Are you ready to be quarantined?

We’re hearing about swine flu again.  Personally, I’m not alarmed unless it mutates and becomes really nasty.  But this bug is a good reason to look at what our government is telling us to do.  I can’t believe I just said that.

I checked out the gov’t preparedness site they recommend keeping a 2 week supply of water and food.   I think a 90 day supply is more prudent.   Here’s a small portion of what  they say:

Stock a supply of water and food. During a pandemic you may not be able to get to a store. Even if you can get to a store, it may be out of supplies. Public waterworks services may also be interrupted. Stocking supplies can be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and disasters. Store foods that:

• are nonperishable (will keep for a long time) and don’t require refrigeration
• are easy to prepare in case you are unable to cook
• require little or no water, so you can conserve water for drinking

What about those who do not prepare for a disaster?

When I was a little girl, I remember reading about the grasshopper and ant.  It was summertime and at my grandmother’s house in the country… I can still hear my grandmother’s voice reading.  The theme was that the grasshopper enjoyed all summer.  He ate, wrote poetry, socialized and took long summer naps.  The ant worked all summer while the grasshopper watched and laughed.  Then, of course, winter came and the ant was ready.  The grasshopper died.  The end.  Very short story but tells everything.  It is the natural law, which we’ve changed in our society.

If there was such a book today, it would be as follows.  The grasshopper enjoyed all summer.  The grasshopper was entitled to this time because it was a green grasshopper and worshiped the sun god.  Its ancestors had also done the same thing and it was born that way…. to enjoy the summer.  So he should follow his heart.  The insect government borrowed money from the reptiles so they could build the grasshopper a home, because the grasshopper was entitled to a home.  Then all the other grasshoppers wanted their own homes, so pretty soon the grasshoppers all had new homes.  And the grasshopper didn’t like getting hot jumping through the fields, so he borrowed money from the birds and got an insectmobile.

The ant thought this was crazy, but could not stop the trend.  The ant had a really nice ant hill he’d worked generations to build.  But pretty soon he had a hard time keeping his hill because the insect gov’t taxed the nice hill.  It wasn’t fair that the ant hill was nicer than the grasshopper’s house.  But the ant was debt free and kept his head above water for a while.  In the meantime, the insect gov’t kept borrowing from others to build a wonderful kingdom.  All this time, the ant stored away food and survival items.  The ant did not get into credit card debt and tried to save a little money.

Then winter hit.  Many insect leaders had told the insects that winter would only be 72 hours and the gov’t would show up after that time.  But the winter went on for months.  The birds, reptiles and others refused to loan the insect kingdom any more money.  The insect currency collapsed and social chaos erupted.  The grasshoppers came after the ant for food and other items.  The ant pulled out its stinger and there was an internal insect conflict.   In the meantime, the other kingdoms where really mad at the insects for defaulting and decided to take action against them.  Things got really bad.  The end.

There was a wonderful post yesterday at preparednesspro about this subject:  A crisis of choice.    This is really worth a read.  I don’t see many on the preparedness blogs addressing this subject and she did an excellent job with this hot potato subject.

I’m trying to be an ant.  I used to think I was an ant, but after Ike I really got serious on this subject.  Obtaining preparedness knowledge does not happen overnight.  There are people out there who are really prepared for the uncertainties of life.  There are others who laugh or insult you.  Others encourage you but have no desire to do anything themselves.  Since I’ve started talking about this subject, I get…. “I’m coming to your house if…..”.   If all these people come, we’re good for about 48 hours.

Preparedness is mental and physical.  For me, the mental part is about God.  I want to be in His will first and foremost.  I don’t know the future and any plans I make can be tossed aside in seconds by events in this world.    That does not mean I do nothing.  The Bible is full of stories about people getting ready for the future.  Sometimes He didn’t allow them to store food so they would be totally dependent on Him…..  Jews in the desert eating manna.  However, there are more examples about God’s people being prepared.  God told Joseph to store grain.

Being prepared is not just about food.  It will be different for each family. Housing, age, health, etc.  all play a role in what each individual can do.  And each will get prepared to varying degrees.  One basic strategy is debt.  Debt kills.  Another is knowledge.  What do you need in your area?  I’m in Houston, so I need to be ready for a hurricane or 9/11 type event.

