Life in a Power Outage

We went for almost 5 days without power after the recent storms and tornados that swept through Alabama cutting off all the power feeds from TVA to our entire county. We also lost both house and cell phone coverage for 2 days, so were rather isolated for a while! I am so grateful that we escaped any injury or damage. My prayers go out to all who were not so fortunate.

My biggest concern was losing all the food in our freezer. Otherwise, it was a bit of an adventure and experiment in creative living.

Our lighting source after dark:

In the evenings, I read to Emily by flashlight. We went to bed early and got up early to save battery power.

I remembered that we had this wind up radio and dug it out of a box of stuff from when we cleaned out Chris’s office several years ago.

My son came over the first day, and desperate for “media,” played old ‘78’s on our antique Victorola.

I forgot to take pictures, but were able to cook on our propane-powered pop-up camper stove. Our neighborhood is all-electric powered, so most people weren’t able to cook. We invited some friends and neighbors over one night to help us eat up some of our rapidly-thawing freezer goods.

The weather was sunny and in the  70’s, so without the distraction of TV, video games, and computers, the neighbors were all outside, doing yard work, and visiting. That part was nice.

We’re back to normal now, and I am really appreciating hot showers and lights, but in a way almost miss some aspects of our power-less adventure as well as appreciating the conveniences I used to take for granted!