I did a couple weeks ago.
I usually go grocery shopping every Friday. I buy for the week then go home and do projects over the weekend. I rarely leave the homestead until Monday morning for work. We had a discussion at work about just how prepared I really was, with all my supplies and all. I felt confident that if I could get home, I’d be fine. As I was driving home I thought about it, would I really be alright as I sat, with no advance warning or extra time to prepare by filling more water jugs or needing anything from a store I might have forgotten?
So, I decided to skip the store and go home to find out. I decided it would be a no electricity weekend, except for the alarm clock in the bedroom that is, it is a pain to reset! And the fridg, I don’t want to unplug the damn thing or anything else drastic. After all this is just a test, not the real thing! I could have pretended the house was gone and I had to scrounge the yard for my supplies but that is for maybe another time. I went with the most realistic scenario that is likely to happen where I am, loss of power for an extended time.
After I got home and greeted/fed the dog I got to work. Yeah I have to feed her first. Black Labs have those big, sad, old root beer eyes and they can really work them to tear your heart out. Second chore, battery/crank-up radio/clock out and juiced up. Then I took a realistic inventory of what I had on hand. With no rationing I had an easy week of life support available, water was my limiting factor. I would have to drag out the generator and get water from the well after maybe a week. As I recall I can get something like 5 gallons a minute from the hose so 2 - 20 gallon barrels in 8 minutes, 15 minutes as a long time estimate. Tank of gas is supposed to last 8 hours so figure 6 hours, at 15 minutes per I have 24 fills of the barrels at 40 gallons total each run. My 10 gallons of stored gas will do…. I forget but I’m good to go there plus what is in the 2 vehicle’s tanks. Food I am set on until spring and the garden is producing. Sundries I am good for at least a year, longer if I ration.
Thing that surprised me the most was how little I had to change anything I do at home to accommodate this. Other than get out the radio/clock and more candles, everything is readily available w/out much digging or work to find. My frugal (alright so it might be called cheap old bastard) lifestyle also helped me get along w/out electric. The biggest change I had to make was water availability. Using water from jugs is not a real efficient process. I used the ‘solar shower’ apparatus for bathing but needed to make a better arrangement for the kitchen sink. Used a 2.5 gallon pail, ½” bulkhead fitting, some ½” tubing and a shutoff valve. It hangs low enough to be easy to fill but high enough so I have some gravity fed pressure on it. It really was a good exercise, I recommend trying it to see just how you do and what you lack.