We were 2 days without electricity. At night we used this great candle holder (from Lehmans — I heartily recommend getting their Lehmans Non-Electric Catalog — especially if you are homesteading or gardening or pursuing the home arts).
Finally hooked up our Honda 3000 generator to get the office computers going. (This model is as silent as generators get, and has an “eco-mode” that conserves energy.) It’s kind of a shock to realize that our publishing business is pretty totally dependent upon electricity.
There’s something nice about candlelight and no TV, staring into the flames of the fireplace, the silence. One of my friends used to say, about being off the grid, “no 60 cycle hum.” But the reality is, our mail order book business and most of our publishing communication is electric, as well as electronic.
Also on Sunday, a tree fell on the only road into and out of town, so I couldn’t get up to Sebastapol Sunday for a screening of the 6-minute documentary on our homestead.
Interesting to read of the issues of computers on off grid homesteads & the lantern looks a great piece of kit. We are still on grid but have found that our water & electrical supplies have been affected a few times in the first year of living here. It has prompted us to take the choice to install an off grid PV & micro turbine to ensure we have power for our home office. Unfortunately its not cheap, so while I am getting the money organised I ended up buying a Hypermac battery to ensure I can run my MacBook to keep me working incase of power failure or needing to go mobile. It is a splendid looking thing but seems to have a couple of problems (disables the mouse when I plug it in!). I guess I get to find out how good the customer services are.
I was without electricity for 3 days and found my collection of led lights very useful. Two things I always buy when I visit $ stores- reading glasses and led's, many of which have handy clips. With their focused light, I can read. I also keep them in my tool boxes and one in my pants pocket and find them much handier than bulky flashlights or drop lights