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Forum: 24 Hrs No Electric Trial

Cinda03 December 2006, 00:29

I think we used to have a thread for trial runs, but I couldn’t find it.

From 1900hrs last night to 1900hrs tonight I did my first trial SIP situation w/ no electric in my home. I did leave it all on and running, but I did not use anything electric- even turned the electric clocks around and covered the stove and microwave clocks. I found very quickly that I had to tape the light switch for the pantry as it seems to be one connected move to open the door while switching on the light. No slips in any other room.

I did it this weekend because Husband is off hunting and I wanted to explore MY jobs without having to deal with him fussing about no TV or whatever.

I am exhausted. I learned A LOT.

My little trial allowed for the following given circumstances

1 Town water is still running

2 The home is prepared with food and other necessary items for long term SIP

3 The home was already in a state of readiness. We all know what that entails.

1900hrs lights out,it was full dark.Found the flashlight- got the Aladdin Genie lamp out. Realized I forgot how it works! But I knew where the directions were. Got that going. Were Husband home and this were real he would have started on the generator stuff and gone out to bring in the extra propane tanks to the garage and the gas cans to their special storage near the generator and all that man-stuff, his jobs. I made some notes and headed for bed. I think TV keeps your mind stimulated so it’s harder to go to sleep. I crawled into bed with my Aladdin Lamp and a crossword puzzle at 2000hrs and was turning off the lamp within 1/2 hour. Usually it takes me almost an hour of reading. Woke up as it was getting light. Thought about what I wanted to accomplish today. I got about half the things on my list done. I never stopped moving till dinner but for the time it took me to eat a tuna sandwich made with small mayo packets - no elec = no refigeration= bad mayo. If it were winter I might open a small jar and keep it in the garage.

Any way- I’m exhausted. I learned A LOT.

The biggest thing I learned was that I had NO idea how much water we use each day. I filled all my biggest pans and a 5 gallon container last night. 1st thing this morning I boiled a full kettle and poured it into 2 thermoses and made a cup of tea in an insulated travel mug. Can’t nuke cold tea with no elec. We need more travel mugs. We need more thermoses. We’ll need a LOT of water. The wash took up almost all the rest. We’ve got a 2 barrel roof collection set up, but it’ll need to be cleaned out and refitted with new screens to keep the yuccky stuff out. Fine if it rains- but what if it doesn’t. That one needs some serious thought. Can’t depend that the generators at the pump station will stay running

Then I decided to test my little Wonder washer. It works very very well, it takes more water than I expected, and the whole process was time consuming- but my white wash came out whiter than with my regular washer. I imagine as I get used to it it’ll be faster. I’m thinking a small wash each morning should keep up with most of it. My favorite discovery from today was laundry related. Know how when you do a hand wash and have to wring out all the clothes and they’re still soaked and it makes your hands hurt? I have 2 words - SALAD SPINNER! Mine is sort of mid sized and was pretty cheap but you wouldn’t believe how much water I got out of the clothes. I’ll be buying the biggest one I can find thats good quality. Hung out clothes- lots of wind and some sunshine- they smelled great.

There wasn’t enough sun to heat the solar shower- so I heated water and filled one. Bathing will be a bit of a chore in the winter. In the summer we can hang them on the roof over the outdoor shower and be fine- I managed to rig one up on the indoor shower nozzel. I don’t think thats a good idea though as 5 gallons of water is pretty heavy. Big blue rubbermaid tote became a tub to kneel in and wash. The hardest part was the hair. I’ll get the hang of it. But it won’t get washed every single day.

Dinner was a Dak canned ham with canned pineapple and baked beans with just-add-water-mix bisquits. Had my husbands cousin’s wife and baby over from next door. Dinner conversation was, If this- then that.. to do with SIP. The bisquits baked in my little coleman camp oven on the double propane burner in the garage. Don’t need to get the temp as high as the directions say. Ham and pineapple went ito a 6qt Lodge dutch oven and was ready to eat in 15 min. Takes longer than that in my electric oven-so I’ll be doing it this way from now on. Must be something about the way the iron conducts heat.

Had to draw more water for the dishes.Heated it and did them in a large pan in minimal water. (Kept some clean for rinse) Lights on @ 1900hr tonight.

Conclusions:

We need to do more, longer, trials.

We need a lot of water -maybe a large tank in the basement?

Need to plan simple meals that won’t leave leftovers in warm weather.

Milk will be an issue in warm weather. I didn’t have any last night or today and I’m a milk drinker. I missed it.

