Hearing the warnings

Just read this article about the devastating earthquake in Italy. I don't know what to say to those affected, except that I send my heartfelt condolences and am sorry for your loss.

What is particularly disturbing is that in the article, a seismologist had tried to warn people that the earthquake was coming. But because he wasn't exactly right about when it would hit, he was publicly taken to task. From the article:

"Indeed, a little-noticed controversy had erupted the week before, after Giampaolo Giuliani, a seismologist at the nearby Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Abruzzo, predicted, following months of small tremors in the area, that a much bigger jolt was on its way. The researcher had said that a "disastrous" earthquake would strike on March 29, but when it didn't, Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, officially denounced Giuliani in court last week for "false alarm." "These imbeciles enjoy spreading false news," Bertolaso was quoted as saying. "Everyone knows that you can't predict earthquakes."

Tragic. This situation makes me ask myself a few questions:

--What would I have done in this situation? If someone said, "Insert devastating tragedy here would happen on insert date here, would I have a place to go to get away from the dangers associated with such a situation?

--Even if insert devastating tragedy here didn't happen, would I be sorry about the improvements I made to survive such a tragedy-- i.e. stronger building structures, emergency food supplies, emergency shelter supplies, etc. --or would they be something I would be glad I prepared with/had on hand anyway?

---Would I think that just because not all the details were exactly right, that nothing the person said who was doing the warning had any validity?

There are a lot of emergency preparation sites out there, which have a lot of helpful information. Some of these I have quoted, and linked. Some more I will probably quote and/or link in the future. We may not agree on everything, but we agree on at least one thing: everyone needs to be prepared for emergencies. The reasons we think emergencies may come--problems with the economy, pandemic, disruption in transportation of goods, to name a few--may differ, but in the end, if you have no food/water/supplies in an emergency situation, will it really matter which kind of circumstances led to your situation?

If/when an emergency situation takes place, there may be some people who are currently trying to warn people to be prepared who, because they were ignored, may say, like the seismologist in the article above, "Someone owes me an apology". But I also think that the vast majority of bloggers/writers/speakers who are trying to help people get prepared by blogging/writing/speaking about emergency preparation would say, as he did, after such a situation, "I am devastated but also angry." It may be presumptuous, but I think the whole reason that most bloggers blog on this subject is to try to ensure that any emergency that takes place will be less devastating for everyone, whether they know the people involved or not.

Please get as many emergency supplies in storage as you can, within your means. Even if your favorite blogger(s) may not get the details exactly right as to the reasons why/when you may need them, I don't think you'll ever be sorry to have emergency resources on hand.....

May be a little off-topic, but it might help someone

It occurs to me that someone might pass by this blog who is already having difficult times. A site I found, I think a couple of years ago, is Modest Needs. People in all kinds of situations apply for their grants, and people send in donations to fund specific expenses. People can ask for help with car repairs, gas bills, medical bills--something that they need help to pay so that they can keep their heads above water during difficult times. From what I've read, although it has been a while, is that applying for the grants is not difficult, and it sounds like those employed in the organization are very helpful.

If you need help, apply. Not everyone gets funded, but you won't even have a chance if you don't apply. If you can help fund a grant, please consider doing so. Right in the website header it has the words: "Small Change. A World of Difference." Some of the contributions may be small, but they add up. Sometimes, if we work together, we can do an awful lot to help each other.

I hope that if you are having difficult times right now, that things get better for you soon. Check out Modest Needs, and see if they can help you. And if you need to apply for a grant, I hope that you get it.

Of cheap tools and a biscuit recipe...

Night before last I went to the local national chainstore and among other things (like soup that was $.18/can more than the last time I purchased it) bought a new set of measuring spoons. I had been pretty much using the one teaspoon that I could usually find to do the work of all measuring spoons (thinking you can measure 1/4 teaspoon just by looking, and knowing that 3 teaspoons equals one tablespoon come in handy in such circumstances) but I broke down and bought a plastic set for a reasonable (read:cheap) price. One of the reasons for needing a new set was this recipe for biscuits found at Safely Gathered In, which I was anticipating making.

A list of things that I liked/learned about completing this recipe, that was excellent, and was consumed in a single meal (and before, immediately upon exiting the oven):

--Reasonably priced (read:cheap) measuring spoons from the local national chainstore don't stand up under a lot of pressure. If, by a lot of pressure, you mean trying to dry out the well of the teaspoon. When I tried to dry it out, it snapped right off, and I ended up using the other spoons to add up to required amounts--kind of backwards from the way I was doing things previously, if you ask me...

--Don't forget the salt. I thought I had combined all the dry ingredients, but I noticed upon tasting the final product that the salt was, in fact, missing. No one else missed it, though, and as I said, the biscuits didn't last very long in this household....

