No, not the 60s Brit vocal band. I refer here to that ancient bed warmer known as the hot water bottle.
With the advent of electricity, the humble hot water bottle (known to many from childhood as a “holly-bolly” or the derivations thereof) fell from favor, hanging on mostly as a palliative for things like muscle strains and sports injuries (filled either with hot- or icy water, depending on need), and the world switched to electric blankets and so on.
Well, this is all well and good; but when the electricity fails, what then?
One of the SHTF necessities I’ve mentioned often before is a butane-powered camping stove, or its smaller (and cheaper) domestic equivalent like this one:
You can of course go with the two-burner Coleman type (which is better if you’re needing to cater to a family, for instance), but I’ve always found the single to be perfectly adequate, plus it’s safer to use indoors for short periods.
Now what does this have to do with the holly?
Well, coupled with a camp kettle:
…this means that when the power goes and you don’t have access to any other heat source like a fireplace or gas heater, all you need to do is heat up some water on the camp stove, fill the holly and huddle under the blanket / duvet / whatever to keep warm.
I know, this sounds so self-evident that it invites ridicule; but at the same time, back in 2015 when most of Texas was without electricity for nearly three weeks(!), our family was caught short in the personal-heating department because we had no hot water bottles. (Of course, we had lots of electric blankets and foot warmers, a leftover from our sojourn in Chicago; but in Chicago they can handle brutal winters. Texas? Not so much, thanks for nothing ERCOT.)
New Wife and I have one each, and when this cruel winter is over I’m going to get another two. (Why? Because two is one and one is none, that’s why. And hollies wear out, especially when you fill it with very hot water — that rubber perishes, ask me how I know this.)
Yet another example of how sometimes, the old things just work better when modernity comes up short.