Laundry will be a real P.I.T.A chore.

Winter bathing will be chilly and take some getting used to.

There will be plenty to do each day. We will become stronger doing daily chores like laundry, gardening, foraging, hunting, hauling water, wood, coal. Sweeping and beating carpets. Struggeling a quilt over the clothes line to air it. Making bread, hefting iron cooking pots. We’ll actually be tired at the end of the day, physically, not just mentally.

I think we will have real trouble adjusting to no television or internet. We have games and books and hobbie stuff, but we’ll miss watching some shows and having instant info at hand 24/7.

Husband called and after I filled him in he said he wants to do this the next weekend we are both home and I am not working. He has his jobs to work out too.

Sailor03 December 2006, 00:44

Hey I really enjoyed reading your account of your adventure. There is a lot of good information on what happens in real life situations. Thanks

Texas Rose?03 December 2006, 00:52

The longest we’ve been without electricity is three days, water was gone a full 24 hours. You soon learn that daily showers are an unnecessary luxury, that mustard tastes fine instead of mayo on sandwiches, and cold canned soup won’t kill you. I learned how to arrange the candles and mirrors to enhance the candlelight so I could actually quilt.

The worst part was not being able to flush. After a while, it was worth it to use a couple gallons of water just to get rid of the smell.

Thanks for sharing how your trial run went.

Cinda03 December 2006, 08:37

Texas Rose- I can only imagine the whole toilet situation. Fri & Sat I only flushed after several uses- and to deal with the smell, but I KNEW I could- and that’s the difference between a trial and the real thing. We’ve talked about an out-house or one of those composting or chemical toilets. I’ve lived with out electricity before- for extended periods-one time for 3 months- but I was young and it was easler for us young ones. Also we had a shallow well with a hand pump. Uncle had rigged a very large tub about 10 feet off the ground that we had to pump water into and let it sit in the sun. We usually had showers about every 3 days and sponge baths the rest of the time. But that was a place where they had planned to live w/o power and Uncle was pretty handy and imaginative. And there were many of us kids- so the chores didn’t all fall on 1 or 2 people. I never thought about what my Aunt had to deal with and plan for. There’s a big difference in being 15 in the middle of no-where with all your cousins who don’t know any other way, or 17 during a blizzard and having no power, but having a Dad who grew up with no electric or plumbing, and being 46 and running a modern household being used to having all your gadgets and gizzmos. I’m sure I will draw on some of the lessons I learned back then- some I probably didn’t know I learned. But I sure wish I’d paid more attention! We will do more trials though. It should be interestng to see how we work together- At least I’ll have someone to play scrabble with.

InKy03 December 2006, 09:22

Cinda - a salad spinner is a great idea. What kind of salad spinner do you use? Most seem a little small, and wet clothes are heavier than wet salad, so what salad spinner would be up to the job long-term? I tried googling around and did run across a fellow who rigged up a bicycle-powered dryer using a washing machine tub here. I’m not handy with machines, but the pictures look instructive. I emailed the author to ask if he would post instructions for making his laundry spinner.

Sailor03 December 2006, 10:17

Cinda - In the winter of 1990 we had a terrible blizzard where we lived. We had 6 ft high snow drifts out in front of our home on the road. The county had to send a D8 Cat out to clear our roads. At the time we had young children and no power or water or heat for 3 days fortunately I had a camp stove we cooked on and could melt some water from snow. Our house had under slab hot water heating and was designed for passive solar heating with large windows to the south and west. That helped the heat situation and fortunately it was not that cold out side, I think around −10 at night.. We had bought a wood stove but had not been able to afford to hook it up with chimney pipe at that time as the pipe was going to cost more than the stove. Needless to say the minute the roads were opened up I went into town and bought a generator and I had that stove hooked up and working shortly after. I guess my point is that once you have experienced doing with out modern conveniences such as power and water and heat you develop a new respect for these items. Ever since then I have been striving to be more self sufficient.

