Phase 1 Prepping

I had planned, today, to finish off my food storage series and take you with me as I menu planned and shopped. But shopping was a bust this week, so we'll try that again next week.

Instead, I thought I'd move on with the series, and talk about what I call phase 1 prepping.

Phase 1

Not every emergency calls for a fully stocked fall out shelter. Really, not every emergency is an emergency, sometimes it's just a situation. But there are many situations worth preparing for.

What I refer to as phase 1 is situational prepping. It makes me prepared for situations that may keep me at home or make life at home inconvenient. Phase one is short term. What kind of situations am I talking about?

Getting snowed or iced in. Maybe you live in a place where roads have a potential to flood or wash out.
Maybe your vehicle breaks down and can't get out for a while.
Utilities can be cut of for a host of reasons. Natural disasters, storms, line repair, accidents. Maybe your month just ran longer than your money, so there's a service interuption.

How Long is Short Term?

Well, for me it's 10 days. Power outages normally don't last 10 days. Even if it's caused by a natural disaster, if you're able to stay in your home, you should be back up and running a week or so, max.

Snow and ice storms, while they can keep roads undrivable for long stretches of time in extreme winter areas, for most of us, only last a few days. Flooded roads can last a little longer, and washed out roads can keep you trapped at home for a good while.

But for us, living in town in an area very unlikely to flood with moderate winters, my short term, figuring for extreme circumstances, is 10 days.

Step One

Don't skip this part. It's the most important part. So important, that if you do nothing else, do this. And if you choose to skip it, don't bother with the next steps.

It's super simple. Get organized. Seriously. Have you ever been caught off guard by an electrical outage when you haven't been keeping up on laundry? I'll bet you were wishing you'd kept up with that while you're drying off with a tshirt and reaching for your bathing suit bottoms in lieu of clean unders. Ever had a storm knock the power out and you can't find a lighter for a candle? Have you ever had an appliance go on the fritz or have a power outage, so you've got to cook outside or use an unconventional method and you're kitchen's as mess, or you can't find the tools you need? Maybe you've escaped all of the above, but we've all been in unexpected situations at home and struggled through it because we weren't organized. It just doesn't do any good to have everything you need if it is't clean, in working order and findable when you need it.

Another reason to be organized is to save money. We could all jump on board with that, right? A place for everything and everything in its place keeps me from buying something twice, just because I can't find the first one I bought. I watched a tv show one time where the woman had like 20 white turtlenecks. Are you kidding? I don't have 20 shirts! But that's another post. Anyway, her laundry room was piled to the ceiling and her closet was tragic. So when she needed a white turtleneck to go under a sweater or whatever, she'd just buy a new one because she couldn't find the one she wore last time. That's a small fortune on white turtlenecks.

Most of us aren't going to be that extreem with needing to replace items we've misplaced. But it's a totally preventable problem.

Being organized will help cut down on waste. For instance, before you plan next weeks menu or go shopping, clean out your fridge. Do you have left overs that need to be used up, or some veggies that need to be used before they go bad? In my house, those things can get pushed to the back of the fridge. Out of sight out, of mind, right? A glance in the fridge doesn't do it. Clean it out so you know what you have and what you need.

Bonus! When you know exactally what you need, you'll eleminate multiple trips to the grocery store. Unless you're on a bike, that's gonna cost you some fuel. And if you're on a bike, it's still wasting time, and time is money.

Next Step, Prioritize

Depending on your circumstances, you'll have different needs and different priorities. For example, if you've got a large garden and you spend harvest time putting up, you might have a good start on food storage. If you live in a cooler climate, a sorce of heat might be higher up on your priority list. If you have pets you may need to stock up some supplies for them.

I'm going to walk you through my phase 1 preps, then I'll explain how I prioritized and how I put it together.

Food, Fire, Water, Shelter

So, I've read that food, fire, water, and shelter are the basic needs we should keep in mind when prepping for any eventuality. I think it's a good place to start.

Food

Let's start with food. For phase 1, I'm prepping for a possible 10 day, homebound situation and the possibility of having no utilities available for that time. That means I need to be prepared to put 30 meals together for my husband and myself, without my stove, microwave or toaster oven.

Well, first thing's first, I've got to tend to my perishables. A lot of the things in my fridge aren't really perishable. Pickles, condiments, that sort of thing don't really need to be kept super cold. Frankly, I'm not worried about most of the veggies in the fridge or the eggs going bad before I can use them up. I don't keep a lot in my fridge, so there's a lot of dead space and it will warm up quickly. So the truely perishable things go in the freezer or in a cooler on ice. The freezer is always packed, so it will stay colder longer. Nevertheless, I need to think about what needs to be used up, just in case the outage lasts very long. Things in the cooler get used first, then what's in the freezer. But I don't want that freezer open any more often than it has to be, I wanna save that cold air.

Once I've established what needs to be used up, I can pull from my pantry things that can be cooked in a pot or skillet, on a propane camp stove, grill or open fire. Ideally, I would need nothing to add to the food except water.

