Prepared for what you might ask? Like the end of the world? Alien invasion? Nuclear war? Nope. Just the little stuff. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow today and tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy, blowing/drifting snow. The North East of the the country is getting hit by a massive winter storm, blizzard conditions. Thousands of people are going to be without power.
This isn't the first big storm of the season. Hurricane Sandy, ice storms, flooding and snow last year left so many people without power. No power also means no water for most people. Can't cook. Can't even flush the toilets. Even without massive super storms you could be left in a situation like this. Mild flooding causes a contaminated water supply. This happened to us in Arkansas a few times a year. We'd have a boil your water alert. An 18 wheeler swerving off the road and taking out a few power poles could leave you in a situation for a few days where you were in trouble power wise. How hard is it to get a few things in order for just in case?
Water is easy to store. How many people have empty milk jugs, empty two liter soda bottles they throw away every week. Why can't you just rinse, fill, and store a few of these under the bathroom sink? Fill the bathtub when you know a storm is coming.
A rocket mass stove is built out of soup cans for goodness sake. It's a few soup cans and a larger can. It runs off sticks. Not fire wood, sticks. You can boil water on it in about eight minuets. Here, instructions.
One of these can be stored in the bottom of your closet with a small bundle of sticks.
It's so nice to have your food stamps loaded onto one of those swipe cards that you use like a debit card. It's great that you have a credit card stashed for emergencies. Fat lot of good it does you when you realize that you can't run one of those through the ATM or get a cash advance with no power. A week later, and you still can't buy food, fill your gas tank, or get toilet paper. Again with the empty 2 liter bottles. Fill one with rice, one with flour, one with sugar, one with dried beans. It may be tasteless for a little while, but you won't starve to death. Stash a couple packets of yeast and a small bottle of oil and you can still bake bread. A small box of powdered milk might taste like crap when mixed with water and you try and drink it, but it's perfect when used to cook with. Buy an extra can of soup every time you go to the grocery store and stick em away in a cabinet for just in case.
Did you know you can shove a piece of cotton twine down through the center of a can of Crisco and you have a candle that burns for ages? You don't have to get special emergency candles or oil lamps, even though I have them.
I have food in the freezer that can last us for over a week. We may be eating a lot of pork chops and two turkeys in short order, but we won't starve. I have dried, home canned, store bought cans, and bought dehydrated stuff in my pantry. Flour, rice, beans, sugar, yeast. Sure when you open my cabinets there looks like there is nothing to eat, because there isn't ready made crap to just munch on. I have things that you may have to make into other things from scratch. I don't have enough stuff to last through the Zombie Apocalypse, but I do have enough non potable water in the garage to flush, milk jugs of water in the pantry to keep us for a week.
It's not where I want to be in concerns to preparedness, but it's a start. I won't be one of the sheeple waiting with my hands out and my pants caught around my ankles, waiting for the gooberment to come save me from my own self.
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