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Electricity is Out – 7 Things Preppers Prepare

Emergencies don’t like to give warnings.

That is why we need to always prepare for an emergency.

Granted, we can’t prepare for everything, but there is a lot that we can prepare for.

Emergency at the Foote House

Last year around this time, we had a water emergency that turned into quite a catastrophe.

Everything started with losing water pressure. It kept this up for a while until one day it up and quit. No water.

I figured it was just the pressure switch, so I took money out of my emergency fund and quickly went to Lowe’s to get a new one.

Easy peasy, right?

Well, not exactly. I ended up going through this process a few times. Four times, to be exact.

Yup, I am a slow learner!

The final time, the new pressure switch went POP and the power went out in our entire house.

Yikes!

Okay, I finally realized this was a bigger problem than I could handle.

I had an electrician come in, and he quickly realized that the problem was with my main breaker.

I thought, fine, let’s get a breaker and finally get this issue fixed.

The emergency fund was still holding up, so off we went to Lowe’s again.

Again, no easy peasy fix.

Lowe’s didn’t have any in stock.

Actually, none of our local stores carried the size breaker I needed.

It took a couple of weeks to get the breaker and have it installed.

My daughter, Sarah, age 12 at the time, loved the entire off-grid adventure.

The rest of us?

We were just thankful that we were prepared for an emergency.

Electricity is Out – 7 Things Preppers Prepare

All my years of living off-grid have given me the mindset to stay prepared for the necessities in life.

That’s why, although, the weeks we went through these issues were definitely an inconvenience, they really weren’t a full-blown emergency.

As a matter of fact, being prepared is the difference between inconvenience and an emergency.

#1 – Preppers Prepare to Heat the House

My Old-Fashioned Cookstove

My old-fashioned cookstove sure came in handy!

It gets cold in Northern New York this time of year. Since the electricity was out, so was our fuel furnace.

I love the feel of wood heat, and we were already prepared to buy some over the winter.

Our only problem was moving the heat throughout the house.

I spent hours walking back and forth between rooms spinning our ceiling fans by hand.

It worked great at distributing the heat, but the ceiling fans didn’t hold up too well.

They still work, but they are quite wobbly at this point.

My emergency plan to solve the problem of moving the heat for next time is to buy some heat-activated fans.

Mr. Heater – My Buddy

We also used our Mr. Heater My Buddy propane heater.

It does an amazing job and is the only propane heater that I am aware of that is rated for indoor use without the concern of opening windows to vent.

I had a small stash of little camping propane bottles, but we still had to make a few trips to Walmart to grab some more.

Note to self, stock more camping propane tanks for My Buddy.

It is a powerful heater, but it does go through propane quicker than I had hoped.

Still, it kept me from having to stay up all night tending the fire and spinning those ceiling fans!

Woodstove

After this emergency, I found a really nice woodstove on Facebook Marketplace that an older couple was selling for 90% off retail price.

They had bought it for their camp, but said it just gave too much heat for them.

SCORE!

Now, I have the cookstove on one side of the house and the woodstove on the other in order to keep heat throughout the house.

#2 – Preppers Prepare for Meal Time

I have cooked on a cookstove for many years, so cooking with wood was easy for me during this emergency.

I actually still cook on wood all of the time even when we aren’t living off-grid.

We had the option of cooking on our barbecue grill, but we didn’t use it this time.

We ate quite well during this time of emergency.

Living off-grid didn’t change our eating habits at all.

Things were stressful during this time though.

I was so thankful for my Well-Stocked Pantry!

Having all kinds of home-canned goods and dehydrated foods took a lot of stress out of living without power.

My shelves were stocked with all kinds of shelf stable food.

Some of my favorites included dehydrated eggs, dehydrated butter, and powdered milk!

#3 – Preppers Prepare for Washing the Dishes

We did use disposable dishes whenever possible during this time.

Of course, not all of the dishes were disposable though.

Having buckets to carry water, large bowls to wash and rinse dishes in, and huge kettles to heat water were vital during this time!

The girls and I carried buckets of water from Dad’s to do our dishes.

This was not too inconvenient since my father lives directly across the road from me.

#4 – Preppers Prepare for Drinking Water

We bought gallons of water and individual bottles for drinking.

I definitely didn’t have enough water stored in the pantry.

We also kept a 5-gallon Igloo jug filled with water that we kept filled from my Dad’s.

#5 – Preppers Prepare for Lighting

Lighting was a major issue throughout this journey. I would say it was one of our top problems.

Our generator broke down a few years before this and still hasn’t been replaced.

We did use a lot of candles, which I had in storage.

We went through a lot of them though. Candles just don’t last long!

I set them on top of aluminum foil and in front of a mirror.

The foil and mirror reflected the light and multiplied the amount of light the candles were giving off.

The foil, also, made me feel safer while burning so many candles.

We used our camping Coleman’s propane lantern sparingly.

Although it gave off an amazing amount of light, I didn’t feel comfortable using it inside.

When it was in use, the windows were opened up for ventilation.

Each person carried a flashlight around with them at all times.

The headlight ones worked the best while working since they obviously freed up the hands while providing the light.

I loved the LED lights that look exactly like a light switch. One was kept on in the bathroom at all times, and it was still working after two weeks of constant use!

I have a big stash of these lights that I found at Harbor Freight for only $1.99 each!

#6 – Preppers Prepare for Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene wasn’t as hard as one might think. We had multiple ways of staying on top of keeping everyone clean.

As I said, my father lives directly across the road, so we were able to go there for showers.

I also have a lot of adult children who live nearby, so we went there too.

I kept a large kettle of water heating on the woodstove and washed my hair at home.

The kettle was always filled and available for everyone to stay washed up throughout the day.

Brushing teeth only required a cup of water, so that was pretty easy.

I always keep a couple camping showers on hand for emergencies too.

I actually have a cistern in my basement. I was able to keep the toilet flushed by getting buckets of water out of the cistern.

#7 – Preppers Prepare for Doing the Laundry

This wasn’t my first time living without electricity.

I lived a lot of years off-grid when my older kids were little.

Thanks to this experience, I was better prepared to be able to do laundry without a dryer and washing machine.

I pulled out some laundry essentials from my stash.

I had some large buckets, big kettles, totes, a laundry plunger, and believe it or not, a commercial size salad spinner.

Most of the drying was done on a clothes bar.

Some of it was simply hung around the house on clothes hangers.

I do miss my old-fashioned wringer washer though.

I think I will put one back on my prepping list!

Electricity is Out – 7 Things Preppers Prepare

This time didn’t feel like an emergency to me. Sound crazy?

The truth is if you are prepared, then when things arise, it just feels like an inconvenience rather than an emergency.

We were prepared. We also took the opportunity to see where we could have been even better prepared.

Emergencies will arise.

It is not a matter of will there be an emergency in your life, but when.

Let our emergency situation inspire you to get prepared now. Don’t wait. Start by getting the deals and filling your home with things your family needs and uses on a daily basis.

I hope this encourages you to keep a well-stocked pantry.

It is time to become a strategic shopper!

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