Recently if you have been watching any news you have seen some of the damage that has been done in the recent spring rain storms that have come through the midwest, south and mid east. We have been getting some really severe storms with heavy winds and tornados. We are certainly not in tornado alley and I have no idea how people can live with the daily summer threat of tornadoes there. However, we have had more than two or three years' worth of tornadoes right around our community this spring. We had at least two touch down yesterday. In fact I saw the big storm cloud that produced the tornadoes yesterday evening while I was checking on our garden. There was a huge cloud with a ton of lightening and lots of thunder. I could hear it off in the distance but I could tell that it wasn't going to affect us, as it was too far to our northwest. We didn't feel a bit of the rain, but it was a little windy.
Today we are currently under a tornado watch and a severe thunderstorm warning. I have been watching the weather all morning so far.
This brings me to my point. Do you have an emergency plan in place for your family? Do you have a weather radio? Do you have a good supply of flashlights and batteries? Candles, lighters or matches? Do you have a particular place in your home to sit and wait out a tornado or whatever weather emergency you experience from time to time in your area? Now may be a good time to go ahead and begin to prepare for a weather related emergency or earthquake. Just by thinking about it can prepare you a bit more than you are prepared now....just sayin....
Showing posts with label emergencies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emergencies. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Food Storage
I alluded to this in another post where I talked about using our camper for emergency storage, in case we had to evacuate quickly for whatever reason. This past winter we had some slow times in our household and we didn't have as much income as we had in past years during January and February. In past years my husband worked some in these months but this year he hardly had any work. Therefore, we were lacking in the money department.
Once we feel the strain we tend to tighten the belt a bit more and start to look at ways to make us feel a bit "looser" in the wallet. Sometimes we start selling stuff and other times we look for what we have in the house to get us through.
Thankfully this year I had a bit of a stockpile of foods in the pantry and we used a lot of what we had stored to help us round out our grocery budget. I was glad I had the extra on hand. Prices seem to be rising both in groceries and in gas. This little stock of food helped us out.
Beginning in April we moved our pantry from the downstairs family room closet to the first floor hall coat closet. We built shelves and moved our coats to our rooms. The closet was just a catch all for junk on the floor of the closet and old coats that we rarely wear. The closet is close to the kitchen which helps a ton in meal prep. While we were moving it I realized that we had really gone through some food that I had stored. I was not only impressed that we had this store of food and it could help us during our lean months but was also amazed at how little we had left.
This brought both me and my husband to start thinking about stocking up again. We were convinced that this is the right and good thing to do for our family. Both of us began looking on the internet for food storage organization. We found these awesome boxes to help store and rotate your canned goods. We haven't bought them yet but will be buying them soon.
Once we feel the strain we tend to tighten the belt a bit more and start to look at ways to make us feel a bit "looser" in the wallet. Sometimes we start selling stuff and other times we look for what we have in the house to get us through.
Thankfully this year I had a bit of a stockpile of foods in the pantry and we used a lot of what we had stored to help us round out our grocery budget. I was glad I had the extra on hand. Prices seem to be rising both in groceries and in gas. This little stock of food helped us out.
Beginning in April we moved our pantry from the downstairs family room closet to the first floor hall coat closet. We built shelves and moved our coats to our rooms. The closet was just a catch all for junk on the floor of the closet and old coats that we rarely wear. The closet is close to the kitchen which helps a ton in meal prep. While we were moving it I realized that we had really gone through some food that I had stored. I was not only impressed that we had this store of food and it could help us during our lean months but was also amazed at how little we had left.
This brought both me and my husband to start thinking about stocking up again. We were convinced that this is the right and good thing to do for our family. Both of us began looking on the internet for food storage organization. We found these awesome boxes to help store and rotate your canned goods. We haven't bought them yet but will be buying them soon.
