Month Twelve in Review and Month Thirteen Prepping Plan

I don't know about you, but the current events of the last month have really encouraged me to keep prepping. I've been only at this for a year and I feel even more fired up about preparedness than I did a year ago. I hope you all have made strides in your family's preparedness over the past month. Here's what I did:


Month Twelve in Review:

1. Added more $ to our BOBs/at-home emergency fund. It wasn't much, but I did put some of the cash left over from our vacation in our BOBs.  Even small amounts add up if you're a consistent saver!

2. Finished up the "leftovers" from Month Eleven.  I bought another case of toilet paper (I think we have about eight months worth at the moment) and got my improvised Bucket Berkey water filter.

3. Bought some additional preparedness and food storage-related books for our home library.

I bought Where There Is No Doctor, Where There Is No Dentist, Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, and the SAS Survival Handbook

Combined with the books I bought last month, I have a ton of great reference material. I'll be posting reviews of all the books over the next month.

4. We continued to build our food storage. We bought 15 more pounds of honey and some more evil (but occasionally useful) shortening at Sam's, but mostly I spent my budget at Honeyville Grain and Emergency Essentials. I added more vital wheat gluten, freeze-dried veggies, split peas, barley, lentils, black and kidney beans, and freeze-dried fruit. We finally have a year's worth of legumes for our family. Whew! At least there's one item I can check off the list.

5. We were very busy in the garden. We weeded and planted, but didn't need to water very much due to all the severe weather! We're enjoying the fruits of our labor and can't wait for that first ripe tomato!

6. Enjoyed a safe vacation with my family. Disney World was fun, but there is no place like home.
 
 
My goals for June include:
 
1. Getting a dehydrator and experimenting with drying garden produce and herbs.

2. I want to stock up on canning supplies. I need more jars and I want to try out those reuseable canning lids.

4. More food storage, of course. Also some first aid items, as my budget permits. 



What preparedness projects do you have planned for this summer?

2010 Preps in Review and 2011 Goals

I can't believe how quickly 2010 went by. I thought it would be interesting to evaluate my prepping progress over five areas.

INFORMATION:

• I probably made the most progress in this area. I had zero knowledge of or interest in preparedness at the start of the year. Now I have read on the subject extensively and I feel comfortable with many of the most important preparedness areas. I feel confident in my knowledge of food storage, but not so much in areas like defense and alternative energy.
• I made efforts to preserve my newly gained information. I have an enormous preparedness binder with lots of information printed off and organized. I collected numerous food storage and garden vegetable recipes and have another binder for that.  
• Hubby Dear backed up our computer on SOS Online Backup. We also have several flashdrives with important items copied onto them.
• I made an emergency binder with essential documents for our bug out bags (BOBs).

Speaking of bugging out...

SURVIVAL ESSENTIALS:

• Because of our location, it would take something extraordinary for us to bug-out, but now we are prepared to do so. We have BOBs packed and ready to go.
• Our vehicles are always equipped with emergency supplies.
• We have a couple of ways to start fires and a large stash of dryer lint (tinder!).
• We have emergency lighting ready to go.
• If we had to, we could shelter-in-place during a chemical or biological threat. We have potassium iodide tablets in case of a nuclear incident. (Even the federal government thinks you should shelter-in-place during a nuke event.)

WATER AND FOOD:

• I came up with three months' worth of menus of shelf-stable, normal meals and a plan to get 1 year's worth of food.
• I have between 2 and 4 weeks worth of water stored at home. 
• According to Emergency Essentials' Food Storage Analyzer, we have about 151 days of food currently stored.
• To help us rotate our storage, I invested in smaller food storage containers and some can organizers.
• I bought a hand-crank grain mill and learned how to use whole wheat berries to make bread.
• I learned how to use a pressure canner in addition to my water bath canner. I've canned a variety of items from pickles to ground beef to applesauce.

FIRST AID/HEALTH AND HYGIENE:

• We have first aid kits in several different places, from my purse to our BOBs.
• We stocked up on items useful in a pandemic, such as N-95 masks and nitrile gloves. I've already been very glad to have the gloves on hand (no pun intended) during our family's bout with stomach flu over Christmas.
• We've begun to stockpile toilet paper and OTC medications.

That's quite a bit accomplished in seven short months.