Mary in Hawaii?03 December 2006, 12:33

I think what Cindy has done is excellent. Everyone ought to give it a try - no water, no power, no fudging for an entire weekend - that’s how you’ll learn what you will really need if a pandemic hits. If you wait until you need it, it’s too late. I have a couple of suggestions to add to your preps: 1. Lots of extra underwear and t shirts, light weight. These would be the main things you’d need to launder…the outer garments wouldn’t getting soiled that much if you were SIP, and wouldn’t smell if you kept the undergarments fresh. 2. An indoor clothes rack for those undergarments (unless you alreaDy have, as I do, outdoor clotheslines under cover. If you are in northern climes, I would be buying lots of thermal undergarments and cheap sweaters from the thrift shop. If electricity goes out and you have no heat, that would help. As would heavy drapes or blankets across windows and open doorways, and extra wood for the fireplace. Anyway, I think everyone really needs to give the most thought as to where they will get their water, as it won’t be coming through the taps if power goes out for long. I plan to put a big trash can under the downspout of my rain gutters, with a piece of window screen across the top. But I get lots of rain here. I am very worried about my kids in Los Angeles. There’s little rain, and virtually no reservoirs or lakes nearby…the few that there are will probably be cordoned off by national guard who will probably in turn be mobbed by the 6 1/2 million thirsty people living in the area.

Be Well03 December 2006, 13:25

For a variety of reasons, I have lived without electricity various times, total of quite a few years. I have had years of experience with outhouses, trench latrines, composting toilets, etc. Years of campstove cookery. I am working on a website - soon to be up, I hope - about surviving in hard times. Since I am fortunate to have had a lot of experience, I can share it with others. Here’s one tip: 5 gallon buckets with a toilet seat on top work great as composting toilets, provided you use quite a bit of leaves, leaf mold, regular dirt, or sawdust layered between the human output. And a good layer on the bottom. The sawdust has to be from green wood, not kiln dried lumber, since it needs the microbes alive to eat the ****.

It’s best to have a number of buckets, let them sit outside and collect (with lids so rain doesn’t get in), and then dump them all at once. Find a nice place to dump them, preferably with some pallets as sides, and cover each layer with more leaf mold, leaves, sawdust, and/or dirt. It composts amazingly fast. The books say use only on fruit trees or other stuff you’re not going to eat. Of course, if no one in the family has parasites, AIDS or HepC, you don’t worry that much. Or just leave it there if you don’t need it for compost.

Another couple of methods that are very simple and work if you have acreage are trench latrines and single use holes. Trench latrines - you dig a long trench, narrow enough to squat over (or you can use boards, I never did it that way - a neighbor had her husband use boards and installed a box with a toilet seat above the trench - luxury style!), keep a trowel handy and after each use bury the output. Then when the trench is filled up, dig a new one. A privacy booth can be made from tarps and just moved along. Composts very fast.

The single use is just dig a little hole with a trowel or small shovel and bury, make a line so you know where people dug recently, privacy booth can also be used. Composts in weeks if the weather is not frozen or dry.

Be Well03 December 2006, 13:26

BTW, if anyone wants to be alerted when my website is up, you can email me and I will alert you when it’s up and running:

MayAllBeWell at gmail dot com.

Sailor03 December 2006, 13:52

Mary in Hawaii? — 03 December 2006, 12:33

Great to hear from you on this site, I was concerned that we would loose your valuable input. Welcome back.

C o t W?03 December 2006, 18:09

Our power was off for 3 hours last night. No problem I thought as I’m well planned. Then the gas for the barbecue ran out and then the gas bottles for the stove. Soon had alternatives sorted out but it just shows I have to check more. Also I’ll rig up the solar panel and inverter and batteries to drive water pumps before I actually need them. Wind up radios and torches need more winding than I thought too.

Cinda03 December 2006, 18:29

Husband said we will be doing more of these trials until it’s not a trail anymore. Cousins next door will do some too and then we will try one together. Husband and his cousin are each very skilled at what they do and they do very different things- between them they can rig up just about anything.We will be depending one each other.

Inky- I beat you too it! While contemplating a better bigger salad spinner I was envisioning husband and his cousin putting a real spinner together with an old washer tub from the dump, some bike chains and gears and a wood frame to hold it and a crank. Or maybe using a bike to “ride” to get it spinning. How bout that- excrsise and drier laundry all at once. Though I don’t think we’ll lack for excersise Cousin was over today while we were cutting the deer husband brought home and I mentioned it to him. You could already see the wheels turning (no pun intended)- he’s very mechanical. Husband is a carpenter.

Be Well - Count me in when your site opens. I suggest you post the site here on the wikie and we’ll all head over there. As I said I wish I had paid attention when I was younger, but who pays attention at 15? I know I took in some of it, and it will out when I need it to. It’s probably why I am so drawn to old ways- Did dinner tonight in the fireplace- Roast pork- in a dutch oven on top of 3 bricks with coals shoveled under and over. Yummy!!!

Be Well03 December 2006, 21:39

I’ve got to get a dutch oven with those little legs. Mine is flat which works fine on a stove (don’t have a fireplace, just a wood stove) but I’d like one with legs for using directly on a fire.

