Yes, we have a fireplace with a cooking surface on top. And a large supply of well cured firewood. Plus a generator to run our refrigerator and our freezer in the outbuilding. We managed things pretty well.
So far this November in Western Washington we have had four “atmospheric rivers” (Editorial: To this 73 year native of the area, a typical rainy November) followed by a “bomb cyclone” on Nov. 19 (Another Editorial: "Bomb cyclone is the new more colorful and more frightening phrase now used to describe a storm that rapidly intensifies, which I believe to be a more accurate description). As a result of that storm I was without power for 90 hours and without internet for 140 hours. I also lost four big Western Hemlock trees, one of which took out the power lines on our road (although 3 of my neighbors were able to replenish their firewood supply from those). There were 170,000 households withourt power at the storm’s peak, and there are still a few that are not yet restored. At least all the fun happened before Thanksgiving.
My wife had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists, but she did the left one first, let it recover, and then did the right one. That way she kept some functionality. She recovered quickly from both surgeries and she feels so much better now. Better enough that she bought herself an electric string trimmer for grass and weeds and can now go out and run that thing for two hours straight with no ill effects.
When I was reading this post my computer glitched and an error message came up. I had to reload the page and start over. I’m not paranoid, but that was weird timing.
Yes, we have a fireplace with a cooking surface on top. And a large supply of well cured firewood. Plus a generator to run our refrigerator and our freezer in the outbuilding. We managed things pretty well.