A Day With No Power

I spent yesterday with no electricity.  It was a scheduled shut down while they replaced several power poles down the road a bit.  I was making sure I was prepared for it, I filled two thermos flasks with boiling water and got everything that I needed to do that required electricity finished before 9am.

So, what to do with my day?

I had some vague ideas about spending some time in the garden.  They need weeding and many of the newer patches of vege garden are starting to look like they’re trying to revert back to lawn.  I had made some loose plans but really expected it to be a bit trying by mid afternoon.

It was actually one of the better days I’ve had.  I enjoyed myself.  We don’t have a corded phone so I was out of access for most of the day (unless someone desperately wanted to ring my mobile).  It was hot, reaching more than 20 in the shade.

I started to sort out my tomato patch.  I weeded, tied them up and picked off the lateral shoots (which I stuck in the soil around the plants - a friend suggested this one year and I tripled the amount of plants I got).  We really have picked an awesome spot for the tomatoes, I was in full sun with none of the light breeze that other parts of the garden got.  It got to be too hot to continue, so I had to stop.

The chooks got the weeds I’d pulled, much to their delight and I took some of the straw and chook poo from under their perch to spread around the plants I’d weeded and tied up.

 

I needed to find something to do that wasn’t in direct sunlight.  The irrigation system in the tunnel house needed some sorting.  The last time I’d used it, it had blown several connections apart and drowned the area around the taps.  All attempts to refit them had failed.  I went in armed with a few tools and ideas and set to fixing it.

After a lot of swearing and more than one drenching, I got it sorted.  I had to completely replace a section and then an elbow as for some reason the hose I was using wouldn’t fit on properly.  Tested it and it still wasn’t going.  There was water here, but no water coming out of the sprinklers.  On a hunch I turned the timer on, suddenly it worked.  That was odd - the timer hasn’t worked in the whole time we’ve been here, but now it needed to be set?  I found out 2 hours later that it didn’t turn it off at the end however.  Still, spuds, courgettes and red onions were watered without me having to stand there with the hose. 

Now what?

I’d been planning to split up some of the oregano that was growing in the tunnel house to plant out in my shelter belts and junction planters for the livestock.  That was easy and the excess is currently drying in the oven.

A small mountain of socks needing darning beckoned.  I’d gotten through four pairs when it was time to pick Miss 7 up from the school bus and then the power was back on.

It’s been a day of sorting out a lot of the little things that get overlooked.  It’s been so useful, that I’m tempted to have an ‘electricity free’ day every week.