So, what am I doing to prepare for what's coming?

 

I've written a lot in recent weeks about how the emergency that a lot of preppers talk about is no longer remote - it's already here, staring us in the face.  Food and other commodities are in short supply and skyrocketing in price, and there doesn't look to be any short-term solution to the problem.

A number of readers have asked, in so many words:  "It's all very well to tell us to prepare, but what are you doing about it?  What additional steps are you taking?"  That's a fair question, and it deserves an answer.

As far as food supplies go, Miss D. and I have managed to put aside enough to see us through for about three months if necessary.  We might make it stretch further if we went into "diet mode" (which wouldn't be a bad thing for either of us!), but I suspect we'll also be helping friends, so I think a three-month window is about where we're at.  We don't have money or space to increase that much, but I'll probably put up some more rice and dried beans, just in case.  They may be deadly boring to eat every day, but one can survive on them.  I just hope and pray things never get bad enough that we're reduced to that for any length of time.

As far as fuel is concerned, we've tried to put aside enough gasoline to fill our two vehicles' tanks twice.  It's stored in jerrycans and a few Eagle cans, in a location outside our home (for obvious safety reasons).  We also have a few small tanks of propane, which we can use to run a two-burner cookstove or to refill Coleman gas bottles for use with a smaller camp stove or, in the winter, an indoor-safe heater.  In the light of increased fuel prices and likely problems with availability, I'm investing in a few more NATO-standard jerrycans to add to our gasoline supply.  They're ferociously expensive compared to those I bought just a few years ago (more than three times the price!!!), but they're still the most convenient and safest way to store backup supplies of gasoline that I know.  They're far safer and more leakproof than the cheaper plastic containers one finds in supermarkets and auto supply stores.

I've tried to extend our normal domestic consumable supply to at least some extent.  We have several months' worth of toilet rolls, paper towels, laundry and dishwashing detergent, and so on.  We've got a 90- to 180-day supply of all our prescription medications.  Over-the-counter pharmaceuticals such as cold & flu medicines, analgesics, etc. and personal hygiene items have also been stockpiled.  I'd say we're good for three to six months there, but I'll be double-checking to make sure of that.

We recently got paid a useful sum of money that's been owed to us for some time.  If we put it in the bank, the inflation rate would reduce its buying power by double digit percentages every year; so we're going to put it to work instead, by investing in major domestic improvements while we can afford them.  (I've been astonished to find that prices have almost doubled since I last got quotes for that, two years ago.)

• Our HVAC system is very old, and has given trouble in recent years.  Our technician warned us that we should expect to replace it soon, so we're going to do that now.
• We're also repairing and upgrading our garage door.
• We'll replace our flimsy wood garden shed (home-built by a previous owner who had no idea what he was doing!) with something larger and stronger.
• Finally, we'll get a more powerful generator for power outages, which we expect will probably become more frequent as our infrastructure continues to deteriorate.  We won't get one of the high-powered whole-house units (we wouldn't be able to store enough fuel to run it for long, anyway), but since we're having to upgrade our electrical panel to cater for the new HVAC unit, we'll add a plug and a switch to it, so we can run the generator over our house wiring if necessary.  We'll just turn off what we don't have enough power to run.  As long as we can keep our freezer and refrigerator cold, have light, heat water, and run a single window A/C unit in summer, I'll be happy.

Finally, I'm going to have to be ruthless with myself.  Coming as I do from a Third World environment, I've always tried to have emergency supplies sufficient to "bug out" if I had to, and if necessary camp out near the road while getting to a place of safety.  In our present state of health, neither Miss D. nor myself are likely to do much camping;  and we certainly aren't in shape to do a lot of physical activity, either.  (My mind may think it's still 21, but my fused-spine, nerve-damaged, post-heart-attack body begs to differ!)  Therefore, I'm going to go through our reserve supplies and get rid of anything we can't realistically use any longer.  I'll try to trade it for things we'll need, but if I can't, friends are in for a windfall.  Getting rid of stuff is almost as important as stockpiling it, because a needless accumulation of possessions you can't use simply ties you down.  It's a millstone around your neck.

That's what we're doing.  How about you, readers?  What additional precautions are you taking, and what added preparations are you making, in the light of current events?  Let us know in Comments, so we can learn from each other.

Peter