Getting ready to power down for Power Off!

We here at the (almost) car-less family are very excited about tomorrows Power Off weekend.In a way it has almost (almost!) eclipsed Xmas as THE topic of the moment in our house. Even a trip into town to buy the last of the children's presents turned into a buying-things-for-Power-Off trip!

In preparation for tomorrow we have brought candles, a wind up torch and a solar outdoor light. The theory behind the light being that it MIGHT be useful to bring inside at night and have in the bathroom so the kids have a little safe light if they get up in the night. It remains to be seen if the solar light will get enough daylight to a)fully charge and b)last into the night and not be run down by midnight. Be very interesting to see how all these little things work, and that's the main reason we are doing this experiment, to give us the opportunity to think away from the norm, to look at the power we have and wonder how else we can implement it.

The weather at the moment is looking good for the weekend and so I hope that most of the daylight hours can be spent outside. We will in any case have to make sure that wood is chopped and horses done in the daylight anyway, but the plan is to make sure the kids have enough opportunity to blow off steam before dark.

Tomorrow will be tricky for us as we will lose some of our precious daylight due to running an event for the Bennachie Access Team tomorrow, but with some thought it should be fine.

The inside, dark, activities will be Xmas orientated, so paper chains, card making (and writing) and snowflakes will be the order of the day.
We also have cards, noughts and crosses, hangman and even i-spy if it gets too rough!
To honest though I am not planning every second for them. They can draw and play with their toys without electric lights so they can be encouraged to do that as well.

So today I am spending washing clothes so that school clothes will be ready for Monday, baking so we have some "treats" and tidying up, so we don't fall over in the dark!

I'll be taking pictures and keeping notes and will be back online on Monday!
Have a great weekend!