What we learned...

What went well:

• my fireplace in the basement has a battery pack so I could start that for warmth
• I could start my gas cooktop using my lighter
• I do know how to open my garage door without electricity.
• I have plenty of 100 hour candles that I could light, but I also own 3 hand crank flashlights that require no batteries and can also charge a cell phone. One even has a radio
• Our flashlights were all new so that was good.
• We cooked steak on the charcoal grill and mashed potatoes and asparagus using our camp stove and pans
• A neighbor shared their extra milk with a family
• Our gas fireplaces will also work (I made my husband turn off the fuse to it first) as long as our pilot light is on
• One benefit having no power is we played hide-n-seek and just talked (cool).
• We are pretty good on blankets
• We did use our gas fireplace to keep our home pretty comfortable temperature wise
• It was not bad to turn the heat down to 55 because we turn the heat off every night anyway.
• We found it was great to have family games and cards on hand.
• We have over 3 months of regular food and supplies, over a month of water, plus 1 to 2 years of long-term food storage
• I carry a very small high powered LED light in my pocket
• We have many battery powered candles with 500 hour life each. We have large packs of spare batteries. We have a 12 gallon crate of regular candles and another 12 gallon crate filled with assorted flashlights. We have kerosene lamps mounted on many of our walls and have a gallon of paraffin kerosene
• We have a gasoline fueled electric generator that can connect from outside our house to one of our circuit boxes
• Our house is doubly insulated in the attic
• We have a storm door on our front door and an insulated garage door. We have a heavy curtain on our sliding glass door in back
• We have six propane tanks for our grill. We have 5x5gallon pails of charcoal for our seven Dutch ovens.
• I have email access by cell phone and lap top
• My son in West Jordan and I have ham radios. We have two FRS radios and a GMRS radio
• For emergency contacts, we have my son in West Jordan, my son in Provo and my daughter in Denver depending on the level of disaster
• We are registered with the county for reverse 911 and with the city of Draper on Facebook and Twitter
• We have complete sets of first aid supplies in our home and cars
• We are using handheld marine radios to communicate with my family We all live close to each other and will get each others kids and go to one location (whoever has heat)
• we have a 4 wheeler to be able and pick each other up
• My dad has a ham radio to communicate
• I keep a jar of peanut butter, a jar of honey, bread and crackers at my office for whenever I need an “emergency” lunch
• I also have an emergency 72-hour shortbread ration in my car because it can withstand high and low temperatures and last for five years
• We had the means to either cook food on the grill or use our camp stove (both run with propane)
• we have both battery and propane lanterns as well as many candles
• important numbers and addresses are in the 72 hour packs, and we have a designated calling and meeting place, not only for our family, but for extended also
• Our kids know that if they can't call mom or dad then they will call Grandma and Grandpa first then go down the line. As far as a meeting point if we can't meet at home, we go to the neighbors, if we can't go there, the school, if that doesn't work then the church. I found this hard to set because it really depends on what the emergency is.
• we have a large, foldable dog crate, that can be easily folded down flat (you can also get cloth ones that roll up) and loaded in the back of our SUV, so that we would have a place for the dogs to be crated if we needed to be evacuated and relocated somewhere else. (Our largest dog uses this crate to sleep in at night). I have actually tested it to see if all three of our dogs will fit in it at the same time (they do, although they don't love it)
• You know what actually saved me? My 72 hour kit. That's where I have sooo much stuff. What a relief to only have to grab two boxes and know that I have everything I need!!
• I gave each kid a kitchen trash bag to fill with their 'treasures'. It was hilarious to hear about what they grabbed!

