Hurricane Prep

We're preparing for the possible landfall of Hurricane Sandy. I thought I'd post a small list of things I've learned from past experiences when preparing for an emergency. It's by no means comprehensive, but I'll put some links for other sites that talk about preparing for a hurricane below.

These things apply for a storm that you know is coming and that you have advance warning that you can prepare for.

1. Get caught up on all your chores like washing dishes, laundry, and that toilet or bathtub you've been putting off for a couple weeks! There is nothing so stressful as facing a power outage with a sinkful of dishes. Believe me! I know!

2. Have some cash handy. ATMs aren't solar powered!

3. Have a good supply of paper plates, paper towels, and plastic utensils. Who wants to do a ton of dishes in the face of an emergency? Not me!

4. Have a toilet back-up plan just in case. You never know!

5. Clean up your yard of anything lying around. The last thing you want is the rake flying at your window.

6. If you're able to - have a generator. They go for as little as $650 for a house electricity-wise and the price goes up from there. It's something good to save for! If there is a power outage, it can save the food in your fridge, keep your water running if you're on a well like me, (or keep your sump pump running - an essential in heavy rains!) and keep you warm as we head deeper into autumn.

7. Be prepared with alternative cooking methods. Even having some meals that just need boiled water or are heat and serve can drastically reduce your stress!

Just keep in mind that where you live can drastically change how you need to prepare for a major storm or hurricane. Are you in a flood zone? Which one? (Different numbers mean different levels of risk.) Is evacuation something you could face?  Do you have a lot of trees around? Would they threaten your home if they should fall? (The biggest cause of power outages is fallen trees/tree branches!) The weather guys are saying because a lot of trees haven't lost their leaves, there is a lot more surface area for the wind to blow around and increases the likelihood of downed branches.

How to Survive a Hurricane - scroll through the pictures. The information is to the right of each picture. It's a really great list!

72-Hour Kit ideas - The text is a bit funky, but the information looks helpful.

FEMA has a lot of great info and resources:
FEMA - Hurricanes
FEMA - Heavy Rains
FEMA - Basic Disaster Supplies Kit
FEMA - Blackouts
FEMA - Protecting Your Home from Hurricane and Wind Damage  (downloadable document)

Red Cross Disaster Safety Library

If you're on the east coast - good luck and be prepared early!

Seven Day Challenge - Day 7

It's the final day! I think they're giving us a break after yesterday's doozie. It's a day of service and I was actually planning on doing this today anyway!

Our neighbor is kindly letting us use his camper for when my husband's parents come to stay tomorrow, and since he refused payment, I was going to make him a batch of pecan sticky rolls - his favorite. I was also going to make another batch for his dad since our neighbor says the recipe I use tastes just like his mom's who has since passed away. He was willing to pay me, but I also refused payment. Service in return for service! I'll have to make 3 batches of sticky rolls today!

FoodStorage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 7 (Tuesday)

~ Everyday Emergency ~

Day of Service for Others

Today you felt a prompting to do an act of service for someone in need. A dear friend is really struggling and it would be very helpful if you brought him/her a meal or a special treat. You have a super busy day with no time to run to the store, but you still want to make something NICE.

Goal: Have a go-to meal or treat on hand for “emergency” acts of service

Today’s Tasks:

·         Cook either a full dinner or a special treat for someone in need (be prayerful/thoughtful about this and really try to find someone you can do this for)

·         Use only ingredients from your food storage

·         Make a list of 2 meals and 2 treats that you can always create from your storage that would be nice enough to give to another family. Make sure you keep the ingredients on hand for them (add to your report card if necessary)

·         Once you have performed your “act of service” you are DONE with the challenge!

·         Compile all your report cards from the week into a master list of things to do, learn, and buy (use our master plan outline to help guide you)

·         SHARING TIME: Post a picture of the meal or treat you made on ourFacebook page and/or share the story of the act of service you performed in either blog comments or on Facebook

Today’s Limitations:

·         For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants

·         AFTER you have completed your act of service you can go and get a donut or a big gulp or whatever other indulgence you have been missing out on all week!

Advanced Tasks:

·         Cook your meal or treat without power

·         Make a double batch and freeze one for an act of service on another day

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING, WE HOPE YOU JOIN IN AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

Need to Buy: Some more pecans to store in the fridge would be a good idea. More chocolate chips too. I like to make a big batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and freeze it for making last minute cookies. (or to eat the dough... Mmmm!)

Need to Do: Maybe make a few mix-in-a-jar recipes for even easier treats.

Need to Learn: I think I'm good!

Seven Day Challenge - Day 6

This one took me by surprise. I guess I kind of knew it was possible, but the actuality was a bit of a shock. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate, and I know this is one that we need the most work on. My in-laws are coming into town in a couple days and I needed to buy food and focus on getting ready. So, I had to break the rules and go shopping! :-(

We do have 72-hour kits, but the water is separate. To be honest, I was super intimidated by the fact that my husband was at work and I would have had to evacuate with my children alone. This is probably pretty realistic - that my husband would most likely not be home during a day-time disaster. Even he has his own little safety bag he has at his desk with supplies.

