An Unwanted Lesson in Resourcefulness: The Ice Storm

Funny topic for a warm summer day, right?  But if you’re in southern Ontario, you probably remember the Ice Storm of 2013 in Capital Letters too. 

Winter is a funny thing here in southern Ontario.  Sometimes, we get a first snow in October and it disappears till January, with a dusting for Christmas if we’re lucky. Sometimes, it comes in late November and seems to stay for an eternity of darkness.  (Can you tell winter isn’t my favourite season?)  And sometimes, there’s an ice storm.

The week before Christmas wasn’t a particularly cold one – in fact, it was almost mild, with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark.  My recollection of that winter so far is that of a fairly mild one.  And then, the ice storm hit.  Ice pellets fell, and it froze.  Everywhere.  Streets weren’t inaccessible for long, but power certainly was. 

It seemed that all of southern Ontario was without power as trees and lines came down.  And in our home on farm northeast of Toronto, we started to worry – fast. 

 

Just like in the current pandemic, there was something which flew way off its normal sales curve:  generators.  People who were only out of power for a few hours were out buying these, or stockpiling them, and then trying to sell them at a premium.  (Bad behaviour isn’t new). 

 

By the second day, I’d found a generator for us at the other end of Toronto and my honey went to pick it up.  It was even at a relatively “normal” price.   We found extension cords, filled it with gas, and fired it up.  It’s a good thing we lacked close neighbours – those things are LOUD!  All the important things got plugged in:  freezers (cycled between two), the coffee perk, fans for the woodstove, and the waterbed heater. 

 

(you see, the problem with the “relatively mild” temperatures was that outdoors couldn’t be used as a freezer – heck, it was barely a fridge!)

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so grateful for a good woodstove.  We had an old Fisher at that point, and it kept us warm, melted water so we could periodically flush toilets, provided water to wash dishes, and cooked those meals which weren’t easily done on the bbq. 

 

It was a good thing that we found a generator.  While people in some areas were out of power for only 6-12 hours, or a day or two, we only missed the one-week mark by 6 hours.  Yes, 162 hours without power.  Trust me, it’s a LONG time to cook bacon on the woodstove, or make sure a freezer isn’t running before I make coffee.  Every couple of days, we’d “visit” friends with power to enjoy a hot shower and feel clean for a while.

 

It certainly could have been worse – we were warm enough, we had food and were able to keep that in the freezers from going bad, I had warm coffee, and the waterbed heater meant we COULD still sleep in our own bed.  (The cats pretty much lived on the bed, or alternated with the grate blowing heat from the furnace room).

 

While that’s an interesting story, you may be wondering about the lesson here.  Don’t worry, there is one (of course!):  you can always find another way to do things so they’ll work.  Humans are resourceful.  We haven’t always had (power/toilet paper/insert “necessary” item here) and people managed without it.  Is it less pretty or less fun?  Perhaps.  But people go camping on purpose and do without power/toilet paper/running water and a whole lot of other things I’d rather not do without.  

 Be resourceful.  What can you do that cuts back on a waste of resources?