Our handwritten home expenses journal from 1880 to 1942.
Throughout my blog I do my best to share information from the historical items that we have, especially journals and diaries.
There is a lot of chaos in this world and this is nothing new. However, it does seem that it is more than I have seen in my lifetime.
Charles and I study history, the home front especially, it seems to us that the people that make it through chaos and hard times had strength that came from practicality. These are the people that rolled up their sleeves and understood what it takes to grow food, to sweat, to understand what living basic really means. Basic does not mean to suffer, it means to not waste.
I feel that when things are going good, this is the time to prepare for times that may not be so good. Put our money into paying off debt or adding to savings. It also means purchasing tools that can help do a job, and adding food into the pantry or larder.
I am "Not" saying, we need to extreme prepare! We need to stock up! Something bad is going to happen! I am saying, disasters keep happening, we are in very unsettled times, the possibility of war seems to be getting more serious, and yes, things are just not normal out there anymore.
I am very concerned about the amount of people that have the means but have made no extra provisions, no emergency equipment or tools in their home to get their family through a electrical outage, a water outage, a job loss, a disaster, communications down or war. I feel better knowing we have a plan, anything can happen to our plan but at least we tried.
It is not just these things above, we need to live smart. The small things matter such as do we know how to change a tire? Do we have a flashlight in the car? Do we have a flashlight in the home? Do we have extra pet food should you not be able to get out due to sickness or some other reason? These are just the simple things.
The main thing to keep in mind is Water, Food and Shelter. Know where to get water and store water, Keep extra food for an extended situation, figure out how you would clean your home without electricity. This includes toilet such as a composting toilet.
It is okay that I have not learned some things, but not okay to quit trying. We should embrace the challenge.
Charles and I try not to waste water but it is not easy to control something that has so much flow. Many of you know that we try to control the flow of water and electricity because I have posted several posts on this.
I feel the need to continue with this because I feel strongly that it could happen one day that we must need to know this.
People waste much water and let it run down the drain just waiting for hot water to arrive to the faucet. This is a lot of water that came in and went down the drain with no purpose and we pay for that coming in and going out. I did a study one month on measured water, I drew up water by putting water in containers to see how much water I would need each day and I can tell you that water storage is a very difficult thing and why we need to practice.
During that study I resorted to using a kettle to heat the bath water. Charles best way was to take a bucket bath, which is dipping and pouring warm water over him. He actually started enjoying bathing this way and ended up taking all of his baths in the summer outside in his outdoor bath house that he built.
I am so very thankful for my life experiences when I was younger than I am now and I knew how to use a hand pump to pump water from the well into a bucket. How to take a bath in a washtub, to bathe at a washbowl. These things make more sense to me than anything today because it is sensible personal care.
Let us all be the strong people and learn what to do to take care of ourselves and our family in a long term situation, from something that has happened to cause us to have no electricity or running water because we cannot live but a few days without water. We can live without electricity and it is up to us to decide if we want to be comfortable without the electricity. What would we do if the grocery stores are not open because the power is down? We should have food stored that has been rotated.
We can be the strong and live comfortable.
Have the important items that make sense.
Practice because you might find that it is empowering and you might even like it.
Have a way to have light without electricity. This lamp has a solar bulb in place of the electric bulb, something new we have added to emergency supplies.
There are different types of solar bulbs now that actually screw into lamp sockets. Just remember do not plug in the lamp, we pushed our cord inside the bottom of the lamp.
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I went to the thrift store and purchased a very pretty lamp and we cut off the cord so we can use this lamp for emergencies and move it to any location in the house. There is no electricity running this lamp, just a solar light bulb that you can buy on Amazon.
We have two solar screw in light bulbs, we keep one charged for reserve and keep one in the lamp. When we use the reserve we charge the other with the solar panel that comes with the bulb.
The other way to charge the bulb is using an electric port as you would your phone.
This lighting above is safer than candles or oil lamps.
However, we keep going back to the old oil lamps because unlike solar lights that will eventually lose their ability to charge after a few years, the oil lamp will keep running as long as we have oil, which also in an emergency could run out.
I keep a good stock of candles because I watched the series of Cranford and realized the importance of candles. However, today when we have a natural disaster we do not need to strike a match or lighter because there could be a natural gas leak. This is when the solar bulb would be a good thing to have.
As with our history studies I always say that it is about the outcome of what we are doing that we do not have to look historic to live historic. A oil lamp, or candle or solar bulb have the same purpose, they give light without electricity.
Also, rainwater catchment is another way to get water but it has to rain to do so. Catch it when you can for an emergency and also learn what you can about having a rainwater catchment system. Charles and I have rain barrels and have posted about them many years ago. I will post a link on that.
I hope you will all practice how to live without electricity or running water. Learn all you can and then go about your day and relax about it knowing that you know how to be strong.
Here is a link to our rain barrels back in 2011, we are going to move them again since we had a new roof put on our carport after a severe hail storm this year.
https://gdonna.com/gardening-and-composting/our-rain-barrel-system/
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Grandma Donna
