Are You Prepared?

My family has been on a journey for the last four years.  It started out just gathering food storage to help us be prepared if there was an emergency.  But it didn't take us long to figure out that gathering food storage was only a very small part of being prepared.  So as we continue to learn, we wanted to start sharing some of the things that we have been able to use for our own family.

We know that preparedness can be viewed in many ways by many different people.  Often people laugh when you ask if they are prepared and say they will just go and visit those who are prepared.  But from what I can tell, those who are prepared are definitely in the minority and their storage is not going to take care of everyone.  Also, many are not going to be willing to take food from their children's mouths that they had the forsight to save when you were busy playing and going on vacations.  It reminds me of the story of the ant and the grasshopper:

Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow.  All day long the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from the farmer's field far away. She would hurry to the field every morning, as soon as it was light enough to see by, and toil back with a heavy grain of wheat balanced on her head. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in her larder, and then hurry back to the field for another one. All day long she would work, without stop or rest, scurrying back and forth from the field, collecting the grains of wheat and storing them carefully in her larder. 

The grasshopper would look at her and laugh. 'Why do you work so hard, dear ant?' he would say. 'Come, rest awhile, listen to my song. Summer is here, the days are long and bright. Why waste the sunshine in labor and toil?'

The ant would ignore him, and head bent, would just hurry to the field a little faster. This would make the grasshopper laugh even louder. 'What a silly little ant you are!' he would call after her. 'Come, come and dance with me! Forget about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!' And the grasshopper would hop away across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily. 

Summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sun was hardly seen, and the days were short and gray, the nights long and dark. It became freezing cold, and snow began to fall.

The grasshopper didn't feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to shelter from the snow, and nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer's field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be had. 'Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?' wailed the grasshopper. Suddenly he remembered the ant. 'Ah - I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and shelter!' declared the grasshopper, perking up. So off he went to the ant's house and knocked at her door. 'Hello ant!' he cried cheerfully. 'Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire, while you get me some food from that larder of yours!' 

The ant looked at the grasshopper and said, 'All summer long I worked hard while you made fun of me, and sang and danced. You should have thought of winter then! Find somewhere else to sing, grasshopper! There is no warmth or food for you here!' And the ant shut the door in the grasshopper's face. 

It is wise to worry about tomorrow today.

So, are you worrying about tomorrow today?  Have you stopped to look at your pantry to see if you have enough food to sustain your family for a week, a month, 3 months, a year?  What about water?  You may wonder what you should be preparing for.  Well, it depends on where you are.  There are some disasters that could happen almost anywhere.  Those include:

• loss of employment
• flooding
• terrorist attack
• loss of electricity
• government shutdown
• earthquake

And there are some disasters that are found in only certain places such as:

• tornados
• hurricanes
• tsunamis
• volcanos
• extreme cold
• extreme heat

Disasters may only last for a couple of hours such as the electricity going out.  They could last for a couple of days or months.  Or the disaster may only last for a short period but cause long term damage.  It is important for us to know what kinds of disasters threaten you in your area along with those that could happen anywhere.  Are you prepared?  If not, now is the time to prepare.