Wood fires put up the cost of your House Insurance here, by quite a large %.

Been here 10 years, never had a power cut that lasted so long that the house got cold, so don't worry about that.

We get regular outages but they only last a few seconds. The only proper powercut I've experienced was that of August 2003, when we were without power in Ontario for about 12 hours. The principal problem involved there was keeping the beer cold.

We do maintain a fairly rudimentary emergency kit. We have a propane stove and gas bottles, along with a "normal" telephone and candles. We always have lots of water, wine, beer and cigarettes, and our larder is well-stocked with non-perishables. The freezer contains plenty of stuff that can be cooked in a saucepan. Bear in mind that a powercut in mid-winter doesn't necessarily mean that the contents of the fridge/freezer are lost. My garage gets colder than my fridge.

I guess if we had a winter power cut that lasted for more than an hour, we'd check the car radio for news. A cut in Gatineau doesn't have to mean that Ottawa is without power and vice-versa (different systems). There are places we can go in Ottawa, if needs be.

Souvette's mum is well-prepared. After the big ice storm, which left her without power for a couple of weeks in mid-winter, she installed a log burner that ties in with the ducting. She has a lot of wood. Like many of her generation, she also has a cold store in the basement. There is enough non-perishable food in there to keep a large family going for a fortnight.

Yes but by the time of the big blackout I was living in the Beach. That was a bit of a bother, I had to walk home due to not being able to buy petrol (the pumps are electric). My parents, who were visiting at the time, had planned to go out to dinner with one of my exes but couldn't due to all the restaurants being closed so they invited her over and barbecued. That meant I was displaced, left to wander the streets in the dark. Unpleasant but, my brother, who lives rurally, has had a worse run with loss of power, at one time they were cut off for a week.

Now we lose power briefly a couple of times a week and for a day or so a couple of times a year. We should really have a generator but we haven't so, when it snows, we fill buckets with water (the well pump's electric). The only direct effect the unreliable power has had is that we don't have an aquarium in this house due to be too mean to shell out for a UPS.

i was just about to be served my madras last night at an indian on 16th ave n - calgary (sounds like nascar)when the power went out on the whole block, eventually they found some 'illuminating' tea candles, after eating in the dark, had to pay by visa using the old school swipe machine via flash-light (torch-light)

am not sure if it would have tasted better if i could have seen it...