Saturday, February 27, 2010

Chilean Earthquake, Haiti Earthquake, Argentine Earthquake, Japanese Earthquake..

First Haiti.
Then Japan last week (not a HUGE one, but big enough)
Then Chile and Argentina within 24 hours of each other.

If you do not have water and food stored for emergencies:
WHY NOT!???
Do you think you somehow live a charmed life and nothing that bad will happen to you and your loved ones?
Do you shrug off the responsibility of preparing for yourself and your family because "The government or our church or our family or SOMEBODY" will take care of you?

It does NOT work that way.
What  will you do when there is no drinkable water and one of your kids tells you he/she is so very thirsty?
Have you ever gone hungry? I mean REALLY gone hungry...three, four, five days or a week with no food at all?
Many people in the countries above are experiencing that RIGHT NOW.
As you read this, in the comfort of your warm home, with a flushing toilet, a cabinet stocked with snacks and a phone to call Dominos, people are sleeping in the street in those countries. Some are dying of thirst or hunger.
Yet some of you out there still don't have food or water storage to insure your own families well being. You don't have a tent or, at least, tarps and para-cord to make shelter. No water filter. No 72 hour (bug out) bag.
Do you have a way to boil water or cook food if the power and natural gas from your local friendly utility company is n longer flowing?
Do you have an adequate first aid kit? Back-up medications or medical equipment for family members that may need it?

I knowing I am beating a dead horse here (and preaching to the choir for some of you, if we want to keep going down cliche' road)

If you watched the news today, you saw what happened when they issued the tsunami warning in Hawaii. Did you see the people buying anything and everything out of the grocery stores?
Did you hear the comment that Hawaii (the ENTIRE state) has, at best, a FIVE DAY supply of food for it's citizens? That includes everything  in the stores, everything in warehouses and so on. They also said the average household in Hawaii has only a TWO DAY supply of food in their home.

Here's an assignment for next week, if you care to take the challenge.
No shopping. You live with what you have. Monday until next Saturday. No shopping after you read this, either!
At least 4 meals have to made SOLELY out of what you have in your food storage.
That's right, roll out a #10 can of wheat and get to grinding...or just soak and cook in a crockpot...or even start sprouting. I hope you have some tasty food storage...wheat, all by itself, can get boring!
If you have no *food storage* in place, then just live with what is currently in your cabinets, fridge and freezer.
Oh...I am going to go easy on you and not insist you use up your stored water...or if you have none, go without. That would just be cruel. But at least THINK about how difficult it would be not to have water at the turn of a tap.
If some of you break down and call Domino's by Thursday afternoon, I'll understand. I won't be happy about it, but I will understand.

Remember...we have many earthquake faults in this country, too.

3 comments:

  1. Dear Lamb,

    I couldn't agree with you more, and in many ways, I feel pretty prepared (does anyone ever feel fully prepared?). The thing I really want to work on next is medicinals - particularly herbs and things I can grow and dry for teas, poultices, etc. Are there any books or sites you recommend? I have a first aid kit (and one in each car, and blah blah blah), but I'm thinking more of things we could use currently and in an emergency to stay healthy or help with common illnesses.

    Hope you see this, and thanks in advance!

    -Laura at TenThingsFarm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura, I have a link for Herbal medicine over on the right of this blog. The page it takes you to has many, many links! A blog I recommend is here on blogspot. It's written by PureCajunSunshine. It's in the list of blogs I follow...she is currently taking a hiatus because 1) She got bit by a rattlesnake (!) and 2) her computer crapped out on her. But there is OODLES of info on there!
    As far as books, I recommend several...among them the Readers Digest book http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Book-Herbs-Definitive-Grow/dp/0276445406/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268409577&sr=1-6 I hope that link parses itself when I post...EEK! If not, good luck with that...my computer - fu is greatly lacking today!

    ReplyDelete

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