So, if I had been able to participate, I would have gone upstairs and grabbed our tent, sleeping bags, and our 72-hour kit bags - more like hauled our bags down because they're heavy - and loaded them into the car. I still have water storage I brought up from the cellar so I would have loaded that into the car along with our external hard drive (that automatically backs up every couple hours), our financial binder and some valuables. The sad thing about evacuating is that  right now I can think of a lot of things that are valuable - our photo albums with photos yet to be scanned, journals, my countless hours of research, writing I've done since I was in 1st grade... What do you do about things like that? Things that are irreplaceable? *sigh*

Anyway, I think we would have done fairly well with this challenge, except for the stress level. It's a good thing I have some essential oils in my purse for anxiety, because I would have really needed it! See, this is why we need more practice, so that it's not so stressful and the kids can even play their part.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 6 (Monday)

~ Natural Disaster ~

Evacuation & 72-Hour Kits

A horrible hurricane (or earthquake, or other disaster) is about to hit your area. You have to evacuate within minutes and eat out of your 72 hour kits today. While you were gone your house was destroyed. Lots to think about today.

Goal: Test your family’s evacuation plan and 72 hour kit foods

Today’s Tasks:

• Evacuate your house within 15 minutes of getting today’s email. You do not know if your house will be destroyed while you are gone so plan accordingly. Stay away until after lunchtime
• Eat/drink ONLY out of your 72 hour kits until you return home
• While you are out, make a list of potential reasons you may be forced to evacuate. For each scenario, write down where you would go, what type of stuff you would need in your kits, how long you’d be gone, etc. Use this list to re-evaluate what you may or may not include in your kits.
• Make a list of all of your valuables to submit to your insurance company since your house was destroyed while you were gone (this is more valuable to have BEFORE you actually lose everything)
• Using the daily report card, make a list of things you could do/buy to minimize your losses in a complete house loss (i.e. Fireproof/waterproof safe, computer backup options, safety deposit box for valuables, etc.)
• SHARING TIME: Post a picture or description of one of your 72 hour kit meals on our facebook page or in the blog comments
  
  

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants
• You can’t eat or drink anything besides what is in your 72 hour kits until dinnertime
• You must stay away from home until after lunch

Advanced Tasks:

• Eat out of your 72 hour kits for dinner too
• Evacuate overnight using only supplies from your disaster kit
• Contact your insurance company and find out details about what would be covered in a total loss situation like this

Need to Buy: Unscented glycerin soap (If you have regular bar soap, even in a ziploc bag, it makes your whole bag reek!), camp dishes?, 50-foot nylon rope, extra shoes for hubby & kids?

Need to Do: Update our home inventory. Relocate our 72-hour kits to the downstairs closet. Keep some water with our kits.

Need to Learn: How to lighten our load and have bags that are easier to carry.

Seven Day Challenge - Day 5

I told you it was coming! No power cooking day! Just this morning I was heating up some homemade instant oatmeal in the microwave (how lame, because I could just heat up water...) and thinking I bet today's the day for powerless cooking. I must have a 6th sense for this or something, because I was totally right. So, the oatmeal was a powerless cooking appropriate meal, I just took a shortcut. :-) For the rest of the day we had leftover tuna fish sandwiches, and for dinner we had campfire burritos! Mmmm! They were so good! We cooked the meat and the rice separately on the fire using our volcano stove and then mixed the meat and rice, salsa, cheese and black beans all together and filled the tortilla shells. Then we wrapped the burritos in foil and cooked them over coals for about 3 minutes on each side. They turned out awesome!

Welcome to the 7 Day Challenge. For 7 days, we are testing our Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage Plans. Each day will bring a NEW mock emergency, or situation that will test at least one of the reasons “WHY” we strive to be prepared! REMEMBER: No going to a store, or spending any money for the entire 7 days! And please feel free to adapt the scenarios to fit your own family and situation.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 5 (Sunday)

~ Every Day Emergency ~

Power Failure

A drunk driver struck a power line near your house today. Power is out in your entire neighborhood all day long. You must cook meals for your family using no electricity, and make a NICE Sunday dinner! You must also entertain yourself (and your family members) without electronics (the HORROR).

Goal: Practice living without electricity

Today’s Tasks:

• Cook all three meals without electricity
• Make a NICE Sunday dinner from scratch (no opening up a can of ravioli)
• Do something FUN that doesn’t involve power
• Do an inventory of your fuel storage, how many meals can you cook with the fuel you have stored?
• Review one of our powerless cooking classes (online class or recorded live class)
• SHARING TIME: What tools/fuel did you use to cook without power today? Share a picture or description on our Facebook page or on the blog comments!

Realistically, if we were without power we would lose our water because our well pump is powered by electricity which would stink! I fixed my kids oatmeal this morning (homemade instant) in the microwave (oops!), but to do it without power I would have used either our volcano stove or our butane camp stove to heat up the water. Luckily I found a kettle at the thrift store a month or so ago! 

Need to Buy: A generator! I have my eye on a Goal Zero Generator. We also need dutch oven with legs and lid, more InstaFire fuel (5 gal. bucket), outdoor cooking utensils for cast iron, a hook for lifting lids and grills. 

