How Medieval Reenactment Saved My Life: Surviving the 2021 Winter Storm in Texas [CC]
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- čas přidán 8. 03. 2021
- IN WHICH our intrepid recreatrix outlines what happened during the storms over February 10-21, why it hit Texas harder than most of the rest of the US, and how the skills and things I have because of my medieval reenactment helped get me (and Tornado!) through it all.
Buckle up friends, there's a LOT of information, some ranting, and a whole lot of gratitude. Thank you to everyone who was so patient with the lateness of this video. Closed Captions now up! Thanks for your forbearance.
Elen Soup Recipe: • How to make sausage an...
Important Facts:
Texas Power Grid: www.houstonchronicle.com/poli...
Power Deregulation: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregul...
Texas' Failure to Winterize: www.texastribune.org/2021/02/...
NPR Winter Storms Live Coverage: www.npr.org/sections/live-upd...
US Energy Grids: www.npr.org/2021/02/28/971877...
Jean-Michel's Twitter thread: / 1361778280521605122
Instagram: @opuselenae
Facebook: /opuselenae
TikTok: @opuselenae
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/opuselenae
Music Credits
Teller of Tales
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
!["Viking" Coat: Historically Adequate Norse Outerwear [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/biF52lkQXIU/mqdefault.jpg)
!["Viking" Coat: Historically Adequate Norse Outerwear [CC]](/img/tr.png)
As someone who moved from a Cold Place to a "Warm" Place-- the difference in construction is *such* a thing. I'm adding "basic emergency preparedness" to my mental list of real-life skills that should be taught in high school, as well as basic accounting and home ec/shop classes for students of all genders.
Agreeeee.
Also a Cold to Warm transplant and another thing I found is that warmer places generally don't pre-prepare, if that makes sense. When the ice came in, the roads weren't pre-salted and plows weren't at the ready. It was such a huge difference from where I was born, where pre-salting roads is so second-nature that I had never given a though that some people might not do it. It took 2 days to see the first plow go by my neighborhood, and 2 weeks before sidewalks were clear.
@@gingersnap7822 Texas has 1/10 of snowplow in the whole state that indiana has in any given county.
Texas had less than 100 , every single county in indiana has more than that.
(We don't always have drivers)
@@gingersnap7822 Wait you HAVE plows and salt trucks? LOL here we are lucky if we see a city pickup with a guy in the bed shoveling salt onto the road.
Seriously though even though I can drive in the crap (Grad school in Iowa) I just stay in. Everything shuts down anyway and in nearly all cases it will be gone in a few days. The people around here do NOT know how to drive in it and are probably more dangerous than the ice.
here's a hack for the windows from someone who grew up in Russia. take some paper (with no ink on at least one side), cut it into strips 1 inch wide, take a bowl of water and a bar soap (the more basic it is, the better). wet the soap, take a piece of paper, soak it in the water really well, run the soap on both sides of the paper (be generous!) and then stick the paper to the window frame to cover every single gap in it. make sure there's no ink on the side of the paper that goes onto the frame, it will transfer. un-sticking the paper afterwards is super easy. works over small and big gaps, leaves no room for any wind
you could also stuff the gaps with papier-mache (newspaper works great for this), or maybe bits of fabric. the OG way is moss. and don't forget to check your doorframe and make sure there's no gap next to the floor, stuff it with something if there is
Oh interesting ideas, thank you for sharing them!
Do you too, in RUssia, have (in some older houses) either moss or like cottonwool or something similiar in between the double windows to soak up the moisture from there? we had that in Finland in the house I grew up in.
@@LadyMcBite yes, I believe I've seen things like that too
Wow, I love that hack! I'm looking at all my windows now like a hitman picking who to take out first. ;-)
@@sarahrosen4985 be really generous with soap and water, if the paper isn't flimsy enough, it won't stick properly. if done right, it holds through the whole winter
I live in Montreal Canada. 2 years ago, we had a heat wave of 90°F and people died. We have the infrastructure to deal with cold and snow but we are vulnerable to temperatures that are no big deal in Texas. For this reason, I never make jokes about unusual weather. When I saw what was about to happen, I started giving tricks like emptying the water pipes and such.
TOTALLY. I was born in Buffalo and none of the houses I lived in before I turned 19 had central air. 90* with no aircon is awful and dangerous.
@@OpusElenae I grow up in northern Quebec (like drive 14 hours north from the US border, north) and my first car didn't have air conditioning.....it was useless because if you are hot, you just open the windows 🤷🏻. Central air conditioning was and probably still is inexistant but the coldest temperature I ever experienced was -53°C. I am not made for hot and humid 😂
@@YanickaQuilt 😱
Too cold! I would be dead dead dead
A fellow Canadian if I didn’t have relatives in Texas I would have been very confused. I’m in southern Ontario now where we are getting heat waves with humidity that are hard to deal with, people died. Two years ago my daughter who lives in northern Ontario had snow storm after snow storm. Her neighbour (in her 80’s) said she didn’t remember ever seeing that much snow. She had to hire someone to shovel her roof then hire heavy equipment to clear it out of the front of her house! The climate is changing and no one can predicted what will be coming. Even here my furnace is natural gas but the thermostat is electric as is the fan. There’s more everyone can do to be better prepared for these events. We should all think about that! Even just as you showed just having tea lights can help.
@@OpusElenae yeah, temperatures over 30C are really uncomfortable without air-conditioning. It's even worse if you end up having to run a dehumidifier for about 6 weeks in summer, and having to block your best way of getting through-flow going. As I learned last year....