My Goals for 2011:

1. Get a full year's worth of food storage.
2. Buy an electric grain mill (finally).
3. Continue to develop our gardening skills. We're converting our vegetable garden to a square foot garden. Hopefully we'll get enough cherries, raspberries, and blackberries to can and freeze this year.
4. Can a wide variety of garden produce.
5. Further develop our water storage and purification abilities. This could include: getting a Berkey filter, storing pool shock, mapping out nearby natural water sources, and installing rain barrels.
6. Deepen our store of first aid/medical supplies.
7. Lose weight and get in shape - both Hubby Dear and I.

And finally...

    8.    Start saving towards our home renovation that will include the installation of a woodstove.

Whew! That sounds like a lot. Hopefully we can accomplish all of these.

How have your preps come along in 2010? Do you have any big plans for 2011?  

Three-Month Supply Menus

Three months of meals from your pantry

Food storage can seem really intimidating when you're getting started, especially if you start off with the notion that you need a full year's supply of food, stat! I think the way the LDS Church recommends their members go about establishing their food storage makes a lot of sense.

1. Make a 72-hour emergency kit. Have enough food, water, etc. on hand to get you through a short-term emergency and be ready to get out of dodge, if necessary. In other words, create a bug-out bag. See how I made ours here. I would do things a bit differently now that I know more about it, but they are not a bad start.   
2. Build up a store of three month's worth of your regular, everyday foods.
3. Get one year's worth of long term storage items such as wheat, oats, beans, etc.

Today I'm going to share our family's plan for our three months of "regular" meals. To do create our plan, I used Food Storage Made Easy's Excel document. I also did a lot of Internet research. The sites I found most helpful were Prepared LDS Family (check our her Three Month Supply Menus) and Everything Under the Sun. Hopefully it will help you all with your food storage plans if I share an outline of our plan here on my blog. First, my requirements:

1. It must be completely shelf-stable. Nothing frozen or fresh allowed. Most people count frozen foods towards their three month supply, but I felt like I had to make everything shelf-stable. I spent a lot of time collecting shelf-stable food storage recipes from a variety of sources. The majority of these recipes do not require an oven, so I can cook them on my gas stove, on a grill, over a fire, or whatever I have during a grid-down scenario.
2. They must use common storage foods. Lots of rice, beans, and lentils. Nothing terribly exotic. All meats are either canned, freeze-dried, or home canned. (I'll be posting about more about my canning adventures later this month.)
3. Meals must resemble food we would eat. To be honest, very few of the meals I have planned out below are exactly what I would normally serve my family. I use a ton of fresh and frozen ingredients and like to have a wide variety of sides,etc. served with my meals. But I did take into consideration my family's habits and tastes. For example, the only thing we eat for breakfast at our house is cold cereal. I would be lying to myself if I planned all of our breakfasts to be oatmeal. My menu may not consist entirely of "regular, everyday" food, but it's all stuff that's not too far from what we normally eat.
4. We need variety. I don't want to repeat the same seven meals over and over.

So, with these things in mind, here are my menus. Each category should add up to 90 days of food.

Breakfast Menus

• 69 x Cold Cereal, Reconstituted Dry Milk, Carnation Instant Breakfast with Reconstituted Dry Milk
• 9 x Oatmeal made with dry milk, rolled oats and raisins, Carnation Instant Breakfast with Reconstituted Dry Milk
• 6 x Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins, Carnation Instant Breakfast with Reconstituted Dry Milk
• 6 x Apple Spice Muffins, Carnation Instant Breakfast with Reconstituted Dry Milk

Lunch Menus

• 12 x Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Canned Fruit
• 6 x Macaroni and Cheese, Canned Fruit
• 9 x Canned Vegetable Soup, Bread and Butter
• 9 x Canned Chicken and Noodle Soup, Bread and Butter
• 6 x Rice Salad, Canned Fruit
• 6 x Cream Red Beans and Pasta Salad, Canned Fruit
• 6 x Lentil Stew, Fruit
• 9 x Pancakes
• 9 x Cowboy Delight, Fruit
• 6 x Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Fruit
• 6 x Indian Lentils, Rice, Fruit
• 6 x Spaghettios

