Do you have fuel?

For the past couple of days, I have been referring to an internet post I read, written by a woman who was participating in the 7-Day Challenge by http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/


She wrote about loading her car with her emergency supplies, to simulate evacuating from a impending disaster.


I noticed a couple of things she failed to mention.  


She didn't mention whether or not she had any gas in her car.


If a disaster is coming, you better have some fuel.  I try to make it a habit to fill up every time my car's gas tank is half empty.  I never want to be caught without gasoline in my car.


The other thing she didn't mention was a campstove.  She probably needed to pack something to cook with, whether it was a propane cookstove or a rocket stove that uses charcoal or wood, or a little backpacking stove that uses cans of white fuel.  


The following is some information from a book "Making the Best of Basics", p. 223.




"Fuels will be very important should an emergency arise--food must still be prepared, dishes washed, people bathed and warmed.  

Electricity, natural gas, and other energy sources could be interrupted by an earthquake, flood, hurricane, or other natural disaster, not to mention rationing of energy-producing commodities due to trucking strikes, economic or other unexpected problems.  

The family with fuel to provide adequate energy for cooking, cleaning, sterilization, lighting, and warmth will be much better prepared than those families who ignore this important storage category.  

However, in your eagerness to accomplish this priority, don't forget the essentials of safety."

Only 30 Minutes to Evacuate

Yesterday I talked about an internet post I read, talking about a bedside grab bag.

Here is some more information from that same lady.

She was doing the 7-Day Challenge from http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/.  On Saturday, Sept. 17, the challenge was to grab your 72 hour kits, and load everything in your car as if you were running from an impending disaster, and the time limit to pack your car was 30 minutes.  You were supposed to imagine that your home would be gone when you returned.  What would you take?  And what would fit into your car?

The woman chose to put these things into her car:

 her bedside grab bag
her 72 hour kit with all the regular stuff she normally keeps in there.
Insurance info
genealogy
4 sets of clothing
extra underwear, socks, sneakers,
pillow and 2 blankets
sleeping bag
25 meals she had previously sealed in mylar
picture albums, and flash drives containing more digital pictures
her emergency 3 ring binder (you can learn more about this on  http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/)
solar charger and cords for recharging cell phone
a couple of her precious antiques
water purifier

She said by this time the car was getting pretty full.  She was only able to fit in very few more items:

Bathroom bag with shampoo, toothbrush, etc.
a package of 6 rolls of Toilet paper
1 box kleenex
laptop
her purse

Then she said there was only enough room left for her body in the driver's seat.  And it only took her 18 minutes to collect and load everything into her car.

I thought it was a great exercise to read about.  I was out of town on Saturday, so I couldn't participate, but I am hoping that I will do the evacuation challenge some other time.  I really want to see how fast I can find all my supplies, and see how much will fit into my 15 passenger van (I am pretty sure I will be able to fit more than she did.)

Spouse Family Financial Affairs Questionaire

Today on the 7-Day Challenge, we are supposed to consider what would happen if our spouse dies.  Do we have all our financial affairs in order?  Read about today's challenge here:  http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/09/18/the-7-day-challenge-day-4-sunday/


Julie and Jodi have made a great questionnaire which would be good for every married couple to fill out.
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/2011-7dc-financials.pdf

Yikes! The 7 Day Challenge Started Today! No Sewer

The challenge today on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net  is Very DIFFICULT!  We are supposed to figure out how to dispose of human waste without a toilet/sewage capabilities.  Read http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/09/15/the-7-day-challenge-day-1-thursday/  to learn more about it.

I hate to admit it, but I don't think I am going to do the challenge today  (I did all 7 days in 2010, and really learned a lot.)

I do have a few of the items done for today's challenge.  I have a year's supply of toilet paper. I own some empty buckets I could use. I own lots and lots of heavy black trash bags.   I own an "emergency toilet" which is like a folding chair/potty seat with a plastic bag underneath.  But I don't want to use it today!

