I follow Max Lucado on Facebook and I always enjoy his soothing and uplifting videos. He is that rare pastor/teacher/author that stays close to the Word of God, believes we are near the 2nd coming of Christ, and writes in such a way that I feel completely at peace when reading his words. That is a gift!
In a recent video, he was standing in his San Antonio backyard with snow and ice on the vegetation behind him. He said that he has become tired of hearing the word "unprecedented" in this last eighteen months or so. However, his attitude was uplifting and encouraging listeners not to give up.
It certainly has been unprecedented with a world wide pandemic, crazy weather, crazier politics, and our forests as well as cities on fire last summer. While there has never been a time when the world was shut down with a pandemic all at once, we have had crazy weather, politics, etc. before.
However, not all at once and in such a short period of time. Events are happening that even those of us that have studied preparedness for decades find unbelievable. We now know that Texas came within "minutes or even seconds" of having their power grid fail to the extent it would take months to recover from. Texas? I didn't know that was possible outside of an EMP blast.
This has certainly been one of the worst winters in recent memory where I live. I think it is the combination of one snow storm after another and the frigid cold temperatures never letting up. There has been no opportunity for the snow to melt, even a little.
We may finally have a high tomorrow just above freezing with slightly warmer highs for a few days. Maybe the snow will go down enough that I can walk to the road to get the newspaper in the mornings, much less make it to the grocery store. My husband has gotten stuck in our driveway and gravel lane almost every time he ventured out but he knows how to get unstuck... eventually.
We had enough food that we didn't absolutely have to go to the grocery store but since he knew he could make it, my husband went a few times for fresh vegetables, fruit, and items he needed for his special diet. We could have done without if necessary but it did show us what we needed to add to the pantry.
Watching what has been going on in Texas and the tragedy that has unfolded, reminds me that the unexpected has been occurring enough recently that I must take stock of our own situation and see what needs a little more planning.
We have extra water put back since our well does not work in power outages. I'm not too worried about staying warm enough even though we do not have a fireplace. Our house has a lot of insulation and the windows that were installed just before we moved in are very energy efficient.
I do need to wash our heavy duty sleeping bags since they have been used for camping (not by us!) since they were last washed. They will be taken to the coin operated laundromat once it gets warmer. They are invaluable if the power goes out in a winter like this one. I also have collected extra blankets over the years and we have a few down coats should they be necessary to wear inside.
We have been able to reuse the Styrofoam thingy (it slips over our outdoor water spout in winter) but I think it is time to consider buying a new one. They are very inexpensive. These are the kinds of things I've been thinking about. There are definitely more situations that come come up that I need to consider, too.
A book that is very helpful is Stan and Holly Deyo's Dare to Prepare. This is a pricey book when you purchase the latest printing, which I recommend if you want the very latest information. However, there are older editions that are sold third-party much cheaper and I will provide the link to both below.
I own a copy of an older edition that was a gift from the Deyo's at one time. I first got to know them on an emergency preparedness forum where I was one of the moderators. Their book really is the best because it provides photos, diagrams, etc. (in black and white). Knowledge is invaluable when preparing for emergencies.
So, what I am taking away from this last unprecedented natural disaster that hit Texas is that it is impossible now to think something can never happen. We have seen it over and over again this past year. I hope you do some praying and planning over your emergency preparedness plans, too. What are some things to consider?
Do you know where to shut off your water coming into the house should a pipe burst? I've seen photos of water that has been gushing in for hours! Damage can be limited if you shut off the water as soon as you find a burst pipe. Our water is turned off by shutting the electricity to the well pump off.
Do you know where the shut off valve for natural gas is going to your house? Our natural gas had to be shut off after our house was hit by lightening and the fire department called not once but twice.
These are the kinds of simple but extremely valuable things you can decide to learn this week. There is always something to learn.
Mentioned in last week's blog post
We were talking about potatoes and low carb cooking last week and a long time blog friend wrote me about a potato called "Huckleberry Gold". Renee's Garden Seeds sells the seed potatoes. If you are a gardener, it would be worth a try!
