice, what to do. We keep battery radios and back up batteries. It has happened to us... where the only information coming in was the radio. Without it we would have literals been in the dark. I hope this helps. Love Annabel.xxx
Laine we lived in a Cyclone prone area for twenty years. We ended up with all that we needed to keep us going during the Cyclone season. Where we are now doesnt have the cyclones but it does have severe storms. So far we have been lucky and there has only been one or two short power outages. I have button battery LED lights that are attached to the walls ins a few places in our home. If the power goes out we know where they are and are able to flick a switch and have light. We have a generator for our caravan and camping adventures. So far we havent had to set up the generator to keep power up to the house as the outages havent been long enough.
DeleteI keep an emergency box that I go through every twelve months, at the start of storm season, so now. I keep all our important documents in this large plastic lidded box. I have many and varied items in this box. In the event of a major storm this box and a few pantry items will keep us going for a week. Our local Council and Emergency Services has documents of all the items you would need in the event of a major storm. I just go through this and tick off that we have these basics ready to go.
I hope the power stays on at your place.
Thank you for your wonderful insights on blackout preparedness Laine :) .
ReplyDeleteWe are working towards getting a generator for our home and already have a power board set up to run a generator from to power the home with. Have to work on things step by step as the money becomes available in the budget.
We do have -
- Solar powered lanterns that hook on to our shirts that work well for light.
- Battery operated torches.
- A butane gas portable camp stove with spare gas canisters.
- A BBQ with two 9kg propane gas cyclinders in case one runs out.
- We just replaced the faulty tap in the garden shed where our rainwater tanks sit on top of so we can get gravity fed water from that if the power goes out and our pumps stop working.
Things we would like to work on are to make our own fire pit in the back yard so we can cook on an open fire and set up some sort of rack to go over it. It is amazing the things you can find at the tip to repurpose and do the job with.
Have a fantastic week everyone and thank you Laine for the time you put into writing such wonderfully educational posts.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Dear Lorna, We are nearly at the power board set up too. I am really excited to get this far. Also we have the gravity water option... the pressure is low but there is still water! This is the main thing! With love Annabel.xxx
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