What we need to have:

• I would want a propane tank to cook outside
• As far as heat, I wish I had a wood burning fireplace.
• I recently got 2 oil lanterns from my husband’s dad and luckily had the fuel and wicks so I put them together to use. They put off a lot of light but they smell pretty bad. I need to look for odorless fuel
• more camping lanterns, space heaters, great sleeping bags if it is during the winter and a long power outage and things to occupy our time with.
• need to get a few more little cans of propane as well as filling up our big bbq propane tank
• We need better lighting because, flashlights and perfumed candles are not good for leadership meetings
• I need to have a hard copy list of the phone numbers stored in my cell phone
• We learned that we need more lights. Our gas lantern smelled terrible inside the house so we turned it off
• Diapers and Hair mousse
• The only thing we are low on is gasoline for my truck, but I have extra gasoline in a 5 gallon container that I can put in the truck and keep going until the weekend.
• QR (Quick Relief) Powder which is excellent for stopping heavy bleeding. See the attachment. We have used it at our house in emergencies. You can purchase it in town at U of U pharmacies or order it from www.biolife.com or www.amazon.com
• Water-Jel burn treatment which is a little different than the typical burn ointment. See attachment. We have used this at our house in emergencies. Their website iswww.waterjel.com.
• A good place to get professional first aid supplies and kits is Stat Medical Supply Company, 4894 S 300 W #B, Murray, UT, 801-261-4363, www.statmedical.com
• Get a solar oven
• Chips to go with the salsa

What we need to do:

• We need to figure out how to light our gas fireplace with out the switch
• We need to put a hid-a-key outside somewhere if we can’t get into our garage
• We need to have flashlights stored throughout the house in case the lights really do go out. Having them in our garage will probably not be helpful
• I need to make a list of incidentals to always have on hand
• I need to arm myself with knowledge or any disaster we face will be more challenging, would I know how to turn off the gas meter, find the tools we need, or take care of the car?
• I do need to change our water barrel
• emergency phone card plan
• Get HAM Certified
• Rotate Water!!!
• Rotate batteries in the flashlights
• Put an evacuation Checklist by the door
• Restock first aid kits
• we have 5 empty bins or boxes somewhere accessible that each person could grab to put their things in, and that would fit in our car(s)
• make sure the gas tank in both of our cars is always at least halfway full.
• I didn't realize we needed 200 gallons of water. That's a ton more than I had thought!!
• since we have our blue drum on the cement should we replace the drum?

Thoughts we had/lessons we learned:

• I thought about how if the power was out over large parts of the city, the gas stations might be shut down, and there would be no way to get gas. I was glad I had a full tank today!
• Our stovetop will work, but not our oven because even though the heat source is gas, the controls are electric.
• You should always have your children walk down the stairs holding some sort of light source! :)
• I learned that I rely too much on my husband's knowledge and him being home during a disaster
• I have wondered if we should have more stuff stored upstairs in case of an earthquake and the house crumbles....scary to think about!
• 6 year old velveta cheese isn't good anymore (it turns brown, smells alright, but went into the trash
• I learned it takes a long time to wet a new wick, so there's another reason to keep oil in your lamps
• I also wasn't able to use our camping stove that has always been my back-up cooking plan. I just couldn't force myself to BBQ in the snow.
• I noticed I wanted to use my washing machine, but couldn't right then. If we had a longer outage, I could wash by hand, and hang onto the line in our basement to dry. But, I'd have to plan a good day ahead in order to have something washed and air-dried
• There must be a software package somewhere that would allow you to sinc your phone contacts to your google contacts.
• We now know how many watts back-up power we would need to power our furnace and blower. It turns out to be (very rough estimate) about what would be provided by covering our south facing roof-side with solar panels - - that is if we had a south facing roof panel
• do an insurance inventory and make sure you have insurance that would cover all the things that would be destroyed and that you have inventoried your home for insurance purposes.
• make sure that the kids know the password to our home phone/land line voicemail system and know how to navigate through it, so that we could leave and check messages for each other that way if we needed to.
• I have lots of storage, just not the desire to make things
• I guess we must be prepared because I don’t notice a difference – 12 year old
• Milk will be our biggest challenge
• Some items that we grabbed that weren't on the list:

scrapbooks/home movies

charging cords for cell phones, computers, etc.

I was proud of my kids for bringing their scriptures!

Special keepsakes- (I have all that stuff organized in plastic tubs so it took no time to pack it)

A tent (I made my husband go get it just in case it was on the list!)

Blankets & Pillows

Computers

Prepare to Prevent - Preparedness challenge #2

Now that it is over, I can post the rest of the challenges...

