Solar Yard Lights: Use them inside

 Solar yard lights are such a great thing to have.  They can light up your yard on a regular basis, and then when you have a power outage, you can just bring them inside.

I bought these at Lowe's in 2013.  They were about $64 for 8 yard lights.  The best thing about this particular design is that the top lid (with the LED light bulb in it) comes off of the rest of the apparatus.  This enabled us to lay the lids around in the house, and they put off a nice amount of light.

In the picture above, you can see how the lid comes off separately.  Usually, solar yard lights are made all in one piece, so you can't take off the top.  Therefore, you must place the stick down into a pitcher or jar to stand it up when it is inside your house.  This design is much better for use in an emergency situation.

20-hour Experience without electricity last week

Our power was out for 20 hours on Thursday and Friday, because of a big storm that came through Thursday evening.  It was an awful feeling without my phone and computer, plus I couldn’t use water because the electric pump for our well wasn’t working. 

Luckily I had a few bottles of water so I didn’t have to filter any from the cistern, or go out to the manual pump.  I cooked a microwave dinner in the solar oven, it only took about 10 minutes to warm up.  We used solar yard lights inside that night and had quite a bit of light.

When I came home late Thursday night after working at the temple, my husband was in the house.  He said he was so bored because of nothing to do, he had fallen asleep.  Then we thought of our little  5” battery powered TV that we have for emergencies, and we laughed because he hadn’t even remembered we had a TV that didn’t need electricity.

Four Things You Need When Disaster Strikes

This is a great article by Creek Stewart, I really think the pictures are useful, so if it takes awhile to load, have patience.  I like the picture of the firestarters the best.

These four categories are what you need to include in your "bug-out bag", also known as a "B.O.B." or a 72-hour-kit.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/4-things-youll-need-when-disaster-strikes/

The Covert Preppers list of Christmas Gifts

I read a blog called "The Covert Prepper", and although it may be a little too doomsday for some of you, he has a really good list today of presents he wishes he would receive for Christmas.  I read the list, and thought I should share it with you all.

These items seem to be really top quality items.  I know the last one on the list (The Sawyer water filter) is the one we have, and we highly recommend it.

http://www.thecovertprepper.com/?p=659&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thecovertprepper%2FgfCM+%28The+Covert+Prepper%29

Homemade 100-Hour Candles

My friend Keri sent me the link for these instructions.  It looks like a pretty easy preparedness gift you could make for all your friends and relatives.  The candles are made inside cute little 1/2 pint jelly jars.

http://saltnprepper.com/diy-100-hour-candles/

Another firsthand story of the Derecho of June 29-30

This man's story of the big windstorm at the end of June 2012 is a real eye-opener, he begs everyone to test out all their preparedness supplies BEFORE a disaster happens.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/effective-prepping-and-survival/

How to convert a gas generator to a propane generator

Picture this:

There's no power.  Gas stations have no way for their gas pumps to work. There you sit at home with your expensive gas-powered generator, and all you have is the small amount of gas in your gas can which was meant for mowing your lawn.  Now what are you going to do?

Here is a great article on how you can buy a kit for around $180 which will make your gasoline-powered generator so it is able to use either natural gas or propane.  What a great idea!

(If you buy this, make sure you install it BEFORE a disaster.  It sounds like it will take some time, and you sure don't want to be doing this installation while everyone is suffering and your freezer is thawing.)

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/the-multi-fuel-generator-dont-depend-on-just-gas_07162012

Hurricane articles, part 2

Here is a link to "Survival Lessons Learned from Three Hurricanes" which was posted on "The Survival Mom" blog.

Part 2 or 3:  http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/06/30/survival-diary-from-3-hurricanes-lessons-learned-part-2-of-3/

Here are things I learned from this article written by Stephen Clay McGehee:

He talked about how expensive it was for the gasoline to run the generator.  He said he would be more picky about what he wanted to use the generator for.

Have plenty of gasoline containers and learn to store them safely.

Get to know your neighbors AHEAD OF TIME.  He shared electricity and water and food with his neighbors.

Store some Gatorade for hydration during hot weather power outages.

Store mosquito repellant and sunscreen and allergy medicine.  You will be outside more.

He had a "Preparedness Organizer" notebook, where he had recorded much of the information he needed.  This is a great idea!  You are NOT  going to be able to look up stuff on the internet!

Super Windstorm Experience, told by Karen G.

Karen and Doyle G. picked a terrible time to move from the Raleigh, North Carolina, area.  First, it was a record-breaking 107 degrees that day.  Next, Doyle, driving their U-haul truck, and Karen, driving their car, left Morrisville late in the evening, Friday June 29, 2012, to drive to the Washington D.C. area to visit two of their children before moving west.  Little did they know that they were heading straight into a devastating windstorm, the "Super Derecho of 2012".

Karen called me on Sunday from Washington D.C. and told me of their experience.  Since it was a phone call, I took notes as fast as I could, I hope I don’t make too many mistakes in retelling their story.

Karen said, “Amy, maybe you have been through disasters in your life, but this was the WORST DISASTER I have EVER lived through.  I have to tell you so that you can tell people on your blog.”

“We left Morrisville Friday night to get to D.C.  Our son and daughter-in-law had come to D.C. to go to the temple.  We have another son that lives in D.C., and he was moving to a new house nearby.”

“We had been busy packing, so had never heard any weather reports.  By the time we got to Richmond, gigantic trees were falling on the roads.  These trees were large, with huge branches and full of leaves, the fallen treetops were about the size of four cars in width.”

“We had left Morrisville so much later than we had planned, it was about 1:00 a.m. and there were all these trees on the roads.  Most cars were staying in the right hand land because the trees were in the left hand lane.  Cops kept going by us, and stopping and putting flares in front of the trees.”

“By the time we got to Richmond, the Spirit said to me, STOP.  So we stopped and got a hotel, even though we had already paid with our credit card to hold one farther along.”

“Doyle’s U-haul truck had been weaving all over the road because the wind was so bad.  At that time, we thought the storm was local.  We had no idea it was so widespread, (later found out it covered Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania.)”

“We slept 4 hours, and got up early, still trying to get to D.C. to babysit so our son and his wife could go to the temple.  Our son finally left the kids with his wife and went to the temple by himself, and found that the temple was closed because of all the trees down.”

(Karen said they attended a D.C. ward on Sunday, and heard someone tell in his  testimony that several temple patrons had come from far away to do their own temple work or to be sealed or maybe married on Saturday, and that people in that ward had sacrificed much to get to the temple grounds and clear the limbs and trees so those people could go through the temple.  The temple had to use a generator to run that one session, and everything else on Saturday was cancelled.)

“When we finally got to the hotel we had originally planned to stay in, it was Saturday morning at 10 am.  We had reserved it with our credit card, but since we hadn’t gotten there they had given our room away.  We thought we could get it for Saturday night.  They said their hotel had power, so it was full.  They said that with a disaster this size, all the locals immediately fill up the hotels because they don’t want to stay in their homes without electricity.  So by Saturday morning at 10 am all the hotels were full.”

(Karen was telling me this on Sunday from D.C.) 

“The radio here says that there are 1.5 million without power in D.C.  They are telling them that some of them won’t have power until Friday July 6.  So many traffic lights are out.  You cannot believe how impossible it is for a 4-lane road to intersect with another 4-lane road without any stoplights.  There is no protocol, no one knows how to get through that.  Besides the traffic lights being out, there are many, many roadblocks, with yellow caution tape, because of trees across the road.  It took us an hour and a half to go what should have been 20 minutes.”

Karen called me later on Sunday night to tell me more.

“We went to sacrament meeting today, we just randomly picked an LDS church building to go to, and we were lucky because it was the only ward in the whole area that was having sacrament meeting.  After that, everyone went home because even though the building had electricity, they didn’t have air conditioning.

“I heard of so many problems with generators.  The radio is announcing that several families are hospitalized, these families almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning because of using their generators incorrectly.  One put their generator in the basement.  One put their generator on the front porch, but the exhaust came in through the door.  Another put their generator outside, but it was too close to the house and caught the house on fire and burned it down.  The radio announcer said to be sure to get a carbon monoxide monitor if you have a generator.”

“Today there are grocery stores rationing how much ice or water they will sell to you.  

“I just want to tell everyone that at first we thought everything was so awful, because our one son couldn’t go to the temple, and our other son couldn’t rent his U-haul to move, then we realized that our troubles were so small in comparison to everyone else’s.  We had no idea the storm was so large.”

“Everything worked out great for us.  We got a hotel room because someone else had reserved it and didn’t show up.  Our son who was moving just stayed in his old house for a few extra days, it had power and his new house didn’t.”

 (I can’t remember what Karen said about her other son’s family, I’m sure she had some news about them but I didn’t write it down.)

When she called me Sunday night, she was driving through West Virginia.

“In West Virginia some water treatment plants got messed up so they are ordering the people here to boil their water.”

“I thought of something else I wanted to tell you.  The cell phone situation was awful on Friday night and Saturday.  When we woke up in our hotel early Saturday morning, we still  had to drive four hours to D.C.  The cell phone kept cutting off.  I couldn’t phone my husband, who was driving the truck right in front of me.  I couldn’t tell my son he would have to be late to the temple.  It was terrible not being able to communicate.  You just can’t count on cell phones during an emergency.  We found out later all the cell phone towers were messed up from the windstorm, but at that time we didn’t know.”

“My daughter would call, and I would only hear a few words and then it would cut out.  But then she would send a text message and I would get it fine.  We learned that in bad situations, text messages will get through when phone calls won’t.”

One more message from Karen.  “The hotels are filled everywhere we go.  Cambridge all full, Zanesville all full, Columbus is all full.”

Tested out the Solar Christmas Lights

 Here are the solar powered Christmas lights I bought on sale for $13 at Walmart the day before Christmas.

During our "No Electric Lights" challenge, I attached them to the bannisters with blue masking tape, and they shone for two nights before they ran out of power.  It was a very nice light, and since it was in the middle of the house the light shined a little into the other rooms as well.

Another report on "One Night Without Electric Lights"

Amy,

We went without power a week ago Sunday.  My favorite light was the headlamp I took from my husband.  Lots of light right where I needed it.....which was where ever I was looking.  I need to get a good one for each of my family members.  My husband's is lightweight, but durable.  I think a heavy one would bother me.   (Note from Amy:  I think she is right.  The heavy one I used needed a tight elastic band to hold it up, and it gave me a headache.)

Another winner was our solar yard lights.  We charged 4 of them.  My youngest children used them for night lights and they shone all night, plus the next night when they wanted to use them again for fun.  

We also used a oil hurricane lamp for the first time.  It was much easier to use than I thought it would be.  It wasn't as bright as the headlamp and the light was very yellow, which was a stark contrast to the bright white led light of the headlamp.  It was fine, but not as useful as I thought it would be.  I think having a couple of them burning in the same room would be more helpful, but I would need to store a lot more oil for that.  

-A.B.

Testimonial about Solar Lawn Lights

(author unknown) No matter where you live, this is an excellent idea. Put one or two in your emergency pack as well. You never know I have a friend who used her solar lights inside at night when her current was off during the hurricane.  She stuck them in a jar or bottle and said they gave off plenty of 'free light'.  She put one in each room and would put them back outside in the daytime and bring them in at night as long as the current was off.  They are safe to use and cheaper than batteries.  Bring in a solar light one night and test it. Due to a thunderstorm, we lost power for about 5 hours.  We were scrambling around in the darkness, looking for matches, candles, flashlights, etc.  We looked outside, and noticed our solar lights shining brightly all around our patio, stairs, dock, etc.  They were beautiful.  My wife walked outside, and brought several of the solar lights inside. We stuck the solar light pipes into plastic drink bottles containers and they made the nicest, brightest, safest, lighting you could ever imagine. We put one in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc.  There was plenty of light.  There are all types of solar lights available.  We bought ours at Harbor Freight.  We put them all around our yard.  They look nice and they do not attract flying bugs like the outdoor lights around our doorway. The lights we have fit into the small (20 oz) water bottles and they also fit into most of the larger liter bottles.  If you need a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from tipping over, you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that they put in aquariums, and vases.  (you can also use sand, aquarium gravel, etc., whatever you have available). The lights we have were perfect inside our home.  They burn all night long if you need them. The next day, you just take your solar lights back outside and they will instantly recharge and be ready for you to use again any time you need them. Perfect for power outages, hurricanes, etc. -Author unknown

Two more families report about No Electric Lights

These two families did the "No Electric Lights/No Powered Entertainment" challenge and reported on it:






"We enjoyed the challenge.  My daughter was devastated that she couldn't sleep with her night light, but she survived.  We lit three candles for usage at night.  It was difficult to read by candlelight, so we used a flashlight for a bit.  I found the evening much more relaxing than usual maybe due to the fact that I couldn't see all the messes around the house!  I think I could get used to evenings without electricity :-)  - L.H."

"Hi Amy,

Our family did the challenge Sunday night. We used mostly candles and a few flashlights. We have two small, battery-operated lanterns, but they take 4 D batteries each and don't provide the best light. We did not use them because of their past performance and because we didn't have any D batteries.

To begin with, we kept our blinds open as long as possible to use the sunlight until it was gone. Then we turned to the candles when we started to have a hard time seeing well.

We have 6 100-hour candles that we bought from Emergency Essentials years ago for hurricane season. They don't provide the biggest flame, but what we like is that they have a clear base (where the liquid fuel is) that actually acts like a lantern. We also used 8 tea lights. We lit the candles about 6 and blew them out around 10. We used the candles for cooking dinner, eating dinner, reading scriptures, and getting ready for bed.

We also had 3 battery-operated flashlights. They were LED, I believe. We found it worked best to point them toward the ceiling, whch then reflected their light to a larger area. One daughter actually used our brightest flashlight pointed towards her ceiling fan light (which was frosted glass) and two candles to light her room enough to do homework.

The candles worked really well in the bathrooms, where the light reflected off the mirrors lit the rooms very well.

As we reflected back on our experience, the idea of having the solar-powered Christmas lights to wrap around our light fixtures to provide light from above was one thing we would like to have tried. Also, maybe having a better lantern would have been nice, too, but we made it through the evening just fine with the candles and occasional flashlight use.

Thanks for the challenge!

-W.H."

And a little more from W.H.

"I wanted to make a few more comments about the challenge that I forgot to mention. We do not like using scented candles in this type of situation. The unscented kind are the best. Also, we read scriptures and then read stories by candle light for entertainment. Before it got dark, I played board games with our youngest (since it is no media week for the youth). It was a fun night."

"What I Learned" by B.D, No Electric Lights challenge

This family did the "No Electric Lights/No Powered Entertainment for One Night" challenge.

"So here is what we learned:

Doing it yesterday was great because everyone was wiped out by 8 pm because it felt like 9 pm because of daylight savings. (Daylight Savings time started that morning) We didn't have anything in the house up until now except a flashlight.  So Saturday night after the stake relief society conference I went to Target and bought at least one of every kind of lantern/flashlight I could find.   

After last night we determined that we LOVED the head lights, especially the kids.  They work great for reading and I think I might keep it around all the time because it helped so much for reading.  We also learned that walking with a lantern is not fun because of the glare.  I did get a small flashlight that converted to a lantern and that was my husbands favorite out of all the lanterns.   

We loved your idea about solar x-mas lights and will definitely get them after Christmas when they go on sale.  I discovered that all these flash lights are nice but I do want to stock pile now when things go on sale the solar ones so that we don't have to keep so many batteries.   

I will also start a collection of candles.  I hate candles and NEVER use them, but with seeing how many batteries we will need to keep on hand with all these flashlights I will start a collection that I hope we will NEVER use.  Hope this helps,  it sure helped us." -B.D.

Then I asked her to tell me how she entertained the children (and the parents) with no powered entertainment.  Here is her reply:

"It didn't get dark till after 7 pm and the kids went to bed at 8 pm.  We spent that hour getting all the flashlights ready with batteries and handing out to the kids their head lights.  They had so much fun going off by themselves to their room with a book to read with their new light that we didn't have to entertain them.  B. and I read our books.   

At 3 am S. woke up I saw him bobbing around with his head light on coming up the stairs and then he realized there was no TV so we just went back  to bed.  It was an uneventful night."
-B.D.

