UNPLUGGED -A Matter of Perspective

You know you're adjusting to lack of electricity when...

• the thermostat reads 65* indoors and you think it's warm.
• you shower by flashlight with generator-powered hot water.
• you get a bit adventurous with cooking on a woodstove.
• you use melted snow to flush toilets, thanking God for low-flow, efficient toilets.
• the whole family gets quite a bit of reading done and has checkers tournaments.
• you can sleep soundly in the abnormally silent pitch dark.

We've done it all -and more- in the last week. Here's a chronicle of our adventure-
It started snowing Friday (5th) around 11AM. I was in town picking up lunch (Subway) for the school teachers (Teacher Appreciation treat). Till I got to school at noon, I was wondering if the students would even be there anymore -it was really coming down! Big flakes. I couldn't believe school wasn't dismissing early. Didn't hear anything until 2PM. R. came home from work just then so he left right away to pick up our 2. Considering he had trouble getting up "the hill", I am extremely grateful I didn't have to attempt it. Since R. didn't have to be out on the road, we said "Bring it on! Snow us in for the whole weekend." We're home-bodies so being snowed in is a happy occasion for us. School Open House was cancelled for the evening. Hooray!

Saturday we woke to a winter wonderland. Everything was clothed in a heavy coat, with snow still falling. Beautiful! We had some cows running around in our yard so Richard got out the 4-wheeler to chase them home; the snow was so deep, he could hardly get around with it though. Took quite awhile to get our drive opened; it was a wet snow that plowed hard. The children were building igloos. Our telephone lines were sagging so low A. could touch them. Around noon I took a break from cleaning to check e-mail & FaceBook. Learned that a number of folks from our church were out of electric. That should have warned me, but I didn't clue in that we should make provisions just in case. I was feeling grateful we still had electric. Without warning, at 1PM we lost ours. We had a feeling we might be out of power for an extended time. At first I went on cleaning and was even running water until it finally dawned on me I can't do that. The sink full of dirty dishes and the un-swept carpets had to be left go; the cleaning soon came to a halt. Fortunately, the pizza place down by interstate had power and we could buy pizza for supper. We collected flashlights, candles & our single oil lamp for light. We have a woodstove in the basement for backup heat; in spite of the law of nature that heat rises, it's not very helpful in warming the upstairs. Closing off non-essential rooms and running a small propane heater was more efficient. We feel like the Ingalls family. Pioneering is fun.
Our children do not remember the electric ever being off more than several hours at a time. After supper one of them asked "Why don't they send someone out to do something about it?" Another was encouraging us all to remember how much money we're saving on our next electric bill as the hours tick by. It's all a matter of perspective! As parents we thought it was good for our family to be unplugged from technology for awhile. To make the most of our pioneer experience, we huddled around the lamp reading, crocheting and playing checkers. I tried to get a picture of it but couldn't figure out the correct camera settings to capture the scene in naturally light (or lack thereof). Naturally, since water was in short supply, A. was abnormally thirst.

Sunday morning the house was a cool 62* and we sat wrapped in blankets, hoping, expecting church to be cancelled with so many folks out of power. When it became apparent it wasn't going to happen, we reluctantly faced the cold and got ready for church. R's sisters had power so we went to their house to shower, then returned to fix pancakes for lunch. We kept hoping the electric would be restored, but when it started getting dark we gave up. We're still saying "It could be worse. With better/more insulation and all new doors & windows, this house is cozier than the pre-remodeled one." One good thing about venturing out to the school's Open House in the evening- the church house was warm. On the way to church we noticed all of McCoy Rd had power, so obviously we're tied in with lines going the other direction. We learned from our neighbors that the electric co. was estimating another day or 2. We debated whether it's wiser to open the freezer and check on the contents or leave it shut to maintain as much cold air as possible. We were especially concerned about the larger-than-usual supply of ice cream on hand from 'mopping up' on recent specials. Checking the contents won out. Smart choice! The ice cream was rapidly becoming milkshakes. Even the meats were thawing. Apparently while the woodstove was not heating the upstairs, it was doing a fine job of cooling down the freezer. To protect it from the cats, we packed the most critical food items in totes and set them outside in the snow overnight.