Dinner Menus

• 3 x Fried Rice, Fruit
• 9 x Spaghetti, corn
• 3 x Quick Beef Chili and Corn, Biscuits
• 3 x Beans and Rice with a Bam, Green Beans
• 3 x Pineapple Chicken, Rice
• 3 x Chicken a la Queen, Corn
• 3 x Chili Mac, Green Beans
• 3 x Curry Beef on Rice
• 3 x Chicken Creole, Fruit
• 3 x Chicken Corn Soup, Bread and Butter
• 3 x Vegetarian Chili, Corn
• 3 x Italian Chicken and Bean Soup
• 3 x Chicken Alfredo
• 3 x Puerto Rican Beans and Rice
• 3 x Beef Stew, Biscuits
• 3 x Chicken Delight
• 3 x Chicken and Rice Casserole
• 3 x Chicken Fricassee
• 3 x Goulash, green beans
• 3 x Beef and Beans, Biscuits
• 3 x Homemade Rice-a-Roni, Fruit
• 3 x Shepherd’s Pie
• 3 x Taco Soup, Bread and Butter
• 3 x Tamale Pie
• 3 x Bean and Lentil Pilaf, Fruit
• 3 x Chicken Little Soup
• 3 x 15 Bean Soup
• 3 x Beef Soup

Snacks

• 9 x Granola Bars
• 6 x Fruit snacks
• 6 x Graham crackers
• 6 x Hot Cocoa
• 6 x Popcorn
• 6 x Brownies from mix
• 6 x Chocolate chip cookies
• 6 x Oatmeal cookies
• 6 x Apple Crisp
• 9 x Crackers
• 3 x Homemade Wheat Thins
• 3 x Skookie
• 6 x Pudding or Apple Sauce Cup
• 9 x Dried Fruit
• 3 x Snickerdoodles

Served with
• 48 x Fruit Drink (ie. Tang-like substances)
• 36 x Apple Juice

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My Three-Month Supply menus can easily be sized up so that I have a year's worth of menus. Here are the changes I'll make:

• I will rely more freeze-dried/dehydrated foods to avoid the shelf-life/rotation issues of canned food. Use freeze-dried corn, green beans, chicken, etc.
• My three month supply uses a lot of meat. I may have to eliminate some of the chicken meals in favor of more rice and beans.
• I don't plan on storing 1 year's worth of cereal, crackers, etc. 
• Storing survival seeds are a must! We'll need to grow our own food for long-term survival as well as to break up the monotony of our diet.  

So there it is! I hope this is helpful and I welcome your questions and comments.

Fall back, not behind

This Sunday is the end of Daylight Saving Time and most of us get to enjoy an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. Unless you live in Hawaii, Arizona, or have young children, that is. Baby Dear doesn't know anything about "Fall Back" and will wake up at his usual 5:45 AM, except that it will really be 4:45 AM without Daylight Saving Time. Can you say afternoon nap for Momma?

Firefighters and other safety personnel have long advocated checking your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors every six months. It's easy to remember when you combine it with changing your clocks for Daylight Savings time. Test your detectors and change the batteries every six months. It's a quick, easy thing to do that could have big benefits. Did you know there has been a 50% decrease in deaths in fires since the 1970s? This is in large part to the prevalence of smoke detectors in our homes.

Those of us with a preparedness mindset should also take this opportunity to check the status of our BOBs and other preps. Switch out summer clothing for winter gear. Check and make sure your little weeds children still fit the clothing you have packed in case you need to get out of dodge. Have any of your stored items expired? Is it time to rotate your water supply? Check your inventory - have you used anything up and not replaced it?

Make it a habit. Daylight Savings Time = smoke detector testing and prep rotation.

Month Five in Review and Month Six Preps

I achieved all of my Month Five Preps with the exception of #6 - the exercise component. I still need to work on being better with that. But I have more cash in my BOBs and vehicles, food storage containers, lots of new additions to my food storage, and more matches and toilet paper stocked.

Month six of my Prepping Plan is going to be fun. I'm feeling flush since Hubby Dear suggested we increase our prepping budget by about 40%. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he told me that. Not that he actually believes in this stuff. Nope, he doesn't think this is necessary even after reading One Second After. We're debt-free now and he is proud that I was able to stick to my prepping budget for five months so we could get there. Gotta love him! :)

So, this is what I'm thinking of for November:

1. More cash for our BoBs.
2. Stock up on oil and wicks for my oil lamps.
3. Buy a box of exam gloves for potential medical emergencies
4. Buy a quality hand grain mill. This one I'm really excited about.
5. Buy a case of dry milk. I've been putting this one off for a while.  
6. Pick up some freeze-dried and dehydrated odds and ends for food storage and bread making.
7. Exercise at least three times per week.