Fellow Texan here! The burn community -- i.e. those of us who regularly go out camping in places with zero amenities and bring enough food, water, and shelter to survive and have a heck of a party -- were fine too. We have camping gear, we have generators, we have water containers, we have warm clothes, we have gumption. And, to my great pride, we have the ability to organize and take care of our neighbors. Our state leadership shouldn't have failed us as it did (and does) but I was proud of the people around me.
Congratulations on your survival. You did well.
A note on keeping food warm that I learned from my grandmother. Take a big box, line it with straw or newspaper, make sure your soup or stew has gotten to a good boil and put it into the box and cover it. This acts like a slow cooker. It is good for about 12 hours. To be completely safe, bring your serving to a boil again.
My favourite camp stove is a swedish army camp stove. It burns alcohol. And is safe to use anywhere.
This is a great way! Even just bringing a pot of water with rice/potatoes/etc to a boil and putting it in a bed will continue to cook for a long time. And it will also warm your bed!
Oh yea this works if you want to make rice pudding XD my mom use this method every Christmas :p
It's called a 'hot box' and works super swell. I make mine from two layers of 1/2" thick polyiso foil-faced foam, sandwiching 2" of polystyrene foam. Stagger the top lip so the lid seals well. Put a refrigerator or oven rack inside, set roaster or pot in, put bath towel or blanket inside to take up extra space. If you can, put hot rocks or bricks around pot. It will cook a beef chuck roast all day on residual heat, not stick or burn, and use minimal fuel.
Also, when the local gov tells you to boil your water for 5 or 10 minutes, ignore that bad advice. All the harmful bacteria dies at 170*F. You can't SEE 170*F, but you CAN see it begin to 'rolling boil' at 212*F. When you see it boiling, take it off the heat source and let it cool to whatever temp you need it to be. Boiling it for any longer is just wasting fuel.
This was such a good breakdown of all the factors involved - as someone not in the USA we just kept hearing news headlines that didn't make any sense without all the extra information. I'm glad you guys came through ok, and god bless IKEA tealights
yes this. The news reporting mainly focussed on the results not the causes and that made things really confusing, even if we could sympathise with "we don't have the infrastructure to deal with this".
That was a very polite and succinct way of explaining Texas' situation. My family in TX said that apparently the wind farms were holding their own for a while and had they been properly winterized they would have really done well. My grandson had a bad asthma attack (he's 6 so he is not completely good with an inhaler yet) and his nebulizer needs electricity... Nana was … out of my mind 850 miles away. My sons are preppers of sorts (not the psycho sort, they do their cosplay in actual anime or SCA) but I have been after them for years to put in solar panels and get bigger generators... they are starting on that finally. The youngest bought a house with a couple acres so a windmill is in the works as well for both, and a well. I remember 2011 very well. I hold out no hope that the politicians or the power companies will do the right thing, they had 10 years... next time they might have 1 year or less... People may scoff at the SCA but you learn a lot camping in all weathers and being prepared is good sense. I am very glad you are well and your content, as always is spot on.
Oh no; I’m so glad he was okay! A bunch of friends of mine have solar and either didn’t have a direct wiring mechanism into their homes (most go back into the grid and you get a credit on your account; you’re not off-grid) or... got covered in snow!
@@OpusElenae Thank you. He is a little monster but he is my favorite little monster. I have asthma too and it is terrifying, especially when you are small and don't completely understand. I suggested a 12 volt system wired in addition to the "normal" one, (similar to RVs and some tiny houses). That way when the grid goes down, you switch over and can at least have lights and use small appliances. Extra insulation is not that hard to put into walls and will help with cooling as well. Since they live outside the jurisdiction of the city (okay, the "sticks") that is absolutely doable. It is a step in going to off grid. They both firmly believe in renewable resources so this would be relatively inexpensive and when the inevitable happens, (cause you know the power companies will not winterize...and the pols won't make them) then it will be a good thing indeed.
I'm a bit of a prepper getting ready for any blackouts in UK
I relate to this so hard. My husband and I had our apartment destroyed in Hurricane Michael. The roof was ripped off and flooded the apartment above us. We managed 10 days without power or water and only left because the mold set in and I am extremely allergic. We survived because of camping experience and my insistence on having at least 2 months worth of food in the house at all times. We had water, a camping stove, and were dry. We had plenty of power-free ways to stay entertained and a stash of charged up powerpacks if we needed power anyway.
The cold weather also disabled a huge amount of the natural gas infrastructure. A fact that conservatives are conveniently ignoring. The loss of gas pressure due to improperly insulated pipes allowing condensation caused the majority of the loss of generation capacity in Texas, and also caused huge power outages all over Mexico as their gas imports stopped flowing
YUUUUUP; in fact natural gas infrastructure failures were responsible for MOST of the shortfall. Try to tell that to anyone who just wants to blame progressive everything though.
@@OpusElenae and as you pointed out, they were warned about in 2011. Honestly without anything being done in terms of climate policy and Australia is woefully lacking in any as well, I reckon your next event like this will be within 5 years and not 10 like the last one. They are going to become more frequent.
Dallas resident here, and only 25 sec in but I can already confirm that this is BIG HECKIN MOOD
Here at The Raven's Table, we also used our medieval reenactment skills/gear/clothing to stay safe, entertained, and warm'ish during the Texas snowpocalypse. Can also confirm that we drank some homebrew to conserve water ;-)
Slight note for about the 5 minute mark, part of the reason our lines aren't buried very deep is because the top soil here is very thin with massive limestone bedrock underneath. Not only can we not really dig into it because of the massive expense, but (at least where I live) we get a lot our water from the aquifer within that limestone bedrock.