Monday morning our top priority was to get the fridges & freezer going. We put the milk and more food items out in the snow meanwhile. What a blessing that R. could stay home to deal with the situation. Of course virtually all generators were in use and it took several calls to track down one that was available. Meanwhile I packed up the dirty dishes & laundry, carting it over to 'the girls' [R's sisters -2 miles away]. With the first load in the washer and mid-way through washing dishes, their electric went off! We thought it probably was a planned outage to make repairs -only a few hours in duration. (Instead, according to the paper, a transformer blew.) Without electric, I decided to return home. R. had the generator hooked up by then, but this power outage had put the whole community out of power and they wanted their generator back. A smaller generator was available; we could still run the freezer & both fridges, but not much else. An attempt to microwave some lunch failed, so it was cold sandwiches (as far as I'm concerned, I've eaten my lifetime allotment of those when I was in school, but desperate times call for desperate measures.) After 4 hours we got a call that the girls' electric was back so I returned to do laundry. While all this was going on, JS & A were blissfully enjoying a school privilege trip at a skating rink. With my derailed day, I hadn't planned ahead very well for supper. We were all very hungry. What can you make without a stove or microwave and it's too late to use the crockpot or woodstove? Used the electric frying pan to make french toast since we had bread, eggs & milk that needed to be used up after thawing/getting warmer than recommended. JR went to the Youth Bible Study in the eve., and A. & I were finishing laundry so we were all where it was warm & light. R. connected the generator to the furnace long enough to bring the temperature in the house up a few degrees, then switched it to the water heater & pump so he & JS could shower at home before putting it back on the fridges & freezer. They said "phooey" on the candles and dug the Coleman lantern out of the camper. Much better!

Tuesday I connected the laptop to the generator and got in touch with the outside world briefly. Pioneer life is no longer a novelty. The 2nd storm that was forecast started around 10AM. Oh no, is that going to delay the electric restoration? School dismissed at noon. I got a dress cut out for A., but I'm not going to get as many made before our FL trip as I had hoped. We were all very hungry and decided we need starches. Once again we 'schlepped' stuff over to the girls. Bless them for sharing their facilities! It was snowing & the roads were slick- I wouldn't have attempted to go anywhere myself, but we've got a good man to get us around safely. A. made her specialty- potato soup, I made salad, but best of all were the fresh-from-the-oven brownies! :) We all ate heartily. We decided to shower at home so we don't have to drag our things over there. With a chilly, dark house, this proved to be a character-building choice if not pleasant. Returning home, we saw more homes with electric restored. Will we be among the fortunate ones? Nope. Bummer. The children were getting crabby -tired of the cold & dark... technology-withdrawal. Quite frankly, so were we, but we still believe every child should experience at least one blizzard with extended power outage in their lifetime. You have to have some 'hard times' to brag about to your grandchildren! 'Yeah, I'll never forget that time back in '10 when we didn't have electric for days!'

Wednesday we could sleep in because school was delayed, then later cancelled. 3 technology-withdrawn -aka bored- children home all day?! By late afternoon, it was time to have mercy and bring out the laptop. R. called the electric co. to check our status and we were supposed to have our power restored by evening. We checked periodically throughout the day. Nope, not yet. At 5:30PM the generator ran out of gas and shut off. JS ran down to the shop to get a gas can, and without thinking flipped the light switch. Viola! I was so happy to have power back that I felt like sending roses to the electric co. staff. It didn't take us long to get everything switched back on! Ah, delicious heat! Lights at the flip of a switch! Flush toilets! Kitchen Appliances! Didn't take the children long to turn the computer & CD players on either. Turns out our power had been restored about an hour earlier. Too bad we didn't know, as I tried to cook noodles on the woodstove and they turned to mush.
We made it 100 hours without electric. If I'm not mistaken, we were the last of the church folks to be restored. One disadvantage of living 'in the sticks' on a dead-end road? Maybe. Did we learn anything from the experience? Yes, we would not make very good Amish. Did we build any character? Patience? Flexibility? Probably. And then I was reminded of the folks in Haiti. Any one of them would trade places with us in a heartbeat. Puts things into perspective, doesn't it?!