Month Five Preps

This is what I've lined up for October:

1. Squirrel away more cash for BOBs and vehicle kits.
2. Buy a couple of cases of toilet paper. I estimate we need about 8 cases or so to have a year's supply, so this will get us a little closer to my goal.
3. Add some more matches to my supply.
4. Buy some air-tight containers for my pantry to hold what I take from my bulk food storage (ie. flour, sugar, dry beans).
5. Continue to build our three month and long-term supplies of food. 
6. Exercise at least three times per week.

I continue to go back and forth on exactly what I should be buying each month. This month I gave in to my urge to focus mainly on food storage. Buying food is more fun for me than many of the other survival categories. What can I say? I like to cook and eat. :) We'll get around to all areas eventually.

Bug Out Bags to the Rescue in an Everyday Emergency

Baby Dear woke up at a quarter to 5 this morning. My eyelids behaved like they were fused together, but I managed to lumber out of bed, pad over to his crib, and take him to the living room. I didn't fancy having all the children awake that early, so I tried to be as stealthy as possible. We sank down into my favorite chair, I popped a bottle in his mouth and turned on the morning news. 

The first thing I see: a giant Similac recall. The very thing that Baby Dear was so eagerly sucking down could very well be infested with beetles.

Gag.

I tried googling the lot numbers of recalled formula. All sites, including the FDA's, directed me to the Similac webpage. The Similac page wouldn't load, presumably overwhelmed by worried parents. Next, I tried calling their consumer hotline. There was a recorded message directing me to their non-functional website and then it hung up on me.

It appeared that I could possibly have several cans of the recalled formula, but I didn't panic. Thanks to our BOBs, Baby Dear did not have to go hungry or eat beetle larva. I had packed 3 days worth of Ready to Feed formula, which was not in the recall. This will give us time to sort out what's really going on.

(Yes, I'm well aware that if I was nursing Baby Dear, this would not be a problem at all. No one has recalled a breast before, unless you count defective implants! Breastfeeding is best choice from both the nutritional and preparedness standpoints. Unfortunately, that didn't work out for me this time around.)

Prepping is essential for the big emergencies, but it is also important for those that can happen every day. Score one for this prepared momma!  

Month Four Preps: Butane in my veins

I like to write posts named after lyrics from songs from my youth. I probably should have called it "Come on Baby, Light My Fire", but that would be from my parents' youth. We'll stick with the 90s today.  

---------------
Without electricity, how am I going to cook any of this food I am so frantically storing?

Around here it is de rigueur to have at least a 500 gallon propane tank on your property. Ours runs our furnace and gas cooktop. Depending on the season and the weather conditions, a full tank will last us between 2 and 6 months. We are members of a fuel co-op and have regular deliveries to keep our tank topped off. We also buy our winter fuel ahead of time, locking the price of propane in place and paying for everything in advance. If Hubby Dear should lose his job, that's one bill we wouldn't have to worry about for a few months.

The only problem with this set up is that the starter-spark thingy that lights the gas in both appliances is electric. The furnace also uses electricity to run its fans. I can't do much about that until we get a generator, but we can easily use our stove even in an emergency with aid of a handy-dandy butane lighter.

I love this Zippo MPL. It is very easy to use and is refillable. And did I mention it is pink? :)

I bought four extra cans of butane this month. I'll get more butane as well as additional MPLs later on. 

Of course there's always matches. You can never have too many of those. I have some in our kitchen and others in our BOBs. I'm going to stock up on more as part of Month Five of my Prepping Plan.

The third item I'm planning on buying for potential fire starting needs is a firesteel. I first saw one of these demonstrated on The Discovery Channel's "Dual Survival" (Here's a link that describes all the methods they used to start a fire on that show). You rub small metal striker perpendicularly down the steel. It produces a very hot spark that will light the gas on my stove or the tinder I gather for a fire outdoors.

Speaking of tinder, I've started collecting dryer lint. Finally, a use for dryer lint! I'm filling small ziplock bags with it and putting it in our BOBs. If we do have to bug out and make a fire, having dry tinder at the ready will be vital. 

If the electricity goes off, my electric oven won't work. There are a few options for baking food without electricity:

• A solar oven, either homemade or store-bought. That method will only work if it is sunny.
• A homemade box oven.
• Baking on the dashboard of my van on a hot day. For real.  

