Mom's Survival kit for the car

I watched a video of "the Survival Mom"  http://thesurvivalmom.com/ but the link to the video was bad so I can't give it to you.

Anyway, she talked about the categories of things for moms to always keep in your car.
She called them "the five S's":  Sanitation, Sustenance, Survival, Security, and Sanity.

She ran out of time on the video to talk about all of them, so I will just wing it from here on, with stuff I came up with in those categories.

(My ideas)

Sanitation:  
To wash hands- a clean sodapop bottle filled with water, some paper towels OR a package of WetWipes.

Do your kids get motion sickness?  Carry extra large paper cups with snap on lids. Extra clothing.

Potty problems:  extra underwear for your little kids,  diapers.

A way for your children to go to the bathroom.  Does your toddler need his potty seat?

Toilet paper (the Survival Mom showed some TP she had taken the cardboard tube out of, and then sealed inside a Vacuum Sealer bag for longer term storage.)

Sustenance:
Moms know that they need some food in the car for every day emergencies.

The hotter your climate, the shorter your food will last in a hot car.  She suggested only keeping things like hard candy.

Another option would be to have a small totebag of snacks that you carry in and out of the car each day in the hottest months.  This would keep the food safe longer.

Another option is to rotate the food quickly.  Only put in enough granola bars or juice boxes for the next few days.

Bring LOTS OF WATER.  She keeps a couple of sodapop bottles filled with water under the back seat. also a case of commercially bottled water.

Bringing water in the car with me has been one of the best habits I have ever had.  With 6 kids, I used the water to clean them up, to refill the radiator, and to drink.  It was a lifesaver.

Survival:
The only thing I heard Survival Mom say about this one was to keep good walking shoes and socks in the car for every family member.  She said if your car breaks down, you need to be able to walk.

I recommend having a flashlight, matches, flares, camping knife, cell phone charger, maps, and big pieces of paper and markers to write a message to passing cars.

Security:
If you don't have a concealed carry license, maybe you want some pepper spray, mace or bear spray (whichever one is legal in your state).  Even wasp/hornet spray that shoots 10 feet would work if you need to spray some attacker in the face.  I even saw a self defense show once that said to put your auto fire extinguisher up to the window and spray out the window into the attacker's face.  That little bit of knowledge makes a fire extinguisher even more useful.

But of course its better not to get yourself into a dangerous situation.  Keep your cell phone charged, learn how to change a tire, keep your car repaired.  Always let a loved one know where you are going and when you are going to be back.

Sanity:
For kids, you need something for them to do.
While driving:  Don't you just love those DVD players?
While stopped.  If your vehicle is in a traffic jam, or it is broken down, or if your errand requires you to sit in a waiting room for hours, keep toys, gadgets, books, snacks, etc. ready to go.  That will save your sanity as well as the children's.

Hurricane articles, part 3

Here is a link to "Survival Lessons Learned from Three Hurricanes" which was posted on "The Survival Mom" blog.

Part 3 of 3:  http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/07/01/survival-diary-from-3-hurricanes-lessons-learned-part-3-of-3/

Here are things I learned from this article written by Stephen Clay McGehee:

Radios, ice chests, swimming pools, and jugs of chlorine bleach all came in handy.

When he heard the hurricanes were coming, he froze water inside cheap freezer containers in his freezer.  That were free blocks of ice that he didn't have to buy, and blocks of ice take longer to melt than ice cubes.  (I actually keep a few 2-liter pop bottles full of frozen water in my freezer at all times.  They are great to use in ice chests, and when the ice melts,  the water is contained in the bottles and doesn't  get all over your food.)

He gives recommendations for various types of good and not so good gasoline containers.  I agree with him, the nozzle is not as important as just buying a Superfunnel (about $2 each from an auto supply store.  It is a big funnel with a VERY long tube at the bottom, which is small enough to fit in the opening of the gas tank).  You can fill your gas tank much easier by pouring the gasoline from a gas can into the Super Funnel than out of the gas can's long nozzle.  They are never designed right.

Did you ever think of storing these things?

We are quite fixated on storing food, but did you ever think about all the other supplies you might need if we end up in the worst-case scenario?

What if we are in a huge widespread disaster, where there are no stores open and no power for an extended period of time?  Do you have enough of these in your storage?

• Batteries

Tools

• Hand saw
• Bow saw
• Hand Drill
• Basic portable Tool Box
• Glue and tape

Miscellaneous

• Black trash bags (all sizes) 101 uses.
• Work gloves
• Roll of window screen (101 uses).
• Thermometers
• Cleaning products, disinfectants,
• Aluminum foil. (all sizes).
• Ziploc bags (all sizes).
• Safety Pins
• W/D 40.
• Small cash of "junk" silver coins and some cash.

Vehicle

• Case of oil
• Vehicle Emergency kit
• Gasoline
• Filters
• Anti-freeze
• Transmission fluid
• Brake fluid

Survival Books/ Instruction Manuals

• Recipes printed out, not online
• BSA Fieldbook
• Dutch Oven Cooking
• many more

For Barter

• Salt
• 2,000 paper matches, (50 booklets per box) for trade.
• Extra quart-bottles of Clorox (for water purification).
• Several boxes (2,000 each) of those sugar packets for trade.
• Extra Duct-tape for trade.
• Needles and tread
• Finger-nail clipper
• Tweezers
• More work gloves
• Fly/Bug killer
• Cloth diapers, plastic pants
• feminine hygiene supplies

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.