Are You Ready For Winter?
If you live in the Ozarks, you might have noticed the recent nighttime temperatures down in the 40s. Consider this mother nature’s warning to get prepared for winter! If you’re not prepared to spend days, if not weeks stuck inside your house and on your property, now is that time!
Remember a few years ago during the ice storm when generators were flying off the shelves and electricity was out for several days in many places. This is the type of winter you need to be prepared for again. While television and video games were nice if your generator could support it, water, food and warmth should be your top priorities.
As a general rule you’ll need to store one gallon of water per person per day. So for a family of five to survive a week, you will need 35 gallons of water. The various prepper networks online talk about everything from melting snow if needed, to draining the water from your hot water heater and using that if needed – All great ideas if need be. I personally store water in 2 liter soda bottles; which get drained and refilled every few months (or whenever i remember). NOTE: Don’t forget to have some bleach for sterilizing water that has been sitting around for a long time. Also boiling works well, but that uses valuable fuel that can be used for warmth or cooking.
As far as food storage goes, don’t stock up on things you normally wouldn’t eat. The key is to get things that have a long shelf life and that you can use and refill often. I have personally found that pasta and beans in sealed containers, as well as tuna are good things to store. Make sure to write dates on things and rotate them out for use; but remember to buy more and keep refilling.
Warmth – The best advice I can think of is to close all doors and try to remain in an interior room, all together, to retain body heat. Sleep together as a family with comforters and don’t ever think it’s safe to leave a gas heater on overnight. Most all heaters need ventilation!
With proper preparation and planning you and your family will be prepared for the upcoming winter storm of 2010!
Comments (3)
Sterno. It kept us filled with warm food for 9 days when we had no power. Two rolls of aluminum foil, and 10 cans of Sterno. It was tough, but we made it relativity well other than boredom.
We used wood heat, so warmth wasn’t too much of an issue. Lastly, a power inverter hooked to a car battery was used to power one light, and the TV on occasion.
The Sterno though, as simple as gelled alcohol can be, really made the kids feel comforted. Nothing like a hot hot dog, or even a hot hamburger at 2am on day 4 of no power, and no communication. Hot cocoa, hot coffee. Its those little comforts that keep your head in the game in a disaster. Or at least it was for us.
Opinions vary, but I see a lot of info on the shelf life of sterno not being that good. What has your experience been? We keep a few bottles of rubbing alcohol; when soaked with toilet paper it creates a similar sterno heating effect. Playing cards and board games for the kids are never a bad idea to have around. When the PS3 or Wii won’t work, they can easily drive you insane
The first 2 cans of Sterno we used during the ice storm were about 5 years old. I got them for a camping trip and never opened them. They looked new on the inside. After a few uses, when you opened the lid it looked old, and dried out but still worked well. I never did use part of one and then leave it set to see if it would dry out. As it was I couldnt keep enough of it on hand!