In today’s culture, I think this translates to observing our world and doing our best to prepare for what may be ahead.  The proverbs 31 woman did exactly this.  When I look at our world, I see the potential for hyperinflation, increased natural disasters, pandemics, famines, increased crime and global war.  That sounds depressing, but it is realistic.  Much of our country doesn’t choose to think about these things.  But if we did, our society would be a better place.

So if this has peaked your interest… head on over to preparednessedpro and read more.

What does it mean to be a Survivalist???

Most of my friends and some of my family already think I’m weird, so I don’t have much to lose with this post.  In fact, some of my friends have decided they want to be “weird” too.  Sometimes you have thoughts about life that are not the norm.  One of mine is that of a “survivalist”.  There are varying degrees of this mentality.  I’m probably somewhere in the middle.   For example, we do not have a compost toilet, but I did get face filter masks that I found on clearance at HEB  (just in case the bird flu hits:) ).  I can hear you laughing….

I’ve been debating whether to share this with you, but it is just so good I’m willing to go for it.  There is a podcast I’ve been listening to:  http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/.  I like this guy b/c he doesn’t tell you what to do, but gives his opinion about being prepared and you can take it to whatever degree works for your family.  I also like his stance on what are the highest risks we might face – he is one of the more realistic “survivalists” I’ve ran across.  For example,  he suggests have a higher chance of facing a job loss than the bird flu, and need to prioritize our preps accordingly.  But preparing for the first might also help you with the latter.

The survivalist mentality is not about living in fear that something might happen.  It is actually the opposite.  It is living knowing you’ve done your best to prepare your family for uncertainities in life.  No different than putting money into your 401K, life insurance or other “normal” things our society does to prepare for the future.

Emergency Preparedness – Water

Hurricane season is right around the corner.  The last few years have been rough on the Gulf Coast.  I’m still stinging from the Ike experience.  I thought I was prepared, but I was not.  One thing that I needed was a water purifier.  We had stocked up on bottled water, but with 5 kids, 2 adults and 2 dogs in the house… we were going through water very quickly.   If our situation had to continued for much longer we would have run out.  I had a gas stove so I could boil water to use in cooking.  We were concerned our water system had been compromised, so we didn’t want to drink from the tap.  But folks with an electric range had no electricity and were in FEMA lines.

Standing in a FEMA line sounds like hell on earth to me.  I am not counting on our goverment at all during an emergency.

One thing you can do for water is to buy a water filtration system and they are not that expensive.  You can get a decent Berkey system for under $300.  Here’s a site with some general info about these.  We purchased ours using Microsoft Live’s new search engine which give dollars back on certain Ebay purchases.  Each day the microsoft live % changes.  That’s the best deal we found on these systems.  I don’t care where you get one b/c I get no $$$$ from this blog or referrals.  I just want my friends and family prepared.

Costco Emergency Food Bucket

Dave and I are Costco members.  In their March email, emergency food supply buckets are on special.  This one seems like a pretty good deal.  If our friends/family who are not Costco members want to order one, let me know and we’ll see if we can get you one using our card.  It is $85 and 275 servings.  Sam’s may have something similar???  Hurricane season will be back soon.

Post Update:  I’ve read on some message boards this is not a good deal and the food is like licking salt.  So we make think twice about buying one of these.  Let me know if you’ve tried this.  I cannot imagine that the food is great, but I like the shelf life and grab/go bucket.

Food For Health™ Emergency Food Kit

Ike Pictures

I’m starting to recover from the storm.  I will be writing more on this b/c I learned a lot about being prepared.  I thought I was the queen of being prepared, but yes…. I did learn a few things.  The storm really hit Houston.  The country has moved on to other problems…bail out… but we’re still recovering.  Not everyone has power in the 4th largest metro area of our country.  This storm was a big deal.  I guess all storms are a big deal to those impacted…

Thanks again to all the family and friends who helped us the past two weeks.  I can’t imagine being on my own during a time like this.

Here are a few pics from day two of the storm.  We had heavy rains the second night and flooding became even worse.  Dave went into our street to try to clear the drains from all the junk stopping flow.  But it was not clogged, just no where for the water to go…

battery operated house

we still don’t have electricity. Our 4 year old is telling people our house is out of batteries:) I wish a couple of doubleAAs would solve this problem!

