Long Winded Water Storage Post

 Our neighborhood had a major water leak going on yesterday across the street, as in a water fall in our neighbors yard. Brenda's post regarding her water problem with frozen pipes jumped in my mind. Holy Moley I better get in the house and store some water FAST!!

A couple of buckets for flushing, some pitchers for cooking, two sinks for washing, and filled up the Keurig tank for tea/coffee. I washed up the dirty dishes, wiped down the counters and took a quick shower not knowing when the water department would get here to do the repairs. That water ran like a river all night long...guess the water department doesn't work on Sunday's.

First thing this morning I started to hit the shower before the repairmen might show up but one thing lead to another and I didn't get in the shower until the repaires had started. I figured I would still have hot water so no problem. I WAS WRONG!! What the heck? So now here I sit not looking too perky without my daily shower, errands might just have to wait till tomorrow. See I didn't bother to dry my hair last night after the emergency shower figuring I could get it in quick this morning, my bad.

 Hubby and I have tried to plan for water problems. We have rain barrel water storage tanks to use on the garden as well as to use in emergencies. We keep cases of bottle water on hand in the garage, and we have a Berkey water filter system to purify water if a real emergency should develop we could get water from the creek or lake close to our home.

A hot shower....I just don't function well without one in the morning. We do have a solar drip system camping shower that cost next to nothing on sale at the outdoor store some years back. I thought it was a clever idea and the price was right. The sun in shinning brightly, that's the key to this solar shower. Just hang it up, fill with 5 gallons of water, and let mother nature do the warming for you. Now that the rubber has meet the road I realize I don't want to get naked and take a shower on the deck when it's 35 degrees outside. I think my neighbors would agree. We need to brain storm some more over water storage.

 I worked on cleaning out a few cabinets in the kitchen yesterday but it was hard to work around all of the sewing projects I had all over the place. Might as well finish the winter table runner up at least. OK, sew it's done but I won't be using it as a winter runner, it's much too Christmasy for that. She has been moved to the gift closet/drawers.

For some reason my go to, use ever single day of my life, camera decided today was the day she would no longer download photo's to the PC. I had to pull out my fancy camera Santa left under the tree that I have no idea how to use. I threw on a lens. Hey it didn't fall off for a change, I am on a roll!! Looked in the million page instruction manual on how to do an auto setting, may or may not have done that right but at least I was able to load today's photo's. The savings from this month's No/Low spending challenge might be going to a new point and shoot camera!

This is not a great way to start out a Monday morning!! Ha Oh well, it is a good way to practice water emergency preparedness. Can you imagine what those poor people in West Virginia are dealing with?

We are in the middle of a major flu outbreak in our area, not being able to wash your hands in warm soapy water could be very dangerous. I have a really nice stock of hand sanitizer put back but still there is nothing better than soap and water for clean hands and bottoms if you have little ones.

Baby blow out diapers...sometimes all the baby wipes in the world just can't tackle that job, a bath is needed. An emergency load of ewy baby clothes needs to be done. We do have two wash tubs in the garage as well as on old fashion wringer that can be attached. A heavy duty toilet plunger will work as an agitator but it's not something I would ever look forward to doing. What about laundry detergent? I have lots on hand picked up on sale with coupon's but I wonder how many folks don't have a back up plan? Speaking of laundry I have been putting off buying a clothes drying rack for a long time, it's now on my list of need to purchase. The fab clothesline hubby put up for me would be useless in freezing weather.

I cook a lot therefor I wash a lot of dishes. In stressful times you will find me cooking or baking when I am not running the vacuum cleaner another favorite stress reducer for me. I realized today a nice fit in the sink tub of some sort would be handy to have on hand. The list of just might need items is getting longer. I do keep paper, plates, cups and all put back for just this sort of thing stored in the attic. I need to check on my stock as I use these to send to go meals and snacks out quite often.

Flushing...we all have to do it. Well at least we try to get everyone in the family to do it but there always seems to be a slacker when little kids are around. We have lot's and lots of buckets in the garage, most are 5 gallon buckets. Do you have any idea how heavy 5 gallons of water is? I do not know officially but I sure wouldn't want to have to lug them upstairs to the other baths. Dipping.... from recent experience I can tell you you need a dipper to get the 5 gallons of water into the toilet to flush. A large cool whip container works BTW.

Cooking, how many recipes do we all use that calls for water? For me it might be more than most people as I dehydrate a majority of our veggies. I do have store bought canned goods as well has home canned on hand at all times purchased of course on sale and with coupons when I can find them but for the most part I use dehydrated. I think I need a better balance just in case. Hitting that button for one cup of coffee, decaf of course was mighty nice this morning. In a long term water shortage I wouldn't want to waste a whole pot of water for coffee when a cup did the trick. The Keurig was a water saving luxury today.

Waiting on assistance......I don't mean to bash the local, state or federal government but... I am sure all US citizens remember Katrina. Need I say more? Emergency assistance can take a long time, days or weeks in some cases and that's only for a local emergency. Can you imagine what a mess of things it would be if an entire state or large area of the country was faced with a shortage of water or anything else for that matter?  FEMA suggested each family have emergency supplies of up to Three day's on hand.http://www.ready.gov/build-a-kit.

I didn't take the time to see if the link above suggested cash on hand or not. EVERYONE should have some cash stashed!! For the poor or fixed income folks this is a MAJOR must as they are the less likely to have anything leftover at the end of the month/week. For many of us we can pull out a CC or debit card to do a quick supply run but the poor/fixed income people/families don't have that luxury. Even $50.00 tucked in a safe place can buy a lot of water, food, or maybe even a few extra days of prescription meds.

 From my own experience over the holiday's working with our local CVS I was able to buy 2 weeks extra meds for myself and a few days for hubby so that all of our prescription meds are now renewed/picked up on the same day. While I did have to pay out of pocket without an insurance discount it was worth the extra money to have the convenience of a once a month trip to pick up drugs. Seems if I get in the car or a store it's the kiss of death when it comes to spending as I always find something we need/want/just gotta have. If you have a fixed income, poor relative, friend, or neighbor in your circle a GC to a local pharmacy would be a HUGE blessing for them. Most folks would never dream of asking for help purchasing meds. Even with the improved medicaid/medicare coverage some people still have to make a choice of eating or taking meds sometimes. Here is an idea that might help you out in figuring out how to get a GC to someone you know that could use the help but would be embarrassed to receive a GC out of the blue.

Valentines day is right around the corner. What about a nice card wishing them a happy Valentines day with a pharmacy GC inclosed telling them to pick up something special for themselves or to use for a rainy day that we ALL have not matter what our income bracket!!

Back to the sewing machine to try and make a dent in the PILES of projects. Last night as I was getting ready to pack up the leftover Christmas fabric I remembered I had a super cute pattern to make the little girls and apron. Rather than pack up one of the large fabric pieces I cut out two toddler Christmas aprons. This is one of the MANY reasons I can't seem to get my project pile whittled down. I always seem to get distracted by yet another project that pops in my head saying DO ME, DO ME, DO ME NOW our you will forget!! Crap, I am begining to think I have developed  middle age ADHD. Any of you crafters know a cure for this affliction?