At some point, we're going to have to consider getting a wood stove and/or a generator for backup power. For now, though, we can be sure of a hot, home cooked meal whether or not the power is on.

Month Four Preps

I keep going back and forth on what I want to buy in the next month. All the economic indicators point to a very long road before we get to real recovery. I'm worried about inflation, which means that I want to buy as much food as I can. It's almost feeling like a Sophie's Choice deciding which items to buy! (Yes, I can be overly dramatic. Why do you ask?)

These are the preps I have lined up for month four of my prepping plan:

1. More $ for BOBs. Add $ to our vehicle kits.
2. The items I postponed buying from Month Three: butane refills for my Zippo lighter, the remainder of the items for my van's vehicle kit.
3. Buckets, mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, etc. so that I can package bulk amounts of flour, beans and rice.

And something a bit different:

   4.   Exercise at least 3 times per week.

This last one may be the toughest one of all. Ack!

Month Three in Review

The third month of my prepping plan is complete.

What I accomplished:

• I added more cash to our BOBs
• I bought plastic sheeting and duct tape to prepare for sheltering-in-place
• I also got a box of trash bags for sanitation and other SHTF purposes
• I acquired local/regional maps and placed them in our vehicles and BOBs.
• I bought a lot of items for food storage.

What didn't happen:

• I have my duct tape and sheeting, but I haven't cut it to size. Having pre-cut pieces could save so much valuable time.
• I didn't get bottles of butane to refill my favorite Zippo MPL or the rest of my van's vehicle kit either. I decided to hedge against rising prices and bought 200 lb of wheat instead.

I'm still trying to prioritize my purchases for Month Four. So much to buy, so little money!

Financial Preparedness, Part I

The American people are feeling pretty light in the pocketbook at the moment. I don't have any solutions for our national economic problem, but I do know a way you can build a strong financial future for your family. Dave Ramsey has come up with a common-sense plan you can use to become financially prepared. Over the next few weeks I will be discussing Dave Ramsey's Seven Baby Steps and applying them to preparedness.

Baby Step One: Create an $1,000 emergency fund

The first step towards achieving financial freedom is saving money for an emergency. Dave says you should start with the amount of $1,000. You are not to touch this money unless it is a true emergency.


Your furnace dies in the dead of winter = EMERGENCY
Your car needs a serious repair = EMERGENCY
You lose your job = EMERGENCY
You run out of Diet Coke Zero and you have spent all the money you budgeted for soda = NOT AN EMERGENCY

That is something I have to repeat to myself regularly.

The reason you should start with this step instead of immediately tackling your debt is that the unexpected WILL happen. We have had a ton of medical expenses in my family this year. Some were expected (the birth of Baby Dear), some were not (two family members needing an MRI). If you don't have any money on hand to deal with life's little (and big) emergencies, chances are you will add to your debt. You'll never climb out of the pit of financial insecurity if you don't build an emergency fund. Keep in mind that this is only a starter emergency fund and you will need to save even more money after you become debt free.

Now for the prepping aspect of Baby Step #1. Having cash on hand is essential for preparedness. Consider this:

• During the Great Depression, FDR declared a bank holiday. All banks throughout the country were closed for several days. If that was to happen today, you would definitely want to have cash at your fingertips.
• If the grid goes down in a short or long-term emergency, cash or barter will be the only way you can buy goods. ATMs won't work and neither will your debit or credit cards.

I do keep the bulk of my emergency fund in the bank, but I am starting to keep a stash of cash at home. Some of it will be in our BOBs and in our vehicle kits. The rest of it will be kept in a fireproof safe hidden in my home. You should make sure that the bulk of your cash is in small denominations unless you relish the prospect of paying for a $7 pack of batteries with a $50 bill! There may not be change available when you need to use your cash in an emergency.

In his book, The Total Money Makeover, Dave relates the story of one of his listeners who put her $1,000 emergency fund in a cheap glass picture frame. She wrote "Break in case of emergency" on the paper she displayed in the frame. The frame was then hung on the wall behind the coats in her coat closet.

Many survivalists and preppers think that precious metals are an emergency fund essential. That is not a priority for me at all. I have way too many other things I need to spend my prepping money on at the moment and I'm not sure gold will end up being a quality investment outside of preparedness over the long haul. Read more about why you may or may not need to buy gold here. Dave Ramsey doesn't think gold is a great investment, but then again he thought I was a nut for storing food.

Saving money for an emergency is key, whether that emergency is TEOTWAWKI or simply everyday life.