We are so dependent on electricity in the city

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how dependent we are on electricity, especially in the city.  I read stories about people selling everything and moving to “land” and learning to live without conveniences because of the coming “whatever…terrorism, bird flu, peak oil….”.  I find these people interesting.

Since hurricane Ike, I’m so aware of how dependent we are on power and energy sources.  We still don’t have electricity.  The first few days after the storm, our sewer was impacted.  If the elect is not on, there is no energy for the pumps to work.    Garbage is also a problem b/c it piles up very fast when you’re drinking bottled water and eating out of boxes.  I’ve always known we are vulnerable, but it is really fresh for me right now.

I’m a worrier and a planner.  Bad combination because I tend to make decisions out of fear and preparation rather than listening to God and my husband.  I just have to give this to God every day.  over and over.  Planning is good, but we cannot survive on our own strength.  Ultimately we are all in God’s hands and there is a limited about of what we can do to protect ourselves.  We can try to live Godly lives and give the rest to God to handle.  I am so glad I have faith in God b/c this world is so crazy right now with wars, natural disasters and financial disasters within our country.   God is in control thank goodness.  Did I cheer you up today????

We Evacuated

Most people evacuate before a hurricane hits.  We waited a week and couldn’t take it anymore without electricity.  We will not have it until Thursday at the earliest.  I hope this is wrong and it happens sooner, but our area was hit really hard with trees.  We’re at my parent’s lake house and so glad to have electricity.  Dave stayed at the house with the dogs b/c he goes back to work on Monday.  He went into the office today to try to catch up.

We didn’t have any hurricane damage to our house, but there was a tornado inside.  No, 5 tornadoes on and off for 7 days:  4 girls and one guy.  Plus two other storms called Phoenix and Rowdy.   Our house is a disaster area and everyone who knows me will understand I don’t take it well.  I tried calling FEMA to complain but got voice mail jail.  I really wanted FEMA to send someone to clean my house while they hand delivered ice and MREs. 

It is really hard to keep a house with no electricity.  You can’t vacuum and there is no light in the closets.  So you pull stuff out of the closet and never put it back.  After a week, things start piling up.  Any dishes that were in the washer waiting start to smell.  You have to leave the refrig doors open and it is too dark to really clean the restrooms.  And you have lots of trash b/c of paper plates and convenience food. 

And we had the windows open b/c of the heat.  We live in an area with lots of construction so there is dirt in the air.  We should wear masks outside.  The dirt blew into the house, so now there is a layer of dirt on all the piles of stuff. 

And dogs and kids start smelling (yes, adults too) when there is no a/c.  So our house needs lots of airfreshner. 

Have I whined enough???  I’m not a big whiner…just ask Dave.  Well, maybe you shouldn’t.  Good news is that I have big hair today!  I had a blow dryer and curling iron this morning.  It really improved my mood.

Actually, I should not be whining.  Our family and friends have been great.  I can’t even list what everyone did and offered to do.  Times like these really get your priorities in order when it comes to community.  Our country is suffering b/c people are too busy to invest in others’ lives.  Those relationships really are priceless when you have needs. 

I have no problem doing for other people but I have more trouble taking help.  It is a pride thing.  But taking help this past week really made life easier.  When we refuse to let others help us, we are denying them the blessing of serving God through being His hands and feet.  So this week plenty of people were blessed through serving our family.

We look forward to getting back to a normal life, but until then things are much better at the lake.  The kids are playing outside on bikes and swings.  We can’t do that in our neighborhood, so they really appreciate the freedom.  I’m also much more relaxed.  It is so pretty here and I’m enjoying hearing the birds and seeing the flowers.  Those little things in life.

Hurricane Ike Recovery Update

We still do not have power or internet. I’m at our club today getting a shower and internet fix. We have great friends. It has made this much easier. We also have water and sewer. With the weather cooler, life is fine w/o electricity. But we sure do miss all the convenience.

We are in an area where power was hit really hard. I don’t expect to have elect until next week at the earliest.

The exchange students are holding up well. I told them we are not finished with hurricane season and asked if they’d be excited about the next one. They would not. It is no longer glamorous.

Thanks for all the calls and emails. We’re doing just fine.