I just finished a good book that sure brought on the "what if's" thought process. It's a young adult book, which I didn't realize until I started it, but I've read lots of them that I've enjoyed and liked this one too. This book is called "Life as We Knew It" by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Written in diary style by a 16 year old girl and life on earth suddenly changes by a huge meteor crashing into the moon and sending it off kilter and closer to earth - thereby changing the tides, weather, etc. Suddenly they had to be prepared, very prepared.
So, in general, it really gets one to thinking, how prepared are we if something were to happen where we didn't have electricity, food at the stores, water even?
In the book the mother had enough forethought to get as much money as she could out of the cash machine, filled up with gas and had her 3 kids go to the grocery store with her to get all they could (as was everyone else) as soon as it happened (this was before the weather catastrophes hit), plus she already had a fairly well stocked pantry.
Are we prepared and for how long? I know we bought some emergency food (and some long lasting candles) a couple years ago. Honestly, now I can't even remember how many days it was supposed to last us. It's in a bin in the garage. I think it was like a 30 day supply. So for a short term emergency it would be fine, but not for months and months. What would we do for heat if there was no electricity? We have propane heat, but it needs electricity to actually run the furnace. We have city water (will have well water when we build our house) - would that still be coming through? We don't have a wood stove (the characters in the book did). We do have a generator, but that would only last as long as gas was available (in the book, what gas was available early on went up to $12 a gallon or more and could only buy 3 gallons limit at a time)
I know DH and I have discussed prepping to some degree, but that was back when we bought the emergency food and with moving being our focus the past year we haven't really thought about it any more. Our old "good neighbor" was quite the prepper. He will be very prepared, that's for sure and honestly, living there we kinda knew if a disaster hit for long term, we'd have him - cuz he's like family and he's got enough for us too.
So, if something happened right now -what do we have? Let's see... The 30 day (I think) emergency food stuff. Probably enough food in the house for maybe a few weeks, but not much fresh stuff, like milk, eggs and bread. Gas in our vehicles and I know DH keeps a 5 gallon can full, but I don't think he has more. Dog food for about 3 1/2 months (that's good). Enough toilet paper and detergent for a couple of months.
As I was reading the book, one of the thoughts I had was "why don't they make some bread?" Apparently they didn't think to buy yeast in their big shopping trip, but later found some the mom didn't remember buying earlier, so they did have some bread for awhile.
So, just off the top of my head, here are a few things I know we should buy/stock up on that I either don't have at all or have very little of:
Yeast and flour
Batteries
powdered milk
more canned goods
a good first aid kit
a lantern or two
How about you? how prepared are you if stores were closed or out of food long term?
It is a book series and I just started the second book last night, just to see how it's all turning out for them.
We've lost power enough times to know to be prepared for that. A generator is currently on our want list, but not until we pay off our debt. I'm terrible about keeping a lot of extra groceries in the house as grocery shopping is one of my least favorite things to do. I'm one of those people who will simply make do and keep putting off going to the store! A book like this does make you think!
ReplyDeleteat our old house we were on a well,(whose pump ran on electricity). Anytime we thought we might lose power (big storm coming) we'd fill our bathtubs, so that we'd have water to flush our toilets. We did use our generator a few times when power went out for a day or more. At least we were able to run a small space heater and a couple of lamps.
DeleteI read the series. Book 2 is about another teen, in a city environment. Book 3 and 4 merge the stories. Book 4 is the weakest of the books, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI decided to skip book two, since it was about a different teen and reading 3 right now. I guess I should probably read book 2 since the stories merge, haha!
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ReplyDeleteI think about it every now and then, but don't really do anything about it. I have guns that I will not let my husband let me get rid of and I would probably buy lots of ammo - at least to be able to hunt (yes, I have in the past). When we move, we are going to plant a garden and I want to learn how to put up seeds. Most wells now days would require electricity as far as I know, but if you had mechanical knowledge, you could probably make a hand pump and still get water. As for putting away a lot, not sure. It depends on how things go. Typically, we have enough for a month or so of food. We have wanted to get either solar or wind to generate some power of our own. It is very interesting to think about!
ReplyDeleteyes, guns and ammo for sure. We have that. and yes, duh, I didn't think about the well not working because it's electric pump! Ok, we'd get it out of the river and boil it I guess, LOL. In the book they started to grow their own garden but the weather changed so much it all died off.
DeleteDon't even bother storing anything for a disaster if you're not going to store water. Ask me how I know!
ReplyDeletewe had a bunch of water in jugs stored before we moved. I'm not sure if we moved them or not! I'll have to ask DH. He must have kept them. I know some of the gallon jugs he brought in the house here after we moved and I've used those up. So, do tell what you know!
DeleteWell, I am afraid it's nothing earth shattering, but just a mundane power outage that taught me this. We live in the pnw, and are on a well and have a septic system. Our first year in this place, the wind knocked out power for 4 days in November. We have a woodstove, so had heat, have a gas cooktop, so could cook food. But, if you have a well, you have an electric pump to get the water. That means, no flushing! You can force the toilet by pouring water in the bowl. 1.6 gallons, to be exact. It killed me to see the store bought water going down the toilet! We learned to fill every suitable container with water once we empty it, ie: gallon juice jug, and tuck it away. And, anyway, tjough I am not a prepper, I imagine that the sort of even that preppers plan for would knock out the water supply.
DeleteWe used to deal with the exact same thing. Usually we'd have some warning a big wind storm and we'd fill our bathtubs up and use that water to flush. We learned the hard way too and made sure to tell the lady that bought our house to do that
DeleteMy husband would like to be more prepared but we are pretty prepared. We have fun and lots of ammo to hunt. We have a propane powered generator with a 1000 gallon propane tank. We always have enough food for a couple months. My DH would have to go hunting. We have an artesian well so it naturally flows without any power. I think we could live indefinitely but I would miss watching TV and eating lots of fresh produce.
ReplyDeleteGuns and lots of ammo, not fun
Deletea propane generator sounds very good. We'll have to check into one of those. Our good friends who live in this area have an artisan well, I'm not sure if that's what we'll have at our property or not. I would miss tv and internet, for sure, but would hopefully have books. I know my DH is pretty resourceful and mechanically inclined, so we're probably better prepared than I realize.
ReplyDeleteI love these kinds of YA books actually so I am adding it to my reading list this year....although I have to ask my girls because I think one of them may have already read this book. I am nowhere near close enough to prepping to be honest. And, I will admit that it has crossed my mind a LOT more since The Big Cheeto was sworn in....
ReplyDeleteThere are some very good YA books that I've enjoyed and I especially like series books.
DeleteYou should read "one second after". It's a series, I think there is 3. So interesting and really makes you think. The event in the book is much more catastrophic than in the YA book you are describing, car's quit working, anything with a computer was affected, etc. So many things you wouldn't even think about until it happened, access to medicine, keeping medicine at the correct temperature, etc. So good!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion! I will see if I can download it from my library.
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