Because my life was not interesting enough…

I probably jinxed myself by adding “pioneer” to the bookworm part of the blog name.  No dishwasher, lots of animals, mud—all good aspects of a pioneer's life, but nothing compared to no electricity.  We are on day 5 of no power, without an end in sight.   This happened in a very typical (for this farm) manner; on Sunday my brother in law walked in our yard and proceeded to have a long, involved conversation with my husband:

Brother- in -law:  the corral caught on fire while we were milking and burnt your electrical hookup.

Daniel: ok.

Me :  ?!!!???

(not to worry, no cows or brother-in-laws were harmed)

Sure enough, when I went to investigate, there were much signs of scorching and lots and lots of melted, burnt wiring.  Not salvageable.  So we have to contact the country’s only electric company and have them stretch a new line from the transformer to our house.  Only, wait a minute: the electrical company just went bankrupt and the Prime Minister is in the middle of a controversial and highly illegal nationalization of said company? Ha! Ha!

My strategies so far for living without power: clean out fridge and freezer and transfer contents to mother’in-law’s fridge, buy candles, charge my lap top at work.  So far, it hasn’t been that bad.  We are lucky that it is mostly light from 6am to 7pm here, which gives us a few hours after work to get stuff done.  Then we just got to bed.  And really, we don’t rely that much on electricity—our stove is gas, our water runs by gravity, we don’t have cable or internet, and we don’t have a hot water heater.  My biggest challenges: 1.  I get hungry, and non-perishable snacks are hard to come by (not to mention no ability to store leftovers), and 2. I can’t iron my clothes.  I’m thinking I might have to track down an old-fashion iron that heats on the stove… I was chatting with my father in law about the left-over dilemma, and he informed me of the traditional powerless way to keep up your supply of beans.  Make a big batch of beans, and leave them in the pan.  Every morning before work, and every evening when you get home, boil the beans for 15 or so minutes.  Apparently, a pot of beans will keep like this for almost a week without refrigeration!  So far I have not resorted to this method, but I will keep you updated…