Joe’s Prepping Diary: 9/14/2011

This morning as I headed into work, I took a reminder of my life in the country with me. Most reminders, I enjoy. This one, not so much. I had accidentally stepped in pretty fresh pile created by our most recent security addition. I noticed it immediately upon entering my truck; it would have been hard not to. I got out, did a little poo-removing dance in the grass, and used the stick method to clear remainder from the grooves in the soles. It was probably a funny sight that the neighbors would have enjoyed if they could have seen me.

Laura placed the food that she’s sealed in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers into the 5-gallon buckets that I bought a few days ago. We put the lids on them and placed them in their temporary home. The location is not ideal since it’s subject to temperature swings that will shorten the shelf life of the contents, but its the best we can do now. I’m looking forward to having a root cellar.

I play a few games of Connect Four with my oldest daughter tonight. She got amazingly good very quickly.

Later, our power went out. In fact, it’s still out. I’m writing this using a battery backup. We’ve lit our lanterns filled with paraffin lamp oil. The younger kids were a bit unnerved by the outage, but a quick “It’s just like Little House on the Prairie” helped to calm their anxiety. Actually I don’t think it was lack of power as much as the sudden and frequent flashes of nearby lightening that gave them concern.

I’d love to be 100% off the grid, but that’s just not the case right now for us. Well, I guess it is actually the case right this minute but not most of the time.

I’m about to read by candle light and call it a day.