First, please pray and do what you can for all those affected by the recent hurricane. These scenes from Florida are horrific with islands and even sections inland razed flat. Lots of damage there and north, and my relatives in Georgia say they were spared the worst when the storm jogged east. I know the area around Asheville somewhat, having spend some time in the area. What has happened there is devastating, to be polite.
We were supposed to get worse than we did, but again that jog east spared Indianapolis. We got rain and winds, with gusts staying around 50 mph part of the day, but getting up towards 79 mph later. We lost power last night, and it was out for an hour or two. Not sure as I made the sensible decision (IMO) to go to bed early, after reading by lantern for a bit. When the power came back on, woke up enough to cut off the light and go back to sleep. Have heard that up to 50k were without power around here at one point.
This morning, the power went out again. I used my chef’s stove to heat coffee for the housemate. Brought up another camping lantern to the kitchen, and was getting set to cook English Muffins when the power came back on. Been warned it may go out again a time or two today. Bread is baked and the English muffins are cooked.
The only thing I couldn’t do while the power was out was bake bread. Am starting to look at portable propane ovens as I want something I can use to bake bread and other delights when camping or for emergencies. Want something that can hit and hold 500 degrees, and hold one of my enameled cast iron dutch ovens. If it can do that, it can handle anything else needed. If anyone has any suggestions, sound out in the comments!
Oh, and if it can hook up to a 20lb propane tank, all the better.
Even if you are not in the ESTIMATED path of a storm, be prepared. Florida had warning and it paid off in terms of lives. I expect to see the death toll go up, not so much in Georgia, but in North Carolina and Tennessee as most hit were not expecting it and had little to no time to bug out. Always a good idea to have a “right now” bag ready to go.
Stay safe! Remember, be prepared, be safe, keep your friends close, and your things where you can find them in the dark.
Getting hit by lightning is not fun! If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, which include moving once we have medical issues cleared up, feel free to hit the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo, use the options in the Tip Jar in the upper right, or drop me a line to discuss other methods. There is also the Amazon Wish List in the Bard’s Jar. It is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
The retail stores (Sportsman’s and a regional club store) have mini-camping ovens, but the largest handles a 9 x 13 pan. The others limit to 9 x 9. You can get adapters to use a 20# tank feeding into th e1 pound bottle fitting. Home Depot should have them, otherwise try a *good* hardware store. (or Tractor Supply and/or Ye Local Farm Store. Maybe the outdoors stores, too.)
If you get sufficiently desperate, a gas grill (with a couple of 12 x 12 floor tiles on the grate) can act as a makeshift oven. Did a pizza like that a couple of times, but it was really hard to avoid a hard-tack crust.
Back in the 1960s, Coleman made a range-top oven, again good for 9 x 9. We used it camping, and it could do a tolerable cake. No idea if anything like that is on the market now.
Praying for those hit by Helene. We’re at the other end of the country, but most earthquakes pale to what “she” just did. (Remembers we’re 200 miles from the Cascadia zone. I said *most*, right?)
I need to measure my dutch ovens and go from there. 🙂 Also, need to see if the local stores (Cabella, etc.) have any in stock I could actually open, etc. Thank you!
We’re in the NE corner of Tennessee, due North of Asheville. The forecast was for 3-5 inches of rain and some parts of the mountains got 20+. One span of I-26 at Erwin was dropped by debris while a section of I-40 was undercut and collapsed.
We had a large tree blow down across power lines and my driveway. Power was out for two days. Still waiting on an estimate for removing the tree.? My puny chainsaw might trim some branches, but the trunk is twice as wide as the saw is long.
Glad you are okay, and wish I still had my old chain saw (logger’s bow) and transport. If there is anything you need, sing out. If you know of others in need, let us know and I will try to get the info to people who can help. So glad the Cajun Navy and others are there.