Read much more about the Baby Steps in The Total Money Makeover. You may also be able to listen to Dave on his syndicated radio show. Dave's the man!

Sheltering In Place

The government has been telling us to stock plastic sheeting and duct tape and be prepared seal a safe room since 9/11. Maybe they recommended it before and I was oblivious, but it really entered the public's consciousness after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Yes, I've known I should do this.

No, I didn't take any steps to do it until this month.

Technically, there are two kinds of sheltering-in-place. The first is the one those of us in Tornado Alley are familiar with. If severe weather approaches, you grab your kids and hunker down in the basement or other safe area to avoid being blown into Oz. I've never looked good in blue gingham, so I've got this maneuver mastered.

The sheltering-in-place I am going to address today is the second variety and it is different from the first in some very important ways. If there is a chemical, biological, or terrorist attack, you may need to stay indoors and seal a room to keep your family safe.

In contrast to a severe weather situation, you do NOT want to shelter-in-place in the basement for a chemical or biological attack. Some chemical agents are actually heavier than air and can sink below ground level. You should select a room on the highest level of your house. Ideally that room would be interior and windowless and yet spacious (approx. 10 square feet per person) and with a source of water. I don't know about you, but that doesn't describe any room in my house!

I selected our master bathroom. It does have a window and door, but I should be able to seal them up quickly. Obviously it also has a water supply. If I had a lot of notice I could also seal up the adjoining master bedroom. We would be considerably more comfortable and have access to a TV to keep abreast of the news. I'm not counting on having a lot of warning, so we're probably going to be stuck in the bathroom. Thankfully, I store our BOBs in the bathroom closet so we'll have an emergency radio and other supplies.

The following diagram from ready.gov illustrates how you're supposed to seal up your room.



You should pre-cut all of your pieces of sheeting ahead of time. The last thing you want to do is be fooling around with that stuff when time is of the essence. Store the pre-cut sheeting with a roll of duct tape and a pair of scissors in the room you'll be sheltering in.

Don't forget to make sure the sheeting you buy is at least 2 mils thick. I bought a 250 meter roll of 3.5 mil plastic for $7.27. The duct tape was a little under $4. Pretty cheap preps that have a multitude of other uses. The leftover plastic sheeting could be used to make an evaporation still, a tarp, or sleeves to wear when you butcher rotting pig carcasses to create biodiesel. You know, vital survival activities in a SHTF scenario.

This kind of shelter-in-place is designed to last for a few hours, not days. You can't seal yourself in for very long or you'll suffocate! I've read that if the room you're sheltering in has at least 10 square feet per person, you will have enough oxygen for at least 5 hours. My bathroom is only 50 sq ft and I have six people in my family, so I guess we'll have to all breathe shallowly. I have read that most chemical agents should dissipate by 2 hours, though, so we should be fine. I hope.

Just to muddy the waters further, if there is a nuclear attack, you should shelter in place in the lowest level of your house or an interior room. Having earth and concrete surrounding you will help protect your family from radiation. You should prepare your basement shelter in much the same way as your upper level shelter. Read this for more information http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/shelter.asp

Don't forget that before you seal yourself in for a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, you need to turn off your heat or A/C!

I live in a rural area and I'm pretty sure the farmer next door isn't a secret agent for Al Qaeda, but even our family could potentially need to shelter in place. No matter who you are or where you live, take the time to buy some plastic sheeting and duct tape and get ready. Don't be a slacker like me!

There are two websites I recommend for further reading:


http://www.bt.cdc.gov/planning/shelteringfacts.pdf


and

http://www.ready.gov/business/plan/shelterplan.html

Month Three Preps

I've spent my money for Month Two so it's time to think about spending next month's money!

1) Get more cash and add it to our Bug Out Bags (BOBs).
2) Buy a box of trash bags.
3) Get a roll of heavy mil plastic sheeting and a roll of duct tape. Use it to prep for possible sheltering-in-place.
4) Buy butane refills for my Zippo lighter.
5) Buy maps for both vehicles + BOB.
6) Buy the remainder of items for my van’s emergency kit.
7) Continue to buy items for food storage.

My original plan for Month Three had me buying a bunch of food storage containers for my pantry and a Brother P-Touch label maker. That's the OCD organizer in me.