(K thx)
Yep; I didn’t go into all the reasons but you’re right. It’s also why we don’t have nice cool basements in which to retreat from the summer heat (which BAFFLES people when I tell them).
Excuses, excuses, excuses. j/k
One benefit of your tiny apartment is that it was a lot easier to keep warm than a big, airy house.
Oh totally. 20 minutes of electricity and we had to shed clothing because we were toasty.
And that's why if the heat shuts off it's always recommended to stay in a single room no matter how big you live
@@AgentPedestrian
Closing the doors to unused rooms is sensible whenever there are fewer people than usual in the house too.
@@AgentPedestrian yup, we were mostly in my bedroom when the power was off, but cooking etc had to happen where there was more space for fire safety.
@@AgentPedestrian my mother-in-law does this regularly, as she lives in an old stone house in Northern England.
I don't know why this showed up in my recommendations today, but it did, and you earned a new subscriber.
As someone who has survived earthquakes, (1989 Loma Prieta, 7.2) Hurricanes, (Katrina, and the entire 2004 season) Firestorms (1991 Oakland fire, 2003 Leonard fire, 1992 Old Gulch fire, and the 2015 Butte fire) and Tornadoes, (Apr 27, 2011, Tuscaloosa EF-5) You can never be "too prepared" for long term power or water outages. In each of these events, I was without power for days to weeks, and because most of the places I was living in at the time had wells, no power = no water.
I've called myself "an accidental prepper" for decades. Also, I'm fascinated with history, making my own garb and using tools from a pre electric era, just to feel what it was like has stood me in good stead when these awful events happened.
I'm so pleased that you have made this video.
I’m so glad it resonated with you, but sorry you’ve had to live through all that! Welcome.
@@OpusElenae that which does not kill us, makes us stronger
My love of camping and SCA involvement helped me immensely during a week long power outage here in Georgia. I've never been so happy about having spent that money. So glad you had that experience to fall back on.
I'm delighted that your historical reenactment allowed you and tornado to stay safe, warm and fed during that set of storms. I completely understand being grateful to medieval reenactment, i have been in situations where those skills have helped me too (though not to the extreme you needed them!) your video is incredibly informative, and while i have been keeping up with the situation, i found your intro to be the most concise, clear, easy to understand and non judgemental explanation. Thank you, i will be using this video to explain to my fellow northerners exactly why it went so bad. Im so glad you were able share your knowledge this way, but family safety and security allways comes before youtube postings, so take whatever time you need to get re settled.
This is kind of fascinating and backwards to me as a Canadian. We used to have snow on Canadian Thanksgiving in October, and now I'm usually still in shorts. As a child all the lakes and rivers used to freeze solid and now they never do. Instead summers have gotten incredibly hot and we are dealing with the reverse of all the issues you described about the difference in houses.
Glad you and Tornado are well and safe.
Climate change makes the Earth do the wacky. 😕
@@OpusElenae Germany did never have to deal with water shortage and now we're heading into our fourth year of drought.
Our forests are dying.
I'm so glad you and tornado are OK. Us here in Oregon that are normally prepared for bad winter weather weren't as prepared as we should have been. The ice storm that hit took out most of the trees on my parents property and they ended up staying with us for a week because of no power and living in an old farm house that is not insulated enough. I'm going to start putting together a survival tote. I forsee more winters like this one and even harsher ones in our future. I have told people another mini ice age will happen again one day but they just laugh at me 🤷♀️
No you're totally correct. We will be seeing more and more extreme weather events (100-year floods, record-breaking hurricane seasons, extreme weather temperatures in both directions) as climate change continues to happen.
@@OpusElenae wish more people would believe this and understand we need to be as prepared as we can be and we need to do what we can to make changes.
A global mini ice age may be unlikely, but I’m worried about the Gulf Stream being disrupted, which would seriously change the habitability of Northern Europe. I live north of the Arctic Circle, and would rather not have to suddenly cope with the climate typical of this latitude in the parts of the world that _aren’t_ warmed by the Gulf Stream, because while we’re better prepared for winters than most Texans, we’re not prepared for the harshest winters either, nor for the lack of summer warmth.
actually a global ice age is where we are headed. Once we get to a certain heat point, we will melt all the ice caps and glaciers, all that cold water hitting the ocean will reverse the ocean currents, which will bring much colder waters back to the ocean surfaces, which will then encourage and enforce colder weather so that the ice caps and glaciers reform and then freeze and grow. This is all likely by the end of the century on our current trajectories.
Your tea light camp stove is genius! It's so cool that historical practice came in handy for modern life.
You have made my day firstly with how your reenactment helped you and your friends. I'm so glad you and your family are okay.. Also that Twitter thread.. oh boy I was dying of laughter. Also living in Minnesota I had no idea about how houses or even power was set up in the south. As I was leaning about it all I was getting more and more angry.
Glad that you and the fam are ok. I'm sorry that Texas and its politicians are a hot mess express.
Love and solidarity from FL 💖
Staying to the last second was totally worth it. (Oh and having the emergency "To go bags" are not just for us Floridians - people should have one no matter where they live, so thank you for bringing up the subject in such a great way)
True. They are also good for tornado weather and if your area floods.
Our cars both have emergency bags. Four to 10 seconds can change everything for weeks. This may not be much good for heat but cooking on a simple Rocket Stove made from stones, bricks, or concrete blocks and an oven rack will surprise you. You will have to do this outside and storing the dozen or so bricks is no problem if one is serious about having one at the ready. I know most will not like this idea but oh well.
