4 days with no power and we're still eating the mayonnaise

We live in an area of Alabama that was affected by the recent storms. We didn't get hit by an actual tornado, but 100 mph straight line winds will take down trees, power lines, and roofs.

I woke up at 5:15 to the sound of the tornado sirens, the sight of the love of my life fumbling with the TV remote and just after 6 AM, we finally peeked outside and were greeted with this:

Now, that massive oak tree has a 15 foot circumference at its base (we used string and then measured the string) and used to provide the loveliest shade in our side yard every afternoon. The neighbor thinks it is 100 years old but I think closer to 200, unfortunately, the chainsaws couldn't get through the trunk for us to count.
So! It was 6:30 AM and there was a tree across the road on top of our power lines. Despite the fact that no one had had their caffeine yet, we were all wide awake. It was time for a little damage control.

The first thing I did was 'splain to the kids that complaining would not get them any results and not to make a bad situation worse.
The second thing was make sure that they all understood that my deep freeze was strictly OFF limits. I knew it would be several days before I even needed to look at the food in it to see if it was thawing out.
Then I called next door to see if they were ok because the tree was in their yard, too.

For the rest of the day, we all wandered around the neighborhood, looking at each other's trees and chatting about how it would be no easy fix. Well, all except for Alpha Man, HE spent the day napping. OK, OK, not the whole day...he did build me this ultra-fancy, high tech grill with cinder blocks from the garden and the bottom rack of the oven.

I had to be able to cook but didn't want to heat up the house using the stove, which is gas. I didn't even remember that I could light it manually until my beautiful mother in law told me. She may have saved the day with that, because at least we could have sweet tea. Here is a side view before we made some adjustments.

Now we had a method of cooking, so I set about looking through the fridge for things that needed to be eaten. I hate wasting food. We all ate ice cream that afternoon and grilled hot dogs that night.
Day 2 is when we realized that it would be days of no power. The street department came, though, and cut up the tree until they couldn't anymore, then they cleared the road by shoving the massive trunk aside with a tractor (I kid you not!) and moving on. That day, I emptied the fridge for the most part, ummmm...sortof....we ate scrambled eggs for lunch and I moved everything that needed it into the freezer compartment and stuck half a bag of ice in. The other half was in a cooler with some insulin. While I was in the freezer, I felt up a package of chicken breasts and they were still frozen in spite of the fact that we were in and out of the fridge getting things so I figured no worries. We also had many things in the cooler like the cheese, which we were nibbling on, and stuff like mayo.

In the meantime, we were all taking walks and sitting on the porch reading books and playing board games. At this time, the youngest son said "I like it when the power is out. We all pay attention to each other and not electronics!"

Day 3 is the day I took the hand saw and cleared off the branches on our trampoline. The other neighbor's tree fell onto it. That wasn't the first time a tree has fallen onto it, but the other time we just repaired the net and it was fine. The boys love the trampoline so much but after getting it cleared off, I discovered the frame is broken. The neighbor has offered to help get a new one but I hate asking when I know they are going to be spending a few thousand bucks clearing their yard of fallen trees. We ate supper at the church.

The next day, I went to the store and bought several bags of ice and as soon as I got home, we opened up the deep freeze and I felt around for things that were getting soft and shoved ice into all of the holes. I cooked my husband some lunch over a campfire with his late grandmother's cast iron Dutch oven, using things that needed to be eaten anyway. I threw into the hot pot a package of sausages, then cut straight into it an onion, a squash, a zucchini, threw in a can of black beans and another of tomatoes and let it cook.

In the end, it looked like this...It would have been awesome served over some rice. That's his grandmother's spoon, too.

At about 8 PM on the 4th day, the power men who came from North Carolina turned our electricity back on. They let it run all night and then turned it back off on Sunday morning  to do some more work. It was turned back on at about 5 PM.
In spite of the fact that everyone I know personally threw out the entire contents of their freezers and refrigerators, I did not and I don't think anyone will be any the worse for wear. I'm not the only person who saved their food, as I spoke with several people in stores who were just as determined as I was and buying many bags of ice. I would say that this choice may not be for everyone, so always go by your USDA guidelines for food safety.