HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Getting Ready For My Off-Grid Experience

I went shopping today to augment my fast dwindling supplies of what I call my *candle night do-dads*. Meaning I went out in search of batteries and more lights, basically.

Next week, during my four day hiatus from the Energy Gods, I will be trialling a few new lighting methods, as well as seeing just how well my house copes in various temperatures without any external help (i.e., no fans, no air con etc). The Powers That Be say it is likely to reach 30 C here on Wednesday, so I'm glad I won't have my PC on!

I've also fished out some books to read (if I am able) for the evenings, one of which is "Great Expectations", by Charles Dickens, another being "Pygmalion", by George Bernard Shaw. So I have the *things to do* box firmly ticked now :-)

As to food and drink - well that's a bit more difficult, because while my fridge/freezer will be plugged in and turned on, under the rules I have set out for myself - that being NO ELECTRICAL POWER USAGE BY ME AT ALL FOR FOUR DAYS - I won't be able to use them. Which means no cold milk for iced coffee (it was an option to replace my morning coffees for a few days), no fridge to store butter in (so if I have sandwiches, they have to be without much at all on them, but given I'm having a bread-free month as well, that's also not an option), no freezer to store other food stuffs in. I will be doing my food shopping on Tuesday (my first day of my experiment), because that's when I get paid, and I think I might stop by the Golden Arches for one of their cheapy small coffees (it being likely to be my only way of having a hot coffee for the next four days), before I descend into the depths of despair as I realise just how much I rely on electricity to help me have a decent meal every day. Even stuff like a home made salad needs electricity, because unless you plan on eating every single thing you bought (even if it IS only one of everything), you will need somewhere to store the rest of it. I don't know about you, but I'm not really up to eating an entire head of lettuce in one sitting :(

Anyway, there are always options, and this coming week is about finding nutritious, healthy versions of them, without breaking the bank!

In short, I am going camping in my own house. The only real differences seem to be indoor plumbing and not sleeping under the stars (well I am, only there's a roof in the way, so no nice views).

So if you imagine a tent with an indoor loo, and cold running water, no lights, no way to cook anything (or heat anything), and the only way to get cool is by opening a window or door....well that's pretty much what I am doing for four days. :-)

It also occurred to me that it isn't just lighting, food, coffee, and something to do in the days & evenings that I have to think about. It's all the other little things in our lives that use electricity. Clocks, fans, radios and the like.

While rummaging through my own supplies, to find out what still worked, what needed replacing, and what I needed to add to, I found my old battery-operated, waterproof bathroom clock. He's fish-shaped, and green, but he's been a God-send on more than one occasion. He was the clock I brought up to my new house before the power was put on, so that I would know what time it was, he's the clock I generally fish out (pardon the pun) from the hall cupboard when the power goes out so that I have a vague idea of what time it is, and he ticks, so at least I have that wonderful "old ticking clock" noise to go to sleep to at night, which I actually find very soothing.

I also have a wind up radio with built-in lantern. The radio isn't that great, and to be honest, neither is the lantern, but if all my batteries were to die at the same time, and the sun for some reason refused to charge my little solar shed light, I could at least give this a wind for a few minutes and get many half an hour of light out it. Enough to go check the circuit breaker box with anyway!

Through my days, when I have sunlight, I plan on giving my house a thorough spring cleaning, in time for Christmas, which I intend on celebrating to the full this year, given last year's Christmas-New Year period was pretty upsetting. It will be interesting to see if I get as much done as I hope, despite not having electronic goodies to play with (laptop, tv, games console etc), and also to see if my sleep patterns improve (they've been terrible of late).

Anyway, it's only four days, when you think about it. It's not the end of the world (yet), and it's not like it will be a "forever" thing. It's just a chance to try a bit of 'emergency survival' in a controlled environment, where if things get a bit too tough, it's just a matter of turning on the light, or boiling the kettle (for when I just can't go a minute longer without a cup of coffee, and I don't want to have to actually go to Maccas to pay for it!).

See you in a week, guys...

Going Off-Grid for a week....

This isn't a new thing for me - this idea of no power. It's something I indulge in regularly. Two to three times a week, in fact! Though rarely is it for an entire day. Mostly it encompasses the time from when the sun sets, around 5pm, to when I go to bed at 10pm.

But next week, from when I wake up first thing, bright and early Tuesday morning, until first thing Saturday morning, four days later, I will, for all intents and purposes, be going without any power whatsoever, with the exception of leaving my fridge/freezer plugged in and turned on, plus my cable TV box, so it can record my shows for me. Other than that, everything else, including my TV, computer, and all my lights, are going off. Also, everything (other than fridge/freezer & cable box) will be unplugged from the power points, so they don't drain any power while not being used.

