29 December

Tis' the Season for Better Planning


A power outage can be peaceful but perilous. Night before last when it was barely 10 degrees outside the power went out for about 3 hours. Chugach Electric reported a downed power line due to snow that blackened the entire Valley. Thanks to Daddy-O our house is nicely weather proofed. No thanks to me we were totally unprepared for the power outage. Not one of our flashlights from the junk drawer worked! Nor did I even have larger flashlight size batteries. One of our headlamps flickered... I do have plenty of “AA Gus” batteries… And only ONE of my candles would light and it was ¾ burned down! We found that the best light in the house was my little L.E.D. book

light and used that to read Gus a scary Hardy Boys mystery until the power returned. While we made the best of it and really enjoy that kind of unexpected peace I made a trip to town for better provisions. Yes, a generator has been on our “to-do” list since every power outage from the last 15 years... With a bit of work to do this is a link I'm using to be better prepared - “Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit.

With my mind on being better prepared for weather related emergency’s, CERF (Craft Emergency Relief Fund) sent me an e-mail yesterday with another gentle reminder that it’s time to also think about keeping my studio safe. The mission of CERF+ is to strengthen and sustain the careers of craft artists across the United States. Here is a link to their Studio Protector.These tools were designed by artists for artists with the assistance of some of the nation’s leading authorities on emergency preparedness, recovery, and conservation – and field tested by artists who have been through disaster.”

At least we have a Dog Team for transportation!

3 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

CERF was GOOD to us when we had our fire.
They were so easy to deal with and gave us a helping hand when we needed it.
Be prepared and yet who is really prepared when something goes wrong.
I hope you stocked up on batteries and candles.
I still treasure those times when we lost power and it was just us and the kids....it is hard to make those moments happen- they just do.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

Oh gosh, handsome and capable rescue dogs!

Linda Starr said...

We have to do the same thing for hurricaines here, but it's good to do in winter. when our well went out we almost didn't have any drinking water, thank goodness we had some stocked up from the ones we had from summer. If we didn't have electricity here I am not sure what we would do for heat though, other houses we had a backup fireplace or wood stove, but not here in Florida, something to think about.