Need to Do: Pull dead wood from our 1/3 acre forest, chop it up and stack it in the lee of the shed. (Right now we just have a huge pile of dead branches. It's a pain every time we want to have a campfire!)

Need to Learn: More outdoor cooking recipes! I also need to up my coal-fire cooking skills. It's been a long time since I did hearth cooking at Conner Prairie and I am really rusty. 

This challenge was great, because it really brought out the glaring, gaping holes in our supplies and skills when it comes to powerless cooking. My goal is eventually to work up to doing one powerless cooking meal a week. Right now, maybe every other week since my husband is in school. 

P.S. If you're interested in a volcano stove (they are so awesome!), I'd recommend you'd get one from Emergency Essentials during Black Friday after Thanksgiving. They have them for an awesome sale!

Seven Day Challenge - Day 4

It's Day 4 - Helping Those in Need! This one is an interesting one. As I'm the primary cook, cleaner, teacher (we homeschool), child-care giver this would be quite the challenge for our family. I'm not sure how realistic it would  be for me to leave without my children. We can't afford childcare, so realistically I would probably bring the kids with me and maybe enlist the help of family members? My mom is in Utah and so are my husband's parents. I think I'll have to do some tweaking to this challenge to fit our family's situation...

Update - Well, this one has been harder to wrap my head around than the others. Realistically, if I had to leave I would take the kids with me because they're so young. My husband already knows all my passwords for stuff and he handles most of the finances. We do have a will purchased for both of us, but we do need to fill it out.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge - Day 4 (Saturday)

~ Economic Crisis ~

Helping Those in Need

One of your elderly parents (or grandparents, or dear friend, or child) is having severe health problems and can no longer afford home health care. You were asked to come and live with them for 2 months to help out with their day to day living and have to leave TOMORROW. Today you must help your family prepare for you to have an extended “leave of absence”. If you are single focus on getting your own affairs settled.

Goal: Teach your family knowledge and skills that depend on you

Today’s Tasks:

• Teach the other members of your household how to do any tasks that normally fall to you (i.e. laundry, cooking basics, mowing the lawn, car maintenance, etc.)
• Make sure to pass any financial information on to your spouse, significant other, or another family member. (Use this questionnaire we made last year as a starting point of the type of info you should pass on)
• If you’re the one in charge of managing the family schedule and routines, write it all out and make assignments or arrangements for how the family could make it without you
• If you live alone, make a plan for who would look after your house/affairs if you had to leave suddenly
• Make a list of all your logins for important websites that family members may need to access. Either print it and put it somewhere secure or save it in a secure manner on your computer
• SHARING TIME: What is the ONE task that would be hardest for someone else to take over if you were gone for two months? Share in the blog comments or over on our Facebook page.

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• No other limitations today.

Advanced Tasks:

• After teaching your family how to do your “jobs” actually leave for the day and make them DO THEM.
• If you’re single or don’t have a large household, pass along the information to a friend or family for taking care of your house and affairs FOR REAL. Not just a plan for “in case”.

Need to Buy: We're good!

Need to Do: Create a collection of recipes that are easy to make/easy to follow for my husband since he rarely cooks. If my husband were to leave, I would need a list of bills that need to be paid and when as he usually takes that job on. He does have me practice now and then so I'm not totally clueless, which is a good thing as we do most bill paying online and we use a finance software my husband wrote that has it's own little quirks.  

Fill out our wills.

Need to Learn: We're good!

Seven Day Challenge - Day 3

I was afraid it would be a no electricity day, but I am so glad it wasn't. After yesterday's stress of having no running water, I needed a break. Having a medical/health challenge today was a relief! I actually feel pretty good about this one!

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge – Day 3 (Friday)

Health Benefits

Medical Issues and Concerns

Health care costs in your country have gone through the roof. Battles are waging between government, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. All doctors have gone on strike leaving a gaping hole in available medical care in your community. Today will focus on what you will need to do to prepare your family for all kinds of medical emergencies, including getting yourselves healthier to avoid dependence on medications (if at all possible) and/or medical interventions.
Goal: Get your family’s medical history & supplies in order and get healthy!

Today’s Tasks:

• Prepare a family medical plan to include in your Emergency Binder (see this sample medical plan a reader sent to us. You can be this thorough or just jot down some simple info for your family.)
• Do an inventory of your home medical supplies. Add items to your daily report card that you need to purchase. (There is an awesome comprehensive list of suggestions found on this post Modern Survival Blog)
• Print out instructions for basic first aid procedures (there are some helpful guides found at this link)
• Review our notes from the CPR/First Aid class we attended at our church, then look up when there is a formal class in your area and SIGN UP for it
• Research any specific medicines you are taking, find out how you can stock pile some, make a plan for how to keep them refrigerated if necessary, etc. (Also consider if making lifestyle changes could help reduce your dependency on them)
• Since living a healthy lifestyle is so important for disease prevention, cook healthy meals AND do a physical activity as a family (if applicable) today

Successes -

1. I have been slowly building up a supply of essential oils and learning how to use them for various health concerns. It's something that takes time and practice and isn't something that can be absorbed at the time of emergency. The great things about essential oils is that if you keep them in a cool, dark place they don't expire like OTC/prescription medicines. Also, I am able to replace everything in our medicine cabinet with something that actually works. (I have wasted a lot of money on medicines that don't work for me like cold medicine!) Also, a few months ago I restocked our band-aid and 1st aid supplies. In addition, we have a 1st aid kit upstairs, in the kitchen, and in the car! And I've used them all at some point.