I wish I had a wood cookstove. Will be looking for one. I’ve used them before and they cook really well, although not fun in midsummer.

When the site is up and running I’ll put an announcement here and on the new FW. I figure if a few people learn one or two things that help, it’ll be worth it.

InKy03 December 2006, 21:55

Cinda - I do believe you will have a very fine laundry spinner soon. I hope you will post pictures.

Be Well - Your wood stove is just the right thing to have during a pandemic. There’s one on my wish list. I’m going to do some Dutch Oven cooking on a Volcano Stove (outdoors). I look forward to exploring your site; we have lots to learn from your experience.

Orlandopreppie?03 December 2006, 22:12

Cinda and others who have run a trial, I admire you. I think I have most of the materials for a trial, but find myself fearful of running one. We lost power for only 24 hours during a hurricane, and my husband had just had skin graft surgery. The pain meds made him psycho and I don’t even want to think about the arguments we had. Maybe that’s why I dread doing a trial. Now I can see we need to. The last laundry prep I think we need is one of those janitorial mop buckets with the wringer. I think I’d rather do that than a salad spinner.

Sailor03 December 2006, 22:37

Be Well — 03 December 2006, 21:39

Great to hear that you are going to post a link to your site, I will be looking forward to it.

As for the dutch oven with legs for cooking over the outside fire, as long as your existing dutch oven has the dished in lid for the coals to rest in you could use a 4 to 6 ft. tripod made out of 1/2 inch steel rods. Have your local welding shop make up a set or if your hubby is handy he could coble up one in no time. You attach a chain to the center of the tri pod and use a hook to suspend the pot at any desired hight from the bed of coals in the fire so there is no need for legs.

Cinda04 December 2006, 11:03

Orlandopreppie? — 03 December 2006, 22:12

My little salad spinner was just a momentary lightbulb in a trial situation. I was quite proud of having even thought of it actually. A mop bucket with a wringer is in my list too. But some things with buttons don’t do well in wringers. So hopefully if the need arises- we will make a real large spinner. And it worked really well for the little stuff that we would be washing more regularly- like undiesand socks. Good shoulder and forearm work out too! I am so glad I did this trial. I leaned so much- some of it just about my own ingenuity and ability to adapt. I think if you were to do one under controlled circumstances w/o the husband having recently undergone surgery - it would be very different. After discussing this at great length last night, and looking over my notes, my husband is determined to do another trial with both of us very soon.

Be Well- I have one with legs- but it was too big for my roast. So you can do what I do in my fireplace, just do it outside. I set up 3 red bricks on their sides with space between the ends in a triangle shape with the front side facing me being the flat. Outside the direction wouldn’t matter. Put the dutch oven on top of the bricks. I just shovel out some coals from the fire and shovel them in under the dutchoven in the center of the triangle and tucked the front brick back in place. That way the coals can draw air and it’s easy to put more in if needed. I’ve been cooking in my fireplace this way for the past 6 years since we built the house. I also use this method outside when we are at our hunting camp in the warm weather as it’s already so hot and steamy I don’t want to heat the cabin up anymore than it is already.

On the wood cook stove- we talked about that last night and will start looking for one. Besides cooking- it’d be much more efficient for heating that side of the house than the fireplace is. Then I thought perhaps in the summer it’d need to be moved outside to an “outdoor” kitchen with just a roof and hopefully screened sides. The chimney could go up through the roof with the proper flashing and shielding. It’d still be hot to work with but not heating up the house. Poor husband - this trial really got my creative wheels turning!

I encourage everyone to start doing trials. It was quite an experience. I’m still tired and my shoulders ache- but it’s a good ache.

Mari04 December 2006, 11:29

A regular rain poncho also makes a good privacy barrier. I’ve used one for that purpose when I’ve gone fishing and there have been other people around. Also good for changing into a bathing suit at the swimming hole.

Be Well04 December 2006, 17:08

Sailor - thanks for the idea. I’ll tell DH, he has welding stuff and loves to fool around with metal/wood anything else handy. I want one with legs anyway, though!

Be Well04 December 2006, 17:12

Cinda - thanks for YOUR ideas, too. At an auction a few years ago we missed TWO beautiful wood cookstoves that went for around $150 apiece! I still fret that we didn’t bid. (We went out for a nature’s call break.) Where we live (1500 foot elevation) even in the middle of summer it’s often around 50 in the early morning, a good time to cook on a woodstove. But a summer kitchen is the best idea.

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