I believe I would have to dig holes in my yard to bury the bags, and I'm afraid of hitting some gas line or cable. ( I have purchased a post-hole digger for this exact purpose).   I guess what I will do is call the city to come and mark my yard so I will know where my utilities are, so in the future I will know where it is safe to dig.

I don't own the lime powder to sprinkle on the poo to decrease the odor (they say you can also use Borax or bleach),  or the SuperSorb chemical that turns urine into a gel.

Because I am not actually practicing how to dispose of human waste,  it makes me quite worried about dealing with this scenario if it ever happens.

Get signed up for the Seven Day Challenge

One of our ward Provident Living challenges for the month is "Sign up for the Seven Day Challenge" on Food Storage Made Easy.net.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

I have my suspicions that they are going to start the challenge tomorrow, so if you want to participate (or even get the emails and just observe) you better sign up today.

Sept. 2011 Provident Living challenges

Do one of these by the October Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

1)Buy enough peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches for your family for three months. 

 You need to determine how many sandwiches your family would eat each week, and how much peanut butter and jelly you use for each sandwich.  I gave some pointers for calculating that on my blog yesterday (Aug. 31, 2011).

2) Sign up for the Seven Day Challenge on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net. 

(Sign up here:  http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day/)

I signed up to participate last September, and had many great learning experiences as I had to change a tire, go without city water, go without electricity, and other mock disasters.

There are no consequences if you sign up and then don’t participate.  But I want you to sign up so that you can see all the comments on Facebook as about 2000 people try to live through their assigned hardships.

From their website: 

“The Seven Day Challenge is our way of celebrating National Emergency Preparedness Month in September. The Challenge is a week long series of mock emergencies with daily limitations and tasks to help assess your level of preparedness. On a surprise day in September, participants are notified that the Challenge has begun. Most of the learning and fun occurs as we share our experiences through comments, surveys, and Facebook. 

Seven Day Challenge pages from previous years can help you prepare for the next challenge. We encourage you to check them out, and start preparing now! ARE YOU READY?
2010 7 DAY CHALLENGE Overview
2009 7 DAY CHALLENGE Overview

3) Think of two items you were lacking for hurricane preparedness, and buy them this month.

We usually only have two challenges per month, but I felt we needed a third this time.

Consider Hurricane Irene as a practice run.  What if it had hit us hard?  Using the news stories of the devastation in New Jersey and Vermont as suggestions, consider what supplies you need to have in your home.

These could be items such as:

One week's worth of easy to prepare food

One week’s worth of diapers, formula, feminine hygiene, toilet paper

One week’s worth of paper plates, paper cups, plastic silverware

Bottled Water- a minimum of 1 gallon per person per day.  (But you need much more than that!)

More flashlights

A campstove or fuel for cooking

A lantern

An inverter to plug into your car, to power a TV or laptop.

Consider doing the 7-Day Challenge in September

I did this 7 Day Challenge last September, and had to go a day without water, a day without electricity, learn to change a tire, etc.  Every day is a surprise.  It is really fun and I hope some of you decide to sign up for it.  There is no penalty or reward, just the satisfaction of getting through it and learning about emergency preparedness.  If you sign up for it, you get the emails.  Thats all.


Read all about it on Food Storage Made Easy.org:
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/08/03/7-day-challenge-2011/

Bottles of Water Per Day

(Each photo shows one day of water use.)

Last week, while I was doing the 7-Day Challenge, there were two different days where I had to pretend that I had no tap water.

There are three of us in our house. But two of them were mostly gone all day, so they used water elsewhere. I was very frugal with my bottles of water, so this is not too realistic (I did no laundry, washed very few dishes, didn't wash my hair, and hardly flushed the toilets.) But you can see how many bottles of water I used (for drinking, cooking, flushing toilets and washing hands) on each of the days.

This is THE VERY MINIMUM I would possibly plan on. There is no way I could have lived on less than this, and I could definitely have used a lot more.

