stormpalooza 2016

we knew earlier last week that "stormpalooza 2016" was gonna blow up on most of atlantic canada this past friday. we went about our normal chores each day and got set up to enjoy stormpalooza and make sure we got everything ready for an extended power outage. we have a tried and true list that works for us in our surroundings. which is why we don't panic.

ryobi lanterns and all flashlights - check. all 12 batteries charged - check.



generator filled up, in fine working condition, extra gas handy - check. 10 million candles - check. two big bins of water in the bathtub - check. four 5-gallon jugs of berkey-filtered rainwater - check (in fact we always have the 4 jugs filled - jambaloney is pretty fastidious about that!). and as we were expecting a ton of snow - we could have used melted snow (quick fact - our first winter here, our pipes froze and for 2 weeks we had no running water...so we melted snow for bathing, for cleaning dishes and general cleaning and used filtered rainwater for drinking. no biggee. we made it just fine!).

extra blankets - check. several pairs of warm socks, sweaters, pants - check. first aid kit checked and ready - check. kerosene lanterns filled and on the ready - check. kerosene heater in the basement filled and on the ready -check. the usual. we don't lose power often but we do get snowed in for extended periods of time, so we are kind of used to this.

on thursday we woke up to almost bare ground.

looking down the road to the river:

on thursday i made a steak and kidney pie:

delicious when hot, but also delicious eaten cold as leftovers during a power outage.

we wanted to have some food on hand for the storm that didn't require much effort. i also made a giant pot of chili.

easily re-heated on our butane stove during the power outage (note: that is some of the chili out of the big pot and put in a little pot).



on friday, we filled our cooler and put whatever refrigerated food that we thought we would enjoy during the power outage in it. and because we live where we live, we just threw the cooler out in the snow. can't do better than that for refrigeration. the reason for doing so is so that during a power outage we won't open the freezer or refrigerator and that will save any food inside of either for several days. if we had an extended power outage, we would take all of the frozen food from the freezer and bury it in snow. but that has never happened. however, it is something that we have thought about and planned for.

when we woke up friday morning waiting for the storm to start, it looked like this.

all the little goldfinches came to get a good meal before the storm started.

and then it started. it was quite magical.

friday night we lost our power at about 8:30pm. no worries - we busted out the big guns - sweaters, socks - no need for the generator just yet as we had turned up the heat full-tilt-boogie during late afternoon so that the house was really warm.

the we busted out the bigger guns - cards and hangman. we are easily entertained when we have no power.

we woke up on saturday to this majesty:

we didn't get very much snow at all! birds were fed and cat paths all around the house were promptly cleared.

because it was so sunny, it melted the cat paths down to the dirt. and also kept the house warm. no need for the generator.

then jam jumped on the atv and plowed the driveway.

the sun slowly going down on saturday evening - beautiful!

now kids - here is a prepping topic that never gets raised on other prepper/survivalist blogs. and it is an important topic that no one ever seems to touch on - not rawles, not Harry Flashman, not PioneerP - in fact none of them have ever done a single post about a very important part of being prepared during a snowstorm/power outage situation!!! i felt it was time that someone finally touched on this topic!!!

you may be out of power and buried in a pile of white stuff and can't out for 3-5-9-11 or whatever days - but please kids - be fashionable.

that's me wearing my minnie mouse onsie and furry pink and black boots - jam got it for me and i finally had the perfect opportunity to use it!!! bahahahahah! it has ears and a pink bow on the hood! (quick fact: my father called me "Mini" right up until the day he died).

on saturday evening we turned on the generator and ran two small heaters for a little while and then busted out the scrabble board.

as you can see, we are mavens of word creation!

then we grabbed some of our Harrowsmith magazines - they are the canadian version of Mother Earth News and these magazines - some of which are 30 yrs old still contain information that helps us, teaches us and makes us remember things we may have forgotten!!! we re-read these magazines every winter! jam's mom and stepdad gave them to us before we even left the city. we love those magazines and we have at least 10yrs worth of them - of the earliest years when the magazine was best in my opinion.

and then at 7:30pm...BLINK - the power was back. Nova Scotia Power is the best power company on the planet with 30 minute updates during all power outages - you just call in to get your update.

which brings me to another important prepping for a power outage point: have an unpowered, push-button phone (and a back and a backup)! because we have this kind of phone (and the backups), we can call in for updates all day and all night.

anyway - we partied because we had our power back. but we didn't get our internet back until today at about noon.

today when we got up, it looked like this.

so we had our morning juice, fed and pet cats, fed the birds, cat paths were cleared again, and jambaloney cleared the driveway lickety-split. tomorrow is supposed to be 7C (about 45F) and that will get the driveway and cat paths down to bare ground again. and then we just wait for the next snowfall.

we had a great experience during this power outage in the sense of practice for another one. we don't get a lot of power outages here - which is amazing! but we never panic when we do. we always know about them in advance and get ready for it. there was no driving in to town in the middle of the week in order to stock up. there was no panic at all. the only panic was when i though jambaloney was going to beat me at scrabble - bahahahahah!

after jam finished his shoveling/plowing, and i finished making some food for us - we sat down and had a nice dinner of "kymberz version of tabouleh salad adding extra stuff and leaving other stuff out" salad and some "just-fresh-boiled-and-then-put-in-the-snow-boiled-eggs".

i plan on doing a post about the importance of sprouts in your diet and what better way to introduce that upcoming post than this:

Frankie-Blue-Eyes sleeping on the sprouter. i have received many compliments on how fresh our sprouts look and i guess now - you all know my secret! bahahahahah!

we had a great weekend, power or no power, and we hope that you enjoyed yours too!