Preparedness

 My post today is just going to be about Preparedness.  No judging anyone or poking fun. This winter freeze all over the country is no laughing matter. 😐

People in other states are suffering with power outages and no heat right now. Power companies are working non stop hours to restore people's power. Counties are begging residents to stay off the roads because people are having wrecks and running off roads or into other people. Some people are just out taking chances. However, alot of these people are ones who have occupations where the well being of others depends on them. Some employers are not thinking of the safety of their employees. Some people are out checking on loved ones. It is a sticky situation.  Alot of people just got caught off guard and were not prepared and are now needing those groceries. This is what we are going to talk about today. Never be worried about being ridiculed or laughed at for being prepared. 

We've all seen the memes floating around on social media: 

 

These things kind of upset me. 😡 There are people out there right now wishing that they would have taken the awareness more seriously now. No, I'm not judging or poking fun. I'm stating an obvious fact. Our oldest son is battling frozen and busted water pipes right now because we kept telling him back during the summer to insulate those pipes before winter got here. Now, after 4 days of working on pipes and not being able to take a hot shower, he wishes he would have listened to dear Dad. Are we going to rub it in his face? No. Dear Dad has been helping him fix those pipes and dear son appreciates it very much. That's just what you do. 

First thing in preparedness is to always, always watch the weather. Either on TV or with an app on your phone. We choose the apps on our phones since we detest watching the news on the TV 📺 . We have three different ones. If you do not have a cell phone with internet access then you will need to rely on TV or radio.  Please take them seriously.  They can predict but the Good Lord is in control. The weather can change right after a prediction and do absolutely nothing or it can be the opposite. We can predict good weather and all the sudden, BAM!!!!! Something hits us out of no where. Personally, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Take the weather seriously.  Don't over think it but don't under think it either. 

I've seen on the news where people have waited til the last minute after days of warnings of floods or hurricanes or tornadoes. It did not turn out well for them. Please, please take things just a little more serious. After watching the weather reports, start getting things together. 

Getting Prepared:

Go pick up those last minute staple grocery items. Milk 🥛,  eggs 🥚,  flour and sugar goes a long way and lasts a while. Learn how to make bread 🍞 and other things from scratch to stretch your dollars. You can learn these skills anytime to be ready for emergencies. Spend more money on the staple items that will stretch and not junk food. Get a bag of powdered milk to use for baking and save the jug of milk for drinking is one tip. Flour is a base for alot of things like breads,tortillas, biscuits, pancakes,  gravies,  etc. Soups thrown together out of some left over vegetables and broths go along way. Beans can be used for alot of stuff. Soups,  stews, refried beans, veggie burgers,  layered with some cornbread or biscuits. Stock up on some canned items that can just be opened and ate out of the can like Vienna sausage,  beanie weenies, fruits.  Opt for non perishable items like pastas and canned goods.  If money is tight between paydays then please buy wisely. Junk food will run out. You don't have to wait until an emergency to start stocking up, you can start now and every time you go to the store for regular weekly groceries, pick up one or two items and put them up some where for emergencies and make sure the family knows. Save milk jugs and boil water to fill them up with to have drinking , cooking and flushing water on hand. 

If at all possible, please learn to grow a garden and put up your own produce. Or better yet, buy from a farmers market all summer and put up produce. I have two pages dedicated to these topics. Check out our Gardening page and our Canning and Preserving page on our header bar. 

This is just a few ideas for groceries. There is tons of info out there for this topic. Just do the best you can. 

Fuel and Heat:

Please do not get caught without fuel in your vehicles not just during emergencies. Ladies, we get ragged alot about this from our husbands. You know, running our vehicle til it hits empty and not filling up before we leave town. Yea, I've been guilty. So has my DIL.  Its not funny when you have small children and it's the heat of the summer or dead of winter and you find yourself sitting on the side of the road out of gas. Please check your gas tank before you ever leave town.  Don't let it get less than  1/4  of a tank if you can help it. Fill up your vehicles before emergencies or bad weather. That way if you have to get somewhere, you've got the gas to do it. 

If you heat your home with propane, fill your tank in the fall or before the first frost and use it sparingly.  Check your fuel level during the winter and before another round of winter weather that will limit excess to roads, have another delivery come out. Please be careful trying to heat your home using your gas stove or burners. This has caused many house fires and deaths due to the fumes. Try not to even do this with electric stoves or space heaters. They have caused fires too. Be extremely careful with stoves and small space heaters. There are some on the market that are safer like infared and thermostat controlled. Close off rooms that are not being used during the day. Insulate windows and doors that have drafts. Please insulate pipes. If at all possible do some of these projects in warmer weather to get ready for winter. 

If you heat with wood, get that fireplace cleaned out and fluke cleaned out and prepped. Get that firewood chopped, stacked or even delivered. Make sure you have enough to last all winter or you can get to some without any problems if you should run out mid season. 

