Little Bear’s Mom - Member

Reply to: What was the catalyst that compelled you to begin prepping? Posted December 5, 2022

This is such a great thread! Really enjoying reading everyone’s stories. I first started thinking about being more prepared in 2018, after gas workers replacing a line in Lawrence, MA, about 30 miles from wherever I live, over-pressurized the line by mistake and caused upwards of 80 fires at once. People’s homes literally exploded. It was totally crazy and shocking. Much of the surrounding area was evacuated and power was shut off for days; my then-boss’s brother lived in the area and was one of the folks evacuated. I remember seeing stories on the news of people who fled their homes without their wallets, glasses, prescription medicines, etc. — firefighters had to go in to retrieve these basics for them while it was still quite dangerous to be inside. I realized two things: 1) I didn’t want to be one of those folks who put others in harm’s way if I could help it, and 2) unless we did something to prepare, there was no way my husband and I were getting our pets out of the house in a situation like that! At the time, we had 2 cats and one bulky old pet crate, which was almost impossible to get out of the closet (and even if I did, they fought like hell not to go in it). I started with a small, poorly equipped emergency bag and a pair of more reasonable pet carriers. After the pandemic started, I realized I needed to think more broadly about preparedness and luckily found this site.

Reply to: Teach me about life insurance Posted November 28, 2022

My husband and I are both in our 40s and have term life policies, but we’re also starting to look into long-term care insurance. A lot of folks don’t realize that Medicare only covers a few weeks of skilled nursing care, so if you need to be in a nursing home indefinitely and don’t qualify for Medicaid, you need private long-term care insurance or have to pay out of pocket. The private insurance option is much harder to get (and may be impossible) if you wait until you are older. A family member of ours is starting to show signs of dementia and will likely need to go to a nursing home eventually, which prompted us to look into it.

Reply to: Recipes for cooking with only non-perishable food Posted September 29, 2022

Fried rice is a very smart idea. We keep shelf-stable tofu on hand (the kind sold in the Tetra Pak type of packaging) and that’d be a good addition to fried rice if you want a protein. The only thing with that tofu is that it only lasts about 6 months in the pantry, so we use it and swap it out pretty regularly. And if you do master the falafel, please share your recipe!

Reply to: Recipes for cooking with only non-perishable food Posted September 29, 2022

We keep canned clams on hand to make linguini with clam sauce. Boil the pasta, and reserve a bit of the water when you drain it. Separately, heat the clams in a large skillet with a little olive oil and garlic (fresh is best and we keep a lot of it on hand, but dehydrated would also work). Season with salt if it needs it. Add a little white wine if you’ve got it, but skip that if you don’t. Add the pasta to the clams, toss, use a little of the pasta water to loosen it if you need to. Serve. Voila – a gourmet shelf-stable pantry meal.

Reply to: Summary Report: Our power went out Posted January 18, 2022

Your experience with the email alerts reminds me of the last time we lost power, and our power company wouldn’t talk to us without an account number, which was very hard to locate without working wifi since we are e-billed. I now keep all our utility account numbers stored on my phone, with a paper backup in our go bag.

Reply to: Becoming hysterical during an emergency Posted December 6, 2021

There’s a great book by Amanda Ripley that systematically unpacks that initial panic response. It’s called “The Unthinkable: Who Survives when Disaster Strikes—and Why.” I read it a couple years ago and still think about it all the time. Highly recommend it.

Reply to: N95/NIOSH mask sizing for women? Posted August 10, 2021

I am definitely not an expert here and haven’t tried them myself, but I think that the 3M 8110s are supposed to be smaller in size. Perhaps those would work better?

Reply to: Can a flower pot and tealight candle create enough heat to save you in a cold emergency? Posted February 16, 2021

Just wondering, what size terracotta pot did you use?

Reply to: Best jacket/outer layer for the BOB? Posted November 30, 2020

The problem with cotton is that the fibers hold onto moisture, and that ultimately ends up making you colder. If you don’t want something purely synthetic, you’re better off with a wool/synthetic blend than a cotton/synthetic blend. I’ve found fairly inexpensive nylon/wool or poly/wool baselayers for my husband at discount stores like Sierra.

Reply to: Best jacket/outer layer for the BOB? Posted November 15, 2020

Since your climate doesn’t get super cold, you hate being overly warm, and you’re planning on getting a good outer rain layer anyway, you might think an getting a good insulated vest instead of a jacket. They’re usually a little cheaper and might be the right mid-layer for you. I got a really warm down vest from a very good brand on clearance at the end of the season last year for about $25. You can find packable versions on Amazon now for under $30.

Reply to: What documents to carry in your go bags? Posted August 27, 2020

I keep photocopies of my passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, marriage certificate, the titles to my house and car (you won’t have the car title if you’re still making payments, so I guess you’d want the documentation of the finance arrangement instead), medical info, and insurance docs in the BOB. For our 2 cats, I include copies of their adoption, microchip, and most recent rabies vaccination certificates. I don’t keep credit card info in the BOB at all, but do have cash. I also recently added a list of emergency phone numbers, including insurance and utilities, along with the policy/account numbers for each. (I realized how important those are when we had a big storm and my power company’s website went down during the outage.) I have scans of most of this saved securely electronically as well. The idea is to have copies of all the key stuff I’d need if I had to run out of the house with literally nothing but the bag and the pets. When not in use (which is usually), I keep the originals, other than the cards that live in my wallet, in a fireproof document bag in our home filing cabinet so that I could grab them easily if needed. I don’t want to have to unpack the BOB to get to them if I need them in the normal course, but I also want them to be safe, secure, and all together so I’m not hunting around in an emergency. And I also keep a credit card I rarely use in the fireproof bag as a backup. I think having an old passport in the BOB is fine (they do return them to you, but with a hole punched in them!) but you might want to include a photocopy of the current one, too, just in case you need to show that you have a current one.