Being prepared for disasters is about more than beans, bullets, and bandaids.
If you are over 45 think about your grandma and grandpa’s house. Did Grandpa have small jars of nuts, screws, washers, and other small hardware carefully sorted on his garage shelf, or coffee cans filled with larger bolts, lawn mower parts, electric supplies? Did Grandma have a spare bedroom given over to fabric, zippers, buttons, and other sewing supplies?
I am lucky to have both my mom's (center) and my grandmother's (right) button boxes. Mom's has a note about how to reattach the grommets and if you look closely at Grandma's buttons you will see that many of them had been cut from old clothing and saved. Bits of thread and material are attached.
Grandad used baby food jars for his little nuts, bolts, screws. He nailed the lid to a board he had screwed above his work bench and then screwed the jar onto the lid.
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Were there spare canning jars in the basement or extra, well-oiled garden tools in the outside shed?
Seeds dried and stored on a dark shelf?
They weren’t preparing for THE Apocalypse or an EMP.
They were ready for Hard Times.
A personal, family-sized apocalypse: Loss of a job. Economic depression. Major illness. Car breaking down. Shops empty. Roads flooded shut.
These are typical disasters – the kind that are common to all of us at some time or other.
But.
Christmas is here every December. Little girls turn five. Little boys want to play in the snow. Teenagers get taller. The garden needs planted in May. Shoes wear out.
I made these shorts from one of Bob's torn work shirts. The material was heavy duty and it had the best pockets. The little guy wearing them was only 4 at the time and back-britches pockets
would have been too hard to maneuver.
Knitted scarves and head-bands are a quick project and don't require much yarn.
The apron on the right was a special request - the little guy wanted an egg-collecting apron like his sister's. I used some quilt squares for the pockets and put darts in them to hold the eggs. I embroidered the chicken with embroidery floss I have on hand.
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Are you prepared to handle these situations if you experience a calamity?
Either a national one or a personal one?
I think it should be part of your preparedness to have a supply of raw materials on hand to use if you can’t afford to buy new, are unable to get to the store, or none are available.
The picture at the top of this blog is a birthday gift for my granddaughter. She turned 5 recently. I made the apron and haversack, adding cooking tools and some outdoor goodies from the Dollar Tree, a new set of walkie-talkies and a bunch of batteries. She was thrilled.
I called it an Indoor/Outdoor present.
I have a stash of material in my sewing room. All types of material for clothing and supplies.
I also have buttons, hooks, snaps, toggles, appliques, thread, elastic, needles, yarn, knitting supplies, leather, leather tools.
The button on the haversack was one I have had for years but never had the right project for it.
I cut a strip of leather for the attachment on the flap.
The purple heart was cut from felt and sewn with embroidery floats. All from my 'stash'.
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In our basement are stacks of finished lumber, canning jars, rings and lids.
We used milled lumber to make a sign for Mike's repair shop.
Bob made these bird feeders years ago using plywood and some old flashing.
Mike and Laura built a sturdy chicken house from pallets - removing boards from some to fill in gaps.
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In our tool shed are nails, bolts, screws, nuts, hand tools, garden tools, and lots of other stuff.
Bob bought a skid of barbed wire for $20 at an auction. He can repair fences and protect our livestock.
Bob also keeps extra chainsaw bar oil and gas mix, additives for stored gasoline, and extra tanks for the propane grills. He is diligent about charging the batteries for electric tools, including his Milwaukee chainsaw and a nifty air compressor for tires and whatever else may need pressurized air.
The Brio manual water pump is attached to a 5 gallon jug of tap water.
The Berkey is behind it - a gravity flow water filtration system.
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Recently there was a major waterline break which took out the water for the entire northern portion of our county. We are lucky to have a well for our water supply so the outage didn’t affect us, however I have water stored and I have a Berkey water filtration system. It is a gravity run system, requiring no electricity. It filters anything – puddles, lakes, creeks.
I also have a filled 5-gallon water jug and a Brio manual pump which screws down on the top of it. When our electricity is out or the water pump dies I can have ‘running’ water at my sink. (It’s called a Brio Universal Manual Water Pump and runs about $18 on Amazon.)
Around the farm we repurpose things all the time. Bob found this old wagon at an auction and has been using it when he chops fresh hay for the cattle.
Laura took wooden industrial shipping boxes to make her raised beds.
We re-use mineral tubs for watering buckets and garden tubs.
Bob took old firebrick to make a sturdy boiling station for maple syrup.
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These are part of our preps. I consider them essential preps because they will help us live a more normal day life if we experience a global/national/local/personal disaster. I can make and repair clothing, sew birthday presents, knit hats and mittens.
I'm not suggesting you become a hoarder and save every little thing that comes onto your homestead but you should have a good supply of raw materials to repair, build, or substitute for everyday items.
Grab some good how-to books while you are at it. We find them at resale shops like Goodwill. I also bought books on Amazon that are reproductions of old WW2 booklets. They have simple explanations on how to mend, darn, repurpose clothes, substitute foods, productive activities for the family and lots more. Some of advice is outdated, but I get a lot of inspiration and some good advice on skills not taught anymore.
Because being prepared is more than beans, bullets, and bandaids.
What's in your stash?
Spring will be here soon!
Polly
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