I like living on the edge of built-up civilization, but it means our little development has one electric line coming in.
Today it wanted some time off, fortunately only 4 hours. Didn’t get that cold inside, but having an all electric house has some drawbacks in that circumstance.
My wife figured out the electric-less coffee, thankfully.
Gotta have your coffee, yes? LOL Great site. Happened on yours visiting so many other med-blogs since I started my own two weeks ago. I’ll be following.
You need to submit that to thereifixedit.com
LOVE IT! I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, but Mrs. Gruntdoc’s a keeper. ;) haha
I salute Mrs. Gruntdoc’s MacGyver chops.
Back in the day, I lived at the end of the power line, and any significant storm meant at least 8 hours sans electricity. We bought a generator and installed a gas cooktop.
In the recent home remodel, I ended up with an all-electric kitchen (magnetic induction cooktop + electric oven). A little imprudent, here in California where we will have a power-grid & gas-supply disrupting earthquake someday (maybe even soon).
So I have a propane-tank 2 burner cooktop to add to the gas barbeque. The cooktop comes in handy when we have a big party.
Yes, indeed, Mrs. Gruntdoc IS creative! Glad the two of you didn’t have to suffer caffeine withdrawal.
Necessity IS the mother of invention! Good for the Mrs.
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome!
Good for Mrs Gruntdoc!
With the amount of gasoline, wood, and gunpowder you have at hand, that’s the best you could do? For shame.
Amazing. Simply incredible…Excuse me for my lack of words, but I’m stunned speechless!
I was just thinking about this again (it’s been a boring day…)
Are you old enough to remember C-Rats? Back in the day, you could take an empty C-rat can, make air holes with the trusty P-38 can opener hanging on your dog tag chain, and, using a triox heat tab or small piece of C-4( don’t ask!), heat up a canteen cup of water the same way.
Was COMNAVSURFWIFE a grunt?
DocV,
No, I was a second-gen MRE guy. The triox tabs were still around, and made good coffee warmers.
As for the Mrs, she”d have been more of a MARFORPACDOCWife, which results in its own challenges.
Navy field coffee is the worst tastin’ stuff in the world. Nothing like a good cup of chlorinated coffee made from the water in the water buffalo and served in a dusty canteen cup.
Tammy
Gotta have the coffee! Good for her ..BOTH of you! :)
Great idea, Gruntdoc! However those soup labels are a fire hazard. How about simply using 3 empty, labeless cans instead?
Everyone should have at least 2 weeks worth of supplies in the event of an emergency such as this one. A smaller kit should be in your vehicle especially if you drive in snowstorm prone areas. After reading this I got my decades old catalytic camping heater out and fired it up. It still works like a charm but I might upgrade to one of the newer ones with a ceramic head instead of the old fabric one. The propane stove and Coleman gas lantern work fine.
Doc V, I remember C-rats fondly but still shudder when I remember the ham and lima beans. Most troops would rather go hungry than have to eat them. It was a shock in 1970 to see that most of the C-rats had been canned in the 50’s
I lived on MREs during my first deployment to Somalia and liked them a lot. In those days we only had 11-12 different menu items. I read an article the other day that said their are dozens now, they even had bread