Post Electricity-Outage Musings

by Sharon Archer

Torches - including a wind-up/solar one

Now and again something happens which brings me up short about the things I take for granted.  The other morning it was another power failure.  Notice I said another power failure!  We live out of town and down a long dirt road so we do get them frequently enough that we're semi-prepared for them.

Candles - do you like the Santas!

It was pitch black when I woke - no light from the digital clock radio.  I found my torch and investigated. Standard clock said it was nearly 6am. Checked the fuse box to make sure the safety switch hadn't been tripped.

Rang the power company and learned

• yes, there was a power outage in my area
• the cause was unknown
• if I had an emergency, I should ring this number and
• power was expected to be re-instated by 9 am.

Fortunately, we're quite well set up for power outages.  Torches live beside the bed and on the side board, candles in the cupboard below.  We have a small camp stove to boil water for a cup of tea (got my priorities!)

And if the power's out for too long we can resort to the generator for the basics - like water because we're on tank water.

Raided the pantry

So, really, no biggie. But it go me thinking... if  it wasn't short term, how well would we survive?

Which naturally sent me to Google!  And I found some absolutely amazing sites written by people who have obviously considered this in detail.  They even have a name - preppers.

Here are a couple of links you might like to look at...

• http://www.topprepperwebsites.com/  (gives links to all sorts of prepper websites)
• http://www.backdoorsurvival.com/  (Great little website - I spent ages browsing here!)

There are loads of tips - useful for calamities as well as everyday.  For instance, keep some ice cubes in a plastic bag in your freezer.  If the food in there has been thawed and re-frozen, you'll know because your bag of cubes with have turned into a solid block of ice.  Like a "canary" for your freezer!

A teabag or two...

Anyway, after I'd explored these sites, I was off to my pantry to see what was there.  Quite a bit of tinned food and dry food.

Lots of tea bags (those priorities!  Plus they were on special a couple of weeks ago!)

Got some treats - just a couple (ahem) of blocks of dark chocolate!  Good for energy and full of anti-oxidants!

Anti-oxidant supply!

And then (tongue only slightly in cheek) there's that excellent vegetable gardening thing I blogged about last month!  At least, I know the slugs will be well feed in the event of a power failure!

How would your pantry manage if you had no power or couldn't get to the shops for a couple of weeks?  Love to hear your thoughts on must-have items or any tips you have!

PS I'll be on the road in Outback New South Wales when this posts so my internet might be a bit indifferent, but I'm hoping it will let me in to chat as much as possible!