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 I consider myself to be a planner, not a Prepper. I don’t have a secret, hidden hide-out, my family doesn’t do drills, and no t.v. show is going to be interested in me. I’m just a regular person trying to make sure my family’s needs will be covered if something very serious happens. I have many friends who don’t think it’s even remotely possible that our infrastructure could fail. But I have another friend who lived through Katrina in New Orleans - he believes strongly in preparing for potential emergencies. I’m sure the people in Texas never expected to be without power for weeks.  Years ago, we suffered from an ice storm in the Deep South that knocked out power in our whole city for several days. We were lucky in comparison to flooding, fire, tornado, and hurricane damage that occurs frequently around the world. 


Truthfully, though, I started learning how to prepare for an emergency about 15 years ago, when the Lord told me I should. I discussed it with my husband who encouraged me to pursue what I was hearing God say. Over the years, the Lord has continued to guide me to websites, studies, information, and people that have expanded my knowledge. I’ve learned a tremendous amount and decided that it might be nice to have all this info compiled in one location, thus this Blog. 


Let me be clear about something, though; I don’t live in fear. Like the Proverbs 31 Woman, I can laugh at the future, knowing that the needs of my family, extended family, and dearest friends will be met. Knowledge and preparation has brought me great peace. It hasn’t overwhelmed me, I’ve bitten off a little at a time, and expanded only when I felt the basics were covered. And the Lord has kept me on the right track. 


There’s much to know, but also many basics that anyone can tackle, and I hope to use this Site to help people who want to store up but don’t know how to get started and keep them from becoming overwhelmed. 


The first and easiest task in preparing is to find a way to collect water. Some people have purchased huge rubberized bladders that fit underneath their home or deck that they fill with water. I’ve chosen to purchase several rain barrels. I have 7 55-gal rain barrels. Three are connected via tubing and the other four, that are in a different location, also are linked. That allows me to open the faucet on the end barrel and draw water from each of them. I’ve found that it is easier to use my collected rainwater if my barrels are elevated. This allows gravity to draw water from the barrels for watering gardens or filling pitchers. Rain barrels are a great source of water, because they will replenish with a good rain storm or two. 


FEMA says that you should have a gallon of water per family member per day (plus more for pets and really hot weather) and that you should keep a 2-week supply on hand. We’re a family of 5, plus my father-in-law, which means we need 84 gallons of water for 2 weeks! That number is a little overwhelming. But the rain barrels solve this problem, provided we have rain over an 8-week period. 


I also have been storing tap water in rinsed, bleached 2-liter soda bottles. The CDC says that City water that has fluorine can be used without the need to rotate your stock. We have a water purifier on our sink, but I don’t use the purified water for my stores. After parties or receptions, I gather all the 2-liter bottles I can find that are being thrown out and put a mix of bleach and water in them, shaking well to be certain the bleach coats every part. Then I rinse the bottle repeatedly, getting rid of any bleach residue. I fill them, recap them, and store them in plastic crates. I can fit between 9 and 12 2-liter bottles in a crate, which provides a full day’s supply of water for my family. We store our crates of water under our deck. Just a few weeks ago, a water main burst in our neighborhood, and we were without water all day on a Saturday. I brought in one of my crates and used my stored water to wash up, make coffee, flush our commodes, etc. Not a catastrophic emergency, but we were all very happy to have stored water. 


A caution, though. You cannot reuse any type of milk jug. Milk leaves enzymes in the plastic of their container that can transfer into your water and be dangerous. And here, in the South, I’ve also discovered that tea or juice jugs that are clear just don’t hold up well outdoors long-term. The only type of jug, other than 2-liter soda bottles, that seem to hold up are Bleach jugs.  I don’t rinse these as thoroughly and I label each of them with a sharpie “Non-Potable”. These jugs of water will be used for cleaning, not drinking.


When it comes time to use our rain barrel water for drinking, it must first be run through coffee filters to remove any sand, bugs, run-off, or twigs that may have gotten into the rain barrels. Adding a small amount of bleach to your drinking water, then letting it sit for 24 hours before consuming, is one way to purify your drinking water.  You can also purchase and store water purification tablets. We chose to buy a Berkey Water Purifier. While a little pricy as an initial investment, it contains filters that can, literally, filter pond water, making it drinkable. Running our water through coffee filters first just extends the life of our filter. We have also purchased extra filters. The Berkey is an item that is put up to be used only in an emergency, since we have filtered water in our fridge and at our sink already. But some people use their Berkey’s all the time to filter and purify their water. 


So, in a nutshell, what I have chosen to do is purchase rain barrels for long-term but store tap water in 2-liter soda bottles that can be accessed immediately in a crisis to allow time for us to set up our purification system. I’ve tried to provide simple solutions that can be rolled out very quickly, but for only a short time, to allow us the luxury of figuring out how to live during an emergency while still having our needs met. Another example of this is MRE’s or military pouch meals. I have a small supply of these that we can eat for 3-4 days as well as two cases of emergency meals in packets that only need water. This just buys us a little time to get set up and figure out how best to function!


Hope there are some ideas to help you! Tomorrow, we’ll begin looking at food, since water is now covered. 

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