My New Car Escape Tool

I got this nifty item for Christmas: A Car Escape Tool !

It is a Glass break hammer and a seat belt cutter. See the blade? I would like to go to "Pick and Pull" and try out the hammer and the blade on some old car and see how well this tool works.

My husband got it for me since he knows I carry a big pair of scissors in my purse ever since I heard the story of a 2 year old girl who died in a burning car because no one could unbuckle her seat belt. You can see the blade on this tool here....but I feel like I need to practice with it.

Utah man, three children rescued after car plunges into river

This video is a great report of what happened.

When I heard this story, I was so amazed at how prepared the rescuers were. They were prepared mentally to not hesitate a second but to go ahead and plunge into an icy river to see how they could help. One guy who shot the car window with his gun because there seemed to be no other way to get inside to the 3 children. The guy who cut the seat belts with his knife said he never leaves the house without 3 things: His gun, a knife, and a pocket flashlight.

Other helpers used coats or blankets they had in their cars to help warm the children. CPR saved 2 of the children! Indeed, that all these rescuers happened upon the scene and acted so quickly and that all were saved was amazing!

Preparation for Power Outage in a Nutshell

You want WARMTH ! Layers of clothes. Hot Hands products.

You want LIGHT! (Solar devices are the BEST!)

You want a means of cooking or warming your food, and you want comfort foods. (canned soups, ravioli etc.) Hot chocolate. Mac N Cheese.

Power Outage Fun

During a power outage, you can just say you are "unplugged." ...and you can still have fun..the old fashioned way!








During a long term power outage, our charged devices (iPad, iPod, iPod Touch, Smart phone, Kindle, Android, etc.) will eventually run out of power. Consider the old fashioned ways of occupying your mind or of entertaining yourselves.

Have games, puzzles, books, drawing paper, crayons, etc. You will only be limited by your imagination!

This is why you want light...so you can see to play your games, ready your books, draw your masterpieces.

Musicians in the family can play their instruments! (If they are non electrical.) A harmonica would be a good thing to have in the home. And a guitar. Or Ukulele.

A recorder is easy. Create a jugband. Sing. Make up songs. Write.

Becoming unplugged won't be all that bad! I can be lots of fun!

Portable Stoves

One day last October, I was in San Diego walking down a sidewalk near where some Mexican landscape workers were sitting on the ground around a portable stove, laughing and talking and cooking their tortillas.

Now this was eating in style! No cold sack lunch for these guys! Just the wonderful aroma of cooked corn tortillas and whatever else they had. (I did not linger to see.) I want one of those I thought!

And sure enough, I did get one at a swap meet, 2 months later, for 20 dollars. The fuel cartridge -butane -was 2 dollars. Now I am ready for a long term winter power outage. I can cook anything on my portable stove! These little stoves cook as well as your own kitchen stove. One burner at a time is all I need, how about you?
I found an even cheaper model on amazon.com.....

Deluxe Butane Burner Stove & Free Case
by Smart Chef

Price: $13.30 Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Butane-Burner-Stove-Free/dp/B000BVC4NY

The Power Went Out And....

The house instantly became pitch black dark! But...

I was ready and fearless!

I looked out the window..the neighbors to the back had lights. I went to the front door and peered out. Complete darkness in all the homes across the street. No street light.

I went to out bedroom and got our three solar lanterns and brought them into the kitchen. There! Great! Lots of light! But I sure hoped the electric company would fix the problem soon.

I love our lanterns! Here they are...lighting up the kitchen during that power outage.

(Now you don't have to have SOLAR lanterns: my folks have lanterns that look almost exactly like this, but they are battery operated and sometimes they forget to check the batteries and get caught during a power outage without light. Usually, though, they are fine ready and the lantern is ready and handy.)


I had light, but I had a problem. Our gas oven stopped working! I was baking a turkey breast at the time...about 11:00 at night during the week before Christmas. Why did my oven stop working? It is not an electric stove. True. But the thermostat is electric...and so when the temperature of the oven dipped a bit, the thermostat did not kick in and the oven slowly got cooler.

I started to wonder when the folks at the electric company would get this straightened out.

Wait! Maybe they do not even know about this problem in our neighborhood. I called 9-1-1 (ON OUR LAND LINE because our cordless phones were not working) and told the gal that this particular neighborhood had no electricity. She said they knew about it.

My turkey breast had another hour and a half of baking/roasting....and I did not have any idea when the power would return. If it would not return for four or 5 hours, I would be in trouble.

I needed to get this meat cooked. I couldn't very well take it out of the oven and put it in the refrigerator. I decided I would relax and read for a while.

First, though, I turned off the computer and the power strip it is connected to.

Then I called our neighbor across the street on my cell phone (which was working!) and took a solar lantern over to him to use. He had a flashlight but welcomed the lantern, which he could set on a table and it gave off more light.

I then sat down and caught up on some reading and waited for the lights to go back on.

After 45 minutes, I began to think of that turkey breast again.

The best possible thing I could do, I thought, is to grill it on our outdoor BBQ grill. I went outside to the back patio to see if we had some charcoal. We did. Good! Next step, get the grill and clean it up and get it ready.

As I started to do that, the lights came back on! Yes!

I was set back a little that night and got to bed at 2:30am (had to finish cooking the turkey breast, then cool it off enough to refrigerate it.)

I was so glad I had those 3 solar lanterns! And that I could share one with a neighbor..and that someone out there (some electric company employees)knew how to get the power going again.

Solar Path Lights Save the Night

Do you have some of those solar path lights that you can buy individually for about 3 bucks (or more) and then stick them in your lawn? All day long, these items collect solar energy and when the sun goes down and it is dark, they light up quite brightly! If you need a light, this is a good reliable source...doesn't need expensive batteries:the sunlight is free of charge(so far!)

What I like about these is that they are carried easily from room to room, a solar torch, as it were. Here I am carrying mine down the hall in the darkness. It surely lights my way.


I use it to illuminate the pages of the book I am reading. It does a great job.