I decided that it was probably more important that I store up food. With my luck, TEOTWAWKI would happen and all I'd have to show for it would be a bunch of plastic with nothing in it! And with the threat of hyperinflation looming, food prices are only going to rise. It's best to stock up NOW on the essentials of life. However much Snapware makes my soul sing, it will not sustain me in an emergency. :)

Water storage and protection from nukes

I finally completed my prepping purchases for this month. They fall into two major headings, water and nuclear preparedness. I'll discuss each in turn.

WATER

Why store water?

Water is one of the most important items in preparedness. You can't survive very long without water and yet it is something that we all take for granted. We just expect that clean, safe water will always flow out of our faucets. That is something that you absolutely cannot count on in an emergency. Municipal water supplies could be contaminated or they could be out of order. If you are on well water, a loss of electricity would cut power to your pump. A major local, regional or national power grid outage would then leave you up a creek without a paddle. Bottled water is one of the first items to get sold out in anticipation of a hurricane, snow or ice storm. Be ready ahead of time!

How much water to store?

You should count on at least 1 gallon of water per person per day. That gives you enough water to drink as well as some for basic hygiene and cooking. Most sources that I have read recommend that you store a minimum of two weeks worth of water. For our family that would be:

6 people x 1 gallon per day x 14 days = 84 gallons

How do you store water?

I have decided to accomplish this in a couple of ways. First, I purchased a 55 gallon barrel.

It is important that your water storage containers be made of food-grade materials. You should never store water in something that once held anything you would not put in your body (gas, cleaners, etc.). I chose to buy our water storage containers but you can use clean and empty pop or juice bottles. Some people are able to get barrels that held syrup, etc. for free from restaurants. Be sure to clean your containers thoroughly if you go that route and again, make sure the containers are of food-grade plastic.

You also need a way to open and close your barrel plus drain out the water. The barrel has a valve on top that you need a bung wrench to open.

Water weighs over 8 lb per gallon, so it will be very heavy when the barrel is filled. You do not want to be fooling around should you have to use your water in an emergency. You can buy siphon pumps or siphon hoses. I chose to get a simple hose. You can buy the barrel in a combo with the siphon and wrench from Emergency Essentials. I was pretty pleased at the price point and it was quickly delivered via Fed Ex to my residence.

It is space efficient to store a lot of water in a large container but at approximately 455 pounds when full, it is definitely not portable. What if we need to bug out? I found the basic water storage kit sold by Emergency Essentials to be an easy and economical way to get five 5-gallon storage containers.

The kit consists of heavy duty mylar bags that have a spout. You fill the bags with water and place each one in a cardboard box. The boxes have handles and stack easily. The kit is reuseable and seems like it would be pretty sturdy as long as your basement or other storage area stays dry.

This is what my storage area looked like with my storage containers filled up and ready to go.

I went ahead and placed some cardboard underneath the water barrel. Many people recommend that you have some sort of separation between your plastic water containers and the concrete floor. The thought is that chemicals from the concrete can leach through the plastic into your water. Other folks think that as long as your concrete is not getting heated up (ie. from the sun, outdoors, etc.) you are fine. I chose to put a layer of cardboard underneath my water barrel even though our concrete stays cool all year long. Another solution to this problem is to rest your barrel on top of some 2 x4s.

If you're adding it up, this totals 80 gallons of water and my family needs 84. We do have an additional three days' worth of water stored in our BOBs in the form of Aqua Blox. Should we need even more water, we have two 40 gallon water heaters. You can also use the water in the tank of your toilet (not the bowl!). In all, we have enough water for nearly four weeks.

In the future I plan on buying a large Berkey water filter for more long term solutions. While we do not have a natural source of water on our property, we do live in an area where there are many farm ponds nearby. If TSHTF, we could haul in water from those ponds or a nearby public lake and then filter it. We also have some water treatment tablets and bleach that could be used to disinfect suspect water if necessary. Boiling water once you filter out the big particles is always an option as well.

Do you need to treat your water?

Generally speaking, if you are filling your water containers with water from municipal supplies, you do not need to add any sort of water treatment. You do, however, have to rotate your water, dumping it out and refilling your containers every 6 months to 1 year.

If you add this water preserver sold by The Ready Store, however, you can extend the time water stays fresh in your containers to 5 years. I don't know about you but I don't have the time or inclination to dump out 84 gallons of water every year, so this was a good investment for me.