@@annahackman2539 Wildfires are another good reason for having a To-Go-Bag.
Indeed, emergency preparedness is for everyone, because everywhere has *some* sort of potential natural disaster. For instance, I was raised in earthquake country California, where we have "stay bags" in case of being trapped in place without water or power due to damaged infrastructure.
I never thought that having a house on the transformer branch that serves our muni water purification plant would be a benefit, but it kept our power on and water flowing throughout the crisis. We had to put a hang light (we call it a trouble light?) on one of our sets of water pipes (which is great if you have power) to keep pipes from breaking. I’m in north Texas. Well done, you, for coming through with grace and style!
I also grew up calling it a trouble light and never thought a thing about it until I went looking for one as an adult overseas in a foreign language. Then you wonder what the 'trouble' in trouble light was.
Props to you managing to stay calm enough to film this at all, I greatly admire your restraint. I'm OKC area and, as bad as it was here, I can't even imagine what it was like for you. We did the same things though. Broke out the wool garb, grabbed our faire tent tarps and covered doors and windows, camp stove and candles. I've never been so glad about learning to hand sew to keep me busy. After wearing all my viking kit for days I don't know how people without wool everything managed. It was an absolute lifesaver. I'm glad you came through it ok.
Part of the reason it took me so long to get this out when it was really straightforward to film was because i couldn't research and write for more and a couple paragraphs without FUMING all over again.
This was so excellent. Just wow. Glad you have such a good clear head and that Tornado has such a great mom. Smooth stones place over a heat source hold heat nicely and are great for hand, foot and bed warming
no no NO!!! You have to know where those stones come from and temper those smooth stones first - old girl scout here. Exploding stones at large campfires are scary (especially when they're not even *in* the campfire)- warming over a flame inside a home could be deadly.
@@margaretkaraba8161
That is especially true if you want the stones to be hot enough to cook with/on, not just warm to keep your feet toasty.
I would suggest heating water over the fire (doesn't even have to boil - 60°C is more than enough) and filling it into hot water bottles.
Having a hot water bottle (or one for each family member) at home will also be helpful for when you're sick, have period cramps or aching/tense muscles.
Loved the postscript. Swigging water cools the political heat--a little.
Could a video be made like a demo of using the hot jars of water to warm the bed? And how you would cook in emergencies, just like medieval times? Thanks so much.
Hi! Reenactor from Italy, here (roman period, but in any case...) and I am soooo prooud of you guys ^__^
It's true. The study of the past... of who had to face these things longer and better than us is esential to face these emergencies.
I still remember when I had some days of blackout here on Alps several years ago in winter. Cold and darkness. Our house are very well insulated, so that wasn't a problem, but I had to use my collection of lucernae (terracotta oil lamps) to light up the house. And I am used to collect the cooked exhausted olive oil (instead to drop it away I filter and stock it) to use with my lucernae, so we had a good amount of oil to use.
And now that there is war in ukraine, on the other hand, and the price of gas and electricity in europe is so high, I am using a lot the greek-Roman terracotta stove that runs on coals that I take directly from the wood stove. And since I know a lot of ancient Roman recipes that call for poor, inexpensive ingredients (some from my own garden), I have no problem with that.
I have a vast supply of dried and smoked sausage, and if I don't want to eat pasta... I make Puls romana (a sort of... porridge, but different) with pieces of sausages. and... oh, the Sagum (military cloak)... soooo warm, even those time when snows.
Also the old trick of wearing 2 pair of socks and not only one has been good. No blisters and feet warm even with that one foot of snow fell the last days.
Learning from the past saves all of us. Let make our ancestors prouds of us 👍
Thank you for telling your story. I think we will always remember what we went through that week and the unbearable tragedy of hundreds of lost lives.
Months and months and months later and nothing has changed or been fixed. It’s appalling.
This really resonates with me, I am in the SCA in New Zealand and although I live in in a different part of the country I have many many friends within the SCA who were significantly impacted by the Christchurch Earthquakes-. I remember just how many of the things we just … have around.. from camping, events and auch were incredibly useful in an emergency situation.. from extra blankets.. portable showers, gas camping stoves, tents, extra buckets etc and because they’re significant more experienced at spending a week without electricity gave them many skills that were very useful in the emergency.
Anything that impacts modern conveniences is a Huge Deal, and people who are versed in doing without them are going to have an easier time coping. I’m glad your friends were okay!
I REALLY appreciated this. As an Aussie who doesn't have to face anything near these kinds of winter dramas I really appreciated your succinct wrap up of the how and why. I enjoyed seeing how you used your knowledge to get you through effectively. Winning all round for your resourcefulness.
BTW, anyone who couldn't understand why your video was late should perhaps jump into a deep snow drift for a period of self reflection!!!
Everyone was SO supportive. I haven’t gotten even one unkind comment about the lateness.
Happy to hear you made it throught the storm.
Interesting to hear how things work in other parts of the world. I live in Finland and here snow is covering everything right now (as usual). As you mention houses in cold climates are made to contain heat. Which is fantastic most part of the year... until we get a heat wave and are unable to handle it.
Crisis preparedness should be a thing everywhere. I know I am not well enough equipped if something would happen. Here they recommend that you should have food, water and stuff to make you stay warm for three days in case of no electricity. Electricity brakes happens here mostly due to storms that fell trees over electricity lines. (This autumn we had a storm that was so big so some household where without electricity for a week, because it was so many trees that fell over the electricity lines and broke them.) So that is what we need to be prepared for. It's so different in all parts of the world what kind of wheather crisis you need to prepare for.
