It’s time to take your game up a notch with 24 hours unplugged! No fair doing this on a day when you will be away from your normal activities anyway – you want to put your preps to the test!
A grid down scenario doesn’t have to be a massive EMP that detonates over the middle of the country, throwing us back to the 1800s. It can be as simple (and likely) as a winter storm, a hurricane, or a computer issue at your local power station. While this is a fairly common occurrence, many people still seem taken completely by surprise when it happens. Without back-up heat, cooking methods, and lighting, the unprepared family could be in for a very unpleasant time until the lights come back on. Every family should be prepared for a minimum of two weeks without power. Nearly 2000 families were still without power 94 days after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast.
Here’s why you should test your preps.
A couple of years ago, my youngest daughter and I spent a year in the North Woods of Ontario. It was a grand adventure, totally different from the city life we’d had previous to this. Our small cabin was on the banks of a beautiful lake and the edge of hundreds of acres of forest wilderness. It was heated only by wood, and although we had electricity, we were warned that it was sporadic, since we were fairly remote and regular maintenance was not always performed on the lines of the area.
As a prepared family we were pretty sure we’d be just fine when the power went out.
The first time it happened was on a mild early autumn morning. The power went out for no apparent reason, and we high-fived each other. Game on!
Since it was afternoon and the weather was nice, it really wasn’t much of a challenge. The power returned before daylight, we had some stuff in the fridge for sandwiches, and we basically just needed to entertain ourselves sans grid. No big deal – we are bookworms, so we spent the day curled up with some good reads. We did make one unexpected discovery – our well was pumped by an electric component, so when the power went out, we also had no running water, including water to flush with. Of course, we had stored drinking water, and we brought a couple of buckets of water up from the lake for flushing, so this was a minor inconvenience.
However, it did get me thinking about how we would flush if the weather was cold enough that the lake was frozen, but there wasn’t snow on the ground. Hmmm…#1 Note to Self – store water for flushing too!
The next power outage occurred a couple of weeks later and it was a much bigger deal. The initial outage hit at about 7 o’clock on a chilly fall evening. It was dark and cold. We stoked up a fire in the woodstove, and began to search for our lighting solutions. Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the forethought to set up off-grid lighting in each room, so after digging for my candles in the dark closet, I had to carry one around to light candles in subsequent rooms.
#2 Note to Self: Keep candles, holders, and lighters in each room in a place which is easy to access in the dark. After this, we placed candles in holders are part of the decor all around the house.
The wind roared around outside the cabin and our power did not return for 3 days. We used the woodstove to heat up meals, but we couldn’t find all of the bits and pieces for a game we wanted to play. #3 Note to Self: Keep off-grid entertainment well-organized, especially if there are children in the house.
On the second day of the outage, we dragged our chest freezer out onto the deck to keep our food from going bad in the cozy cabin. #4 Note to Self: Get something sturdy to store food in outdoors
that won’t draw wild animals to your porch that also doesn’t require you to drag a 200+ pound appliance outside.
By the time the next power outage rolled around, we had learned many lessons. At the first sign of windy weather, we immediately filled the bathtub. A bucket right beside the tub served as a container to transfer water from the tub to the toilet so that we could flush. A sturdy Rubbermaid storage bench with a lock resided on our deck, waiting to be pressed into duty as an outdoor freezer. Each room boasted of decorative candles. Home canned meals in jars lined my kitchen shelves, and a beautiful cast iron Dutch oven
sat at the ready to simmer a delicious stew or pot of beans on the woodstove. A couple of pretty baskets were filled with art supplies and games (with all of their pieces) and a couple of kerosene lamps that were bright enough for reading sat at either end of the sofa. Since the fans that blew the heat into the bedrooms obviously did not work without power, we had a couple of air mattresses to set up in the living room on the coldest nights, so we could stay cozy by the fire.
The next time the power went out, we were excited because it meant a break in our day-to-day routine of work and school. Power outages had become mini-vacations, and were no longer even a blip on the radar for us.
We don’t live in our little cabin in the woods any more, but the lessons we learned allow us to take power outages in stride in a way that most people don’t. Even though we don’t expect a shaky grid where we live now, our home is organized in the way that we learned up North. Lighting, extra water, sanitation, cold food solutions, and off-grid cooking tools are all close at hand should they be needed.
Are you ready to test your preps?
Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to go for 24 hours without the grid. This means no electrical power, no central climate control, and no running water! Some people will go hardcore and turn of the main water valve and flip all of the breakers. Others will just opt not to use those items.
- During your 24 hours off-grid, you’ll eat three meals, go to the bathroom, keep your family clean and at a comfortable temperature, and entertain yourselves. This a tall order in some locations!
- Plan ahead of time how you’ll overcome the challenges – you can learn a lot this way.
- But the real learning experience will come from the challenges you didn’t expect and plan for. This is how you will fill the holes that exist in your preps. It is far better to discover those gaps now, when back-up is as close as the breaker box in your basement, than it is to discover it when disaster strikes.
- Give every family member a notebook so they can jot down what works and what doesn’t. Once your Grid-Down drill is over, compare notes. You may be surprised at the observations your children have made.
- Make a shopping list based on the notes and fill those gaps!
Testing…1,2,3…
Have you tried an off-grid drill before? What did you learn? If not, what’s stopping you? Share in the comments below.
Supplemental Reading:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
Thanks for joining the Prepared Bloggers as we work our way through 30 Days of Preparedness. September is National Preparedness Month so you will find everything you need to get your preparedness knowledge and skills into shape.
Take one post each day, learn as much as you can about the topic and make it a part of your preparedness plan.