Another thing you should think about is how you are going to fill your water containers. Most garden hoses are not considered safe for drinking water. They can have lead and other chemicals leach out of them or even harbor mold and mildew. I went ahead and bought a couple of water-safe, mold resistant hoses. You can find these online at emergency preparedness stores or even at your local Wal-Mart in the RV or garden section. In the end, filling our water containers from our regular garden hose probably wouldn't be a big deal, but better safe than sorry in my book. After all, that's why I'm a prepper.

NUCLEAR PREPAREDNESS

This next purchase may seem kind of random or paranoid.

These are Iosat tablets which consist of potassium iodide. If there is a nuclear incident, it will flood your thyroid with iodine so that it does not absorb radiation. There are dosages on the package for people of all ages and the medicine can be stored for up to seven years before you need to replace them.

People tend to be much less afraid of nuclear radiation than they were decades ago. The Cold War may be over, but the recent arrest and deportation of those Russian spies living in the US should remind you that Russia isn't exactly our best friend. Rogue states like Iran and North Korea certainly have the motivation to launch a nuclear attack on the US. Terrorists of all stripes would definitely like to do so.

I'd like to think that, living as I do in the middle of nowhere, we'd be safe. There is no guarantee, though, particularly when you consider the effect of weather systems. The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico illustrates how weather, wind, and ocean currents can spread a localized disaster over a huge area. There are also nuclear power plants dotted throughout the country. They, too, could be a source of a nuclear emergency.

Of course there is much more to consider when it comes to nuclear preparedness. Many of the other preps I'm doing would be essential: water storage, food, hygiene, etc. A great resource and one that is available for free is

Cresson H. Kearny's Nuclear War Survival Skills.

That's a long post but one I hope will be helpful to those of you starting out your preparedness journey. My Month Two Preps are complete.

Progress Report on our Month Two Preps

1. Get $20 in small bills to add to BOBs. IN PROGRESS Whenever I get some cash, I add a little bit to the stash in our BOBs.
   
2. Continue to build our three month supply of food and other essentials. IN PROGRESS Every time I went to the grocery store during the month of June, I picked up a few additional items for food storage. That would be why our grocery bill was out of control! Since Hubby Dear and I have agreed upon an amount in the budget for food storage, I have promised I will do much better in July! As a result of my over-spending, however, we have a few additional items in our storage like canned fruits and vegetables, paper products, toiletries like toothpaste and bodywash, salad dressing and pasta, to name a few.


3. Reorganize our storage room. Clear out junk, donate unnecessary items and consolidate to make room for food and water storage. COMPLETE We have a storage room in our basement that was very organized but filled to the brim. Hubby Dear and I went through the contents of every storage bin and were able to throw out, recycle, or donate enough items to empty 7 large bins. I will use these for food and supply storage. We also have cleared out enough space for the water containers we're buying. If I can convince Hubby Dear to get a vasectomy, we'll be able to donate all of the bins of outgrown baby clothes we have stored and I'll have even more room. Somehow I don't think that will be a very persuasive argument for him. ;) We cleaned out about half of the items that were underneath these stairs. Our water storage is going here. I've started moving some of the items I had stored in my kitchen to these shelves. I haven't quite figured out what I'll store upstairs and what's going to come downstairs. Right now I have some condiments and peanut butter on these shelves along with about 24 pounds of pasta in that clear plastic bin. 24 pounds down, 87 to go! The top part of the shelf has my canning supplies and last year's canned tomatoes and pickles.

I still have a lot of organizing I could do here, but I'm kind of waiting until this summer's canning is complete.


4. Buy Iosat tablets for the whole family. See #5


5. Buy items necessary to store 2 weeks worth of water for our family - barrels, siphon, water conditioner, etc. INCOMPLETE After Hubby Dear gets paid this week, I will be able to make these purchases.
   
6. Fill water containers. Store appropriately in our cleared out storage room. INCOMPLETE but coming soon!

Month Two Preps

Now that my Month One Preps are mostly complete (our van emergency kit is a glaring omission, I will admit), it's time to think about Month Two.

Month Two Preps:

1. Get $20 in small bills to add to BOBs.
2. Continue to build our three month supply of food and other essentials.
3. Reorganize our storage room. Clear out junk, donate unnecessary items and consolidate to make room for food and water storage.
4. Buy Iosat tablets for the whole family.
5. Buy items necessary to store 2 weeks worth of water for our family - barrels, siphon, water conditioner, etc.
6. Fill water containers. Store appropriately in our cleared out storage room.