September is...

...National Preparedness Month. Are you prepared?

What if a local or national emergency happened today?

Do you have a plan?
Do you have a 72-hour kit?
How long could you feed your family if all the stores were closed?
Where would you go if you had to leave your home?

Questions to ponder...

This has been on my mind for a while now. Must be the good Scout in me, and the fact that the anniversaries of both Katrina and 9/11 are upon us once again. We're not totally prepared, but I know we're better off than a lot of people. I know where we would go if we had to leave. I know what we would eat if we couldn't get to the store for a while. I'm not sure what we would drink, as we don't have any water stored at all. This is something I think about.

The dogs would have to rely on the cat to feed them (by HUNTING, not by sacrificing himself, for goodness sake!), as I haven't figured out a good long-term storage solution for dog food - we get those stupid little moths in a heartbeat. But we'd have light, and soon heat, and several different cooking sources. I could do laundry (assuming I get the water thing figured out) without a machine. Did you know you can do laundry with a clean toilet plunger?

It's not something anyone wants to think about, but it's something we all should think about. Here are some good websites:

Ready.gov
Take 5 to Survive

And, of course, my favorite prepping forum, Mrs. Survival. Lots of good resources and great people there!

Be Prepared, Part 2

I've been thinking about emergency preparedness again. Playing the "what if" game. What if I only had a few minutes to get out of my house because of an emergency (I don't mean an emergency like a fire, in which case I'd grab the animals if I could find them and run, I mean an evacuation-type emergency). What would I grab? Would I be organized, or would I just take the first things I could see? I know lots of preparedness-minded individuals have what they call "bug out kits" - everything packed in one convenient location, you just grab it and run. Instead of actually packing a kit, I've decided to make a "bug out list" - things I'd want to take with me if we need to leave in a hurry.

Which makes me think, I really need to make sure that 1. I know where all these things are (my list is grouped by location in the house), and 2. I stay well-stocked on all these things so I have them if I need them.

We are fortunate in that we are tent campers, so a lot of this stuff is already grouped together in what we like to call the "camping closet". That's where we keep all the camping equipment. On my list, you'll see the "camping box", which is like a kitchen in a crate. It's a big plastic box that has everything I need to set up my camp kitchen - dishes, pots, pans, towels, soap, knives, silverware, a can opener, and so much more.

Now I know that, depending on the emergency, we might not need all this. But wouldn't it be nice to have in case we do! Here's the list - have I forgotten anything? Making this list reminds me - I really need to buy a water filter and more water storage vessels...they'd be nice to have for camping even if we never have an emergency!

Equipment
Camping box
Tent
Sleeping bags
Thermarests
Chairs
Camping table
First aid kit
Dog kit
Lantern
Campstove
Fuel
Flashlights
Lighters
Fire starters
Toilet paper
Water jugs (full)
Shovel
Axe
Saw
Dutch oven
Briquettes
Lighter fluid
Newspaper

Food
Dog food
Cat food
Flour
Sugar
Cornmeal
Oatmeal
Peanut butter
Crisco
Canned eggs
Canned meat
Chili
Beans
Dried fruit/vegetables
Canned fruit
Applesauce
Canned veggies
Powdered milk

Spices/Baking
Chili powder
Cumin
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Baking powder
Dried onions

Clothes
Underwear
Socks
Jeans
T-shirt
Flannel shirt
Sweats
Hat
Gloves
Coat

Pets
Treats
Leashes
Choke chains
Cat Crate

Other
BP medicine
Allergy medicine
Advil
Pepto caplets
Important papers – birth certificates, marriage license, car titles
Cash

Be Prepared

Last week, I ordered five pounds of powdered whole eggs. For the curious among you, that's the equivalent of 340 whole fresh eggs. That should last us a year or two.

Be Prepared. Growing up in a good Scouting family, I heard that a lot. But to my young mind, that meant things like taking an extra pair of socks on a hiking trip, and making sure the first aid kit always had bandaids in it.

Now I'm a grownup, and being prepared has taken on a whole new meaning. As an adult, I have to wonder about things like terrorist attacks. Earthquakes. Bird Flu. Not worry, because I can't worry about things I can't control or I'll drive myself batty, but wonder. Will it come? When? What will my world look like if it does?

I read a lot of forums. Some just for fun, some for tips, some for serious discussions about saving money and getting out of debt. A couple have whole sections about being prepared for emergencies. And these people are PREPARED. They have their stockpiles. They have food, water, cash (because in an emergency plastic will be hard to use), some have gasoline, they have car kits, backpack kits, stay-at-home-without-leaving-for-a-month kits, all kinds of kits. Me, I'll have my powdered eggs. And I'll bow to their level of preparedness, because I'm not sure I can do it.

I've read some articles about Bird Flu. Some say that the reports are overblown and there's nothing to worry about. Some say that every chicken in the world will need to be destroyed (this explains my five pounds of powdered eggs). Some say that when it hits, no one should leave their house for a while. But, it'll take two years for it to run its course. Our own goverment says that water, electricity, and other services could all be disrupted for an unknown period of time. So we all have to be prepared. Put together our 72 hour kits and then some.

But how much is enough? How much is too much? At what point have we slid down that slippery slope from rational precautions to end of the world, Chicken Little, mass hysteria?

Being a compulsive grocery shopper, and a sometimes bargain hunter, we always have about a month's worth of food on hand. We have no water saved up, however. Sometimes this bothers me and I wonder if I should start stocking up on 10 gallon bottles or something. But where would I put them? Space is already at a premium in our 1200 square foot house. It would take some creativity to figure out where to put 10 days worth of water for the two of us plus our three animals, which is the number I've read on some websites. If disaster happens and we can get to the inlaws', we can get water from their well, so maybe that's why I'm not overly concerned on this point. Of course, I should be thinking "what if we CAN'T get to the inlaws'???"

Another area I'm not ready is pet food. They eat it all, we buy more. Unless a disaster happens when I've just made a Petco run, Hershey and Ringo are going to have to send Puck out hunting for them.

So I guess I can say I'm halfway ready for a disaster. I still feel like a good Scout. I'm prepared. Maybe not completely, but at a level I'm comfortable with. I'm cautious, but not panicking.

How prepared are you?