Car Emergency Kits

CAR EMERGENCY KITS
Another part of the Day 6 Challenge was to stay stranded in your car for an hour while you are changing a tire, and see if you have what you need. I didn't do that (I changed the tire in my driveway) but I got prepared for having car trouble by making emergency kits for each of our vehicles. I painted "Emergency Kit" on several containers, and filled them with things like flashlights, first aid items, mylar emergency blankets, diapers for our grandkids, duct tape, umbrella, some cash, a magic marker, and heavy paper to make signs with. I also put some bottles of water in my trunk, and a box of Cheerios in case I am stranded with the grandkids. I'm hoping the heat won't ruin the Cheerios.



Then, for the 7th day of the challenge on Monday, we were supposed to:

" Organize your kitchen pantry, and food storage areas. Inventory your long term food storage and three-month storage items. Make a complete list of what you still need to buy." I had already done a lot of those over the past six months, so I was pretty much done.

I feel good about the things I learned on the 7-Day Challenge, and plan to do it again next September.

Day 6 Challenge: Change a Tire

Day 6 Challenge- Stranded with a Flat Tire.

I couldn't get this done on Sunday, so Monday morning I forced myself to change a tire on my car. Wayne stood by and gave directions, but the rules said that he couldn't do any of the work.

First, I had to find the spare tire and jack under the floor of the trunk. I got out the spare (it wasn't too heavy for me), also an outdoor blanket to sit on.

I tried to take off the hubcaps but they were really tricky. Wayne had to show me how to do that or I may not have figured it out.

Then I had to take off the lugnuts. They had been tightened by the auto shop using a torque wrench, so they were on much too tight. The regular wrench that came with the car was no good, I couldn't get any torque with it.

Luckily, we had a star wrench. Turning it by hand didn't work.



The only way I got the lugnuts to budge was by stepping on one handle while I pulled up on another handle with all my might, as you can see in the second photo. I nearly gave up, it was so difficult. But I finally succeeded in loosening them all.





Then we looked at the owner's manual to find out where to put the jack. I had to lay on the blanket on the ground to find where to attach it.

Then I raised the car up on the jack until I could see light under the tire.

I took the lugnuts off and put them inside the center cap of the hubcap. (See example in photo.) When you change a tire on the side of the road, you can easily lose the lugnuts in the grass if you don't put them inside the hubcap. Another thing you can see in this photo is the wrench that comes with the jack. That wrench was worthless to get the lugnuts off, remember ladies, you HAVE to buy a star wrench.




I knelt on the blanket while lifting off the very heavy tire.

I put on spare, and had to learn which way the lugnuts went on. I had to tighten them up in a star pattern.

Then when I went to put the old tire into the trunk, it was too heavy, so I had to wrap it in the blanket and lift it up against my body, to load it into the trunk. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. (Of course, then I had to do everything in reverse to put the tire back onto the car.)

THINGS I LEARNED:

Pay AAA to change your tires. But if you can't do that....

Keep an old blanket in your trunk. I used it throughout the whole ordeal, to sit on, kneel on, lay on, and wrap the tire for picking it up. At one point I even wrapped it around the star wrench handle for padding because the metal hurt my hand when I was pulling so hard.

Women aren't strong enough to use the wrench that comes with the car. Buy a star wrench, you can get better torque by stepping on one handle while you push up with your hands on the other handle. There is no way I could have loosened the lugnuts without this.

Day 5 Challenge- Extreme Weather Conditions

(Sorry, it has taken me a few days to load this post. I've been having internet trouble.)

Day 5- SATURDAY- NATURAL DISASTER- EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

This was the challenge for Saturday. Depending on where you live, pick an extreme weather emergency common to your area and live it. (I chose conditions after a hurricane and during an ice storm. You will notice that I changed quite a few of the rules to make them fit the conditions for these two weather situations.) They said "you have water, but you don't have electricity or natural gas." I chose to say we have water, we don't have electricity, but WE DO have natural gas.

They said my fridge food is ruined, but I say my fridge food is fine, because right after a hurricane eating up your fridge food is the first thing you need to do. So today we are eating out of our fridge, and cooking in the solar oven and on the camp stove.

Note: We have not been able to buy anything from the store since Monday, Sept. 13. We ran out of real milk on Wednesday. So we have been living on powdered milk, powdered eggs, and all the food storage we have in our house.