---I like the milk+vinegar= buttermilk substitution. Works for me! Also, who doesn't love a recipe where you can just do very minimal kneading, pat the dough out instead of rolling it, and you get to use a pizza cutter? Plus after plus after plus.... :)

---One of my children said, upon learning what I was making, that they didn't like biscuits. I said that the only requirement was to taste the finished product, not eat the whole thing. When taking a random family poll by raise of hands about who liked the biscuits, this child's hand went up, and guess who asked for the last biscuit? Ah, sweet success.... :)

Anyway, hope that you try out this recipe--if you follow this blog, you know that I like easy, and this recipe was both easy and delicious. I have also decided that it is time for me to invest in a lot better set of measuring spoons. After all, I am cooking/baking a lot more, and that's a good thing... Now, do I get metal spoons, (I saw a set that was more expensive) or risk another set in plastic (different brand)? Decisions, decisions....

At long last...

Well, I just returned from an out-of-state milestone celebration family reunion, and while I knew that I wouldn't be able to have regular access to the internet, it turns out I didn't have access to it at all until I got home. Makes it pretty hard to write a post... :)

Soooo, if anyone comes back and actually reads this, thought I'd write about a little experience that I had while I was gone that kind of underlines what kind of position you put yourself in if you are not prepared for what is maybe not exactly an emergency, but definitely an uncomfortable situation. Turns out that I got some kind of cold while I was gone, one of those colds that make your head ache painfully from the sinus pressure. Not fun. Also not fun that I didn't have any Tylenol, (I don't work for Tylenol, nor know anyone who does, but it is usually my pain reliever of choice) and had hours of traveling ahead of me. I did, however, have a layover in an airport, and so I went to one of the shops that tend to cluster in such places. They had Tylenol available for a price--24 caplets for $9.99 + tax. Yeah, a little pricey (read: exorbitantly expensive) for my taste, but what choice did I have at that point? That, and $2.30 for a bottle of water from another shop, and I had what I needed. When I told my husband about the purchase, he had about the same reaction that I had about the pricing, but he was nice about it. Yeah, he's pretty great... :)

That little expensive bottle is now sitting next to my economy size bottle on a high shelf out of reach of my children. When I think what I could have done to avoid this situation, there isn't that much that I would change, because we were together as a family in a small space for an extended period of time, and I wouldn't have wanted to take such items that I would have worried about with the children around, with only a small chance that I would even need them. I rarely need to take Tylenol, and it wouldn't have made sense to take it and then worry about it and possible chidren's access to it for the entire trip.

If I wouldn't necessarily change what I did, what exactly is my point? This makes me think that if prices can be this high simply because you are in a confined situation and have limited choices, about what could happen if you are limited in your choices, whether because of lack of choices in your area, or because you find yourself without the resources to go out of a very small region to find what you need. Those who have what you need get to set the prices. And if you need it enough (i.e. your sinuses are making your life miserable) you will have to pay their prices. Doesn't it make sense to look ahead and avoid such a situation for as long as possible, and have extra of the things you may need, by putting some in storage? I was fortunate enough to have been able to afford it, but it sure would be nice to have that money in my pocket instead...

Like I said, not exactly an emergency, and if I hadn't had the means to buy it, I would have had to suffer through hours more of travel with no relief. In the case of having no food or water on hand, for whatever reason-- disruption of the economy, transportation of goods, or just plain lack of products to purchase-- you/I/we would have an absolute emergency. And if we aren't prepared with some kind of storage, the resources available will likely go to whoever can afford them at a very high price--and if we can't afford the price, the resources will go to someone else, and we, unfortunately, will go hungry....

I hope that everyone who has the means to stock up will do so, even if it's just a little bit at a time. In the state that we were visiting, the price of living is much higher, and I got a little bit of sticker shock just looking in the canned goods aisle. Puts a new perspective on what I consider to be expensive here in Idaho. If you do have expensive prices on just basic canned goods, it would be difficult to get in a lot of storage, but please do what you can. Every little bit helps, and hey, if you are reading this, thanks for coming back! :) Now I get to catch up on what everyone else has been writing....

Inside, outside (in that order :)

Well, first things first--we finally found our camera, which we figured was lost because little hands can hide things very well. Wasn't the first time we've been wrong, and probably won't be the last...turns out, judging by the location in which it was found, it is highly more probable that we attempted to hide the camera from the children, and ended up hiding it from ourselves...ah, well. Anyway, it's back, hence the picture above.

One of our children brought the plant pictured above home from school a while ago, and I have managed to keep it alive, which is cause for much celebration, at least for me. The stick stuck in the soil along with it indicated that it is a pea plant, and hopefully it will make it to the garden sometime in the not so distant and warmer future.

Having not had that great of a success last year with the yield in our garden, perhaps due to cold weather later than expected (i.e. snow in June, resulting in late planting) I am thinking seriously of taking Anonymous' advice in a recent comment to start my seeds inside. I'm looking into it more, and considering timing, etc., but it would be great to be able to give the plants a head start on survival in the great outdoors.

Hence my poll question this week--have you had success with starting seeds inside? What kind of plants have you found do well/better if started this way? I know that you can buy some varieties of plants already started, but it seems to me that knowing how to best start your garden plants yourself would be a valuable skill to have...

