My Preparedness Plan

With all of the uncertainty in the world, it can be an overwhelming time for families trying to keep themselves safe and self-sufficient, regardless of what life throws at them. If you are like me, being prepared for the unknown is a great coping mechanism to keep you from being anxious about the future. So, I’ve decided to be a little vulnerable today and let you into my process. Because, truly, who doesn’t need some extra support and comfort when it comes to worrying about our families!

Today, I want to share with you what I’ve done to prepare my family for a variety of emergency situations. I’m also going to share with you lessons I’ve learned along the way to be as efficient and effective as possible!

Food Storage

My number one key to being successful in acquiring food storage is to store the food that your family actually eats. While this sounds obvious, it’s easy to miss the mark. While powdered milk is relatively easy to purchase and store, I have to ask myself if I actually think it is something my children will eat (hence the milk cow in my backyard right now!). Especially for families with young children or food-sensitive children, a sudden change in diet can cause them to have a very hard time.

Take my daughter Eva for example. When she was about 2, I had to go on the GAPS diet while I was struggling with my health. I decided that if I had to be on the diet, then my husband and children were going to do the diet as well—because they were having their on signs of gut issues. Plus, there was no way I was making multiple dinners every night! So the first dinner time came and Eva—my then 2-year old— would not eat ANY of it. But I wasn’t too worried, I put her to bed that night thinking she would definitely come around in the morning. However—you guessed it—morning came and she still would not eat anything! So I decided then and there that Eva would not be joining the family on the diet and made her a PB&J.😅

This proves my point about storing food your family will really eat. You don’t want to find yourself in a position where your young children’s stubborn hearts will cause them to starve themselves rather than eat your food storage.

My next tip is to start with three months of food storage, and then slowly build up to one year of shelf-stable goods. A great way to get there is to grab a notebook and plan out four weeks of meals. Then compile all of the ingredients you will need for each of those meals. Once this is accomplished you just need to multiply that amount of food by three and you have an outline for a three-month supply of food.

My favorite way to store food storage is in a five-gallon bucket—you can literally pick these up at Home Depot as all their buckets are food grade. Next, put your food storage into a five-gallon mylar bag (be sure to put in enough oxygen absorbers for five gallons) and seal it with a hair straightener. Finally, get a gamma seal lid to put over the top to make it easy to open and close!

Tip: Get oxygen absorbers that are wrapped individually, otherwise as soon as you open the pack they all start expiring.

    • 5-gallon bucket
    • 5-gallon mylar bags
    • 2000cc oxygen absorber for 5-gallon bucket
    • Gamma seal lids
    • Quantity: 3 month supply followed by 1 year of dry goods

    Water Storage

    A cheap and effective way to store water is in a 50-gallon barrel that you can get from a soda plant (such as Coca-cola). These plants can only use the barrels once so often they will give them away for free. Then all you need to do is rinse out any residue and fill it with clean water. If you are in a colder region you might consider burying your water barrels to prevent them from freezing.

    For short-term emergency preparedness, such as a natural disaster, a water bladder is another great option. Water bladders are kind of like giant bags that fit in your bathtub and you can fill them ahead of time if there is risk your water supply might be temporarily disrupted. It keeps the water clean from debris or other contaminants. They usually come with a siphon to help pump out the water. 

    We’ve gotten to test ours out several times when hurricanes or other tropical storms have hit Texas. With these storms, there is always a risk that the city water could get shut off. Luckily, we never had to rely on the water bladder, but these storms made great test runs to see how simple and effective it would have been in a truly emergency situation.

    • 50-gallon barrel
    • Water bladder

    Homeopathy

    Homeopathy is the ultimate prepper’s medicine. It can have your back in so many emergency situations when other help is inaccessible! 

    First Aid with Homeopathy by Dr Manuel Mateu Ratera is by far my favorite homeopathic first aid book. I keep this one in my emergency bag—the one I would take with me if I had to flee my home in a life or death situation.

    When your remedies are limited, water dosing—rather than taking the pellets dry—can really help to stretch your remedies further. One large pellet (or three of the small, poppy-seed sized pellets) is all that is needed per glass of water. When using this method of administration, keep in mind that while the remedies themselves do not have an expiration date, the water itself can get contaminated.

    • First Aid with Homeopathy by Dr Manuel Mateu Ratera
    • Homeopathy 911: What to Do in an Emergency Before Help Arrives by Eileen Nauman
    • The Homeopathic Emergency Guide: A Quick Reference Guide to Accurate Homeopathic Care by Thomas Kruzel

    Herbology

    Having access to a variety of medicinal herbs adds an extra layer of protection to your preparedness plan. I had read through several herbal guidebooks that I did not love before I finally discovered The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual by James Green. This book is fantastic! It really helped me know where to place my focus as it teaches that with less than 10 herbs, you can cover a wide range of illnesses. And they are the kind of herbs that grow well ALL over the world, just find the variety that grows best in your area!

    Take care when planting an herb garden as many can be toxic if administered incorrectly. In theory, though, you can take your herbs—even the toxic ones—and create your own homeopathic remedies. There is a really cool website strictlymedicinalseeds.com that sells tons of herbs—including plants that are turned into homeopathic remedies.

    And I have literally done this before! On my farm in Texas I had a horrible infestation of leaf cutter ants and they were decimating my garden. They have massive networks and are almost impossible to get rid of. So what I did was get a bunch of the ants, froze them, crushed them, and then put them in alcohol for about a month. After that I went through the process of succussion and made a 30c dilution of the ants and sprayed it all over my property. And I kid you not—the ants left!

    • The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual by James Green
    • Herbal Medic: A Green Beret’s Guide to Emergency Medical Preparedness and Natural First Aid by Sam Coffman
    • strictlymedicinalseeds.com

    72-Hour Kit

    In addition to your long-term preparedness efforts, I also recommend putting together 72-hour kits for every member of your family. You never know when you might have to leave you home in search of higher ground or other areas of safety. This way you aren’t caught empty-handed!

    I’ve listed what I think are some of the highlights to keep in your kit: 

    • Life Tent
    • Life Straw
    • Emergency Crank Weather Radio
    • Survive Permanent Match
    • Survivor Filter PRO
    • Waterdrop Gravity Filter Straw
    • 3-days of Food
    • Waterproof Backpack
    • Poncho
    • Iodine Tablets
    • Sleeping Bag
    • Compact Sleeping Pad
    • Change of Clothes

    Any time we are in a state of panic and fear it is not good. It’s not good for our health and it’s not good for our families. As the mom, we often take on the role of emotional regulators so our emotions impact everyone else in our family. Taking steps to relieve your fears by being prepared, has benefits beyond just the physical food and medicines.

    Ultimately, it brings me great peace to know that I’ve tried, I’ve prepared, and I’ve done my best. And come what may I can look back with no regrets and move forward.

    ______________

    ______________

    Join My Book Club Program: https://paolabrown.com/BookClub/

    Get Free Lessons

    PreK/Kindergarten & Grades 1-12

    Get free lessons from the worlds first homeopathy curriculum for kids!

    Read More From Our Blog:

    Back To School Savings You Won't Want to Miss!

    Just getting started with Homeopathy? Need a refresher? The Intro to Homeopathy class is the perfect place to start.

    $19.99

    $1.00

    Join the Momeopath® Insider Circle & get your first month free. Just $49/month on your second month. Cancel any time.

    $49.00

    $0

    /1st month