Wednesday, December 15, 2010
It was a dark night
Late yesterday afternoon the electricity went out. I read stories to the kids until it got too dark to read easily from the window light. Then I lit several candles around the house for a little bit of light. Supper was cooking in the crock-pot and wasn't done yet. Our neighbor had heard that we should have electric back around 8 o'clock. We gave the kids glow sticks to play with so we didn't have use flashlights, except on occasion. Jeff had to go to the next town to get some fast food dinner, as there wasn't anything I could do for dinner without opening the fridge and we couldn't warm anything up, anyway. After supper Jeff played his guitar and we sang Christmas carols and other songs before the kids went to bed. The electricity finally came back on just before midnight, about 7 hours after it went out. Meanwhile, I didn't feel comfortable keeping our crock-pot dinner, as I knew it hadn't been done cooking and had sat, too long, before I would have been able to finish cooking it and getting it cooled down properly. I didn't want to chance anybody getting sick. I'm sad, that was three yummy meals that we don't get to eat this week, now I'll have to come up with something else :(
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We've had two major (3-7 days long) power outages in our area in the past few years. I have really had to take stock and get us set up for such events since then. There is nothing like not being able to keep warm and fed, especially when you have littles.
ReplyDeleteWe have a woodstove for heat and I keep an extra thing of propane available for the grill so I can cook. I also keep any extra room in the freezer filled up with milk jugs of water so that we have the ice to keep perishables cold for a bit longer. When nobody has power, ice is the first thing to go. I've also learned not to let the van run out of gas, because the gas stations can't sell gas without electric to run the pump.... A terrible lesson to learn when you have a sick little one who needs to get to the hospital!
I am now Mrs. Preparedness thanks to the hurricane that hit the midwest a few years ago. I learned my lesson... Boy, did I learn my lesson! ;)
Fatima, thanks for sharing. I could have grilled something, but didn't want to open the fridge or freezer, not knowing for sure how long we would be without electricity. It was the longest outage we've had in the last 7 1/2 years. I cook a lot from scratch, so I've been thinking what I might could keep stocked in my pantry for another electric free event.
ReplyDeleteI'm very sorry about your three meals, but the Christmas carol part sounded lovely!
ReplyDelete