Never leave a fire unattended. 🔥  Please be careful with kerosene. The fumes they put off are dangerous too. 😳 

Wash some clothes in warm or hot water close to bedtime to warm up pipes to keep them from possibly freezing overnight. Then dry them to heat your utility room up. The past few days I've tried to wash a small load to keep the pipes warm and the utility room warm. Our dryer vent comes out under our porch. This has helped a little because it has warmed up our porch some so it doesn't freeze too bad.  

Livestock and pets:

I am no stranger to this.  For 10 yrs I raised dairy goats and poultry. We still have our dogs. I am very familiar to going out in blustery freezing 🥶 mornings 🌄 and having to bust frozen ice 🧊 for all the animals to be able to have something to drink. Or to haul hot water 💧 down to a barn so they can warm up too. Kind of like their morning coffee ☕  . I have also taken hot water to put in chicken feed to warm them up. I had some spoiled animals.  I have slept in my barn during all kinds of weather to watch a momma give birth and make sure they are OK. I have braved thunderstorms and other weather to go down to the barn and battin down the hatches and to bottle feed babies. Look, ranchers don't get snow days or days off for vacations. You cowboy 🤠 up and take care of them.  But health problems came along and all that changed for me. Now we just have our dogs and our boys have always taken care of them. 

My point is, make sure they have access to water at all times. Check water hoses and outdoor faucets. Cover them and insulate them from freeze. Make sure to get food and hay ahead of time. I've seen ranchers run out of hay because of hay shortages all over the  country.  Stock up during the off seasons. Store it correctly from the elements to keep from getting dusty and moldy. This in itself can be hazardous.  

Now, pets. We've all seen the memes about:

Let me say this. Know your animals. Know your breed. If you have a sensitive dog, by all means, bring it in.  Some pets fur is warmer than others. Long haired cats 🐈 and dogs 🐕 can stay a little warmer but not if the hair gets wet then snowed on. Common sense. Some dogs are bred for cold weather and are actually hot natured. Cold does not bother them. Pyrenees are a good example. So is Labrador Retrievers like we have. They are bred for extreme cold weather. Ours are duck hunters. They love the snow and frozen water but we are still careful.  We have tried to provide then with dog houses inside a barn with hay and blankets and guess where we find them. Laying out in the snow or wading through the mud puddles that are frozen. 🙄🙄 we can go out there and they have pulled the hay or blankets out of the dog houses too. 

Some breeds will go absolutely nuts if you try to keep them inside. They will tear up doors and hurt themselves trying to get out. 

Know your breed and what they can tolerate.  Use common sense and compassion.  Provide shelter to get in out 0f the rain and snow ❄.  Provide food and water. You can use old blankets, hay, wood shavings for insulation. Provide for their needs. 

Storm Shelters:

Trust me when I say this is on our bucket list. We have not gotten around to it yet and been caught off guard a few times. Usually we keep a close eye on the weather. My husband will stay up all night tracking a storm sometimes and if he tells us to have some clothes close by, we know what that means. We have gotten ready before and headed to his mommas house which is just  a mile from us. She has the most well structured home. We have got to have one built here on our property.  As a kid, I can remember going to the storm house plenty of times. I know you need flash lights, batteries, a radio,  cell phone with some way to charge it USB.  Make sure your phone is always charged anyway. There are radios now that can charge phones using USB.   Make sure you have blankets and pillows in case you have to stay in one for a period of time.  Have a first aid kit too. Have non perishable food stored in there and bottled water. Make sure to change out these items frequently. You could always have an emergency back pack ready for each person in the home. An extra set of clothes and emergency trial size hygiene gear. 

Fire:

Always practice fire drills and have an escape plan in place. Have a fire extinguisher and know how to use it. Have smoke detectors installed, and always check the batteries. Never leave the house with anything on such as dryer, stove etc. I'm afraid to even leave a crock pot on while I'm gone and some people do that. Anything can happen in the blink of an eye. All it takes is one spark. Have important papers locked up somewhere in a fireproof safe or box. 

Vehicle:

Always keep your vehicle maintenenced. It is vital to your survival. It is your way to your place of employment which earns your paycheck to pay your bills. You do not want to be stranded on the side of the road for something that could have been avoided. Make sure to check spare tire frequently too. Stock your vehicle with emergency items. Jumper cables, tire rod, blanket, flash lights, batteries,  ice scraper,  first aid kit. Anything for you or children you might need in case of emergency.  

These are some of the things that are just on the top of my head. There are many more preparedness tips out there on the internet. Feel free to research and make plans. 

Please under any circumstance,  do not wait until the last minute to prepare. Start prepping for the next season coming up ahead of time. Prep for winter in the summer and so forth. People are now seeing that this country can not just go ALL green. Some green here and there is OK. But we still have to supplement with either or both. Solar panels can break and not charge under heavy layers of ice or during bad storms that can cause something to break. Wind turbines will freeze and not turn. We still have to rely on fuel and coal and nuclear for heat believe it or not. After all, what heats the White House? That's a different soap box trust me. 

I hope some of these ideas have helped.