Power Outages: June vs. January

As I lie awake in bed,
waiting for daylight,
waiting for the buzz of fans, the chime of driveway alarms, the lights that signal the return of electrical power,
wondering how long the food in the refrigerator will stay cold,
figuring out who we know with freezer space, with a generator,
calculating how many gallons of water two horses, two dozen sheep, cats, dogs, humans drink when it is 90 degrees outside,
determining when would be the last possible minute that I could bake a cake for my mother's 70th birthday,
I also consider the best time of year for a power outage.

Our longest time without power was five days -- and that was in January years ago.

As temperatures hovered around 30 degrees, we didn't worry much about food spoilage, and we relied on the wood-burning stove for warmth, and the livestock needed so much less water each day in January than they do in the June heat.

But the hours of daylight are short in January, giving me time to ponder about more than just birthday cakes and power outages.