Sunday Dec. 22nd we had an ice storm. Kind of weird for Michigan. We are def. a snow state. When we didn't lose power overnight we figured we were in the clear. We were wrong.
about 1:30 that afternoon we lost power. Like thousands of others throughout the storm area. Husband got out the Kerosene lamps, the camp stove, the old peculator coffee pot, and a Coleman light. We were ready for the couple of hours (normally) we might be without power. I had filled 5 gal. buckets with water and put them in the tub the day before.. goooo me..
We waited. I put up a cotton blanket to block in the heat generated by the kerosene lamps and Coleman lamp. Considering we had no heat source it stayed pretty comfy, that is till the next day. We headed out to find kerosene, 1lb propane tanks for the stove and light, and a new heater. As you already have guessed.. Nada for any of those. We did have friends give us their Kerosene heater to use. We found a place close with Kerosene, and we found the last 1 lb propane tanks in town and bought some.
We had some snow. It was beautiful stuck to the icy trees.
We were fortunate. When we called in to report the outage we were given the Date of Saturday Dec. 28th for restoration of power. YIKES... We got our power back Monday night about mid-night. Many didn't get their power back until that Saturday.
We had a plan for a big family dinner and gift exchange for Tuesday afternoon.. I made some calls and said the cancelled party was back on. I moved the furniture back, put the food back in the full size freezer in the basement, and the food to the fridge.. then threw all the unwrapped gifts in any Christmas bag I could find that would hold them, scrawled names on the bags in black sharpie marker.. ordered Pizza, Salad, and bread sticks,and we had Christmas.
Husband still says our best gift of the year was our heat and power back on. I totally agree.. the "jingle bell shotgun shell" Christmas lights came in 2nd. LOL he is easy to please.
We realized we spend way to much time watching TV. We had no board games, puzzles, not even a deck of UNO cards.. I gave them all to the kids when they moved out.. I plan on rectifying that this year.
I've also ordered a free-standing propane vent free heater. 30,000 BTU. We have a similar one at our place in Kentucky. We love it. We'll get some Propane tanks (I'm not sure what size, we'll see what the propane co. suggests) when the heater gets here. I'm making a corner for our emergency supplies so we'll be more prepared next time, and I won't have to spend so much time looking for stuff. We're gonna get a generator too. We have a couple of small ones husband picked up at yard sales here and there. They're small and I'm not sure they would be of much use. I want one big enough to run our fridge and freezer, maybe a light or two and a TV.
It's always good to be prepared for the unexpected.
I hope your Christmas was warm, full of family and friends.
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