(A friend of mine wrote this about her experiences.)
When the electric went out last year for the ice storm we did have to change a few things. We did the propane grill for cooking. We ran out of propane. We took rocks big enough to hold up an oven rack and made a fire. Good thing I had my cast iron skillets and dutch oven. Hubby says we got to buy another one of them gas grill tanks. Yeah, well, I can see hes' right. At least we got trees behind us.
For heat we put more clothes on and blankets on the bed. We have moving blankets. We put the moving blankets on the matress and above us for added thickness, we also have 20 below sleeping bags. For added comfort we heatted a rock up to put at the toe of the bed or for when your sitting around. We did learn with that there is a such thing as heating it to hot, because it scortched a few towels before we got it right.
We had kerosene laps or what type of lamps I think they are called that. We used those a bit when sitting around reading or what not. Had some candles too but realized son had used them for I don't know what now I think it was a skateboard or something like that. He melted them to make a design on the bottom. See if I found 10 long candles for .50 cents again. Oh I was so mad. I had them in a box in a cool dry place so the summer heat wouldn't melt them. Yes in certain rooms when we have shut the doors so it doesn't cool off that room it has melted crayons in there and candles. I found to put them in the cellar on the shelf over the washer cause the dryer gets too hot. anyways we did have scented candles, but it stintches up the place when you have to many on. We did a lot of get up early and go to bed early.
Oh for coffee we kept the fire going during the day, hubby and a friend built a little lean to thing around and over it so it was actually pretty good when sitting there doing the stuff. It didn't get to smoky because one side was open but it did save the fire a lot. Anyways we had that we used the filter thing from the coffee pot to hold the filter and grounds in boiled the water in one pan and pour it through the filter into another one. It kept the coffee ground out of it. I did try it the just boiling the coffee in it and stuff, but this seemed to work nicer.
I kept small heated rocks to go in my mittens that helped my fingers to move.
We have never really turned a light on at night to just use the restroom, I think we just have homing devices well except for my nephew and I just put a dang bucket in the corner of the bedroom and aluminium foil around the wall and the floor. It was simplier because it didn't matter if the light would have been on he sleeps heavy and his bathroom is off to the other side where that bucket was placed. Lucky the water stayed on that could of been bad.
Oh for keeping heat in more we made tents over the beds. I sure think that was nice, but hubby can't see the t.v. at night wiith the tent. Not like we got TV with the power off duh. It was basically two moving blankets stapled together and then stitch when I got them up acrossed the rope. I think we put another folded sheet at the food and a blanket against the wall. People complained about being cold all night, but we were really and my husband and I have arthritis.
I did let people know how I did it, but don't think I gave up my supplies. If you live in a place that gets cold and don't have extra blankets and know the heat can go off than your just plain asking for something. Anyways we sectioned off rooms in the same manner we didn't need the whole living room or whole dinning room. We had some extra lumber that temp walls were made out of. We sectioned off bedrooms that way too. That way the smaller the place more body heat was filing the place. We used sheets and blankets. Good that my hubby had a staple gun we used it a lot that week. Sheet plastic could have worked too.
We had the neighbors come over to our place and they brought their supplies with them and we had 7 people in the place, but it seemed to work out real well. They had a battery radio and some batteries. The music was good. We also kept up on news. Like when the power was coming back on.
One of the sections was to section son off from the neighbor girl and then had daughter next to the openning of the wall and then the parent weren't to far from my son so anytime he even thought of getting up he could feel the dad's eyes. Heck he was 18 and the daughter 17. Something may of been happening else were but it wasn't happening that night. hahah
There are different things I've thought of and have it written down were we could have done things different and would have maybe been better, but it is in the file cabinet hehe.
We found it easier and faster to learn some basic first aid skills and take someone to the hospital ourselves, since the ambulance people had to wait for a police excurit to come in. Dang morons I just don't get that shooting at the para- medics so they wont help the person you just shot, so that later when your family member is hurt they wont come in fast enough. Talk about not using their friggen heads. So when I read your joke about the 911 it sure made me laugh about it. Especailly since hubby had a heart attack on Thursday and we would have had nice people here right away (well as soon as they would have gotten out of bed since the are volunteer) he didn't want to bother waking them up I think I can drive he say. Yeah right! Are son drove. Wow they don't mess around at hospitals for chest pains, right away.
Now I do make good Thanksgiving, so I know dang well he didn't have a heart attack so he wouldn't have to eat my turkey. I bet it was, so he didn't have to eat his brothers wives deviled eggs. Man how you screw up on those so bad and think they taste good who knows. Here is her recipe cut egg in half short ways. take out yolk smash it up with salt how much I'm not sure, but I'm possitive the ocean has less in it. Then put smashed up yolk in egg halves. There that is her recipe oh and then she sprinkles dry chilli powder on it. So you are eatting this dry salty chilli thing. The first year she cried, because her husband and everybody else ate the deviled eggs and were saying oh these are so great, you made some great deviled eggs. Well my mother in law hadn't realized she was bringing them and my mother in law brings them each year and just sets them on the table. SIL hadn't taken hers out of the fridge yet. I should upload the picture I have of her sour puss hahahahaaha Anyways we just make sure we have MIL deviled eggs on the down low and tell SIL how good hers our so she doesn't make our life a living hell the rest of the year.
Wonder if it came down to it if I could say the baby and hubby could stay but she has to sleep in the barn. Probably not I doubt anybody will build a barn for her to stay in. hahaha Awww she isn't that bad just young. Pretty much how a lot of people will be when their electric gets turned off. I wish are cell phone hadn't worked at that time, because she kept hubby last year to say what was happening on t.v. shows or this and that. She probably wouldn't make it long without electricity.
Well anyways. God's Blessings to ya all