We went to the big city yesterday to celebrate the birthday of our youngest daughter. Before we left, I printed up some information to study on 72 hour emergency kits, otherwise known as Bug-Out-Bags (BOB). Between that and my husband's iPad, I spent the time going down the mountain (he was driving), comparing lists of supplies one might want to put in a kit.
As I came across the item "jumper cables", I thought about this for a few minutes ... "Should I buy another set, or should the set we have remain in the garage?" And then I moved on.
Later that day...
We needed to run some errands before "playing" because you do that when you live in a rural area since there's always errands to run when you don't have access on a daily or even weekly basis. Upon returning to the car after the last errand, we quickly realized we had a flat tire. First time in 15 years. Thankfully, we had a spare ready to go and the tire was changed.
My husband gets back in the car and believe it or not, the car would not start. This is too comical at this point to the adults who can NOT believe this is happening, but the kids are devastated, sure that their plans for the evening are doomed. And can you believe it? Not one soul in that city parking lot nor the shops around us had a set of jumper cables?
God was very gracious to allow this all to happen within walking distance of a Sears Auto Repair shop and my husband was able to walk over and purchase a pair of cables, come back, find a willing store employee who would give us a jump, and get the car going. I won't tell you how long this all took, but let me just stay, we had to start amending our plans for the evening. My husband dropped us off to have some fun while he took the car to get a new battery, cable, and tire. And instead of having family time together, he missed out to take care of us (our hero!) and we got home closer to midnight rather than 8 or 9 like we had planned. (Thus this was late because I went straight to bed and slept in!)
The irony of this all is not lost on me. I now know that I want jumper cables for ALL of our vehicles! Of course, I had heard that this is a good idea before yesterday, but it's funny how we're always sure it won't happen to us and that someone else will have what we need. And thankfully this wasn't a life or death situation, but it wasn't pleasant either.
So, after I have a cup of coffee, I'm going to work on a post for putting together a BOB and I'll link up just like you can do, with the Linky below. And then I'm going to spend some time getting it in order. I'd love to hear what you did this week. Every time I read your comments I get ideas for myself! So let me know either in the comments or by linking up with your blog post, what you did to prepare this week.
How I Prepared This Week
This week, for the Preparedness Challenge, I researched BOB kits, purchased a book on growing your own grains, learned to make milk kefir, met with our HOA Rules Committee about increasing the number of chickens allowed per acre on our properties, switched my bee order from Italians to Carnolians (due to our colder climate here ), and made a final decision as to where the hive would go. And bought an extra set of jumper cables.
Now it's your turn!
I can't wait for the BOB post! That is one thing I am putting off simply because I do not ever want to have to leave my home. I know we may have to though and need to prepare for it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I am sorry you had all that trouble. I do not have jumper cables but you can be sure I will learn from this and get some quick. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how our questions area always answered...one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI prepared this week by ordering 2 packages of bees and a new mated queen for my current hive split. I made 2 small wheels of cheddar cheese, dried about 5 pounds of oranges, a quart jar of calendula blossoms and planted 30 tomato plants.
So sorry you had all that car trouble. We have jumper cables, but my husband also bought a battery charger box for my van several years ago. Sometimes there just isn't anyone available to help jump off a car, and he didn't want me to be stranded with all the children and be unable to find anyone to help. Not sure what the box is called, but it's smaller than a suitcase and you do not have to have another vehicle in order to jump off your car. You just attach the cables from the box to your battery and it charges. You may have already heard of these. Blessings, Sherry
ReplyDeleteI bought 2 pullets last week for my urban farm, planted potatoes, kale, and a rosemary plant (not hardy here) in my 'Mediterranian' container. Reviewed my companion gardening info to plan my garden.
ReplyDeleteI will spend the weekend reorganizing food storage - it's all over the place with no index files, and I don't know that I could find some things when I want them.
We purchased a coffee bean roaster and 30 lbs of green coffee beans. We plan to purchase an additional 50 lbs in the coming weeks. Purchased additional dry goods to add to our already growing supply. Also, organized the pantry so we can better utilize and store our supplies.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Oh Amy, I'm so sorry you had a rough evening...and that just makes me wonder if WE have jumper cables.