Funfact: here tealight candles are called "warmth candles", and is important for many people when storms makes the electricity go away. Even with well insulated houses, it gets cold after a while.
Totally agree; one of the comparisons I was making was how northern infrastructure is just not made to handle the 100*+ (37.8*C) heat we get for weeks and weeks in the summers here. But climate change is making it so that nowhere is safe from weather crises, so we all have to prepare for more extreme events.
We had a similar experience. Primitive ren faire camping in our yurt gave us plenty of equipment and knowledge. We were so prepared to get out all the camp gear including propane heater/stove, but really only needed the lighting (olive oil lamps are great!) and drums (for something to do). :) Warm clothes can make ALL the difference.
I'm Canadian. Originally from Montreal. I remember hearing about the winter disaster in Texas. Of course I took the radios depiction of what was going on as a possible overstatement, however, I was concerned and wanted to help.
Montreal is one of the coldest cities in Canada and the most prepared because of it. The radio segment was basically asking Canadians to help with tips of how to stay warm in freezing weather fir those that needed to rely on staying warm and cooking without electricity. We are well equipped for this and when I was a child my parents taught me simple things like layering your clothes to stay warm. Which clothing materials were best for generating heat. This helps when going outside with wind, snow, and ice. How to stay warm and dry. What to do when you go inside and what not to do when reheating your body. Montreal, by the way, is powered by hydro power all year around. It also sells the excess power the water fall terbines produce to the USA to power cities like... NYC...
Wool and cotton are good materials to layer (putting on a small shirt first then a slightly bigger short on top and so on). Layering will trap air between the fabric and your body heat will heat the air trapped inside the clothes keeping you warm for a long time. If you get too hot take off a layer or two and switch back and forth.
I was very blessed. My solar panels kept me with power.
I did well, and I’m glad you survived well.
We had plumbing company come out*finally* last Monday. They wanted $6k to replace our tankless water heater.. a unit that costs under $1k. Dad has bought the unit and will replace next week. But it is March 13 and still without water because some companies are using the storm as a way to gouge home owners and their home owners insurance of money. We reported the company to the BBB and also the Attorney Generals dept as well. Trying to keep this short. Thank goodness our saga is almost over but it had made me jump to working on more emergency preparedness for our family. Thanking the SCA for what we did have to help!! I am so glad you and Tornado were safe 💗💗💗.
Oh my gosh. I am so sorry you are still dealing with this.
@@OpusElenae - 🤞🤞🤞 Hopefully this ends this week...It has been frustrating on so many levels, the worst of which, companies with bad buisness practices taking advantage of people truly having severe issues of damage to their homes, who may not have the means to "make due" til a better result happens. Thank God we have our power, thank God for Checkingamp on demand shower. I have purchased 5 gallon jugs we fill and use. However, I will be extremely happy when we have our normal water routines back...🙂
We got a new water heater installed Thursday! I am now carrying on a torrid affair with my tub and shower!! Lol it feels Soo good to have it all back!
Isn't it wonderful when our "hobbies" save our buts. I'm glad you pulled through with creative use of the supplies at hand, and soup 😃
And the postscript..chefs kiss.
I misread soup as soap, but I'm not entirely convinced I'm wrong - soap is important!
I’m so glad I have a gas water heater, gas stovetop, and a gas fireplace (normally a feature that is aesthetic only). It saved us. We stored our food either on the patio (for frozen food) or garage (for chilled food). All our windows and doors were covered with quilts, blankets, and anything else we could dig up. We “house camped” in our living room by the fireplace in a tent.
I’m so glad you were unscathed!
Lovely video. We lived for a decade on the Gulf Coast in Hurricane Territory. When we moved off the beach and out of state, one of the things that I got rid of was my collapsible water storage cubes. This latest Texas disaster illustrated is that if any kind of weather is on the way, not just hurricanes, it's prudent to tank up some drinking water just in case.
Amazing. I’m a Houstonian here and we were knocked out for the week. Thanks for spurring me to get more wool!
I love so much that historical reenactment helped you!!! I've heard of SO many examples of this, it's crazy. There is even a book series based around a huge situation where the modern world is put into complete 'darkness' because of a world-wide power outage, and people in historical reenactment groups automatically had the upper hand straightaway due to their knowledge of how to survive 'off the grid,'so to speak. I know I've learned a ton so far- and I've only been active in my local group for maybe 5 years collectively. I absolutely LOVE that you wore your garb during the outage!!! I'm a new vewer/sub, so I'm just now watching this video long after all of this craziness, but I have relatives in Dallas who are not part of the historical reenactment world and I know how hard it was on them. ☹ Anyways, I'm off to watch some more of your videos now, seeing as how your main persona is close to my own preferred focus (1300s France). Cheers! ♥️
I’m so glad you found me! I think I’ve read at least the first book in that series…
This is a better explanation than half the dedicated commentary channels who covered this event. Thank you very much.
Oh wow thank you!
As a Midwesterner who’s been years without a real winter, I get strangely excited when we have a big snow or lose power. 😂
I mean, I was born in Buffalo so I know from blizzards. But it’s different when a snow day and power loss isn’t “excuse to slow down and self care” and is more “how many people are going to die from this?”
Michigander transpanted to Texas here! I do kinda like it when we get a single day of snow down here and it's lovely and sparkling and magical. And it would be different if Texas had ANYTHING like winterization or winter preparedness for its roads or equipment.
