Multi-purpose

Multi-purpose
Originally uploaded by surfinsandy23

Thursday came, and still no power. My mother in law's dog had been left at her house, and the nights were getting colder as the week wore on. We began making plans to go get the dog and go to the store for extra batteries, cat food and things to eat that were simple to prepare. We didn't know how long we would be without power, or how long we'd be under a boil water warning and wanted to be able to conserve butane.
We went to the garage where our camping gear is stored and found a rack we usually use over camp fires. We found that placing it beside the gas log put the water pots closer to the flame and would do a slow, yet good job of boiling the water. We were now able to heat and boil water without using up butane fuel.

The night before the storm hit, I discovered we were very low on cat food. There wasn't even enough for one more day. At the time I had hopes we'd be able to get to the store to get more the next day, but the next day proved more challenging than that.
We had plenty of dog food and figured if the cats were hungry enough, they'd eat it. I was wrong. Two of the cats were happy with canned food I kept in case of emergencies, but Tarzan was picky and wouldn't even eat that. I found some sliced turkey meat thawing in the kitchen freezer and he ate that. Another day he had some leftover hamburger that wasn't eaten at supper the night before. He likes milk, so he even had milk, which was now being stored in the garage because the garage was colder than the refrigerator.
Hubby needed a prescription filled and word on the radio was that the pharmacy was open again. He had extras in his camping gear, which got him through the week.
So we cleaned off the car and headed for Walmart. They were completely out of lamp oil, was restocking propane (which we didn't need), no sign of butane, and almost completely out of candles. It was a good thing we found a better way to heat water, and didn't really need the oil or candles.
We picked up hot cocoa mix, instant oatmeal and cup Ramen, plus a big bag of cat food, and a case of Pepsi. The water was nearly completely sold out, good thing we didn't need that either!

We saw several people we know, including someone we hadn't seen in many months! It was good to see folks and hear they were all doing well.
We finally got out of the store, and headed to Mom's house to get her dog. Her house was cold, but her freezer was still cold. So we got the dog and a sweater for mom and headed back for home. The poor little dog was scared and cold, but she was safe. Outside temperatures that night were predicted to be down to around 10 or less, not counting windchill factors. We felt much better getting her out of there.