2. Awhile ago I purchased a home medical guide book and two pocket-sized 1st aid guides. I also have a reference book for using essential oils medicinally. 

3. In Excel, I created a basic medical record with each family member listed with their blood type, past and present health conditions, medications being taken, major surgeries, major dental work, and a list of known vaccines received.

4. I just got my prescription filled for 3 months. I feel very fortunate that my medication is very common, inexpensive and it's not a problem to get 90 days worth.

5. I have our home address, emergency phone numbers, mine and my husband's cell numbers and our house phone printed off, laminated and put in a prominent place so my son can see it. Next to our phone numbers we have our photo so he doesn't have to worry about having to read our names.

6. We got outside as a family and did some yard work clearing out a part of our woods. Hooray!

Failures -

1. Exercise in general. It's the bane of my existence! I need to find some ways of incorporating some fun, easy exercise for me and my kids. If I can disguise it as dancing or yard work or hiking or biking, then I'm good! It's just an effort to do those things. *sigh*

Need to Buy: Multi-vitamins and calcium supplements for us and the kids. Small bottles for essential oils for 1st aid purposes in car and in the kitchen.

Need to Do: Become familiar with my medical guides so I know where to look. Double-check 1st aid kit in the car to see if it needs any refills. (We've actually used some band-aids from there!) Sign 

Need to Learn: Review CPR & 1st aid techniques and teach some basic skills to my 5-year old. (stop, drop & roll, what to do for basic cuts and scrapes, bruises, and other common owies, review 911 and phone numbers.) Find ways of incorporating exercise into our daily life.

Other Notes:

Following the links they gave above, I found this online free pdf of a CPR/1st Aid Guide and FSME's blog post about CPR & 1st Aid Tips.

Also, over at Food Storage Made Easy they have a great post about Your Natural Long-Term Storage Medicine Cabinet. There's some great info there!

Somethings that's dawning on me - Never put off what you can do today. 

Seven Day Challenge - Day 2

So, this morning I took a nice long, hot shower (it had been a few days), and during my shower I thought, "I bet they'll have a water challenge today." I checked my e-mail after I was all nice and clean and sure enough - they did! I didn't mean to cheat, but it sure feels good to be clean! If I had checked my e-mail before my shower I would have been ticked off, but I would have dug out our solar shower and got that set out in the sun to warm up, then set it up in our shower. I still plan to set it up today and give my son a shower with it. I told my husband we'd set it up for him, but he said he was going to wait until tomorrow when it was a different challenge. Spoil sport!

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge - Day 2

~ Natural Disaster ~
Water Service Interruption

Please note: Today is a NEW emergency, none of the limitations listed yesterday apply. Your country is experiencing a WAR and the water purification facility in your area has been bombed. All water services coming to your home have been halted indefinitely. (If you use well water, your well was destroyed too!) Today you will practice living without running water in your home and experience cooking, sanitation, hygiene, etc. with STORED water.

Goal: Learn what your water needs will truly be in an emergency

Today’s Tasks:

• Cook all meals (and CLEAN UP) using only stored water
• Take a shower or bath using stored water (Don’t cheat and skip this one!)
• Use stored water for flushing toilets
• Calculate your usage for the day and use that number to determine how much of a water supply you actually have
• FILL any empty water containers you have been procrastinating on filling
• Make a plan for how you will collect/purify additional water if/when you run out (use your daily report card to help)
• SHARING TIME: Post a picture or a description of the task you found most difficult to do using stored water today on Facebook or in the blog comments.

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants
• Do NOT use running water at all. To help you not cheat, you can turn off your main water supply for the day

Advanced Tasks:

• To conserve water, use a sanitation kit rather than flush stored water down the toilet.
• Get ambitious and do a load of LAUNDRY with stored water.
• Go to the nearest source of fresh water and fill up several water containers and purify it.

 So, what we did, because I know I would accidentally turn on a tap or flush the toilet, was to turn off our water. That's right! We went hard core! And for even more realism, I asked my husband to show me how to do it (he works half time and goes to school half time, so he's home today) and he said he wouldn't show me, but would tell me how to do it. I guess that was more realistic. If he wasn't home I could call him at work and he'd tell me over the phone. 

Anyway, I had to overcome my fear of our cellar (cellar = HUGE spiders!!!), and just bite the bullet to bring up 18 2-liters from our water storage and turn off our water. It wasn't so bad, but there was a gigantic spider hanging out on the underside of the cellar door. My goal today is to sweep out those steps and clear out the cobwebs, so it's not so scary.

Then, of all the inconveniences, last night we chose not to do the dishes. This morning I had a stack of dishes to wash with NO RUNNING WATER. That was a joy, let me tell you! But it was definitely a learning experience.