Normally, my week includes two days a week (of about two hours at a time) where I catch up on my recorded TV programs (the rest of the week being a no-TV zone), and two to three nights a week, where I just don't bother to turn on the lights at all, preferring to use battery-powered camping lanterns, candles, or to just go to bed earlier than usual and be done with it.

But next week, I am planning an extended power outage (by choice). Given that the days are getting longer here (we have only one month of Spring left, after all), I have more sunlight to play with than I do during the winter months, and given also that it is now officially Storm Season here in sunny Queensland, it makes for good sense to practice survival without power, because now is the season when we are most likely to find ourselves in the dark.

It will be an interesting experiment, because it means going without coffee, tea, or any hot beverage, plus no cooking, no hot showers (I've run out of gas for heating my hot water anyway currently, so no biggie there as I've been making do for over a month now on that score), no internet....

I will charge my mobile on Monday, and see if it lasts the week, as I won't recharge it again until Saturday. It will be good to find out just how long my mobile battery lasts!

I plan on getting certain things done during the week, and keeping a written record of what I accomplish each day in my physical journal, and I hopefully will get to put some of my thoughts up here during the week that follows my experiment.

But in case you think me a little loopy, there is a method to my madness, so to speak!

My reasons for doing this:

1. it saves quite a lot on my electricity bill (I know from experience when I've been lax on my no-power nights, and when I've been a good girl just by looking at my electricity bill).

2. it allows me to get things done that are necessary and very much need to be done but get put by the wayside because I get interested in other things (generally chatting to a certain person on the net - you know who you are!), or watching TV.

3. it allows me to (or rather, FORCES me to) spend more time with my beloved pets.

4. I get to reconnect with the world again....

and....

5. I get to do stuff I don't normally "have time for", like watching the sun rise, having dinner on the back deck at sunset, or even boring things like weeding in my garden.

Over the years I have done many things to help alleviate the general cost of living, from growing some of my own food, to willingly changing over primarily to no-frills labels in the shops, to even thrift store shopping for clothes and bedding, but the one that makes the biggest difference to me are my nights without power. I know that by doing so, I am helping the environment and all that, but to me, it's my own little chance to step back in time to a gentler way of life, or at the very least, a less hectic way of life.

So with that in mind, I've been looking into ways to stop myself going stir-crazy next week, without being *on the grid*. I don't see why I cannot still have lights of one sort or another, for example. My usual nights without power still include candles and battery-operated camping lanterns and the like, but even so, they have a cost that must be included when working out how much you save on your power bill. So I've been looking for alternatives.

Recently, while looking for a way to bring light to my library-shed, I came across a wonderfully simple little device. A solar-powered shed light. Yes, it's not the brightest light in the world. It's not even book-reading quality. But it is free light, and it is constant light for about eight hours at a time, and is more than suitable to find your way up a hall in the dark by. (I know, because I bought a cheap one a few weeks ago and have been trialling it in different rooms in my house ever since). It comes with a separate solar panel that I just prop up in a window that gets sufficient light, and then the light itself sits on a desk near by (but inside).

I read tonight about a woman who has those outside solar garden lights that you get in a pack of four or so. She brings them in each night for free background lighting in her house! And then each morning takes them back outside to charge. I'm thinking it might be worth a try.

As to noise - I play a handful of musical instruments that don't need electricity to run, and I can sing (well I sang in enough choirs over the years to think I can sing) - so I have no worries about being bored (although the neighbours might complain when my silly sooky puppy starts singing along!)

Anyway, I will keep a record of what I do, and what works for me. I will say this now, though - at night, I don't plan on lighting more than one room. I have a guest room that has a single bed and a couch in it. It is big enough to play doubles as a bedroom and lounge room for a week, and small enough to light sufficiently (I hope!).

So here's hoping I can do what I do every week for an entire week (if that makes sense!). Wish me luck, as I (temporarily) step off the national grid for a few days....

From the annals of history.....

The things you find, when you should be doing other things! I mean, really! :)

Anyway, your "Strange but true" file for today (okay, so it might well be the first, and possibly ONLY one you ever get, but at least you are getting one) comes from the March 1932 edition of Popular Science Magazine, and is an advertisement better suited to a really bad B-Grade (and probably rather tacky) monster movie/sci-fi flick of the 1950s and 1960s, but nevertheless, here it is in glorious technicolour black and white:

(and don't you just love the title of the ad itself? How very fitting for a bad film, and utterly scary for an advertisement!)