Disaster or emergency can strike at any time. Being prepared is important. Today we lost power for a long time but although it was cold and windy outside, we made it through in comfort.
Being preppers my wife and I are ready for any type of emergency at any given time. We have bug out bags loaded and ready to leave in a moment's notice. We have preps on hand inside the house as well for just such an occasion as this.
We had some severe strong and damaging wind all night and into the day. The wind knocked out power to our area. We are working on going off the grid anyway but we are not fully there yet.
For most people when the grid goes down it means darkness. For those in colder climates such as ours, it means suffering and cold when the heat goes out. Most modern homes require electricity in some way to keep the furnace running. Even modern pellet stoves require electricity to keep going safely.
We have a wood furnace. This is like a wood stove crossed with a furnace. It has a blower but this is optional. We keep pots of water on the wood stove all the time anyway. So when the power went out, I bathed as usual using the hot water and our solar powered shower.
My wife and I both had a cut of hot coffee in the morning as usual. This is a nice comfort to have during a power outage. We use a single cup coffee brewer which sits on top of the coffee cup. A reusable coffee filter reduces waste. All you have to do is boil water and pour it through the coffee grounds in the filter. And then you can enjoy a perfectly brewed cup of coffee with no electricity.
We keep rechargeable LED lights on hand all the time anyway so when the lights were out, we just grabbed the LED lights and life went on as usual.
We also always keep some jugs of water on hand for emergency and I am happy for that.
I taped off the toilet flushing handle to prevent accidental flushing of the toilet. This would drain the water lines and waste valuable water. Most homes have quite a few gallons of water pressure in the lines that is still available after the power goes out. Our well pump is still on the grid so we lost water this morning.
One single flush of the toilet though and it would be all gone.
Keeping granola bars on hand gives you instant food with no preparation or mess. We buy these on discount by the handful when they go on sale. These are a staple in our house for emergency, hiking or camping.
I think that everyone should be prepared for disaster at all times. Most people never think about these things though until they happen. But then it is too late.
Every family should try a day without turning on the grid power just to see how it turns out.
You can watch the video I made using my cell phone this morning here: