Stocking up for the fall/winter

I don’t think it’s overkill to have some way of keeping phones, etc., charged for a while. I live in the Chicago and I’ve not had an extended power outage at all in the 15 years I’ve lived in current place, or even since being in IL since 1996. Still doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I’ve occasionally gone camping and diving for an entire weekend. The Jackery would work well for that application, as well as power outage.

Have gotten all the Amazon stuff I’ve ordered over the past week put away and organized.

Remembered a few more things I needed - I’m almost at the end of my big bottle of multivitamins. At the recommendation of my doctor when I had my annual checkup in June, I’ve switched from Zyrtec-D (pseudoephedrine) to a nasal spray called Astepro. This is in addition to Flonase. The best part is I’m not dependent on getting to the pharmacy and waiting in a long line to get the Zyrtec-D and signing for it. I get the generic Flonase from Amazon and I get get the Astepro from Amazon, too. It’s OTC. It’s so new it’s still branded, but it works out cheaper than the Zyrtec-D and I don’t have to mess with the pharmacy. They’re always staffed sparsely and the lines are long.

I also got some more Dr Bronner’s lavender bar soap, which I use for my body/face, as well as paper towels (just a couple of big rolls), the Dr Bronner’s arnica-menthol Magic Balm, which I use on my knees (osteoarthritis). I hit a local grocery store yesterday that had a 4/$5 sale on the Campbell’s Chunky soup I love. Limit 4, but I couldn’t pass up that price.

I’m feeling nice and stocked up. It’s a very comfy feeling. We had about 1” of snow on Halloween on grassy areas, very cold and windy (20s windchill), but we’re now in Indian summer. 65 tomorrow, then back to seasonal average temps. I want the cold back! I didn’t turn my heat on during the cold spell last week and it will probably be well into December before I turn it on. It’s my annual game to go as long as I can before turning it on.

Our freezer is stupid jammed with stuff, and I need to be directly using it up. I froze tons of tomatoes and that’s one thing that’s making it too full.

Tradd, people in Maine do the game of seeing how long they can go before turning on the heat, too. One guy made it to the week before Christmas!
We have ours off but did turn it on one night, but with the woodstove and space heaters, we are trying to hold out.

A short follow up, Ego recently came out with a smaller 400w inverter for $150. I'm a fan of the quality of Ego products and have three of their large batteries for my yard tools, so I ordered one. By my simple estimates it should make the house semi-comfortable in maybe a two day power outage or a little more. A basic LED light or two, running the fan on my woodburning fireplace insert for a few hours, light use of a modem router, and charging various small items like a cell phone, emergency radio or iPad. Probably not much help for a frig or stove, but I have camping cook gear and gas for that. It seemed like a compromise between something more expensive and the smaller sized work lights that run off B+D and DeWalt type devices. Basic research says the Ego batteries can be charged through the inverter with a small 100w solar panel that runs about a hundred dollars. I'm not there yet, but it is pretty cool you could do that. I suspect it would take a long time to charge a battery. Something to consider.

The solar thing for me really isn’t much of an option as I don’t have any outdoor space to charge anything and all my apartment windows face east. The best I could do would be to put my emergency radio in the window to charge as it could charge off solar, in addition to hand crank and via usb.

I ended up getting a butane burner of Amazon. Can be used inside with a window open. Much better for emergency cooking than my Sterno stove, which is just for heating water or canned goods. Heck, I could even take the butane stove when I’m gone diving for a weekend and I could actually cook on it in an emergency. It was really affordable. Maybe $30. I ordered a 4 pack of butane fuel for maybe $20.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

The solar thing for me really isn’t much of an option as I don’t have any outdoor space to charge anything and all my apartment windows face east. The best I could do would be to put my emergency radio in the window to charge as it could charge off solar, in addition to hand crank and via usb.

I ended up getting a butane burner of Amazon. Can be used inside with a window open. Much better for emergency cooking than my Sterno stove, which is just for heating water or canned goods. Heck, I could even take the butane stove when I’m gone diving for a weekend and I could actually cook on it in an emergency. It was really affordable. Maybe $30. I ordered a 4 pack of butane fuel for maybe $20.

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Love the butane stove. That is now our camping stove and for any possible emergency.

For us the most likely emergency scenario affecting cooking would be an earthquake or electric outage. For that our backup plan is our outdoor grill that uses propane tanks. If it were raining (we don’t get snow) that would be suboptimal but no plan is perfect.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

We had about 1” of snow on Halloween on grassy areas, very cold and windy (20s windchill), but we’re now in Indian summer. 65 tomorrow, then back to seasonal average temps. I want the cold back! I didn’t turn my heat on during the cold spell last week and it will probably be well into December before I turn it on. It’s my annual game to go as long as I can before turning it on.

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Back in 1990 I did a summer internship at an opera company in Cooperstown, in upstate NY. The only time we had "summer" weather the entire time I was there was July 4th weekend where we had 3 days in a row of wild hot temperatures in the 80's during the day. The rest of the summer it got up to the low 70's at best. I arrived in the second week of May and it was still getting below freezing every night and maybe in the mid 50's during the days. One of the old lady volunteers at the opera had a rule of "always turn the furnace off on May 1 no matter the temperature." I can't imagine how cold her house must've been every morning but she seemed really dedicated to it. I imagine she played the same game you do every fall.

We lived near the Finger Lakes for a few years thus nearish Cooperstown and it would be 39 degrees in June. Horrible weather.