Prepping...the "Storms" of Life!

 

 I’ve been watching the news this week following the path of the storm. Not the Tropical Storm, just the one that decided to settle over the Southeastern part of the US. While many were worried and paying attention to the possibility of a hurricane coming this way…the area was blitzed by a “mere” fall weather storm! Who could have imagined that there would be such devastation from it? Who could have imagined people needing emergency evacuation? Or that people would die from it? Life often brings about storms that we have no control over, but with a little “preparation” can weather  a bit better. How ready are you and your family for an unexpected emergency? Here are a few areas for you to work on in planning ahead.

-Bottled Water.  (I’ve mentioned this one a FEW times before J) Since the storm hit water has been the most needed item. Four days later the need is even greater. For each of your family members, store 3 gallons, per day, per person. (Did you know the average person uses between 80-100 gallons per day?)

-Canned Food. Something easy to open and something you COULD eat cold if necessary. Think PB, jelly, crackers, tuna, canned chicken, beans, spaghetti, etc. Ask each member what they would eat and store it. Put it in a box and leave it alone. Mark it “emergency food”. Next year, rotate it all into your regular storage and replace. Your crackers will be totally stale…feed them to the birds!

-Light. When the electricity is out it is SUPER dark. No street lights. No light coming from the neighbors house. Store several different types of light. IE: candles & matches, flashlights & batteries, lanterns, wicks, fuel. Lightsticks for the kids. It will make all the difference in an emergency.

Do SOMETHING. You may not have all you need, but anything you have will help!

FOR THE LOVE OF BUCKETS

Mindy’s been talking about water and water got me to thinking about carrying water and carrying water has me thinking of buckets, and what if water didn’t flow out of my faucet or into my tub with a twist of a handle, and I had to carry it from here to there; how would I do it?

Buckets.

Or build a Roman aqueduct.

But buckets seem a more reasonable solution.

One of the truly delightful consequences of writing a novel like Beyond the Strandline is the opportunity to play the “what if” game. It’s eye opening.

What if the water stopped? Tess Lane and her sisters carry water from their deep water well in buckets, catch water in rain barrels, and are constantly boiling water to keep it and their surroundings clean. Water from a safe well would be safe as long as the containers used to transport it were clean.  

Three days without water and it’s a done deal and not just any water, clean water, water that would need to be boiled to be drinkable if it were from an open water source: creek, pond, river, lake. According to Livestrong.com, open waterways contain: “The hardy giardia and other disease-causing bacteria, known generally as coliform bacteria, can survive outside the body for months, spreading water-borne disease from animals or humans. Several common culprits cause symptoms that may range from mild indigestion to diarrhea, dehydration and death.”

Yucky. And that's an official prepping term.

 

The closest place I can think of to get water in an emergency would be the swampy area at the back of our property. A little digging and we would have a mucky pond, but that’s not next to my kitchen sink. Believe me. I’d need a bucket and not just any bucket but a bucket that could be kept clean, really clean: germ resistant, heat resistant, drop-on-the-ground resistant.

Plastic. Galvanized. Ancient. Battered. I took a good look at the buckets we use around the farm and realized that I wouldn’t trust them to put mud in, let alone my water.

Plastic buckets are inexpensive, but they don’t hold up. They crack and aren’t very sturdy.

And galvanized buckets corrode, good for feed, seed, and eggs. I’m not sure a corroded bucket would be my first pick for carrying my family’s water.

I’m thinking that a seamless, stainless steel bucket would be best, the kind of buckets recommended for milk, the kind you could sterilize, food grade. Milk buckets are made without seams so that there’s no place for the germs to grow. They’re designed to stand up to heat. Could I boil the water in the bucket? 

It’s settled. I’m going to do some more research and find out more about buckets.

It’s what happens when you write books; you start to think about things you might not have thought about before. Like buckets. How handy they can be. How much you’d miss them if you didn’t have one when you needed it.

And if you did have a big enough bucket to drag water back to the house then what would you boil the water in? Tea kettles. Too small. Wash tubs. Too big. Cast iron . . . hmmmm . . .  

And so it goes. Before you know it, you have a novel . . . or some new buckets.

Linda (Bucket Brigade) Zern

WATER...easy ideas for prepping!

    Here are some different sizes of containers you can use to store water. The top left is a 55 gallon drum with a spigot (usually bought online from "prep" type stores like Emergency Essentials), top right is 5-7 gallon containers (can get from Walmart, and notice that they stack??), bottom left picture you can get anywhere! The bottom right picture....recognize the containers?? (it's a secret!)

 Remember in our last post, we talked about a minimum of 2 gallons per day, per person. These are a couple ways to approach the problem. I have used just ordinary 1 gallon water jugs from the grocery store. These are straight from the store with their "seal" on them. I put them in my bathroom closet and they lasted 3 years there before 1 sort of leaked. I have replaced the water in them twice with no problems.  My favorite are DeerPark gallons, which are stack-able if you can get the cardboard they are shipped in. Each week I picked up several until I had the amount I needed for my family. I also buy the water bottle cases from Costco that are now stacked in my pantry and marked "For 72 hr. Kit Use ONLY". Recently I had a friend find me a couple used 55 gallon drums (food grade ONLY)...at a garage sale. She cleaned and scrubbed them well and they are ready to use. The difference in price?? $4 each at the garage sale, and around $90 new. HOWEVER, I was saving my money to purchase them new because I felt it was worth the cost to have a couple of these filled and ready for use in an emergency. Last, but not least, is the "secret" picture. They are PETE bottles, being "re-purposed". The picture shows them filled with food, but they are great for storing water. PETE is a label (grading the plastic) which means it is FOOD GRADE (check the bottom of the container and your should see it imprinted). Once washed well they are reusable for food or water. We use soda bottles, juice bottles in various sizes, even reuse our 20 oz. soda bottles. They are FREE!! And, you're helping the planet :) Make a goal this week to bring in enough water for your family for ONE day.