I'm not going to lie, its effing gorgeous hear today. Mid-70's, no clouds, sunny. We're spoiled this time of year.
That doesn't mean I don't worry about being prepared for something that would knock out electricity at our house or disrupt my community. So I am reviewing my preparedness of cooking and heating fuels.
Don't misunderstand me. My number one priority is the safety and comfort of my family. Depending on the situation I will pack up and stay with family or friends in another part of the city or another city altogether until the scenario has passed. I never understood how families 'suffered' through winter power outages. We always drove somewhere close by for dinner and a movie. Worst case we slept next to the wood burning stove or in sleeping bags and skipped a shower in the morning.
Currently I have enough canisters of propane/butane mix to fuel my Camping Gaz stove for several weeks. I also have a lantern attachment that provides some heat but enough light that equals a 80 watt light bulb. I also have 5 gallons of denatured alcohol for my WhiteBox stove. As it only takes 2 oz. for 20 minutes of flame, best described as a 'afterburner on a figher jet', I could get 300-500 uses for heating water and meals.
My propane is what I am really thinking about. I have a BBQ in the backyard that runs on the stuff. I have two 5 gallon tanks with one always full. In a conservation situation we will use the side burner and not the grill and get a lot more usage from the propane. I think I need at least two more 5 gallon tanks. Time to start looking at garage sales for extra tanks.
I have a fireplace but its never been used. I have no wood stockpiled. Had the economy not turned this year, we would have purchased a backyard fire pit and I'd have started stockpiled a cord of wood. In this part of the country right now we can simply sleep in our houses under a few extra blankets or sleeping bag and be quite comfortable. How different this is from my youth. Our home outside Seattle had a wood burning stove and 10 cords of wood cut and split lining our backyard wall. We usually cut down the trees in the spring, let them dry out in summer and split in the fall.
I know most of you live in areas that have tremendously cold winters. During a power outage due to a storm how have you prepared to heat and feed your family? Could you sustain that for several days?
That doesn't mean I don't worry about being prepared for something that would knock out electricity at our house or disrupt my community. So I am reviewing my preparedness of cooking and heating fuels.
Don't misunderstand me. My number one priority is the safety and comfort of my family. Depending on the situation I will pack up and stay with family or friends in another part of the city or another city altogether until the scenario has passed. I never understood how families 'suffered' through winter power outages. We always drove somewhere close by for dinner and a movie. Worst case we slept next to the wood burning stove or in sleeping bags and skipped a shower in the morning.
Currently I have enough canisters of propane/butane mix to fuel my Camping Gaz stove for several weeks. I also have a lantern attachment that provides some heat but enough light that equals a 80 watt light bulb. I also have 5 gallons of denatured alcohol for my WhiteBox stove. As it only takes 2 oz. for 20 minutes of flame, best described as a 'afterburner on a figher jet', I could get 300-500 uses for heating water and meals.
My propane is what I am really thinking about. I have a BBQ in the backyard that runs on the stuff. I have two 5 gallon tanks with one always full. In a conservation situation we will use the side burner and not the grill and get a lot more usage from the propane. I think I need at least two more 5 gallon tanks. Time to start looking at garage sales for extra tanks.
I have a fireplace but its never been used. I have no wood stockpiled. Had the economy not turned this year, we would have purchased a backyard fire pit and I'd have started stockpiled a cord of wood. In this part of the country right now we can simply sleep in our houses under a few extra blankets or sleeping bag and be quite comfortable. How different this is from my youth. Our home outside Seattle had a wood burning stove and 10 cords of wood cut and split lining our backyard wall. We usually cut down the trees in the spring, let them dry out in summer and split in the fall.
I know most of you live in areas that have tremendously cold winters. During a power outage due to a storm how have you prepared to heat and feed your family? Could you sustain that for several days?
4 comments:
Fireplace. Propane Grill. Natural gas hotwater heater. We went without power for a week during a ice storm the year Sandi was pregnant with Claudia. We cooked on the grill, stayed in the living room by the fire, and turned our hotwater heat up enough to make a decent cup of tea and instant soup mix (our stove is electric). I keep a stock of dried goods (soup, mashed potatoes, rice and beans, etc) that we can eat with hot a little hot water.
You sound like one of us Mormons. We have food storage and preperations for a year. I would hate to eat that stuff for a year though. But it would get us through in a pinch.
Getting through the winter is not a major deal for us in Central FL as I'm not allowed to turn on the heat in our house anyway (revenge for keeping the thermostat at 82 during the summer) and rarely cook. When we did lose power for a week back in Sept 2005, we lived out of our pantry and kept things that needed to stay cold in an ice chest. The hardest part was trying to sleep at night when it was sweltering. Cold showers felt good.
uhhhh....yeahhhh.
not so much.
we have a case of water and a few cans of tuna.
i'm gonna guess that that won't cut it.
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