I tend to keep things way too long...

but oddly enough, this habit has worked in my favor the past few weeks. Here are a few examples:

--A few weeks ago, my hair dryer gave out and decided that it had had enough. I guess. All I know is that on a Sunday morning, about twenty minutes before we were to leave the house, it no longer worked. At all. Not a pleasing scenario in the middle of winter. So what to do?
Well, of course I notified my husband, who joined in the mad dash to find something that would help with the situation. At one point he had a little travel hairdryer, but we have not seen that in nigh these many moons, or years, or eons, whichever is closest, and we only had minutes to search. While he searched hither and yon in the other parts of the house, I looked through a stack of my belongings and pulled out my last hairdryer. Not as powerful. Tossed aside a couple of years ago for a newer model. Yet, when I plugged it in, it worked. Took longer than my quits-at-one-of-the-worst-possible-moments hairdryer did in its prime, but it did the trick. We were blessed to find it, since I hadn't remembered I had it, and to find it in time. In fact, I'm still using it. Living on the edge..... :) But it just goes to show, that yeah, sometimes when you think, "I should save that in case I need it sometime," you just may be right...

--More recently we took a trip down to my parents' house, and when it was time to return home, I left a pair of my shoes (the ones I use for everyday use) at their house. I tend to wear my shoes to the point of oblivion, so the pair of shoes that I am using until I am reunited with the pair left behind was in theory supposed to be gone, oh, say, last year. In my defense, I did throw another pair of shoes away at that time, but, true confessions, though I don't remember the exact thoughts I had, I'm pretty sure they went something like this: "I"ll keep these just in case..." Well, "in case" arrived, and they are making a brief and limited showing on my feet. They are no longer pretty, but they are still comfortable... :)

---Ok, and now the part that you have been waiting for, that is actually about food storage. Yesterday, I went to make meatloaf, and found that our cannister of oatmeal was basically empty. Having already measured some of the ingredients for the meatloaf, I was loathe to go to plan B. (Besides, at that point, I hadn't thought of one... :) So I went to the storage room and pulled out a silver food storage packet of rolled oats that we packed back in 1999. Thing is, back when we packed it, the labeling indicated that it would be best to use it within 5 years. Yeah, mathematically, that package was supposed to make its departure by 2004. But more recently I had read this page, and so I ran to the computer to confirm my hopes/memory and found that...wait for it...rolled oats now have a shelf life of 30 years. Now that's a good feeling....glad that that chart is there, and that some of my food storage has a longer storage life than I thought. Meatloaf and a good time was had by all...

Does it always work out this way? Hard to know, if you're still waiting for the part after the "just in case". But it reinforces to me the need to have a spare, if possible, of things that we need, and to know as much as we can about the food that we store. If we have too much of anything, we could just donate it, but if we end up keeping it, the day may come when we or someone else may need our spare, or just something to eat from our food storage.....

Under construction, and all that...

Those of you who stop by regularly may have noticed that I have been playing with the blog format. Wish I knew more how to get things exactly the way I want them--kind of liked the last format with the yellow background, especially because the lists, etc. were on the right. The lists, etc. are on the left in this particular format, but I like a white background if it doesn't look too stark...anyway, hopefully I'll find one that I'm happy with and stick with it for awhile. (Who knows, it may be this one... :)

Ah, it's starting to feel (and act) like Spring around here, so I've got planting a little bit on the brain. I just mostly don't want to have results like last year, when we waited too long to plant, and then got low/no yield on some of our crops as a result. Kind of hard to judge when you are having snow in June, because you don't want to ruin your crops before they even start, either.

It's interesting, and I don't know why, but suddenly I am getting a lot of seed catalogs in my mail. Yeah, 'tis the season for planting, and all, but these aren't just addressed to "resident", so it makes me think that I got on someone's mailing list somewhere.... I haven't really looked at the catalogs in-depth, but I know I want heirloom, non-hybrid seeds, wherever I purchase them. I do have some seeds in storage in a can, but I'm not planning on using them until much later, or there is little/nothing else available, whichever comes first.

When I was out shopping for something else yesterday, I saw a display of seeds, and stopped to take a look. The company was very complimentary about their seeds (no big surprise there) but there were not many, if any, that were immediately evident as being non-hybrid. At this point, I'd have to answer "no, but planning to" on my own poll question, but since we are in the middle of planning what would be the best crops to plant in our limited garden space, (that we are planning to increase this year) I don't feel bad. Yet. :)

Going through my mind: tomatoes, (not loved by all in the household, but a good source of vitamin C) potatoes, (now that you know that I live in Idaho, kind of embarrassed that I don't know the ins and outs on this one, but a nice, filling crop all the same, and that tote idea found over at Johnson Family Farm would be nice because it would increase our yields without taking up actual garden space) corn, and I would love, love, love to be able to grow garlic. Besides adding great flavor to food, when I get a cold and the like, eating a clove can help a lot. With getting rid of the cold, but not necessarily making new friends and influencing people. :) Worth it, though, garlic scent and all....

So what are you planting this year? I would highly recommend non-hybrid seeds, and to plant as much as you can...