Around our house, stormy weather typically coincides with the power going out. And this week we’ve had plenty of stormy weather.
THE WEATHER
We had over a foot of snow. We had freezing rain. And, we had a high wind warning.
EMERGENCY PREPARATIONS
No matter what time of year it is, we have learned to be prepared for a power outage. We usually have plenty of food, flashlights, batteries, emergency supplies, hand-crank radio, etc.
We have well water, which means when the power goes out, so does our water supply. I make sure we have a couple fresh jugs of water, so we can hold off using our emergency water for as long as possible.
Farmer John makes sure there’s a fire going in the wood stove.
We cook by lantern light on our propane powered stovetop.
The kids each have their own flashlight. It makes them feel better, but mostly they just like to play with them.
THE INCUBATOR
But this particular storm, my concern really wasn’t about us humans, but about the chicks developing in the incubator. They need electricity to stay warm & continue to grow.
FARMER JOHN’S SOLUTION
We have a generator, but the amount of time we can run it usually has to do with how much gas we have on hand. When our power goes out, there’s a good chance it will be out for at least a day. There’s an equally good chance it could be out longer. The first December we lived here the power was out for 18 days. A week would go by & the power would come on for a day, maybe less, then go back out. And, we were snowed in. We didn’t have a tractor at the time to push the snow out of the driveway.