My own personal goals for the day:

Cook more food in the solar oven.

About 11:00 am I mixed some banana bread batter, and put it into a bundt pan (the bundt pan was shiny aluminum and it should have been dark, but I don't own a dark one yet.) I put the pan into the preheated solar oven at 11:35. It baked for 1 hr and 25 min. and the temperature reached 325 degrees. I got it out at 1:00.

While it was in the solar oven, I put water and raw vegetables in a black pot, inside a clear oven-roasting bag, sitting on an aluminum pie pan to reflect the heat, and set it out in the sun to pre warm.

After I took the banana bread out of the solar oven, I immediately put the black pot into the solar oven at 1:00. When I opened the oven to switch the food, the temperature dropped from 325 to 250 degrees. Within 25 minutes it was back up to 320.

I cooked the vegetables for 40 minutes, the water wasn't boiling yet even though the thermometer said 320. But the carrots were a little softer than raw (I like them crunchy) so they were almost done.

Learn to use our camping stove.
I am afraid of fire so I don't like to use camp stoves or grills or matches. But our stove was surprisingly easy to light. I boiled some water in a coffeepot placed on the top.


Figure out how to hang blankets around our stairwell to trap the heat in the downstairs if we have to use our gas log to heat our living room.
We could put a board across and nail it into the wall, and fasten or nail a blanket to that. It will make holes in the wall, but they will be relatively easy to patch and paint later. It will be easier to stay warm in the one room with the gas log if we have the stairwell blocked off. Otherwise, all the heat will rise into the upstairs.

Things I learned:

After so many days without real milk, I finally drank some cold powdered milk (because I wanted milk with my banana bread.) I found that if I added a little vanilla to my glass of milk, it tasted a tiny bit like melted vanilla ice cream instead of that stale powdered milk flavor. It was actually good that way. I will never drink powdered milk plain again, I will always add vanilla from now on. (Note to self: Buy more vanilla for my food storage.)

Using my food storage in the past couple of years, I have learned that stocking up on Wheat Thins or mayonnaise or olives, etc. when they are on a really good sale is a great way to save money. I went to the grand opening of a grocery store near my home this week (yes, I was cheating on the Challenge because I wanted to see their Grand Opening prices, but I ended up not buying anything so technically I didn't actually cheat) and I couldn't find a single thing to buy for food storage. All of their loss leaders were things I had already stocked up on, and I didn't need any more. That tells me that most of my food has been purchased at the lowest prices I could find them during the year.

Evicted Family Moves In (Fake)

Yesterday (Friday) the challenge on http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ was supposed to be having a family move in with you unexpectedly. I was supposed to make enough food all day for 6 extra people, who were vegetarians, and see if I had enough sleeping arrangements and hygiene items for everyone, and see if I had enough food for that many people.

Honestly, I was tired after spending almost full-time on Tues, Wed, and Thursday doing mock disasters, so I took Friday off.

But I did take stock of my supplies:

I know I have enough toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, towels, and blankets. I probably need to get some more sheets. I have a blowup mattress and three other foam mattresses, plus about 5 camping foam mattresses.

Here is a hint for storing extra blankets. They are very puffy and take up a lot of room in the linen closet. Instead of folding them and keeping them in the linen closet, I lay out a couple of blankets on each box springs or bed springs, and then lay the mattress on top of that. That enables each bed to have a couple of extra blankets stored right underneath.

Having extra blankets makes me feel good, because in this area we have ice storms where the power goes out, and the blankets will help us keep warm in a situation like that.

Report on Cooking from Scratch Challenge

(Written yesterday, Sept. 15, 2010)

Today I woke up and took a shower and washed my hair. I was afraid to look at my email to see what the challenge was for today until AFTER I had taken a shower.

I looked at the email from http://FoodStorageMadeEasy.net/ , and it said the challenge is:

DAY TWO: Dietary Limitation: Cook all foods from scratch.

The rules were: Pretend you have an unknown allergy. Avoid ALL preservatives. Cook all your foods from scratch today, using ingredients you can pronounce. Do not use ANY pre-packaged or convenience-type foods.