The whole day went rather well. Even my 5-year-old handled the whole situation rather well. Turning off the water was a good idea. It definitely kept us from cheating. By the end of the day, though, I could feel the stress of not having running water. I don't know how well I'd do for a few days or even a week without running water. I'm sure we'd find a system, but dishes were my biggest enemy even with using paper disposables. We had to cook which creates dishes... 

I needed to do laundry today, but don't really have a good way to do it. I'd like to get a laundry plunger.

Successes -

1. We had drinkable, usable water in our storage. Hooray!
2. We used 9 2-liter bottles of water. By that estimation we have enough water for about 3-4 days and that's if we only take sponge baths. 

3. We used our portable toilet that uses enzymes and liquid absorbing pellets. 

4. We had paper plates, plastic cups, and plastic utensils to use, thus cutting down on dishes to wash.

Failures -

1. I wasted 6 1/2 2-liters of water on the boatload of dishes I had to do.

2. Dishes. It was hard to keep the pile of dishes down.

3. Procrastinated pulling out the solar shower and therefore didn't get to use it. 

Need to Buy:

Paper towels (we use cloth normally, but some disposable would be nice), more paper plates, paper bowls, and disposable sippy cups. 

Canvas bucket in case we have to haul water from the two rivers on either side of us (down a steep hill and across some railroad tracks or across our neighbor's property.) I guess we could drive our car down to the river and fill up our empty 2-liters. That sounds much better than hauling water up a steep hill by hand! 

Also, I'd like one of those big wash tubs to use for baths. That way we could use the gray water afterwards.

We need to have a way of storing more water. 2-liters work well and we have lots of room in our cellar to put them, but I'd like to get a couple 55-gallon drums. We'd have to find a way of filling them though. We only get so much water from our well every day. Our hillside is on the dry side.

I also need bleach to use to refill our 2-liters using our well water since it's not treated.

Need to Do:

Come up with a system for doing laundry, washing dishes, and taking baths. 

Need to Learn:

Water conservation techniques

I am hoping tomorrow isn't a challenge not using electricity. I know they've done them before! I don't know if I could cope!

The Seven Day Challenge Has Begun!

Yesterday the Seven Day Challenge sponsored by the gals over at Food Storage Made Easy started! For some reason I didn't get the e-mail in the morning, so I didn't find out until I checked my google reader later in the day.

Food Storage Made Easy

Seven Day Challenge - Day 1 (Wednesday)

~ Economic Crisis ~
Global Food Shortage

Today’s Tasks:

·         Cook all your meals and snacks using only pantry foods

·         Make a complete meal plan for 7 days (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) using ONLY ingredients you already have in your storage

·         Do an inventory to determine how long your food supply will last you (use our 3 month supply and long term calculators to help

·         SHARING TIME: Take a picture of your meal plan (or type it up) and share iton our Facebook page or in the blog comments

Today’s Limitations:

·         For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants

·         You cannot use any fridge or freezer food (assume it has been used up)

·         You cannot use fresh produce from your garden (pretend it’s winter)

·         You cannot use fresh eggs even if you have chickens (someone stole them)

Advanced Tasks:

·         Make a meal plan for 30 days instead of just 7

·         Add a dessert to your menu tonight as well

·         A huge thunderstorm also struck today and your power is out all day. Cook all meals without power!

Here's my meal plan:

Day 1

B- Pancakes w/ syrup & freeze-dried strawberries

L – PB& J w/ homemade bread

D – Sloppy Joe on Toast w/ freeze-dried peppers and onions

Day 2

B – Beans on toast w/ applesauce

L – leftovers (we almost always eat leftovers for lunch)

D – Pasta w/ meat sauce & canned green beans (or freeze-dried)

Day 3

B – Homemade Instant Oatmeal w/ raisins

L – PB & J

D – BBQ Chicken on bread w/ freeze dried green peas

Day 4

B – scrambled eggs (dehydrated) w/ TVP bacon & toast w/ canned peaches

L – Tuna sandwiches or on crackers

D – ABC soup mix w/ freeze-dried chicken and veggies

Day 5

B – Homemade instant oatmeal w/ dehydrated apples

L – Leftovers

D – Salmon Loaf using canned salmon

Day 6

B – Cold cereal with rice or almond milk (shelf stable)

L – PB&J

D – Black beans & rice w/ diced tomatoes

Day 7

B – 9 grain cracked cereal w/ maple syrup

L – leftovers

D – Chili & Cornbread

After each day's experience, we are supposed to fill out a "report card" to see how we did and where we can improve. Here is what I learned:

Need to Buy:

I didn't have the opportunity to make meals and snacks only from food storage  and nothing from the fridge because I didn't find out until after dinner. Blast it! But, I did do the exercise of making a complete meal plan for 7 days. I still need to figure out how much we have in our food storage. I'm guesstimating about 1 - 2 months worth of food? If we go without a lot of stuff. And I do a lot of baking. 

One thing I learned was that I do not have enough snacks that my kids like to last a week! I also need crackers, more condiments, and some sort of freeze dried or canned cheese. If we can't use anything in our fridge, or we had hypothetically run out I would most miss cheese. I have powdered butter, but I think I would like some canned butter too. (Canning your own is not safe!) I think we need more canned or freeze dried meats. I loved canned salmon, but we've been using it and haven't replaced what we used, so I think we'd run out fairly quickly. 

