Earth Shabbat

[kettunainen]

Instead of doing an Earth Hour, with no lights, I decided it might be an interesting experience to try an Earth Shabbat: 24 hours with no unnecessary power

Comments

[feonixrift]

Aloe is amazingly resilient - I took my big one down to cuttings once, on account of massive root tangle and wanting it in several pots instead of one, it survived great.

[kettunainen]

this is really reassuring. Thank you! also, whoa, you can root aloe from cuttings? I had no idea!

[feonixrift]

If you live in a moist climate, let them dry out before you plant them - succulents are not resilient against rot. But yes, cuttings will grow!

[mightydoll]

When I was a kid, we used to do no-electricity days periodically. I really enjoyed it as a child, but we really relied on barbequeing and such.

[kettunainen]

that's awesome! I have been wanting to do this sort of thing with far greater frequency than on an annual basis. Like, monthly or semi-monthly.

[tormenta]

Agreed. I really didn't want to turn things back in at 9:30... We sat and chatted and I was nice.

Of course, my dinner was cooked on a stove I turned off at 8:27 so.... : /

[kettunainen]

likewise, our dinner the night before was cooked and then we slowly powered down. made things more enjoyable.

[tamago23]

What I remember about the big blackout in 2003 (?) was that a bunch of us met up at the dog park, and we all hung out outside, having fun and drinking and watching our dogs play (we attached glow-sticks to their collars). We made rice by putting rice into room-temp water and then leaving it for a few hours, but mostly we ate from cans.

If that blackout had happened during winter rather than summer, it would have sucked. Having it be during summer made it fun. And having it be done a day later made it fun, because if it went much longer than that, things might have started getting dangerous.

Good thing to know about the lantern, though. I suppose now you'll be laying in a bigger stock of candles in the preparedness kit. :)

[kettunainen]

yeah, we picked up two more tapers and another pillar at yesterday's market. We probably SHOULD start stockpiling.

I don't remember how long we were without power during the blackout -- three days, I think. And yeah, I don't remember it being that much of a hardship. Time of year has a definite impact on enjoyability.

[thewronghands]

That's kind of a neat way to observe it. I don't think I'd really have enjoyed turning off the power in winter either. When it's warm out, sure, that could be different, but I'd still be burning things one way or another to make food. Still, it's an interesting experiment -- thanks for posting about it.

[misslynx]

Sounds like a interesting experience, though I can definitely identify with the possibility of it getting frustrating after a while. But I might like to try doing the occasional no-electricity day (with the exception of keeping the fridge plugged in so that stuff doesn't go bad), or at least no-electricity evening... Though I suspect it would be more fun with other people than by myself.