Mentioned in this week's blog post
Dare to Prepare 2020 edition... here.
Dare to Prepare past editions (without the 2020 updates)... here. The past editions contain valuable information if one cannot afford the most recent editions.
Styrofoam faucet covers... here.
Disclaimer: Most links to Amazon.com are Associate links.
Image: Houston, Texas on Valentine's Day
7 comments:
Hi Brenda, I too have been thinking about preparation a lot lately (my brother lives in Texas), I have been aware of Stan and Holly Deyo for years and have their most recent book as well as an older edition. Even though, we have lots of liquids at home (water, gatorade, flavored water, carbonated liquids, juice, etc.) I told my hubby we still need more water...................... Hope all is well, blessed, and safe with you and yours.
Alison
We've been seeing that picture of our city, and it is such a rare sight. So desolate looking. We were so blessed to be prepared for an emergency like this, although having it get down to 49 inside my house was not fun. We had plenty to eat, and firewood, water, COFFEE, etc. Definitely some things I need to add to my preparedness pantry, but we did good with what we had. Some are still without water, or they have to boil their water, until at least Monday. What a mess, and I hope whoever is responsible for our grid malfunction gets it together so this horrible electric outage doesn't happen again.
I live in Houston and people have asked me if this winter storm was worse than the unprecedented rainfall of Hurricane Harvey. Yes. It has been worse because of the magnitude of the storm in the entire state. I think more people have died and so many were suffering from the I tense cold and no power and severe water damage from broken pipes. We were prepared before the storm with plenty of food and water. We knew where the main water shut off valve was located, it did come in handy when one our pipes broke. We provided shelter for friends and family who lost power longer than we did. I am thankful that our preparedness was a blessing to others.
I have read your blog for a number of years, but have only commented a few times. I took your advice and had a fairly deep pantry prior to 2020. I bought extra things when the first talk of Covid happened in Italy because my husband was traveling there for work. At that time I did not have to fight the crowds who were looking for TP and other items. As protests began and the coming election seemed to be a catalyst for anger and possible unrest, I bought a storage shelf and purchased more canned and packaged items and extra water. I stocked my extra freezer. Each time I went to the store I would replenish what I could. When my whole family had to quarantine two separate times, once for about a month as we fell sick with Covid one after another, I had things I needed. I did utilize Amazon for some items as well during that time. I live just north of Ft Worth, TX, so this past week, again, my well stocked pantry and stored water came in very handy. I was able to get some perishable and fresh foods one day when the roads had improved, but mostly we had what we needed. We bought a generator last summer, but did not need it since our electricity, very thankfully, did not go out. However, we did lose our water for 24 hours and are still under a boil water advisory. I am so thankful that I kept my pantry stocked even after the election was over. I will have to replenish things in a few weeks once the stores are well stocked again. Your weekly pantry posts are very helpful and kept the thought of having a deep pantry at the forefront of my mind so I could prepare in times of plenty for seen and unforeseen problems. These are times of uncertainty, and perhaps we all should continue to have more on hand than we used to. I also really enjoy your Sunday posts and your book reviews. Thank you for preparing these posts to encourage us. God bless you.
Dianne L
I like Max Lucado and last month heard his videos that supplement his book "Anxious for Nothing", an ideal book to read in these stressful times. I have supplies laid in for perhaps two weeks, but it is hard to have a year's supply of medicines, etc. Good for you for doing some preparing.
It has certainly been a period of "one thing after another" and multiple things happening at once. People with good well stocked pantries, stored water, alternative ways to heat and cook etc suddenly are looking pretty smart, when before a lot of us were looked at as odd. I have wondered how many families have been cold or without because they threw out everything that "didn't bring them joy" and that included wool blankets and extra linen, the old camping equipment and so on? There are a lot of trends and advice... not all are wise! The whole grid going down would be an absolute disaster. It could happen anywhere. We all need to take notice and take action. I will look into getting the book you suggest, thank you! Annabel.
I thought the two questions (water, gas) to be very good to think on and I mentioned them to my Husband, thank you. Water he knew but gas he did not so we are going to find out!
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