I'm okay with this challenge, because I was afraid I would be told to evacuate or not use electricity today. I think this will be better.

For all seven days of the challenge, I can't go to the store or spend money or eat out. I am already out of milk, I made some powdered milk yesterday and it is in the fridge.

I was annoyed that I couldn't chew gum today. It has a list of unpronounceable ingredients a mile long.

Assignment: Cook breakfast from scratch.

I made Germade hot cereal (similar to Cream of Wheat). The ingredients list said "wheat farina, wheat bran, wheat germ". I boiled it with water, then added powdered milk and honey.

Then I did a ton of dishes from yesterday and watered my very dry garden.

Assignment: Cook lunch from scratch.

I had some cooked pasta in the fridge, was excited to make a pasta salad, but then looked at a similar pasta package and discovered a lot of unpronounceable ingredients. Had to skip the pasta.

So I cut up some mushrooms, and a cucumber (from my garden), added pine nuts and real parmesan cheese. Realized I have never made salad dressing before. So I decided to use vinegar and oil, but didn't know what kind of vinegar. I looked on the internet and found out I should not use white vinegar, they recommended red wine vinegar. Luckily we had some. It was a pretty good salad. And, I also ate some cooked carrots.

Assignment: Bake a loaf of homemade bread.
Baked 4 loaves of whole wheat bread.

Assignment: Make a delicious dessert from scratch.
Baked some Molasses Sugar Cookies.

Assignment: Cook dinner from scratch.
Ate canteloupe (my first canteloupe from my garden.) And homemade bread, and cookies. That wasn't a very well-balanced meal.

Assignment: Print out some of your favorite recipes to use in case the internet is down during an emergency.
All my recipes are printed out. Any time I use one from the internet, I print it. Plus, I have given all my favorite recipes in a book to my married kids, so if my copies ever gets destroyed I can get them back. I've heard that is one of the saddest things when your house gets destroyed, that no one can replace their favorite recipes.

Dietary Limitations Challenge Today

Today the challenge will be cooking everything from scratch, pretending I have a food allergy. Will report on that tomorrow.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/09/15/the-7-day-challenge-day-2-wednesday/

Report on Water Contamination Challenge

Written Sept. 14, 2010
I've been looking forward to the 7-Day Challenge, which I signed up for on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net. It is seven days in a row of mock disasters, which the participants try to live and then report on how they handled it. And Surprise! Today is the day it started! I got my email for the morning and discovered this:

Day One: Natural Disaster: Water Contamination

Assignment: Go and shut off the main water supply to your house immediately.
I got home and immediately turned off the water to the house. Then walked into the kitchen and saw how dirty it is. My dishwasher is mostly full of dirty dishes. I am choosing to let them sit in there until tomorrow, they will be stinky but I'm not going to handwash them all. I know that this "water outage" will only last one day. If it was truly broken, I would handwash them right now.

I got a frozen water jug out of the freezer, and sat it out for drinking as it thaws. I like to drink my icewater!
Then I got some water jugs out from behind the sofa and sat them around my kitchen sink.

When I got my hands dirty, I poured some water on my hands and washed them with handsoap and rinsed them. I noticed the water was going down the drain. I decided to put some clean paper towels on the counter and next time I will pour the water over that, then I can use the wet paper towels to clean up something, instead of wasting the water.

I would usually rinse out empty ketchup bottles to put into my recycling. Saw the empty dirty bottle, did not want to spare any of my water to rinse it out, so I put it in the recycling dirty.

Flushed the toilet very seldom, using jugs of water.

Wish I had a rainbarrel so I could water my garden. Decided to let it go one day without watering it.

I am amazed at how many times a day I wash my hands. I am using a lot of bottled water just for that.

Assignment: For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.

I saw that I was almost out of milk, so I made some powdered milk. Used a can from 1991. We will see if we ever drink it, or if we just use it for cooking. I have always disliked powdered milk for drinking.

After it was cold, I took a swig. It didn't taste very good. So I put some Nesquick in it and it was totally drinkable.