We also found that many Mormons store food. This sent us through a ton of blogs dealing with food storage acquisition and storage organization. They are awesome at creatively storing food.
http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_502.pdf
http://www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com/
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/tag/food-storage-blog
http://histakes-food-storage.blogspot.com/
http://blog.totallyready.com/
http://safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/preps/food-storage-101-inventory/
Now don't get me wrong. I am NOT a survivalist, I am NOT a greenie, and I am NOT thinking the world is going to end or anything. I AM thinking that we have lean times in our household.
Eight years ago we had a hurricane come through our city and it wiped out our power in our house for 14 days and our phone for 28 days. We had two toddlers and an infant at the time. I wasn't as prepared for that disaster as I could have been but we survived it. This event also taught us that we aren't immune to natural disasters where we live. Being more prepared will only help us next time.
So there are many reasons why we are going to stock up on food and related items. You may have some reasons too.
"They" (the Mormons, survivalists, and preparedness people) say to work toward a stock of three months supply of food that you already eat first. Also stock up on water. Then stash some cash for emergencies only. Once you have done that then they say to work towards a year supply of food with basic staples.
So my question today is, do you have a store of food for your family? How long can you go with the food you have in your home right now?
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Funny how I hear about things I am thinking about.
My last post was about keeping our camper stocked for emergencies, etc. Well, after I posted it that evening I heard on the news that we shouldn't get rid of our food storage and other emergency supplies even though hurricane season is officially over. They said on the news that we should keep our stuff because we may need it for power outages in the winter due to winter storms. {giggle} It is funny how I start thinking about things just as officials are telling us to do the same thing.
THEN on Glenn Beck I see this. It is an article on food storage. This article is actually pretty good if you are just starting out in your emergency preparations. It gives a good step by step list of how to go about storing food and what foods to store.
Monday, November 29, 2010
What's in your camper?
Do you ever think about "what if"? What if a big storm came and we had to evacuate quickly? What if there was an emergency with a family member and we had to rush to their side (but they live out of town)? What if we were told by emergency people we had to evacuate our neighborhood because of gas leaks?
How quickly could we leave? Piggybacking on my post here about how quickly we can pack, I want to talk about what we have in our camper.
Several years ago there was a lot of talk where we live about emergency preparedness. The nation had been attacked by terrorists, devistating hurricanes, and other emergencies where families were displaced or sheltered in their homes for days, weeks without electricity and basic necessities. The nation seemed to be on a wave to get prepared. There were advertisements, trainings, and information disseminated everywhere about what you need and should have on hand and for how long.
While we don't live daily in fear of any of this happening it still is good to be prepared, right? It got my husband and I talking and while we already had a pretty good food stores at our house we decided to make a few tentative plans ourselves. We live two hours from our nation's capital and two hours from the east coast naval headquarters. This puts us in the line of fire for any international attack if {knocking on wood} war broke out. Oh, did I also tell you we are 45 minutes from a nuclear power plant? Yeah, that would be us. So we made a few quick plans and if we had to evacuate we would hook our camper up to our truck and head out of Dodge, so to speak. But the question then was how quickly could we do this and have what we need for several days?
This is where we started to consciously prepare. We decided that we would always have three days' worth of food on deck. We would also have basic hygene supplies (ie. toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, etc). We would keep a pretty decent first aid kit. This was a no-brainer since we also use that first aid kit while traveling. We would keep water stored too.
That was a few years ago. Today I am proud to say that for the most part adding a few perishables and a few clothing items we are still pretty much set. When our camper was parked a couple hours away we had it stocked similar to our house. Of course we had electricity and running water hooked to it so that kept items in the freezer and refrigerator from perishing while we weren't there.
Do you stock your camper? For emergencies?
This is what we have on board all the time.
Food: basic food items in cans and boxes. We try to keep about three days worth of food, just in case.
Water: we try to keep a few gallons in bottles.
First aid kit: this is a must for traveling anyway.
Hygene items and OTC medicines: Pain/fever relievers, bandaids, ace bandages, antibiotic ointments, lotions, etc. Also, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soaps, toilet paper, feminine products.
