A harrowing tale of 30ish hours without power in the dead of spring
This post falls under the category of life in Maine. Thursday afternoon, April 9th, it started to snow. All the weather App's assured us it would rain, so we were hoping to just get rain. It didn't snow a lot by Maine standards, maybe five inches, but it was five inches of heavy spring snow. Five inches of stuff that was just light enough that you couldn't call it slush, but if you touched it, it turned to slush.
Jen and I went for a walk around the college campus just after eight pm. The roads had not been plowed; the sidewalks were not cleared. It was slow walking but a good work out. We were dressed for it. On the walk, we saw the tree's weighted down from all the snow and a couple of ducks quacking on the pond as the big chunky snowflakes fell. Some of the college students who were not able to go home when the school closed because of the pandemic had built a couple of giant snowpeople and were throwing snowballs at each other.
We got back to the house, threw some wood on the fire, and after Honora had gone to bed, the power went out. Then a few seconds later, it came back on. That was how the power has gone out in the past at our house. We've been lucky to be on a fairly stable grid that comes back quickly when the power's out. It's one of the benefits of living in town. About thirty minutes later, the power went out again, and it didn't come back right away.
It was late, so we flipped off the lights switches and went to bed in the odd silence of a house without electricity, assuming it would be back in the morning. It wasn't.
We did yoga, and I worked for a few hours using the remaining power in my laptop and my phone as a hotspot, but both ran out of juice pretty quickly, and I signed off before noon. We had bread with nut butter and jam for breakfast, hummus, and coleslaw for lunch. We only opened the refrigerator once to grab the stuff we needed and add a giant bowl of snow to help keep it cold. Jen grew up where the power could be out for days, and she knew it was best to keep the freezers and refrigerators closed.
We checked the power company's website throughout the day to see where we were at on the list. 9:15 pm was the time they estimated us to be back up and running, but we were hopeful that they'd have it turned back on quicker. We assumed they would run on an under promise and over deliver type system to keep customers happy, and maybe they do, but it was still not on as it was getting dark on Friday.
The fireplace insert was running all day, putting out a little heat keeping the area right in front of it warm. Without the blower which runs on electricity, it's not super efficient, but we appreciated it as the temperature in the rest of the house dropped to the high fifty's. It was cloudy all day, so the house never had a chance to warm up.
So there we are, no hot tea or food the entire day, wearing hats and sweatshirts. We had read books, played games, built lego monstrosities, and had a great time doing a bunch of nothing together, but we were cold and needed something hot to eat. We are under stay at home orders, so going out seemed like a bad idea. We had contemplated pick up, but the only options might not end up being vegan and were very expensive.
Honora suggested wrapping some potatoes in foil and throwing them in the fireplace. It was a great idea, and we expanded upon it to make a soup.
We filled the cast iron dutch oven with onions, potatoes, carrots TVP (textured vegetable protein), along with some onion broth, fresh rosemary, some pepper, and just enough water to cover the vegetables we had cut small. Then we set it in the woodstove right on top of the coals.
The pot was heavy and tricky to maneuver, slightly dangerous but needed to be done. We took the lid off to stir it a few times, added a little more water when it boiled low, and at the end added a little flour to thicken it up. The danger was worth it and it was easier than we thought it would be. For dinner, we had hot vegetable stew, bread with vegan butter, and a cold glass of water by candlelight.
We ended the day with a game of scrabble, and it was well after 9:15 pm and the time the power was supposed to be back on when we went to bed. Without power.
We woke up on Saturday without power, the website still had our estimated time at 9:15 pm the previous night, and Jen set to work boiling up some water in the dutch oven for hot tea. While the tea was being enjoyed, the dutch oven was back in the woodstove, making us some oatmeal. Our house was in the low fifty's, and we were going to need something warm if we were going to spend another day without power.
The sun was out, we had tea and hot food, that was better. I did the dishes with cold water and water heated in the fireplace then sat down to check the website to see if the time had changed for the return of our power. It hadn't. Then the power came back on, the furnace kicked in, the blower on the fireplace insert turned on, and the house is warm while I type this up.
Jen and I went for a walk around the college campus just after eight pm. The roads had not been plowed; the sidewalks were not cleared. It was slow walking but a good work out. We were dressed for it. On the walk, we saw the tree's weighted down from all the snow and a couple of ducks quacking on the pond as the big chunky snowflakes fell. Some of the college students who were not able to go home when the school closed because of the pandemic had built a couple of giant snowpeople and were throwing snowballs at each other.
We got back to the house, threw some wood on the fire, and after Honora had gone to bed, the power went out. Then a few seconds later, it came back on. That was how the power has gone out in the past at our house. We've been lucky to be on a fairly stable grid that comes back quickly when the power's out. It's one of the benefits of living in town. About thirty minutes later, the power went out again, and it didn't come back right away.
It was late, so we flipped off the lights switches and went to bed in the odd silence of a house without electricity, assuming it would be back in the morning. It wasn't.
We did yoga, and I worked for a few hours using the remaining power in my laptop and my phone as a hotspot, but both ran out of juice pretty quickly, and I signed off before noon. We had bread with nut butter and jam for breakfast, hummus, and coleslaw for lunch. We only opened the refrigerator once to grab the stuff we needed and add a giant bowl of snow to help keep it cold. Jen grew up where the power could be out for days, and she knew it was best to keep the freezers and refrigerators closed.
We checked the power company's website throughout the day to see where we were at on the list. 9:15 pm was the time they estimated us to be back up and running, but we were hopeful that they'd have it turned back on quicker. We assumed they would run on an under promise and over deliver type system to keep customers happy, and maybe they do, but it was still not on as it was getting dark on Friday.
The fireplace insert was running all day, putting out a little heat keeping the area right in front of it warm. Without the blower which runs on electricity, it's not super efficient, but we appreciated it as the temperature in the rest of the house dropped to the high fifty's. It was cloudy all day, so the house never had a chance to warm up.
So there we are, no hot tea or food the entire day, wearing hats and sweatshirts. We had read books, played games, built lego monstrosities, and had a great time doing a bunch of nothing together, but we were cold and needed something hot to eat. We are under stay at home orders, so going out seemed like a bad idea. We had contemplated pick up, but the only options might not end up being vegan and were very expensive.
Honora suggested wrapping some potatoes in foil and throwing them in the fireplace. It was a great idea, and we expanded upon it to make a soup.
We filled the cast iron dutch oven with onions, potatoes, carrots TVP (textured vegetable protein), along with some onion broth, fresh rosemary, some pepper, and just enough water to cover the vegetables we had cut small. Then we set it in the woodstove right on top of the coals.
We ended the day with a game of scrabble, and it was well after 9:15 pm and the time the power was supposed to be back on when we went to bed. Without power.
We woke up on Saturday without power, the website still had our estimated time at 9:15 pm the previous night, and Jen set to work boiling up some water in the dutch oven for hot tea. While the tea was being enjoyed, the dutch oven was back in the woodstove, making us some oatmeal. Our house was in the low fifty's, and we were going to need something warm if we were going to spend another day without power.
The sun was out, we had tea and hot food, that was better. I did the dishes with cold water and water heated in the fireplace then sat down to check the website to see if the time had changed for the return of our power. It hadn't. Then the power came back on, the furnace kicked in, the blower on the fireplace insert turned on, and the house is warm while I type this up.
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