I'd also like to stock up on more shelf stable milk. My son drinks rice milk and my husband shouldn't drink cows milk, but he does, because it's easy. I would much rather drink shelf stable rice or almond milk than powdered milk any day. Since that's the case, we should really have a good stock of it. 

Need to Do:

Things I need to do an inventory to know how long the food we have would last. We have a lot of staples, but not a lot of the extra stuff that would make life a little nicer and easier.

It would be handy to create at least 2 weeks worth of bag meals - meals that have everything needed to make it including the water all in one bag. If I had to make something from scratch under a stressful situation, having some meals already put together would ease a lot of stress. 

Need to Learn:

To add some fresh food to our diet I can use some things from our garden, but if it's winter time I would like to actually know how to do some sprouting. I've taken a class about it and have some information, but I actually need to just do it.

I'm fairly confident in my skills to be flexible and creative and thrifty with our meals if a situation like this actually happened, but it would be good to expand my recipe repertoire for making food storage meals. Reviewing recipes I already have and trying some out would be good! (preparing with and without power)

My daughter and I need to learn how to drink shelf stable milk on a regular basis. My daughter is 2 and loves drinking cow milk, but if there's an emergency and we couldn't get milk after we'd run out, she would be one unhappy toddler! If she could learn to drink rice milk too, then it wouldn't be as traumatic. 

On to the next challenge!

4 Weeks of Preparedness

This morning I was thinking that I would like to do one thing each week this month to help our family be better prepared. So, here is the list:

1) Update our financial binder.

We keep all our financial documents together in a binder in our safe. It gives me a great peace of mind that they are easily accessible and portable in the case of emergency or evacuation.

We first put the binder together about 3 years ago. We've moved a few times since then and had a baby (who is now 2 1/2!), so it is in sore need of being updated.
Along with the updates, we need to put some protocol in place with both my husband's and my parents in case something should happen to us so that they can know the location of and how to access our documents. It's not something that anyone likes to think about, but it's all part of being prepared for emergencies.

2) Fill out our wills.

Erik and I purchased some state-specific wills online through Dave Ramsey's website for a great deal. Now the next step is to fill them out which is a time-intensive project. However, the wills are no good if they're not filled out! So, this is definitely on the list of things to do to be better prepared.

3) Participate in the 7 Day Challenge sponsored by Food Storage Made Easy.

I got the e-mails for it, but I didn't participate last year. This year I want to see exactly how prepared (or not!) we are.

4) Finish the other half of our storage/food storage shelves.

My husband built these awesome food storage shelves in the side room of our new house. He made a partition to section off the end of the room for a food storage "room", which is more like a food storage "hall". One side has floor-to-ceiling wooden shelving, while the other has our old, recycled university bookstore metal shelves. These shelves are heavy duty and great for storing cans, but there's a lot of wasted high wall space above them, so we'd like to take them out and replace them with wooden shelving. This will be a great project when we have some family in town visiting for a week. :-)

Do you have any projects planned or things you'd like to do for National Preparedness Month?

For fun, check out this article from National Geographic in this month's issue about extreme weather. Very cool! (I used to want to be an earth scientist, but I'm horrible at math and biology eludes me. Hooray for History degrees!)

National Preparedness Month!

Happy September! This month is National Preparedness Month (and the month of my birth...) :-) Today I donated blood to the Red Cross. It was the first time in 7 years! What a great way to kick off a month that encourages people to prepare for emergencies.

Here are some links to help you become better prepared for emergencies this month:

1) Join the Seven Day Challenge with the gals over at Food Storage Made Easy. The challenge will begin on an undisclosed day in September, so sign up ASAP!

2) Check out Ready.gov for good, basic information. If you have kids, be sure to click on the "Kids" tab for some fun preparedness activities you can include your kids on.

3) Learn about the great learning opportunities over at The Survival Mom. She's got some interesting looking preparedness videos too.

4) Pledge to prepare at Fema.gov.

5) If you need to stock up on things, Emergency Essentials, and I'm sure other emergency prep online stores are having sales for National Preparedness Month.

Happy prepping!

Food Storage Survey

Last year at my church's annual Women's Conference I taught an Emergency Preparedness workshop. For this year's conference they've invited me to teach a Food Storage workshop! I am really excited for this opportunity. I love studying about food storage and finding ways of preparing that work for me and my family. (And there are so many ways to go about it.)

I've put together a survey to ask women about their challenges and successes with getting together a 3 months supply of food. If you'd like to take the survey, that would be great! Click HERE.

Cool & Useful Website

I was doing a search for the shelf life of taco shells and came across this really cool site:

Still Tasty: Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide

Check it out!

We're Good!

We were very blessed and have come through the storm unscathed. We fell asleep to the wind and rain beating our house (which strangely reminded me of the winter time...) and woke up to more rain and wind, but less of it and also someone else's aluminum siding in our yard. We did not lose electricity and our basement stayed nice and dry. Yay! We were on the outer edge and so it wasn't nearly as bad as it was for those along the coast.