#4 was to inventory your First aid kit. The scenario was actually a list of possible injuries your family could get while suffering from cabin fever while being quarantined - kids tend to get restless. I just compiled a list based off of a few lists such as this one and they were given points for the items they had.

#5 was a mock evacuation of sorts. I told them to set their timers for 30 minutes and to physically gather the items they would take with them in the event of an evacuation. The scenario was that someone was using illegal fireworks and set the hillside on fire. After they gathered their items, they were told to open an attachment and answer the questions with the items they had gathered.

The bonus challenge was if they had enough water stored for their family (1 gallon/per person/per day for 2 weeks) AND they drank a glass from it (if they weren't willing to drink a glass from it, they didn't get the points.) The scenario was that the water system got contaminated OR the water lines broke in an earth quake (or both).

All in all it was received very well and the people who participated learned first hand what they needed to do to become more prepared for their family. It is better to learn during a game than during a real emergency! We ended the week with a preparedness fair that was very well done. We had the Unified Fire Authority and ARES there with their mobile command units out back. We had all kinds of different radios displayed, alternative cooking displays that were phenomenal, a food storage display with samples of chili and brownies made with food storage ingredients as well as a 90 day template for food storage. We also had 72 hour kid, first aid kit and gardening displays. We were lucky to have our city there with the city Emergency Preparedness plan displayed and explained as well as an interactive HAM computer study guide to entice more people to get their HAM licence (we had 7 families take the CDs!).

I will be posting more in depth information about these topics in the future so keep checking back!

Prepare to Prevent - the Preparedness Challenge

When we think of preparedness - may of our minds immediately rush to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes - you know the completely devastating lunar like landscape left behind. How many people think of flu, local power outages, accidents in the home, job loss - those everyday emergencies that seem to hit at inopportune times. As I have been thinking about being prepared, I've thought that if we were prepared for all the "little emergencies" if and when a big one hit, it would be bearable because we have prepared and lived through all the components.

Why is this so important? My son hit the nail on the head the other day. As we have been participating in this Preparedness Challenge, he said, "We must be really be prepared because I don't notice a difference." As a parent I can't imagine the stress of losing a job for an extended period of time or having an illness in the family that prevented regular trips to the store - not to mention a massive scale emergency. To couple that stress with children who won't eat unfamiliar food or children that have their lives entirely disruptive and begin to have anxiety about everything because there is no familiarity anymore - that would be one hundredfold times harder to handle than just the "emergency" itself. We all thrive on routines and consistency. To think that those things can exist during an emergency if we are not prepared is ridiculous.

Prepare to Prevent. Prevent stress, prevent hunger, prevent injury, prevent despair, prevent fear, prevent death. This year we will Prepare to Prevent. We are starting out with this Preparedness Challenge. I encourage all to try this! For 1 week we are going through a series of challenges ending with a preparedness fair. This will continue through the entire year with more in depth information and workshops on topics of interest.

Challenge #1 - Go one week with no shopping. The scenario is that there is a pandemic and we have been quarantined or just that your family is all sick and can't leave. There is no outside entertainment, restaurants, or shopping allowed - you have to live with what you currently have in your home.

Challenge #2 - Go one day with out power. No tv, radio, lights, heat. Remember that hot water uses electricity as do garage doors. The scenario is that there was an ice storm that knocked out power. It could also be a construction project cut the line, a car crashed into a power pole, lightning struck a transformer, there was an overload on a power grid - we are always hearing about power outages.

Challenge #3 - Go one day without using cell phones to communicate with your family. The scenario is that the Cell towers or satellites are down. During a regional emergency the cell networks become overloaded and can't be used. Families are encouraged to have an out of state contact person that family members could check in with via other modes of communication. They are also encouraged to develop a family communication plan so that in the event of a catastrophic emergency where family members may be at different locations - there is a plan of how to "check in" with each other to know where to meet and to find out if everyone is ok.

Challenges #4 - #5 (and a bonus challenge) will be posted later because they haven't been revealed yet.

The feedback is inspiring. Lessons learned will be posted. I hope we never have to live through a catastrophic emergency, but I know we all live through "little emergencies" almost daily and when we are prepared - we will ultimately prevent heartache and regret.