Sntila

Preparedness Challenge 29

Did you think I had abandoned the Preparedness Challenge? Not a chance! Were just linking up once a month instead of weekly to give preppers a chance to get stuff done. Weekly was just a bit too often for most of us.

So I hope youll still participate and add your post to the link below. Since we have 30-31 days to prepare, try to include something from each of the three categories (but certainly not mandatory!)...

• emergency supplies
• food storage
• sustainable living

Each of these three areas are important because there are different kinds of situations that might require you to prepare differently. And its just a good idea to make it a habit to prepare as a way of life.

As of October 31st, I will have officially completed my C.E.R.T. training and will be a Community Emergency Response Team member. Wow, have I learned a lot! And it has blessed my socks off to learn what is already being done in my little rural community. Seems like Im not the only one who is "off my rocker" prepping! We had nearly 60 people attend and several were administrative personnel from our community. G.O.O.D.Y. bags are becoming quite the norm around here.

One thing that was really a confirmation for all my prepping was the fact that the class leaders (several retired firemen) have stressed that WHEN the big earthquake hits California (and they stressed not IF, but WHEN), we can expect to be on our own for a minimum of a month. Thats no water, no electricity, no natural gas, no ambulance service, etc.

Another thing is that I learned all kinds of emergency things like cribbing, emergency triage, how to use a fire extinguisher (really, I had never actually used one), and stuff like that. And now, Im connected to a group in my immediate neighborhood - a team! When an emergency strikes, we know where to meet and then we start helping each other based on our training. I really like that!

Besides the C.E.R.T. class, I also planted more fall crops such as lettuce, kale, spinach, and beets. My first batch of beets didnt sprout. However, I was pleased to find that some of my carrots and parsnips that I thought hadnt sprouted, actually did! We harvested the tomato plants and hung them in the garage to ripen, stacked more firewood, and added a frost blanket to some of the veggies still out in the garden.

I hit a couple of good sales for my food storage, such as buy one case get another free of organic diced tomatoes. I ordered an extra bag of wheat this month, and started my emergency meal kits, which I still need to finish.

Finally, Im putting together another G.O.O.D.Y. bag just for C.E.R.T. stuff. I also picked up a special tool to turn off all utilities (kind of a multi purpose tool) which Ill keep in my bag. Light weight for your bag and handy to have on hand so you dont have to hunt down the right tool. Hope to have that finished by Monday.

So thats it for me. How did your prepping go?