Unfortunately, that's not what happened here. My husband and I were without power and water for nearly a week. Even after a childhood spent dealing with legit blizzard after blizzard every year, we NEVER went days without power and water. Our homes were well insulated. We had heavy coats and sweaters in our closets. And, most importantly, we could drive out for supplies knowing a) the roads would be plowed and fairly safe to traverse AND b) the stores would actually be open! I drove around San Antonio for 45 minutes trying to find hot coffee, located a single CVS that happened to share a grid with a nursing home, and drank a coffee-flavored Monster heated by candlelight.
When you're safe and warm and have all the amenities, winter is fun. This was not fun. This was survival mode.
I had no idea you were in TX. Glad you're ok. And oh yeah that post script was epic. Xoxo
I'm glad you made it through. One crisis on top of another, and it's not slowing down. I'm afraid we all might be falling back on our skills more than we might like sooner or later.
-Gilchrist Monaghan, CCK, CW, Midrealm
Military cosplay - perfect. And that twitter thread was to funny. What kind of survivalist doesn't have a pocket knife with a can opener? I have one and that's just because I like camping.
Also: very happy that your okay! This whole saga lends more proof to my hypothesis that us re-enactors and domestic history nerds are the ones you want around if the apocalypse happens. We will not only have warm clothes, we will look fabulous as well.
So glad you and yours made it through this mess safe. ❤️
(That last bit though... lord they are INFURIATING!)
I'm glad you came through this event in good shape. For a number of years my husband and I used empty 2 litre soda bottles wrapped in towels filled with not quite boiling water to keep warm in bed in winter - if you had several you could snuggle them around you quite nicely to keep warm.
About 15 years ago we had a week long power outage thanks to a freak snow weather bomb taking out the power lines in a large (well, large for NZ) area. We had no power for four days and weren't prepared very well (other areas near us were two weeks or more with no power)m, and to be honest we still aren't very well prepared for another such time. Your video is a powerful reminder that such things could easily happen again so I need to get more prepared with things like a cook stove, a way to power up electronic devices, and easy to heat meals. Fortunately we have enough blankets and warm clothes to get by.
Love and solidarity from Memphis TN where we also don't know how to winterize properly and were under a boil water notice for a good week or so.
BRB off to Ikea to buy their stock of tea lights... Brava on your presence of mind and intrepid nature getting through this natural disaster.
Medieval castle dwellers who use textiles to block drafts=my husband. Also, soup maker and keeper of the camp stoves😅
cheers for historical reenactment! I'm glad you and your loved ones stayed warm and fed during the storm.
I can't imagine what you all went through that winter. It looked devastating in statistics, costs and death toll, but to have lived it must have been more than I can comprehend. I have experienced this on a small scale, as we lose power in the winter at times where I live in the PNW for days sometimes. But the larges scale of this storm was historically catastrophic. Thank you for this video. I am an Emergency Management major and doing a project on psychological effects and response, and this was helpful in my research.
It was an entire wreck. I was more prepared than most and it was nerve wracking.
Have I told you I love you? LOL the last part is the best. We're roughly in the same area you are and amazingly never lost power **thanks the cosmos** the only pipe that froze was the kitchen hot water tap because I only dripped the cold tap **rolls eyes at self**
My partners kitchen pipe froze too. It was a hot mess all over.
I'm so glad you made in through with your skills & I'll be sharing this everywhere
I'm so glad you came through this ok! And yes, wind turbines are a thing here in Finland, north of the 60th Northern Parallel and well into the Arctic Circle. They just have to be winterised, like most things in our neck of the woods...
Some friends moved to Texas from Finland and they said that people were confused about how cold they got, not realising that our homes and public buildings are designed and built to maximise the retention of heat. Which is why we're gonna be complaining about things being too warm in the summer, when things are insulated to keep in the warmth and air-conditioning isn't a thing in most private homes 😄
Glad you're doing... as okay as one might considering the circumstances.
Also, I wanted to say thank you for giving a warning before the commercial break, it makes SUCH a difference.
I hate being ambushed by them so I try not to ambush my watchers.
I was a museum docent in an 1840’s museum kitchen in New Orleans. We’re now built for central air, so a month of no power in 90 F + temps was tricky but I had some skills from cooking and more from a childhood in deep rural Louisiana, which was almost 1870 in 1970. Also, Katrina.
We keep having bad storms that rip the grid off the earth and so, living history! Living dangerously in this heat…
Similarly, growing up poor taught me habits that got me through a lot of tough situations. Like you, I face a lot of emergencies knowing I will survive.
I’m so glad y’all were safe! And there is truly nothing warmer than all those lovely wool layers when it’s freezing!
So glad you survived. And thank you for sharing your medieval & modern survival tips. I've always believed that my passion for medieval reenactments & how they lived their lives in medieval times can be very helpful in modern times & during emergencies.
You are a wonderfully 'think outside the box' resourceful person. I admire that. So glad that you, Tornado, and Bran all came through okay. Take care.
There is a huge difference between "prepping" and being prepared. Being prepared is having the kits disaster relief organizations suggest you have and being ready to essentially do bad weather camping in your own house/yard; prepping is arming yourself to be a one-man militia and setting up for a Thanos snap and "The Purge" to happen at the same time turning the world into a "Mad Max"/"Waterworld"/"Solarbabies" situation.
My thoughts precisely. I’ve prepared for another recurrence of this event because Texas has done nothing to improve the grid this past year. But I don’t have a bunker or anything.
