A knock on the door..

[kottskrapa]

Last night my neighbor knock at the door around bedtime and started talking about his car and the fact that he went off road when not paying attention and now he was stuck and he and an other neighbor could not get the car back on the road and it could was good for me to know if we had to go somewhere during the night or early morning.

This guy is quite shy and don't normally talk that much and when I asked if he would like some help he answered that if I don't mind and have the time he would really appreciate it.

We live out of town on the country side where the roads are.. Well we take care of them by ourselves and when we moved here I already had a jeep and my girlfriend bought one as well.

Just when we were heading out the power went. I already had my headlamp on and gave my edc light over to my girlfriend and on we went thinking we deal with the power outage later (the whole area went powerless)

It snowed quite a bit and I put my car in low gear heading to where he had "parked" his car, hooked him up and realized that we had to clear away some snow and luckily I had my old army shovel in my trunk. When that was over we pulled his car out to the road and there was not that much damage done and we got the cars back home safe.

And just when we got in the house again the power suddenly came back.

But then I started thinking, during all this time I was really calm and hadn't spent a thought about the power outage. And I wondered why for a moment before I realized that I don't have to. I have spent the last year to prepare our house for this.

We heat our house partly with firewood, it was below freezing and can empty our fridge to put the stuff outside, we have plenty of water stashed, and can empty our water tank with a hose that hangs right next to it, we have an old two burner gas stove in the garage for cooking and two flashlights that automatically turns one at power loss, my headlamp gets a lot of use and are always charged and for the rest of the lights we have plenty of batteries and power banks for that and our phones, cash is king and I always keep some around, enough tee candles to go around so the basics are covered. And this happens once in a while so we have found a way that works for us..

But this was the first time that I really enjoyed being prepared even if we didn't needed to use any of it.

Lots of rambling but I just wanted to ventilate my thought and satisfaction over the fact that it all went well and the nice feeling of being prepared

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[Nix]

Sounds like it was a good experience. And good for you for helping out a neighbor!

I've been stuck in winter a few times when the power has gone out. I've found it to be quite relaxing to have everything go quite and calm. It provides a great sense of satisfaction to feel self-reliant in these situations. Of course, it always nice to have the power come back on eventually!

Glad you enjoyed it! 

[Fuzzbucket]

Excellent, I really enjoyed reading that! As soon as you mentioned snow I was hooked... I smurfing love snow!!! 

[Aloha]

The calm you experienced was exactly what you said, you were prepared.  Well done helping the neighbor. 

[Kev D]

Nicely done 

[SteveC]

Good feeling to be prepared   

[Lynn LeFey]

A few years ago, the idea of 'prepper' kind of went mainstream. Some time before that, I'd been working on preparedness, and wandered into some forums about it, only to be disheartened to learn that mostly they weren't into being prepared. They were 'survivalists'. Kind of the extreme version. What some people refer to as 'beans, bullets, and bandages' types.

I don't care about the apocalypse. I care about power outages, kitchen fires, or when the neighbor's dog gets hit by a car, and needs to be rushed to a vet. Real world stuff.

And yeah, when you're ready for this stuff, it can be a huge peace of mind.

Also, it it an incredible feeling knowing you can help out your neighbor, maybe get to know them a little better, and strengthen those community connections.

[kottskrapa]

I might also mention that he would have done the same for me in a pinch



[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

[pfrsantos]

Pretty much what everyone else said.

Well done!

 

[ironraven]

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

You learned before you failed. This is what real "prepping" is about. Well played.

And people look at me funny when I say if I'm ever able to buy my own place, one of my parameters is a wood stove. Being on a well with enough solar panels and battery backup to pump all day would be pretty spiffy to.

[kottskrapa]

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]

You learned before you failed. This is what real "prepping" is about. Well played.

And people look at me funny when I say if I'm ever able to buy my own place, one of my parameters is a wood stove. Being on a well with enough solar panels and battery backup to pump all day would be pretty spiffy to.

Well, I do have failed before and that is what has lead up to the way I have it now.. At my last place there was a lot of construction going on in the area and for the first year or so living there the water and power went out at least once a week and sometimes a couple of times so that's when I learned my lesson.

Solar panels and a 12v system integrated in the house would be a dream but my finances aren't really up to it right now.

[It's not failure if you learn something from it]