Power is out. What do you do

B

BlueGray

New member
Strom came through, pouring down rain and we lost power. We are on a well so no water but we have a wood burning stove so there is that. The kids are whining but the ducks are happy!

Not sure how long without power but last time it 25 hours before half the town got power back.

What would you do with no power?

PS
Using cell phone excuse typos
 
We went almost a week without power after Wilma in 2005. Cooked out every day. We had a great time because there was nothing to do except be with each other. Lots of sex. I was almost sad when the power came back on.

We bought a generator after that.
 
We have Kerosene heaters as back up. Those suckers kick out heat. And you can cook on them if needed.

We just play games. And tell stories.
 
My standard alternative activity is reading books, but you need light for that. I guess a candle or flashlight is good enough? Otherwise I am likely to just try to sleep ...
 
This is a fairly regular occurrence for us as we live WAY out in the country. We have a natural gas "in-line" generator that runs the furnace, well pump, deep freeze, and one outlet. We can run an extension cord into the house to run whatever - usually the computers and the fridge. Before we actually moved in we had a huge storm that knocked the power out for days. MrS "camped" in the living room to babysit the generator to keep the furnace running so the pipes wouldn't freeze.

In our last house we had a furnace that died a few days before Christmas - couldn't get it replaced until the second week in January. Luckily we had a fireplace with an insert and a LOT of black locust firewood that was well aged and just needed to be split (the result of a "microburst" in our neighborhood a few years back that took down several trees in our yard). MrS and I took shifts sleeping on the couch and getting up every few hours to feed the fire.

My goal is to be able to go "off-grid" eventually - in the meantime, I love having back-ups to my back-ups!

PS. I remember my first experience with no power for days - 1986 when several tornadoes hit Western PA. I recall mom cooking on sterno cans in the driveway, going with dad to get dry ice for the deep freeze and all the stoplights in PGH were out, and hauling water from the neighbors creek to flush the toilets. Luckily it was spring/summer so heat wasn't an issue!

PPS. I also recall a trip to camp in the middle of winter when a tree had taken down our electric. Fired up the coal stove for heat and dad made impromptu little kerosene lanterns to light our way to the outhouse.

Bottom line? You make do and figure stuff out as you go.
 
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I've got a drum set, two acoustic guitars, and acoustic bass, a banjo and some other instruments in my house. I'd assign everyone an instrument and teach them their parts and, as soon as we master Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, go on tour.

.....xylophone solo!
 
Damn, that's badass. :)
 
lol! I don't get bored much! The banjo is a new instrument to me... one week new. Ive got work to do on my picking but, being a guitar player since childhood, it hasnt been too hard to pick it up. I'm enjoying learning so far!
 
A few years back we had a nasty ice storm that brought down power poles all over the state. We were out for five weeks, end of january and all of February. We have a fireplace that we used for warmth and cooking. We live a fairly simple farm life so I had plenty of cast iron cook pots that could be used to make chilis and soups on the fire. Luckily, we are also homebrewers so I had about 200 bottles of different beers, and roughly 20 gallons of a variety different fruit wines. So even though it was a shit ton of hard work, it was also a fairly tipsy month for me, and in a weird way, full of pleasant memories of those very quiet nights with a crackling fire.
 
We have a generator at our house. But before we had the generator, we would talk, read, play board or card games, etc. Sometimes I would take a couple of candles to the basement and practice on my drums (Double bass Pearl set for any other drummers on this board. :))
 
Fire up the wood stove, burn some candles, fire up the gas stovetop if we need to cook (or make coffee/tea/hot cocoa), play some board games, or read (if it's light enough).

I actually really enjoy it when the power goes out. :)

For multiple days? Okay, it gets less "fun", but I have a gym membership, and my workplace has locker rooms, so if I start getting ripe, I have a place to go. :D
 
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