IF ONLY I KNEW…

Real estate activity is the slowest during the winter in New Hampshire

Many of us here in New Hampshire remember Snowtober, 2011. How long was your power out? I had just moved 6 weeks earlier into our home…we were not prepared. Snowtober had just under a foot of snow…nothing big around these parts. It was the rain that did us in as the snow turned to heavy ice. Eagle Tribune 10/31/2011 Article

Halloween was cancelled that year, the power was out for over a week. You think you can stick it out…after the 3^rd day you regret not booking a hotel, because it really sucks! Sure, you don’t have TV, internet, and lights. That’s not that bad, but no heat, no cooking, can’t flushthe toilet, dirty dishes covering every surface of the kitchen, and a fear of the pipes freezing.

You go to bed cold at night, everybody trying to snuggle into one bed to keep warm. Your body aches from tensing up in the cold. Your kids are tired, bored, and hungry. Nothing is open for hours from home. You regret not booking that hotel early on…now they are all booked up, even 3 states over.

You can only imagine the relief when the power finally came back on. Really, the smell was getting to me.

As we enter into another grand scale storm, a blizzard called Nemo.  Here is a list of important items I did to prepare myself.

THE BIG LIST

• Catch up on laundry as soon as you hear the weather. I found out the hard way what it’s like to run out of underwear.
• Make sure you have food that doesn’t require a lot of preparation. It’s hard to cook when your stove and microwave don’t work…and it’s just too cold to use the grill.
• Know where your candles and matches are stored. Nothing worse trying to find them in the black of night, kids crying because they’re scared. You know you have a zillion Yankee candles somewhere!
• The same goes for flashlights. Know where they are, and make sure you have the extra batteries. I mean really, when was the last time you purchased D batteries?
• Wood, yes wood…bring it close to the house. Yeah, you’ll have to restack it, but there’s nothing worse trudging out in 2+ feet of icy cold snow and carry it into the house.
• Make sure you have room in the garage to put the cars. Drives me nuts when the plow guy comes and he can’t get close to garage because of the cars. Then I have to shovel all that snow before it builds up into a 3″ layer of ice. I’m trying something new: parking the one car that doesn’t go into the garage off to the side, not even near the garage, so the plow can get close.
• Fill all the gas cans you have so you don’t run out for the generator. Oh yes people, get a generator! A small portable one is fine; at least you’ll save all the food in the fridge. We lost a lot of food that year, expensive replacing everything in both the refrigerator and the freezer in the garage.
• Very, very important: water! Remember, even if you have public water, the filtration systems will stop working. Stock up on bottled water. When you have a well, fill your bathtubs. Nothing worse than going a couple days without being able to flush the toilets!! The clean up after is a nightmare, again, trust me.

Its 10:30pm now, the wind is picking up and the snow is coming down fast. Nemo is swimming around out there. I’ll update in the morning with more pictures if I have internet. Power loss is inevitable with the strength of that wind out there.

-Just my thoughts.  -Jenn