Amazing that you were comfortable in so few layers. I'm known to experience convulsive shivering (from feeling chilled) in a 65F room with two layers of thermals (regardless of fiber composition), heavy flannel-lined jeans, two sweaters and a polar fleece over a layering shirt (over aforesaid two layers of thermals)... I grew up on Long Island, went to uni in the Boston area, spent 20 years in Queens, and have been living in central NJ since 2004... so you'd think I'd be used to the cold. (I am, but as long as I can come in out of it to a very warm abode. Quickly. Unless I'm on a long bicycle ride...)
As far as catastrophes, I've been lucky. In 2001, my office's phone service was on a trunk that served a hospital, and Verizon was very good about putting up portable cell sites (our company ran off my cell phone for two weeks until the regular phone service was restored). After Sandy (2012), we were only out of power for two days, but I had customers who were without power/phone/heat for close to a month. Jar candles were very popular for heating rooms (tapers throw off more light than heat)... the things we learned about candles that year!
Sandy was a couple years after I moved away from NJ but I remember all my friends being Not Okay there for a while when it hit
Bravo! As a CW re-enactor I use wool blankets when I need them, and any power outage is an opportunity to light up the candle lanterns. I live in Florida, and I lived here in 2004 when four hurricanes just about wiped out the state.
I remember that!
So glad you are all okay. And I love your closing commentary!!!
Hello from Atlantia. I am so glad you are all safe and I wish you had better safeguards in place so that never happens again.
Real prepper list
1.1 gallon water per person per day
2. Alcohol (Everclear) for fuel
3. Wool clothing(blankets, hats,etc.)
4.dried rice, beans, or pasta
5. Canned goods for taste with #4
6. Unglazed terracotta pot for heat warmers and water filtration
7. A pack of lighters
8. Candles or oil lamps
9. Wet wipes
10. A good attitude and floss
I very much appreciated this video! Glad you're safe!
I really, really appreciated this video. I wish I could like it several times!
This video has motivated me even more to keep working on my history inspired winter wool wardrobe. Silk is an amazing insulator for heat, so I just might have to make me a dress made of it. Glad to know you weathered the storm! Looking forward to the hood video!
Wool and silk are the safest fibres in the cold, as they are the only ones that retain their insulating properties even when wet.
@@ragnkja other animal fibres like cashmere and alpaca are also warm when wet.
@@laulutar
In this context, “wool” is a much broader term than “sheep’s wool”, but I’m glad you’re clarifying it for those who need the clarification.
@@ragnkja that's fair 😊 I'm a knitter and a linguist, so I couldn't help myself. I get very excited when talking about different animal fibres and their characteristics 😄
@@laulutar
Better to clarify than to risk someone freezing because they don’t realise that they have suitable clothes 😊
Glad you survived the snow-pocolypse. I enjoyed your epilogue this time too. We have always used our SCA skills in bad weather. Living in Colorado gives us a lot of practice. Looking forward to more videos.
Thank you very much for the break down on how you made it through. I am very glad that you didn't experience the worst of situations, even if you never should have experienced them in the first place! (Shakes fist at ECOT) My family is also SCA members and I was mentally ticking off all the things we have around the house that would have also worked, where we to be in the situation. I think I will be adding more wool items to out clothing bins soon. ;) I look forward to all your postings!
Greetings and Salutations from AnTir! Audiobooks as a modern Skald on demand. I love it. We are in Washington State so didn't experience the trial that you did but one modern thing that I have used when our power goes out here in winter ( which it does fairly regularly due to above ground power lines and wind) is the 12 volt mattress heater I use for cold nights at events. I have a camping battery that I can solar charge and it keeps the bed nice and warm. I have also found that my medieval clothing is more comfortable when the power is out though I stick to my modern shoes.
So glad you and the tornado made it ok. I didn't know you were in Texas but whew. The winter event hit our area a week before your area and I was grateful for thick stockings and layers under my skirt.
Wool stockings and layered skirts are my go-tos for warming the lower body on the coldest winter days. For upper body warmth, knit woollens are the most convenient for me, simply because that’s what I have.
Fascinating video, very informative! I'm in Europe, so I lacked information necessary to understand most of this. I was tearing my hair in front of the TV, going: "How can this be? How?" Thank you for explaining so well.
Having been aware of medieval &pioneer/ proto electricity survival/living for decades, @ timestamps 2:52, I am picturing the entire state of Texas shutting down for weeks & your household breaking out the camp gear for a major/long event & doing everything as you would in a encampment, possibly inviting neighbors to share your fire...
Ok, back to watching
(Second steeping of Irish Breakfast tea, for warmth & hydration)
That’s basically what happened!
@@OpusElenae
Indeed.
And next year, even in your tiny apartment, you will be ready! (I hope.)
Today, pottage is basically cleaning out the veg bin and tossing in whatever leftovers are available.
Well done you for being smart enough to "go back" in time to survive!
Amazing. Glad you and yours have come through and are good.
I love you. I'm sorry you went through all that, but it is so awesome that you learned so much and are willing to share with us. I just found you because a friend posted the link to this video, and this alone made me want to subscribe. You are one handy woman with many useful skills, and I admire that :)
Creoso; welcome! I'm glad to be able to share my experience with people.
You bring up sooo many important points that I hope more people take notice of (& decide to do something productive about)! Hug. Good day, m'lady. Keep finding & making reasons to smile.
I first made this video because my friends in Germany were like “HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN.” I have less than no hope that anyone with the power to effect change will give a single fuck about fixing this though.
