Could you survive with no electricity?

I noticed that last week the energy companies warned us that there might be outages caused by solar storms.  I have also read about weapons that could be used in a war situations called EMPs and they wipe out all electricity.  The latter would not be short term, either.  We were warned also by the  government to have stocks of food, lighting etc in case of an emergency.  This is the first time that I have known this to happen in my country during my life time.  This has got me thinking over the last few months about how I would manage if electricity disappeared. Could I survive with no electricity?

To be honest, for a short time of a few days I would not be bothered at all. I would miss being able to communicate with my daughters and family (the internet would go down) , but I am used to camping for a week without power and I remember the days of power cuts and cooking bacon over a candle on foil held by a couple of clothes pegs.  I also love watching about survival situations and would find it a fun challenge for a short time.  The main thing that I would be bothered about would be all the food that would be wasted in my freezer.  Most of it would be fine for a couple of days if I kept the lid shut but after that it would start to decay.  I have therefore been watching YouTubes on how I could water bath it over a fire in my garden.  I have lots of jars.

I have started to make a game of challenging myself to living without power to make sure that I am ready if the worst comes to the worst.  My family and friends think that I am crazy, but being prepared helps me to avoid anxiety. I am making sure that we would be ok if the power went out, even if it was for weeks.  I have constantly been improving my knowledge and keep thinking about how we could cope in different situations.  These are the areas in which I feel that my life would be impacted on in the UK if the electricity disappeared, and how I intend to cope without it.  Hopefully this will never happen, but if it does, I will be ready to help myself and my family.

1. Water.  Most people don’t realise that once the electricity has gone there would only be a limited amount of water in the house pipes and pumping station.  I could boil water (It needs to be a rolling boil for at least a minute), I know where there are local streams and springs, I could collect water in buckets, and already have rain barrels. Luckily it rains a lot here.  I also have some water purification tablets and know how to make a natural filter (but these are easy to buy on the internet).
2. Food.  I do have a stock of some food but a lot of it is in the freezer.  I have therefore stocked up on salt and sugar to preserve.  I have increased my knowledge of foraging and know where to go to find different foods, but I would be in competition with every one else.  I have saved seeds from my crops so that I can plant next year and would have food already growing in my garden at certain times of the year.
3. Cooking.  I have a wood burning stove, a camping stove with some spare cannisters, a BBQ and  I know how to cook on an open fire.  I have learned how to make bread in my cast iron casserole dish.  I also know how to make a solar oven and have used them in the past in summer.
4. Storing food.  I would have no access to a fridge or a freezer.  I do have a couple of North facing cool rooms but they are not set up for food.  In my gran’s days she would have a marble stone in a ventilated pantry in the coolest part of the kitchen.  My conservatory gets cold in the winter and so I could probably store food there.  I could also make a small fridge by getting a large earthen plant pot and putting a smaller one inside.  I would then put wet sand in between the pots with a lid on top.  We did this when I camped with the Girl Guides and it works well, but is only small.  In the past I have stored things in a bucket of cold water when I lived in a bedsit with no fridge.  A hanging  meshed larder in the shade can also store some things.  I have salt, vinegar and sugar that could be used to preserve things as they defrosted in the freezer and am used to dehydrating things by the sun. I know how to water bath food for storage and I can make a smoker for meat and so I feel that I could cope to some extent.
5. Heat.  I have a wood burner, a propane heater, and cold weather clothes and so I am not worried about keeping warm. I have stocked up on lighters and have a fire starting tool that I learned to use on a sustainability retreat. We also have hot water bottles that I could fill when it gets hold. I am old enough to remember the days when there was ice on the inside of windows in winter, and the shampoo would freeze solid, but we survived and knew no different. People in some countries might have to think about how to keep cool without  electricity.
6. Light .  It would be pretty scary if we had no light in the winter as it doesn’t get light until past 8am here and it is often dark just after 4pm.  Light is therefore a safety issue as well being needed to do every day activities outside of daylight hours.  I have wind up camping lights, candles, and an oil burning lantern, solar lights (which would only last for an hour in winter) and some torches.  It is important to stock up on batteries so that you have some extra for torches etc.
7. Money.  The banks would close and the ATMs would not work.  Digital currency would also be a no no.  It is best to have access to some cash or things that you could barter if electricity was to go out for a long period of time.
8. Communication.  This would be the hardest thing for me.  I could probably walk the 6 miles to see some of my family but my other daughter is at the other end of the country.  Walkie Talkies might work over short distances, and hand crank radios over longer distances.  A battery radio would also be good to receive government or local helpful information
9. Mental Health.  It is important to keep morale up and not become bored.  I would practice crafts, have board games, self help books and survival books, and would sing and play instruments to pass the time.  The two pocket books that I have pictured below would be very handy as they are portable.  I would also do a lot of self care through journaling, forest bathing, exercise, and taking positive actions as I did during 2020.
10. Hygiene and sanitation.  I could build a composting loo and use it for compost to grow food.  I have some wet wipes for short term, hand sanitiser, and I know which plants I can use for soap for hygiene and to wash clothes (eg. conkers and Ivy).
11. Access to knowledge. It is so easy now to look on the internet to find recipes or how to do various things.  We don’t need to learn them any more.  I have have hard copy survival and foraging books.  I also have a note book that I have written things down in that I may find useful later, and a recipe book.

Do you think about these things or am I the only crazy one?  How would you cope if the power went out?