Later, my son made macaroni and cheese. He used the real milk instead of the powdered milk. I told him that was a very bad choice, since that was all the real milk we would have for a week.




Assignment: Go to nearest source of fresh water and fill up several water containers.
In the morning I took a little ice chest and a big empty cottage cheese container with me and headed for the neighborhood lake. (I didn't have any spare buckets. I need to buy some more.) I had to walk down to the shore of the lake,and the ground was all squishy and muddy. I had to lean way over to scoop up water where it was about 2 inches deep, being careful not to disturb the bottom and get the water all muddy. The water was green and unappetizing, but I was surprised to see how clear it was. I was expecting it to be filled with algae and big floating particles but it wasn't. It took me a while using the cottage cheese container to scoop up enough water to fill the ice chest half way. I can see how a deeper place would have made it easier to get the water out.






Assignment: Purify that water with either a water purifier or an alternate purification method.
In the evening, my husband taught me to use his backpacking water filter. He said it was smart of me to have let the water settle all day, so the big particles were all at the bottom. He wanted the least amount of particles to get into his filter. The main cost of a water filter is the filter cartridge, not the pump itself. (He has a Sweetwater brand, he thinks it cost about $70 for the whole thing when he first bought it. When the filter needs replacing, that will cost about $50). We pumped the dirty green water up through the backpacking filter, and it squirted out clear water into a cup. I was afraid to drink it, but he took a drink and then I had the courage to drink it. It tasted just like tap water.




Assignment: You must find a way for you to bathe or shower today.
I put a pot of water on the stove to heat. I brought in a bucket of water that I had filled with the hose yesterday (which I had planned to use for watering the garden today.) I decided to use that bucket of water for me instead of for my plants. Carried the pot of hot water and the bucket of cold water into the bathroom.

I poured a little hot water and a little cold water into my bathroom sink and took a washcloth bath. (I didn't wash my hair today.) It took less water than I thought it would. I drained the dirty water down the sink.

I should have had more buckets, then I would have had the dirty water in a bucket instead of in the sink, and could have used it to flush a toilet or to water the garden.

In the evening, my son had to go somewhere, and he insisted that he had to take a shower. I gave in, and turned on the water for him.

Assignment: Cook all your meals with only the water you have in storage.
I cooked some carrots using water from a bottle. Drained the cooking water into a bowl so we could use it for cooking later. I ate several things that were already made. Cooking wasn't a problem and we had plenty of water in bottles to wash our hands and the counters. I left all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher until the next day when I will have real water again.

Things I learned:
I was mostly alone all day at home, and then in the evening my husband was the only one home. We barely used 3 gallons of water, but of course we neglected doing any of the main tasks in a home (washing dishes, doing laundry, showers, shampooing hair, watering garden, or flushing toilets much.)

We knew the disaster was fake and that we would have water the next day, so we just put off everything that needed water. If the disaster was real, we would have been in real trouble after a day with all those dirty dishes attracting bugs.

My husband was home alone in the evening, and made stirfry with meat and vegetables, and left quite a mess. He said he wouldn't have cooked those things if he was in a disaster.

I learned I had plenty of water for a disaster. I was happy about that.

No Water Today

Remember I mentioned that I had signed up to do the 7-Day Challenge on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net? I have been looking forward to it for a couple of months, because I think I will really learn a lot from doing it.

Well, I found out it is beginning today. The Mock Disaster for Day 1 is "Water Contamination". So the assignment for the participants is that we can't use any water from the tap today.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/09/14/the-7-day-challenge-day-1-tuesday/


I had to immediately turn off the water to my house. Then I walked in and saw how messy my kitchen is. It looks like I am going to have to hand wash all these dishes using water I have stored in bottles. And I have to heat it on the stove. Plus I am going to have to figure out how to wash my hair and get clean, because I have a stake baby quilt worknight tonight at the Morrisville ward.

I will report more tomorrow. I can't wait to find out what tomorrow's challenge is.

(If anyone wants to participate, go to their website and sign up. Or if you just want to pay attention but not participate, watch their blog and their Facebook page every day.)