June 21, 2015

  • Breakfast and the Survival Stove

    We were doing good for a Saturday evening. Supper was early and the dishwasher was chugging away. All the men of the household had haircuts and the boys headed straight to the showers afterwards. Jeremy had his second load of laundry in the washing machine and the dryer was working on his first load. I had cleaned up the kitchen and decided what we'd have for Sunday dinner. The boys were in the middle of a video game. Dean was in his study and I had just opened my Bible to prepare a Sunday school lesson.

    The lights blinked once. Then they blinked again and stayed off.

    The house was quiet for a split second as computers halted, the washer stopped mid-spin and clothes dropped to the bottom of the dryer. Water dripped in the dishwasher and the boys stood motionless with game controllers in their hands. And then the the silence was broken as the boys raced to find flashlights. A light shown quickly from the study as Dean turned on a flashlight and I stood up the watch the trees bending in the wind. Our neighbor called to see if we had lost power and Dean called the electric company.

    Soon we were gathered around the table. We pulled out the glow sticks to find that there were only two that were still good. I had a flashlight angled so that it shown on my Bible and JJ thought that he needed a light to shine on his book as well. We talked about the weather and began to wonder how long it would be until the power came back on and soon it was time for bed. I read to JJ while holding a flashlight and the boys soon settled down. We left a battery-powered lantern on in the hall and several times in the night I realized that it was still on.

    One of the first things I heard after waking was Justin saying that he was hungry. Since our stove is electric, he began to think of ways to fix breakfast. He dug out a clean tin can and a stuffed a roll of toilet paper into it. He then poured a cup of alcohol into the can and set it on fire. Using a cooling rack and two taller cans, he soon had a makeshift stove.

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    He quickly fried up eggs for himself and brothers and I fried some eggs for Dean. The can was still burning so we put water in the teakettle and heated enough water for tea. The house began to smell like we were camping out, but bellies were filled.

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    The power still wasn't on by the time that everyone had eaten and we had no way to shower and clean up for church. (Remember only the boys had showered before the power went out.) We enjoyed a nice morning at home even though we missed being in our usual places at church on a Sunday morning. Just as I began to see what we had that I could cook on the grill, the power came back on and we didn't have to use our survival skills any longer.