Challenge starts today: No Electric Lights and No Powered Entertainment

Choose one evening this week, March 11-17, and participate in the M. Ward challenge:

“No Electric Lights and 

No Powered Entertainment for One Evening.”  

Rules:  Put tape over your light switches!

Use no electric lights from 4 pm until the following morning.  (Other electricity for cooking, laundry, etc. is okay.)  

Use no powered entertainment or media.  

Goals:

See if you have enough emergency lighting.

Learn how to entertain the children and adults without power.

Afterward:

I am asking my ward members to email me and tell me what you learned.

Read the results on this blog. 

Lighting without electricity

Remember, our ward will be practicing "No Electric Lights and No Powered Entertainment for One Night" next week (preferably Sunday night March 11). 

(Reposted from Aug. 7, 2010)

After a hurricane or ice storm, you may be faced with 1-9 nights without light, so you need to figure out ways to create light for your family. How are you going to do that?

Candles. One candle will burn for about 35 hours, but it makes a very dim light, and is unsafe around little children.

Lamp and lamp oil. A lamp with lamp oil can be burned in the house, but again, the flame is dangerous around little children.   Be sure you have lamp oil and a wick.

Flashlights are safe and bright, but the batteries will only power them for so long.  Be sure you have plenty of batteries.

Candles: 365 is not too many

Remember, our ward will be practicing "No Electric Lights and No Powered Entertainment for One Night" next week (preferably Sunday night March 11). 





Reposted from April 29, 2011

I read somewhere on a survivalist-type blog that we should have LOTS of candles.  They said that "365 is not too many."  So ever since, I have been buying candles at yard sales anytime I see them.  Here are some I got a couple of weeks ago, I think I paid $5 for the whole bunch.

Flashlights- Several ideas

Remember, our ward will be practicing "No Electric Lights and No Powered Entertainment for One Night" next week (preferably Sunday night March 11). 


First, don't store batteries in flashlights for long-term.  When not using your flashlight, take the batteries out and put them in a baggie, and tape it to the flashlight.



(Repost from June 27, 2011)

I was reading the website of someone who has been through some very tough circumstances, so he knows what supplies are useful and which are not.

This is the best flashlight to own, according to him.

http://shop.gregmcgeeengineering.com/C3-907-170-Lumen-002.htm



(Another repost, from Sept. 26, 2010)

I keep looking for flashlights that don't use batteries. Here are some I have found in local stores:

You squeeze the lever over and over on this one to charge it. $2 at Northern Tool at South Hills Mall, Cary.

$10.88, Walmart, Morrisville. You wind this crank around and around.

You shake this one to charge it. $6 at Northern Tool in South Hills Mall in Cary.

Battery powered Lantern

How are you going to light up your kitchen or living room while the power is off?   Flashlights are quite useless for area lighting, since they point only in one direction and you have to hold them.

Lanterns are much better for lighting a room.  Lanterns give light out the sides, instead of just pointing it.

There are many brands of battery powered lanterns, here is just one example.  This is an Energizer brand Folding Lantern.  If you run two of them you will think the electric lights are back on.

LED lights take less power so your batteries last MUCH longer than using the old kind of flashlight bulbs.
http://www.energizer.com/lighting-products/preparedness/Pages/folding-lantern.aspx

Features and Functions

• Bright white LED's deliver 96 lumens and 135 hours of run time
• Long run time gives users security for extended power outages
• Folds out for 360º area light and folds in for compact storage
• 3 Mode slide switch - High, Low & Nightlight
• Carrying Handle
• Runs on 4 D batteries (not included)

Headlamp flashlights

You will wish you had one of these!  They have a stretchy strap to put around your head so you can look like a coal miner.

You can aim the light right at what you need to see, and you will still have two hands free.  Holding a flashlight with one hand really limits you when you are are trying to cook dinner or change a diaper.

I took this picture in 2011 at Walmart.

They are $5.95 at Emergency Essentials here:
http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_CL%20F412_A_name_E_High+Uinta+Gear%99+Endurance+Headlamp
(If you want to order, our ward is doing a group order this month.)