Day 1 – Ready, Set, Get Prepared! Welcome to 30 Days of Preparedness from PreparednessMama
Day 2 – The Family Meeting Place and Escape from Laughingbear Adventures
Day 3 – I’m Safe! How to Communicate with Family in an Emergency from PreparednessMama
Day 4 – Does Your Family Have a Fire Escape Plan? from Home Ready Home
Day 5 – Preparedness For Pets from The Busy B Homemaker
Day 6 – The Escape Exercise from Laughingbear Adventures
Day 7 – It all Falls Apart Without Mental Preparedness from PreparednessMama
Day 8 – It’s a Matter of Emergency Kits from A Matter of Preparedness
Day 9 – Nine Great Emergency Light Sources Other Than Flashlights from Food Storage & Survival
Day 10 – Cooking Without Power from Mama Kautz
Day 11 – The Importance of a Shelter & Staying Warm and Dry from Trayer Wilderness
Day 12 – The Importance of Having The Right Tools In Your Pack from Trayer Wilderness
Day 13 – Practice Living Without Electricity from Food Storage Made Easy
Day 14 – How We Choose The Right Gear – (including the MultiFlame Tool) from Trayer Wilderness
Day 15 – Water Storage & Purification from The Busy B Homemaker
Day 16 – Food and Water for a 72 Hour “Go Bag” from Homestead Dreamer
Day 17 – 8 Foods You Should Be Storing and How from Melissa K Norris
Day 18 – Planning Your Pantry from The Organic Prepper
Day 19 – Stocking Up on Non-Food Items from Living in Rural Iowa
Day 20 – Dutch Oven Cooking: Off-Grid Before Off-Grid Was Cool from The Backyard Pioneer
Day 21 – Pressure Canning the Harvest from Timber Creek Farm
Day 22 – Personal Protection & Awareness from Living in Rural Iowa
Day 23 – KISS First Aid from Herbal Prepper
Day 24 – Mommy, I have to go Potty! from Mom With a Prep
Day 25 – Fire Starting 101: The Why and How of Lighting a Fire for Survival from Food Storage & Survival
Day 26 – How to Filter and Purify Water from Prepared Housewives
Day 27 – How To Make A Shelter from Trayer Wilderness
Day 28 – Put Your Preps to the Test with 24 Hours Unplugged from The Organic Prepper
Day 29 – What Is Char and Why You Should Have It To Start A Fire from Trayer Wilderness
Day 30 – How To Utilize Bushcraft Skills and Forage From The Wild from Trayer Wilderness
Awesome idea! The best way to see if you are prepared is to “live” through it with some test runs.
A few years ago, the area where we live had a massive ice storm. While it was happening, it looked like a war…the flashes and booms of the transformer blowing up…arcing wires and trees snapping. We were without power for over 5 days. And out here in the country, some were without power for over a week. I actually loved it…it was so quiet. We did ok with supplies but found a few places we need to tweek and improve on.
I too learned from a storm like that we had in Iowa a few years back. Every power pole snapped. No power in entire county. Caught me flat footed and unprepared. Thank god we were able to survive but I vowed would never happen again. Glad you survived my friend. I enjoy stories with a happy ending. Love hearing about how other people faired and things they learned during their disaster. Should post ideas in case others did not think of it
Mike…read both your posts. Glad you’re ok. That storm yesterday sounds awful!! One thing I learned from no power in the winter is to somehow get heat in the bathroom!! We had hot water, thanks to the generator, but…I truly hope that I never have to take a shower in a 36* bathroom!! That’s almost as bad as running out of water in the middle of a shower. Lessons learned the hard way. LOL
This is a good idea. You need to know how some of your preps work, such as a small wood cooking stove for a meal and to boil water. You also need to know the quality of your solar lights and stuff. Having things in the closet does not make one good. Practice makes perfect, as the old saying goes….
Almost had to use my backup generator last night. Big storm blew thru with 100 m.p.h. Winds. Neighbors living room got flatten by big tree in yard and neighbors tree across the street landed in my driveway on my truck. No real damage to truck but took all day to cut and move it. Landed across the street so city is supposed to be cutting it however after what did not transpire today confirmed what I already knew. The city, state and federal government is not going to be there. We will be on our own. Got some great firewood from it though so not all a loss. Nobody hurt or killed so thanks be to God for that miracle. Storm lasted less than 5 minutes was dark in and gone and sun shining all in 5 minutes. People if you aren’t ready you had better get there because the government just doesn’t care. City, county, state or federal. The only people you can really count on is you.
RE: “Caught me flat footed and unprepared. Thank god we were able to survive but I vowed would never happen again.”
I think that’s how Preppers are born,… ‘er created?
Anyway, I saw this and thought of Daisy and the lot of you for some reason:
California Bill Would Require All College Sexual Encounters to Be Approved by College Administration or the State
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/09/california-bill-would-require-all.html
Has the rest of the world gone completely bat-shit crazy?
I wonder.
I did this about two years ago to see what would work and what wouldn’t work and to test my wife’s ability and familiarity with our preps. I did just fine as I have many years backpacking under my belt and I test my preps all the time along with three years in the U.S. Army. My wife on the other hand didn’t fare so well even after I showed her how to use these preps when I bought them. She couldn’t start the generator or put together a Katadyn Vario Water Filter or my Jet-boil Flash stove. I had to show her how things went together and how to use them. It was a real eye opener for my wife. All I can say is practice, practice, practice until it comes second nature.Don’t wait for something too happen and then say,how the hell does this work or how do I put this water filter together.