ReplyDeleteThis week I added pasta sauces to the pantry and I'm getting ready to order mylar bags from Emergency Essential.....they're on sale this month!
I'm officially in the challenge because I wrote about it on my blog :). Thanks for the challenge!
ReplyDeletehttp://healthyhomesteading.com/2011/04/preparedness-challenge-a-plan-for-preparedness/
Also, you might want to listen to this week's Garden Doctor Radio show. It's very interesting and has to do with preparedness.
http://www.bepreparedradio.com/2011/04/05/family-garden-doctor-04-08-2011/
Well, its been a slow week really, got a two more hand crank flashlights, started several hundred new seeds in the greenhouse, my mushroom spores arrived, so I am working on setting up the logs so will have four new kinds of mushrooms hopefully for three to five years.
ReplyDeleteLast but not least, picked up a couple new books, One that has basic's in regards to medical info, called When there is no Doctor, and one on detailed plans on how to build your own hot and cold smokers, plus half the book on how to cure your own meat.
Haven't done a ton of things this week. Was going to get my drivers license changed and went to get my papers out of where I thought I had put them. Couldn't find them. Called hubby who is still back east and asked him to check the freezer(that is where we keep the SS cards, insurance papers, birth, death, and other important papers). Sure enough they were still there, so he tossed them in a box and mailed it out to me. Now I have what I need and still will be within the 30 days of getting them so will be legal. Still unpacking and waiting for snow to be gone and mud to clear up so driveway and barn can be started. Oh did call and get the car insurance changed to the new state for my vehicle.
ReplyDeleteAdele
This was a bit of a slower week in the sense of puchasing items. I just got a couple 1 lb bags of various beans and some vinegar for my storage cabinet. Looks like we may need to leave FL because of lack of work for my husband and may be moving to the eastern part of PA. Not too bad of a thing as my father lives there and we hope to rent a small home w/ an acre or two. It is also a better area for gardening.. So, I spent time looking into areas. And, also, looking into homeschooling as I plan to homeschool my 7 yr old full-time next yr.
ReplyDeleteAmy, it sounds like you have a wonderful husband! Breaking down near a Sears Auto Repair store was definitely a blessing.
ReplyDeleteThis week for the preparedness challenge, I read through more of the Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants and used the information to add several additional plants to our plan for the herb garden. We planted 25 asparagus crowns and added to our pantry stock. Green pepper and okra seeds germinated this week. I made another 72 paper pots and started yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, acorn squash, alibi cucumbers, and japanese climbing cucumbers. I'm looking forward to making more squash and zucchini pickles this summer!
When it rains it pours doesn't it. Glad to see it was just a minor inconvienience and not worse. As in no spare and no money or credit card to get the cables!
ReplyDeleteToday I made cheese for the first time.I love it! The kids loved it which is better yet. Now I am waiting on the cheese making book to try others. This was just a milk and lemon juice recipe. I added a few pinches of salt and a clove of garlic. I have learned I need to stock up on cheese cloth and lemon juice!
Can you reuse cheese cloth?
Glad you were so close to the Auto shop, this makes me want to get right out and check my car for supplies.
ReplyDeleteThis week I ordered my garden seeds, and finished planning my garden. I finally found a company that sells freeze dried products that aren't packed on equipment used to package nuts (since I'm allergic) and was able to place a nice sized order- yeah!!! I also earned a $10 gift card to Emergency Essentials by posting a review about their Home Storage Food analyzer which was fun to try. Anyone else who has a blog might want to do this too. All in all a good preparedness week, I love reading everyone elses too!!
http://aprilshomemaking.blogspot.com/2011/04/emergency-essentials-food-storage.html
This week I bought most of my garden seeds, all heirloom so the seeds can be saved - that is as long as I get it all together to save them. I have a pantry full of different kinds of beans, homemade salsa, pickles, etc. We grew enough potatoes to last until March this year with a few seed potatoes left so we're planning for more this year. And we are checking into getting chickens for the first time. A little scary to me to take that leap but exciting as well. Sorry to hear about your mishap. We live about 40 minutes from the nearest city and have had a few similar situations in the almost twenty years we have lived here.