Paper products: paper plates and cups, napkins, paper towels.
Other items: A set of sheets for each bed, several blankets, towels, hand towels, plastic bags, trash bags, basic tools, rake and shovel, lanterns, flashlights, batteries, etc. Small toys and books for the kids. Extra set of clothes for everyone, rain jackets/ponchos.
When we had our camper parked at the campground we were more stocked then we are now. In fact right now there isn't much in the camper. I emptied it out when we brought it back to our house. Since it is in the backyard, I am not that worried if there is an emergency and we need to go quickly. We can pack it pretty quickly from our supplies in our house. Also since it is getting colder outside, I don't want water to freeze and rupture in the camper. Also we don't want any food to freeze and spoil.
In summers and while we are using the camper, I like to rotate the food in there so it doesn't spoil and I try to keep foods that we eat a lot on the road in there anyway so food rotation is easy.
Do you even think about this? Do you consciously keep extra food on hand in your house? Your camper? What would you do in an emergency?
How quickly could we leave? Piggybacking on my post here about how quickly we can pack, I want to talk about what we have in our camper.
Several years ago there was a lot of talk where we live about emergency preparedness. The nation had been attacked by terrorists, devistating hurricanes, and other emergencies where families were displaced or sheltered in their homes for days, weeks without electricity and basic necessities. The nation seemed to be on a wave to get prepared. There were advertisements, trainings, and information disseminated everywhere about what you need and should have on hand and for how long.
While we don't live daily in fear of any of this happening it still is good to be prepared, right? It got my husband and I talking and while we already had a pretty good food stores at our house we decided to make a few tentative plans ourselves. We live two hours from our nation's capital and two hours from the east coast naval headquarters. This puts us in the line of fire for any international attack if {knocking on wood} war broke out. Oh, did I also tell you we are 45 minutes from a nuclear power plant? Yeah, that would be us. So we made a few quick plans and if we had to evacuate we would hook our camper up to our truck and head out of Dodge, so to speak. But the question then was how quickly could we do this and have what we need for several days?
This is where we started to consciously prepare. We decided that we would always have three days' worth of food on deck. We would also have basic hygene supplies (ie. toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, etc). We would keep a pretty decent first aid kit. This was a no-brainer since we also use that first aid kit while traveling. We would keep water stored too.
That was a few years ago. Today I am proud to say that for the most part adding a few perishables and a few clothing items we are still pretty much set. When our camper was parked a couple hours away we had it stocked similar to our house. Of course we had electricity and running water hooked to it so that kept items in the freezer and refrigerator from perishing while we weren't there.
Do you stock your camper? For emergencies?
This is what we have on board all the time.
Food: basic food items in cans and boxes. We try to keep about three days worth of food, just in case.
Water: we try to keep a few gallons in bottles.
First aid kit: this is a must for traveling anyway.
Hygene items and OTC medicines: Pain/fever relievers, bandaids, ace bandages, antibiotic ointments, lotions, etc. Also, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soaps, toilet paper, feminine products.
Paper products: paper plates and cups, napkins, paper towels.
Other items: A set of sheets for each bed, several blankets, towels, hand towels, plastic bags, trash bags, basic tools, rake and shovel, lanterns, flashlights, batteries, etc. Small toys and books for the kids. Extra set of clothes for everyone, rain jackets/ponchos.
When we had our camper parked at the campground we were more stocked then we are now. In fact right now there isn't much in the camper. I emptied it out when we brought it back to our house. Since it is in the backyard, I am not that worried if there is an emergency and we need to go quickly. We can pack it pretty quickly from our supplies in our house. Also since it is getting colder outside, I don't want water to freeze and rupture in the camper. Also we don't want any food to freeze and spoil.
In summers and while we are using the camper, I like to rotate the food in there so it doesn't spoil and I try to keep foods that we eat a lot on the road in there anyway so food rotation is easy.
Do you even think about this? Do you consciously keep extra food on hand in your house? Your camper? What would you do in an emergency?
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