September is National Preparedness Month

For the whole month, I’ve been debating whether to post anything about National Preparedness Month because I know that you all know how I feel about being prepared. I decided one or two blog posts couldn’t hurt, right? 🙂

As you know, there are so many levels of preparations and you must decide what matters most to you. Living where we are, I don’t worry at all about a flood. I do think about a wildfire or a tornado which could both wipe out everything we have stored. That’s one more reason why I need a root cellar! A big root cellar!

The main reason I do what I do is for a time when we either have no power, the supply chain has been interrupted, and/or a financial crisis, which could be as simple as . . the credit card machines are down for the third day in a row.

Here are a few ideas that are most important to me.

1. Tetanus shot – Please make sure you have your tetanus shot up to date. I realize some may have a problem with getting vaccines, for whatever reason, but if you do, I’m sure you’ve already come to terms with why you won’t do it and I’m not trying to change your mind. Tetanus shots seem to be the ones we all forget about til something happens. When you cut yourself on a rusty wire, or step on a nail, or are out working in the chicken coop, look down and realize you’re bleeding and don’t have a clue where or when you were injured, who wants to think about a tetanus shot at that time. Just keep them up to date and you don’t have to worry. Most any time there’s a disaster, whether it’s a flood, a tornado, a financial crisis . . we’re going to be doing things we don’t normally do and it’s a good time to get scraped up.
2. Water – Make sure you have at least several days worth of drinking water. No matter what the crisis (or perceived crisis), water is one of the first things to go off the shelves in the stores.
3. Food – Several days or weeks worth of food on hand is a good idea for everyone. It could be snow, ice, flood, civil unrest – you never know when you’r’e going to want to stay home and not being running to town to buy food for tonight’s dinner. It sounds crazy to me, but I know people who literally have to go to the grocery store before they can fix even a basic meal.
4. First Aid Kit – We all probably have the basics – bandaids, peroxide, antibiotic ointment, but you might want to think about kicking those first aid kits up a notch.

Of lesser importance on my priority list but things I do make sure I have, are:

1. Lights – flashlights with re-chargeable (solar) batteries – don’t count on the little inexpensive pathway lights that you stick in the ground – get a decent one with a solar charger.
2. Entertainment – for those of us who live on the computer, and have all our knitting patterns stored in the cloud, or love the TV . . come up with a plan for what you might do in down time – board games, playing cards, puzzles, paper and pens (keeping a journal might be fun). If you have children around — toddlers to teens — don’t forget to have things to keep them occupied.

With a nicely stocked pantry, a yard full of chickens and deer/turkey/pigs in the woods, how will you cook/heat your food? We have plenty of charcoal, some amount of propane but not an endless supply of either. How will you cook your food?

We had an ice storm when I lived in Louisiana and were without power for 7 days. We lived in a subdivision that was all electric. The neighbors were all out cooking and sharing what was left in the freezers and even with lots of folks contributing, towards the end, we had exhausted our supplies of charcoal and propane.

This post is not meant to be an all inclusive list of items you should have on hand. I ask that you simply think about this scenario:

It’s a Wednesday afternoon. The electricity blinks and then goes out. You aren’t concerned because you know it will be back on in a few minutes, maybe an hour at most. Almost 10 hours later, the power is still off. Without electricity, you were not able to cook dinner if you’re all electric. You have no TV to watch. You remember that there’s a battery operated radio somewhere. You’re wondering if the power is off at city water purification plant. Is the water safe to drink? Has a boil order been issued?

What would you do if you were into Day 3 or 4 or more and things had not changed? Just something to think about. Please . . don’t.count on FEMA meal. They may not be there for several days or in an ovewhelmingly large disaster, they may not ever get there. We are always thankful to get assistance from Fema, Samaritan’s Purse, The Red Cross, or whomever, but my hope is that we all do our best to be able to help ourselves when possible. As I said earlier, a tornado, a wildfire, a massive earthquake and we might have no choice to but count on outside help but this is a good time to give some thought to your preparedness efforts.