ReplyDeleteWe butchered 33 roosters to reduce our flock of chickens and used our homemade Whiz Bang Chicken Plucker. My husband made it with plans he ordered. Works great!
ReplyDeleteSo I was thinking about the hurricane after Katrina, Was it called Ruby? People were told to get out of Texas, or at least go north. Highways came to a flat stop, hotels were full to overflowing. We decided to hook up the trailer and be gone in an hour. We were just going to a state park BUT we wondered if we had to get out ASAP, would we have all we need to be comfortable in our small little trailer? It is amazing how you cannot make a full list of supplies under stress and just from the house, no store stops.
ReplyDeleteThere is 50 gallons of fresh water in the tank, a comfortable place to sleep. Pots and pans, a few basic supplies, soap, dental care, dog food blah blah blah.
We are working on a list of what should stay in the trailer and stay fresh. We have renamed the trailer, Big BOB. We think what might be helpful would be a list of what to grab. Working on it. This week I’m working on getting big BOB ready. I know it sounds like too much fun to be real, we like camping. But we do wonder, what if you had to get out fast. Would we be able to just jump and run?
Car trouble...argh! This week we were blessed with a trailer full of wood to chop up for firewood from a subdivision in town that had to remove trees, I was given a stack of past issues of Hobby Farms and HF Homes to peruse :), we planted more beans, put the peas I started in the ground, and decided that Texas Gardner might be a magazine that I should subscribe to this year. My lists keep growing. I decided to make a list for my husband of things that I just don't seem to get to...all of that outside and car stuff. I think that it's great that we keep each other thinking and stretching ourselves to new areas of information.
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks for sharing that story about the jumper cables. I think that has moved me to get some for both of our vehicles. We have a triple A car service and there was a time when I got our truck stuck in the mud near the ocean as I was going to go out in my little sail boat. Turns out there was no one to help me and I did not have a phone capable of GPS. It was one of those areas that you have been to a million times, but don't really know the address. I called the car service and they could not help me without an address! Ugh! I felt udder shame as I had to call my husband to let him know of my situation. It was embarrassing to say the least! He came to my rescue and helped me out. So you never really know when you are going to need help and if the necessary tools are going to be available. I have a new phone that has a GPS capability and I would also encourage the use of maps to be kept in your car in case the cell phones don't work.
ReplyDeleteThings that I have done to be prepared have been few as I have had a miserable cold in between going to work. My pioneer drying rack that I won came very quickly and my husband put it together. It is wonderful and I am going to be cutting some fresh herbs coming up to hang and dry on the rack. I really want to learn how to make good quality herbal teas so I would love any suggestions on good books to buy. I have a few already so I will start with those. My garden is growing well and since the soil in Florida is non existent we have mulching and composting for the last 3 years with amazing results! I currently have two large composters so all kitchen scraps and yard clippings get composted and turned into rich black soil! Amazing enough the red worms I bought to help with the composting have multiplied revealing even more rich organic soil! I have purchased 6 pineapples to add to the yard to grow as well as ginger! I have noticed that vegetables, herbs, and fruits tend to grow better when planted together in groups. My other goal will be to start blogging about my urban homestead as well.
I have also been studying the 72 hour kit. We have a backpack of stuff, but I honestly don't know what all is in there, so I'm going through and making a list of what needs added.
ReplyDeleteOh that is too awful! Maybe I should thank Rob for making me put jumper cables in my car and my daughter's car. lol!
ReplyDeleteI didn't get much done this week in preparedness. I did start making my own bottle of vanilla extract after reading that on another blog. I also bought another 12 pack of unscented candles and a bottle of lamp oil.
This week I will be buying more things to add to the first aid kit and a weather radio. I would also like to buy some tire repair kits. Thanks for all the great info!
I've found some amazing blog entries about emergency preparedness the past week. I'm trying to get them on my blog, but have had a terrible time with pregnancy-related sciatica, so have had to limit computer time in exchange for lying flat or standing time!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm on WIC, and one thing we get is powdered milk. I get it, thinking I can use it in recipes. But better yet, I've decided to put it downstairs with my emergency foods since it's got a year and a half exp. date. Very easy way to stock up! :)