Preparation: It Doesn't Happen Overnight

For us here in Maryland, Hurricane Irene won't hit until late Saturday evening. Today I went to the store to see if I could maybe get some extra butane fuel for our camp stove and some more D flashlight batteries and some extra C batteries for our radio (even though we have a solar-powered/hand cranked radio too.) I'm sure you've all heard or experienced what happens to stores when people are forewarned about an impending disaster. That's right. All the D and almost all the C batteries were gone and the camping shelves were almost completely bare. We swung by Costco and even though they had just barely opened, the place was swamped and the gas station had a 15-20 minute wait! Wow.

So, you've probably guessed that I did not get my D batteries or extra butane fuel. And that's ok. Usually I'm pretty paranoid and anxious, but with our current preparations that we've done over time (however imperfect they are), I feel at peace that we'll be alright. (Unless our windows get busted...) We are actually on the outside edge of the hurricane's fury and are, so far, told to expect winds of 30-50 mph and 8-12" of rain. I am really feeling it for those coastal people who have it much, much worse. My biggest worry for us is the electricity going out because we have nothing to power our sump pump to keep water out of our basement if we have no electricity. It's difficult being in a rental and having a generator (expensive!) and keeping the fuel on hand somewhere to run it. Not to mention the fear of someone stealing it... Like I said, I can be a little paranoid.

Overall, though, preparing for this storm has been an interesting experience thus far. It's been an emotional test for myself, the worrier, and I really am amazed at the peace that I have while so many people have fear and are running to the stores to stock up on anything and everything - a financial burden all at once, to be sure.

To use a Biblical example: Noah did not build the ark in one day. He didn't start to build when the rains had started and the fountains of the earth had burst forth. He prepared for quite some time before hand. Emergency preparedness today is no different. It really can't happen overnight. It can't. Even if you have a chunk of disposable money, there are physical skills and tools needed to exist for a few days to even weeks on your own without water or electricity or access to grocery stores. Those are skills and supplies that need to be practiced and built up before a storm. Also, in the face of a storm, it is hard to think clearly, especially at the store when so many others around you have an energy of fear and panic. And stores only have so many resources before they run out. Building up skills and emergency kits for your home, car, or evacuation as you go along through life will bring that peace of mind for disaster - expected or not. That way you can be sitting at home sipping hot cocoa with your kids instead of frantically filling your shopping cart, hoping that you're not forgetting something, or regretting that others got there first and took it all.

A little solemn and dramatic, perhaps? Well, there is a hurricane raging on the eastern coast currently and there are people whose lives have been drastically changed already. Let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers.  And I sincerely hope that we can all be prepared the best that we are able for whatever lies ahead. (Myself included!)

Triple Whammy

So, we had no water from a water main break over a week ago, we had that earthquake hit, and now we've got a hurricane on it's way! I feel very lucky that the water main break was a minor blip in our lives. The earthquake I totally missed because we were driving back from picking peaches at Larriland Farms and our house was as we left it. Funny, huh!? But a great blessing that it wasn't worse. And there doesn't seem to be much worry about the hurricane from people I've talked to because of how far inland we are, but I'm more suspicious. Okay, so NO I've never been in a hurricane myself. I've only ever experienced the rain bands off a hurricane. You get that even in the midwest. But I think it's better to be prepared and wary than brushing the whole hurricane off as a minor puff of wind and some light rain. Mother Nature is unpredictable, folks! You just never know.

So, another plug for getting yourself prepared! And I'm not some crazy kook either, believe it or not. You can just go to the websites of the Red Cross, FEMA, and Ready.gov to see that it's an empowering thing to be prepared. Our government agencies want us to take the responsibility to prepare ourselves so that they're relief burden can be less. It's understandable. The more people that are prepared and are able to help themselves, the more the agencies can accomplish in the more severe areas.

Anyway... it's been interesting to see my 4-year-old son's reaction to the news about the hurricane. According to him, we'll be able to fend off the hurricane with our hose on full blast and we'll need to hold our car down with really strong tape so it won't blow away. Oh, and the paint on the car will blow away, so we'll have to paint it a different color - blue-green or green-blue (his favorite colors incidentally.) His logic is totally awesome.

Here are some cool preparedness things that make it easy to be prepared even if you live in a small place or are transient:

- MREs
- a volcano stove (you can burn propane, charcoal, wood or Fueled Up! in it. Cool!)
- Fueled  Up! emergency fuel. This stuff stores in a bucket for 30+ years, is safe to keep in your home and around food, and you can use it anywhere... well anywhere that's fire proof of course! It's perfect to use with a little portable barbeque grill.
- 2 liter bottles cleaned and filled with water. You can store these all over your house because they're so small - under sinks, under your bed, in a shed, etc. Just be sure to leave enough air space at the top to allow for freezing expansion if it's stored where it will freeze.


Wish us luck!

Without Water

The past few days we've had a lot of rain. Well, last night there were two water main breaks within a mile of our house. We had super low water pressure all last night and then this morning, no water at all. So, the city must have shut off the water at some point.

You might be wondering why I'm not completely freaking out. I'm not too worried at all, because we have a lot of 2-liters of water stored in our basement and since we drink filtered water, we actually just got all our jugs refilled recently. Whew! But it will be an interesting test to see how many 2-liters we go through and how long what we have would realistically last. (Thank goodness the kids got baths last night, but the bad news is that today is laundry day! Yikes!)