Shelf stable milk and cereal, refried beans on tortillas, soup and canned veggies, are all pretty instant, and don't require much preparation outside of heating up. Rice, ramen, pasta, and pancacke mix require only water and simple cooking utensils. You do have water stored and your cast iron is in good shape, right?

Cast iron? Yeah, I think it's necessary. It can stand up to the heat of an open fire, it's great on the grill and there's no water required for clean up, if you've got it seasoned properly. I might do a post on restoring and caring for cast iron soon. I have a couple
new finds that need to be cleaned up and seasoned.

Fire

Let's do fire next. We need fire to make light, to stay warm and to cook.

Stumbling around in the dark, trying to remember where a candle might be, stumping my pinky toe on my husbands size 15 steel-toed work boots and tripping over my dog in the hall way when the electricity goes out sounds like an adventure, but it doesn't sound like a good time. So, I keep an emergency candle and a stick lighter in every bedroom and bathroom.

I keep extras in an old buffet that my Gram gave me. It's in the living room, just outside the kitchen, so I can get to them easily. I keep most of my fire related preps in the buffet. About 20 boxes of matches, several emergency candles, a couple fancy fires (cans of fuel to light and place under catering pans), lighters, some quick light tender...

I specifically choose these emergency candles for a few reasons. 1] They're in a tall holder, so you can walk around with them or take them outside and they don't blow out easily. b] They burn slowly, so they last longer. III] They're just a buck at the Dollar Tree.

For heat, I keep these flower pots and bricks. You may have seen one of these heaters put together on prepping sights or Pinterest. They usually call for one pot being just smaller than the other. I've found that the difference in the size of these two works well. Here's how I put it together.

Now, this won't heat a room. But I've managed to knock the chill off enough to be comfortable if dressed properly. Blankets help too. The only room I've tried it out in is my 12'x14' bedroom. I hung a thick blanket over the door, and kept it shut.

It's definitey something I'd only use in emergencies, but I'm glad I've never had to!

I also keep small bottles of propane in the buffet, and use them for lanterns and for the camp stove. The rest of the cooking stuff is in the garage. Charcoal, I keep in a plastic tote. I've also got the heavy grates out of an old smoker to use over the fire pit.

Water

Water's an easy one. I mean, I'm not sure I could ever feel like I have enough water stored, but storing it is easy. We've got 3 rain barrels that we normaly use for watering the garden, and we're going to add one to the shed when we get it finished. In an emergency, the water from the barrels can be used for cleaning, but I wouldn't drink it, use it for cooking, or for washing dishes. I store drinking and cooking water inside in soda and juice bottles. When I cover how and where I store food, I'll cover the way I store water in more detail.

Shelter

Well, that's an easier one. For an emergency situation that would keep me at home, shelter isn't a concern.

That's a Good Start

But I've added a couple things. Creature comforts. Specifically hygiene and entertainment.

Hygiene

If it's cold in the house, I'm not going to voluntarily going to get wet all over. I'm just not. Luckily, the Dollar Tree occasionally carries bathing wipes. They're like baby wipes, only they're a little bigger and a little thicker and specifically made for bathing. I think I could get away with washing my hair every third day, so heating water to wash it in the sink shouldn't be a problem. I've never had to keep clean this way, and I may have to heat water to 'bathe' with every other day, and I may have to wash my hair more often. I think it's something that I can adapt to if the need ever arises, so I'm not too worried about doing a practice run.

Of course, I've got plenty of clean cloths. Back to that organization thing. Gotta stay on top of things!

Entertainment

We've got a decent stock of board and card games. They entertain us in non-emergency situations. We love to read, and that can keep us occupied for hours. That's easy.

What's not so easy, these days, is to keep kids entertained. I've noticed that a lot of kids can't sit still at dinner without their mothers reaching into their purse and handing their cell phone over to their kid. Maybe you've noticed too?? My kids just missed the 'screen people' window by a couple of years. During the years that they needed to learn to self entertain, they had toys and books and the outside. And thanks to my tech-aversion, their time playing on the computer, phones and sitting in front of the tv were limited. They learned to be content by reading and playing and art.

But, I get it. It's another time. If you or your children need or want a phone, tablet, or anything that charges with a USB, and your electricity is out, you have two choices. Sit in your car and burn your gas, or...

I have two. This is a hand crank charger with a USB port. It is slow, but it charges my phone and my tablet, and it was just $2 plus $1 shipping.

That's It

That's my phase 1 prepping in a nutshell. Next time I'll cover phase 2, the preps I have in my car just in case I get stuck away from home, or have to make it home on foot, and my pack (aka, the bug out bag).

I'll get back to food storage after I do my shopping this week, assuming that this weeks trip is better than last weeks. Sometimes it's hit and miss.

If you have any questions, or better yet, any ideas, let's get to them in the comments!

Prepping Part 1 - Prepping Before Prepping Was Cool
Prepping Part 2 - Building and Rotating Food Storage