Ask Lemmy

As another commenter mentioned, longest period of time without electricity for me would be about two weeks in Algonquin Park, Ontario Canada. A couple of our canoe trips were ten days at least… the drive back to civilization is always a bit strange, 40 km/h feels really fast at first, it’s a bit scary getting onto the highway and the lights everywhere are very distracting for the first couple of hours.

Longest period of time at home would be about two weeks without power during the 1998 Ice Storm. We had a wood stove, so we did okay for heat and managed to cook on the flat metal top. It hit in several rainstorms over the course of about a week, and took years to clean up afterwards. Power went out on the first night and didn’t come back on until at least ten days later, not sure exactly now.

I remember being 8 years old, watching the rain come down in waves, gently, onto bent over tree branches that were sparkling as they swayed back and forth in the wind, thousands of gems on the tips of the branches, reflecting orange glow from the streetlight beside.

By the third day of that, there was cannonfire in the back fourty. Branches were breaking under the weight, falling to earth with a thundering “boom” as they made the 2” sheet of ice over the snow vibrate like a giant’s drum. A tinkling sound, like tiny bells, would follow as the shards bounced upwards and settled across the surface.

Strange times. Lots of candles. Gets boring at night when you start running out. Wasn’t allowed to go outside for a long time because of the falling branches.

When we finally did go outside, I almost died because we went sledding. Turns out plastic “crazy carpets” go, well, crazy fast on that kind of ice. Luckily I went through a patch of small trees instead of smashing into one of the big ones. In retrospect, we picked a really bad spot to go sledding. Learned pretty quick that just sliding down on our bellies like otters worked better. Didn't go back to school until almost the end of January so we had lots of time to practice, it was great.

The bush was a mess for years afterwards. Just a tangle of fallen branches and small trees shooting up between. The rabbit population exploded as a result, it was perfect habitat out there for them. I found a patch of snow at the end of June that year, hidden away under a whole pile of pine branches. We tapped the trees that spring but shouldn’t have even bothered, we only got about 5 litres of maple syrup instead of the usual 20 to 25