So glad everything turned out okay I definitely have enjoyed the benefits of a medieval wardrobe in the winter here in Utah
So glad you and your loved ones are safe. Best wishes from MS.
BRILLIANT video! I’m so glad you and your family are ok, despite that very apt post-script.
Hey! I just met you this past Gulf!
It was great to find this video as I keep talking to my friends about how learning these medieval skills can go a long way to smoothing out emergencies in life. Now I can point people to your first hand experiences!
Oh hey! I’m so glad we got a chance to meet! I’m glad this was useful; it seems to get a spike every winter something goes wrong…
Love this video! Thank you for your explanation of what happened; I'm a native Texan, and if not for nearby hospitals making the neighborhood a grid priority, my loved ones would have been in serious trouble. My parents, survivors of the "Great Depression" poverty, considered laying in stocks of food, enough for months or even years, as a normal thing everyone would do, if they could. They could, and they did, starting with dried beans and grains--pottage ingredients! Buying a bit of land? Start planting! Because--you never know! Now I'm thinking, as long as you have the right clothes, water and fire, dried beans and grains (and dried meat or salted pork, if you're not vegetarian), you can outlast a lot of winter weather. I've had to go without power during a bad, lengthy historical cold snap before, and I heartily approve of your whole message. Good advice!
I’m much better prepared for a repeat storm this year, but it grinds my cookies that nothing has been done to improve the infrastructure.
Just found your video 😊 . It's 2023 December and it looks like Texas is up for another round of "Winter" , wishing you well.
I am happy you made it though without any major blips. Been thinking about all my Texas friends. Scadian strong gets you through.
I live where snow and cold is normal in the winter. My heavy Viking coat, Rus hat, and square cloaks live in my car so if I ever get stuck somewhere in the snow, I have them. Hobby where we wear funny clothes is helpful in a survival situation. At least once a summer, I have to use my camping lanterns during a thunderstorm that knocks out power, and have used them in spring and fall wind storms too.
Brilliant - one of the best explanations and descriptions of what Texans experienced last month and why - I hear your pain anger and fear in this episode but i also hear your strength humour resilience spirit courage resourcefulness and creativity
Thank you, this is exactly what I was going for and I’m really glad it came through.
We're in Houston and live near both an urgent care and a firehouse so I can't really overstate how incredibly lucky we were, we did lose power quite a bit but not nearly as long as other people. We also have a charcoal grill and had our hurricane supplies all stocked up so we made it through okay, just alot of blankets and not leaving the bed.
I dread the thought that we're going to have to prepare for winter storms on top of having to worry all throughout hurricane season, but I'm so worn out I don't really think our elected officials are going to do anything to help us so winter prepping it is.
On the plus side, we already had our blanket tapestries up because we found out they work very well for keeping the heat out during the summer too! I'm thinking of looking into something more decorative than extra blankets, maybe we'll lean into the castle look.
This is SUCH a great resource! I was expecting the info about clothing, warming food and water, and insulating your home. I was not expecting but am UTTERLY DELIGHTED with your clear concise explanations of what happened! :) Thank you and glad you and yours are well!
Also: soup recipe? :)
Aw thank you! I hope it helps people understand better. Also the soup recipe can be found in the cards on that part, but I’ll also add it to the description just in case of weird glitches.
@@OpusElenae oh right! I forgot you said the cards not the description! :)
@@lizzyrbits1283 it can’t hurt to have it in both places so you don’t have to go back!
I was incredibly, and i mean INCREDIBLY lucky to live in a place where I share a grid with the hospital, and so never lost power, but I definitely think I need to rekindle my blanket hoard for the next time I inevitably move, because I'm sure that this cold weather will continue (especially because I am a perpetually cold cactus who thinks 50 is cold). Seriously so glad you and Tornado were safe, and the candle stove is GENIUS in the pinch y'all were on
I'm glad you two are okay!
I'm so glad you're safe! I'm in San Antonio. Our power and water was out and we couldn't get to my parents' house (better than our apartment) for a couple of days. I had my roommates layer clothes and we blocked up the windows too! We also dogpiled on one bed with every blanket in the house and emptied the junk food drawer. Our 'saving grace' was that we use a water dispenser so we had (cold) water the entire time from our fully stocked gallons and we are all candle obsessed so we could play MASH and UNO and board games all night. We got extremely lucky that only our balcony-laundry water pipes froze and nothing got ruined but the wall.
I consider myself somewhat a prepper, not like those kinda preppers, so I can't wait to read the twitter thread. Growing up where I live (moved back to take care of my father) we would have ice storms/power outages once a year at least, and maybe that contributed to my love of history and doing things by candle light. I worried a lot about our friends in TX and I'm glad they and you faired well as it must have been an unsettling time. Thank you for this video.
This was so interesting, informative and very well explained!
Be warned with the butane camping stove in the cold, it burns much lower in cold temperatures, so it might not be as potent as you expect if it's very cold. Honestly warming the canister up with your hands before turning it on can help it get hot enough to keep going strong
Good note, thank you!
Really interesting to listen to your power grid issues and to the impact of constuction styles.
It’s been a Hot Mess. And we’re going into this winter with less reserve than last year.
@@OpusElenae There is youre idea for a video on upping the prepearedness
The post-apocalyptic neo-midages have started.
Next step: Splitting the atom with an axe. (18:54)
A hand-pumped water purifier is useful. It’s small enough to be packed in. Attaches to a Nalgeen bottle. Uses a ceramic filter. Not terribly expensive