I couldn’t sleep because of the storm. It was loud. Around 2 a.m., the power went out. A lot of homesteads around us were left without electricity, and when I woke up in the morning, we still had none.
And suddenly, the most important question of the morning was:
What do we eat for breakfast?
We are so used to our normal breakfasts — omelettes, porridge, pancakes, cooked vegetables with eggs, hot tortillas… All the things that require electricity.
But no electricity means no appliances, no heat, no ventilation, no water.
So we ate bread with tomatoes from the greenhouse and cheese.
Jānis drove to the city to bring home some warm food. The roads were covered with fallen trees, branches and leaves. Firefighters were working non-stop to clear the roads, while other services were working to restore the electricity.
Electricity came back around 4PM – Finnaly I could had my “sunday morning coffee” in bed…
It made me realise just how much of our everyday life quietly depends on electricity.
And how completely unprepared I was for something as simple as making breakfast without it.
Ilze
P.S. The electricity is back up… and I’m looking for tourist gas-stove… I like independence 🙂
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The tourist gas stove, that is what I thought. Although I’m not camping anymore I still cradle my Coleman and the gas tank. One never knows!
Where I live the electric power was so unreliable that we installed an “off-grid” propane stove-oven that uses batteries for the igniter.
We have a lot of what we call ‘blackouts’ here, so I fully comprehend . . . it’s almost ‘scary’ not being able to do so many things! As I never have a hot breakfast (Scandinavian open sandwiches with half the fridge piled on 🙂 ! ) only the lack of coffee would have bothered! Glad it’s fixed for you!
I’m glad that your electricity came back, Ilze. I saw something online the other day about how to use your car as a generator by using a voltage transformer that takes the DC power from your car and flips it to AC so that you can run the basics in your home. Fridgy, furnace and lights with a 2000 watt inverter. I hope you are feeling better.
Having the power go out is such a pain. I would miss my morning coffee too 🙂
Hey Ilze, we have the small portable Campingaz Camp Bistro 3. I use it occasionally for bushcraft, but during the last heatwave it really came in handy as well. It was simply too hot inside to even think about cooking, so we started using this little wonder outside to fry some meat or boil water.
It’s only a single-burner stove, but it’s inexpensive to buy — I paid about €25 — and the small gas cartridges are replaceable and reasonably cheap too. It’s a very handy little thing if you lose power at home, want to cook outside in the garden, or take it camping. I actually wrote a bit more about it here: [Cold Nights, Hot Coffee, And Why Every Home Needs A Simple Gas Stove](https://thebushcraftfamily.wordpress.com/2026/05/20/cold-nights-hot-coffee-and-why-every-home-needs-a-simple-gas-stove/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)