This is just one example of why emergency preparedness is so important. It doesn't have to be a major weather disaster like a tornado or hurricane. It can be something so simple as a water main break and the city shutting off your water until it's repaired. Would you have enough water to drink or cook with, let alone wash with? And what about toilets? That's one thing I'm finding out about right now. Water conservation is definitely a skill I could learn more about!

We've been using our upstairs toilet without flushing (sorry, but I just had to mention it!) and I just dumped 4 liters of water in the tank without successfully flushing it. That is a huge waste of water! And I'm finding out that our toilet uses way too much water to flush to begin with - something I need to remedy. We do have an emergency toilet bucket with enzymes and I'm thinking that if water isn't restored by the afternoon, we're going to have to bust that baby out. Woo! How fun!

Another thing I'm realizing would be helpful is to have a stash of paper goods and plastic utensils. Even if those are things you don't normally use, when you need to conserve water for washing, it really helps to alleviate the stress of the situation to not have a sink full of dishes!

There are a couple ironies in our current situation too. Like I said before, we've had off and on torrential downpours for a few days. It would have been good to have a big plastic tub outside collecting the water, even if I had only been planning on using it for my plants (when they finally got a chance to dry out!)

Another irony is that I have a water barrel and a rain barrel that I need to pick up from a friend's house that I just bought from her. I could totally have washing/flushing water right now if I had had that rain barrel hooked up, dang it! It would no doubt be full from all the rain we've been getting.

So, what I'm saying now is to learn from my experience. Water storage is so important! Every time you buy some soda, clean out the bottle and fill it with tap water. Buy some water bottles or jugs in bulk for drinking. (And don't think, 'I'll just go to the store and get some water in an emergency' because everyone will be thinking the same thing. Water run!) Learn some water conservation skills just in case you need them. And, for goodness sakes, have another toilet option, because you just never know! Imagine the peace of mind you could have in a situation like this if you had your own back up plan of your own water source. You might even have neighbors knocking on your door begging for a drink of water. (I actually had this happen a few years ago back in Utah when a water main broke and our water was shut off for a day!)

Check out my "The Storm Cellar" tab at the top of this page to learn more about emergency preparedness and see how you can be a little more prepared for the unexpected!

The Storm Cellar

I just updated my "The Storm Cellar" tab that you see above. Now included are pdf documents of things I used to teach an emergency preparedness workshop for my church. I've also added new links for food storage. Check it out!

An Easy Inexpensive Emergency Candle

A couple weekends ago I taught an Emergency Preparedness class at my church. My father-in-law gave us this great emergency candle that is simple to make and very inexpensive which I featured during my class. I had a request for a tutorial, so I thought I'd post it here, because everyone needs an emergency heat/light/cooking source!

Emergency Candle Tutorial

This is what you need for the emergency candle:

* 1 bottle of rubbing alcohol (keep it unopened until the time of emergency when you need to use your candle)

* 1 plain, unused quart paint can (I got mine at The Home Depot for $3)

* 1 roll of cheap, generic toilet paper (the smaller, not jumbo rolls are best)

* 1 packet of matches (not pictured above)

First off, remove the tube from the middle of the toilet paper roll.

Next, smash your toilet paper roll and do your best to fold it. It more than likely will not fit into the paint can yet, which is why you need to start taking toilet paper off. Hold onto that toilet paper! We'll make use of it later.

(Don't use Scott brand toilet paper like I did. The roll is way too big and the paper is really thin. It took forever...)

Keep removing toilet paper until you're able to cram your toilet paper roll into the paint can. It should be a really snug fit.

Smash it all the way in and you're done!

Now you've got your emergency candle. Keep the alcohol bottle with the paint can. The alcohol is the fuel. Stick the packet of matches in the can, if they fit. Put the lid on the can and hammer it down until it's tightly closed. If the matches don't fit, keep them in a ziploc bag with your can.

You'll want to keep something with the can that will make it easy to open.

My father-in-law taped a military issue can opener to the lid. It's a great opener and it's a multi-functional tool!

Now, roll that extra toilet paper up and stick it in your car emergency kit.

It makes a nice, compact roll for travel.

(Don't ask me how long it took me to roll all that toilet paper up.)

How does this candle thing work, you ask? Here is what you need to print up and tape to the side of your can:

To use: Remove lid, add 24 oz of alcohol and light. Control the intensity of heat by adjusting the lid over the opening. You can place a wire cooking rack over it and use it like a stove. You can use this inside a car for heat with the window open a crack. Can will not get hot on the bottom until the alcohol has burned down (the can gets hot above the alcohol level.) The toilet paper will begin to burn when the alcohol gets low. You may add more alcohol but first put out the flame! (You can use the lid for that.) You can relight it after adding the alcohol. It will burn approximately 6-8 hours.

My father-in-law lit his candle on their dining room table and the bottom of the can was completely cool to the touch. It's a pretty neat thing!

To help your family and friends be more prepared, one of these would make a great gift! :-)

***Please note: Of course with any open flame, you need to keep the candle in a safe place away from children and pets and to be aware of ventilation needs when the candle is lit.