We have already had (Tues) a day without any water, and (Wed) cooking from scratch. On Wednesday I was relieved to have water, so I took a shower and washed my hair, and did all the laundry and cleaned the kitchen. I didn't expect to be without water again. And of course I didn't take a shower this morning, I should have done that before checking the computer. I looked at the email from http://FoodStorageMadeEasy.net/ , and DANG! I found out the challenge for today is a double whammy, no power and no water!
DAY THREE CHALLENGE: TERRORIST ATTACK, EMP: ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE
The EMP has rendered all electricity and electrical devices in your entire country to be useless (including municipal water pumps). Pretend the food in the fridge has already gone bad. Can't use any electronics, except the computer to report on this challenge. Can't drive. Can't communicate with your family. It is interesting, I learned a new word: TEOTWAYKI. That means "The End of the World as You Know It". Thats what we're supposed to be living today.
ASSIGNMENT: Cook and clean up all of your meals without power or water.
ASSIGNMENT: Grind wheat by hand and use it in a recipe today.
I stupidly left a half dishwasher of dirty dishes last night, I should have known better. But I'm just going to leave them in there, and run the dishwasher tomorrow.
We have lots and lots of paper plates and paper towels. I am so glad, because on a day like today we are really going through them.
I just ordered a solar oven, so now is the day to learn how to use it. I just hope it is sunny enough.
I opened the solar oven, set it all up. I had read that you should preheat all your ingredients, so while I was setting it up I put lasagna noodles (uncooked) in a black bottle and set that in the sun. Then I put a pot of water inside the solar oven. It took about an hour to heat to 300 degrees, so I opened the oven and added the warmed noodles to the water and closed the glass. The oven had dropped to 250 degrees. It took 40 minutes until I saw that the glass was all foggy and I heard boiling. I took out the noodles and they were cooked.
I had poured a can of spaghetti sauce into another black jar, it was warming in the sun for one hour. I am just going to pour that over the noodles when it is warm. It doesn't need to boil. (It heated the sauce to 110 degrees.)
The oven was empty, so I started my next item. I added preheated water from another black jar to a package of Zatarain's Black Beans and Rice. Cooked it for 45 minutes in a pot, and it was done. (The thermometer said 310 degrees.)
Then I had made cornbread batter (using a little wheat flour) and put it into two round cake pans, stacked on top of each other with a grill in between. Before I opened the oven, it was 300 degrees, but after I put the cornbread in, it had dropped to 250 degrees. I baked them in the solar oven for 50 minutes before it was done. It was good corn bread.
While I had all those bottles out in the sun, I thought of something else. I had some honey that had gone hard. I put the bottle inside an oven-roasting plastic bag, and sat that in an aluminum baking pan, to reflect the heat up onto the honey bottle. I left it in the sun for more than an hour, and most of the honey had turned back into liquid.
I know that wasn't a very good mixture of food items, but I wanted to boil something, prepare something from a box, and bake something.
(Note: I didn't use my hand wheat grinder today, but I had just used it two weeks ago and I knew how to use it. I didn't want to get it out and clean it up afterward so I didn't do that.)
ASSIGNMENT: No water.
Once again, I got a pop bottle full of frozen water out of my freezer and have been drinking from that all day. I love ice water!
I set bottles of water near every sink in the bathrooms and kitchen. Only flushed the toilets a few times. One flush takes 3 sodapop bottles full of water.
ASSIGNMENT: No electricity.
Well, I didn't flip my breakers. But I did put tape over all my light switches, because I found myself turning on lights without thinking. The garage was dark, had to use a flashlight. I just bought a bunch of Shaking powered flashlights for $6 at Northern Tools (you shake them to generate power) and a bunch of Squeeze powered flashlights for $2 at Northern Tools (you squeeze a little lever a bunch of times to generate power) so I am all set with flashlights everywhere. We'll see how we do tonight.
(Later) My husband taught me how to turn on his new lantern, it was easy. So we had a lantern sitting in the kitchen and we all stayed in there all evening. It was the only light in the house. Other than that, we used flashlights.
ASSIGNMENT: Walk or ride a bike anywhere you need to go today.
I stayed home all day.
ASSIGNMENT: Entertain yourself and your kids without electricity the entire day.
I had to get on the computer to get the challenge, so I checked my email and answered the things that were pressing. I didn't check the news or the weather or any other interesting websites that I usually check each day. THEN I PULLED THE PLUG ON THE COMPUTER. So I won't be getting back on the internet today.(Got back on at night to load this post.)
I got on my laptop, because I have been typing my 7-Day Challenge experiences each day. I decided to leave this laptop on and use it without plugging it in and without the internet. I will see how long the battery lasts.
I kept singing to myself, and my first thought would be, Oh, I need to turn on some music, but then I couldn't. Or, I'll just turn on the TV while I'm doing this, but I couldn't. Its amazing how I always have something on to entertain myself when I am alone in the house.
I kept meaning to read scriptures during the day but I read them after it was dark so I had to use a flashlight.
ASSIGNMENT: Turn off air conditioner.
Okay, I totally cheated on this one. We just spent a bunch of money to have our air conditioner fixed and I don't care about getting points for this one. I do not want to be hot, I will live through hotness when a real disaster comes.
ASSIGNMENT: At some point today (make it a surprise for your family) you see a pack of looters making their way through your neighborhood. You have 15 minutes to collect your grab list items and one meal worth of food. Evacuate on foot to a nearby park and stay away from home for 2 hours.
Never did that.
ASSIGNMENT: Jot down some ideas on how you would live and function in a sustained post-EMP environment.
I would learn to do more things during the daylight and less things after dark. I would rearrange my life so that I would be cooking most of every day.
ASSIGNMENT: (Optional) Stay away from home the entire day without your car, with all your grab list items, eating only out of your disaster kit, for 5 extra points.
Didn't do it today, but I did live out of my 72-hour kit on the day I went to Washington D.C. for a huge rally on 8-28. Had to carry my food and water for the day. It is really hard to lug everything around. I learned what I do and do not like to eat in a 72 hour kit.
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