How to fill the evening when the electricity goes out

Not to bad, the middles don't get real gooey like over a campfire, but good none the less.

Toast bagels, this takes patience but what else do you have to do in the dark.

It does kinda, sorta work.

Storms rumbled through yesterday afternoon and shook everything up.  Towards evening, after Dad had left for work and it had been a few hours since the last downpour, we went for a walk.  Went about 3/4 of a mile from home and decided, from looking at the quickly darkening sky, it would be a good idea to turn back home.  As we go by the neighbors we wave at them in their shed but don't stop because there is a few little drops falling.  We still have a half mile to go and don't want to get caught in the rain.  We get down the hill from them and the raindrops got bigger and heavier.  We are committed to getting home now though because it a long way back to the neighbors and just about as far to get home.  We pick up our pace and start to power walk.  The lightening starts flashing all over the sky and we start to super power walk. 

The air was really heavy and Spark was having a hard time catching his breath so we stopped under a tree, where the it was strangely still dry, for him to do some deep breathing. 

Standing under a tree in a lighting storm is not the smartest thing to do, so after about 20 breaths he recovered enough and we continued on.  At the main road we started running and the closer we get to home the harder the rain comes down.  We get in the house, change our clothes, dry off our hair and the sky just opens up.  Dancer said she could go out their and wash her hair it was coming down so hard.  We were right on the edge of the storm so it passes by and all is well.

Then the lights start to flicker.   "Let's get out and get the chores done," I tell the kids and I decided to milk by hand since I don't want to have the milker keep turning on and off.  By the time we get our barn shoes on the lights have completely gone off.  We got all water out of the hose and lines for the animals and gave them each at least a partial bucket of water.  When the electricity goes out we have no water because the pump can't pump it out of the ground.  We feed everyone, close up the barn and go in the house. 

It is about 9 p.m. and I assume that the lights will be on soon, but just in case let's get the candles out.  My candle obsession comes in handy once in a while.  I tell the kids for sure they will on by 10 p.m. 

Ten o'clock comes and goes and no lights.  Eleven o'clock no lights.  Let's go get a jug of water from the basement to brush our teeth, oral hygiene is important even in the dark.  Twelve o'clock comes and goes.  During this time, the electric truck has been by three times shining lights up and down the electric poles so I am loosing faith that they even know where the problem is.  The logical thing would have been to just go to bed since the lights were out, but the kids were a little tense and I imagined us laying there wide awake in the dark waiting for something to happen.  The kids did make a nest on the living room floor but at 12:30 we gave up and went to bed.  Good thing, from the time that was flashing on the clocks this morning, it was about 2:30 a.m. when the lights came back on.

Thankfully the rain cooled the temps down so we weren't sweating to death and it wasn't winter where the furnace would have been shut off.  It does seem though that these things only happen when Dad is at work.  I think we will count this as a camping trip for this year.