The Ant and the Grasshopper (Prepping for the Real World, Part I)

One of Aesop’s most classic fables is of an ant and a grasshopper. I won’t recite it here, as it’s easily readable online. I mention it because the lesson it teaches is just as useful to me now as it was when I was a kid and first heard it. Actually, as the head of a family it’s probably more important now than ever!

So, what can be done? What should we have learned already? It is the middle of summer, fall and winter will be here before we know it. Does your behavior more closely resemble the ant, or the grasshopper? What do you have that’s ready?

Before you roll your eyes and click away, I’m not going to go into the exaggerated grid-down, sociatal collapse, TEOTWAWKI-level prepping. I’m just talking about stuff that a guy with two young children ought to think about if he were to contemplate a 2 or 3 day power outtage. Where I live, they aren’t uncommon, especially come winter.

Where you live will determine what you need to prepare for and to what degree. Where I live it gets cold in the winter, and hot in the summer. That’s mostly true for everyone reading this, but maybe not everyone. If you live in southern Florida, winter is the most tolerable time of the year. If you live in Alaska, you may not need to worry about cooling your home in the summer. If you live in Nebraska, you will have much different concerns than I do as far as snow is concerned. As for me & where I live I only need to worry about temps reaching about 105 at any point in the summer and maybe a half-to-one inch of snow in the winter.

Speaking of winter, I am not really prepared. I’m prepared for everything to go right, which means that I’m not prepared at all. I think my dry food storage is sitting at about a day’s worth, and my water storage consists of a half-gallon pitcher & a couple water bottles in my fridge. All my firewood is outside, and my chimney hasn’t been properly cleaned since before I bought my house a few years ago.

I’m going to make a list of things I want to do and maybe even when I want them done by. Maybe in the future I’ll make a list for each season with certain tasks to be checked off? But how to determine what those tasks are? Well, let’s see…

Things To Have Just In Case

• Water
• Shelter
• Heating/Cooling
• Food
• Dog food
• Ammo (Pro-Gun Millennial, afterall 😁)
• Emergency money in a bank account
• Cash on hand
• Battery Banks/Phone Chargers
• Lighting
• A couple gallons of fresh gasoline
• First aid gear
• Fire extinguisher
• ??? (Put suggestions in the comments)

Let’s start at the top.

Water. I believe the rule of thumb is 1 gallon, per person, per day? Four people times 3 days equals twelve gallons. Currently I have none. I can get this pretty quickly, I just need to do so. And find a place to store it…

Shelter. I’m going to say my house is sufficient. I don’t plan on “bugging out” anywhere, and if I did, then it would be to a friend or family’s house. Let’s call this one done.

Heating/Cooling. I’ve got a wood fireplace in my house, and plenty of blankets. My store of firewood isn’t great, but I’ve got a day or two’s worth of fuel. I’ll probably bolster that by the end of October.

Food. Does you no good to keep warm, hydrated, and out of the elements if you just end up starving to death! Now I’m planning on a 3-day power outage in winter, I’m not likely to starve in 72 hours. Even with the increased caloric requirements of cold weather, I’ll still survive. Now that we understand each other, explain that to a 2-year-old. Or my wife. Yeah, I better figure something out. I’m completely open to suggestions here. And 3 days of rice & beans won’t go over real well either, so use your imagination.

Dog food. I don’t plan on killing and eating my doggos, so I need to keep them in mind too. It also means my water needs to accommodate them as well. I figure a 5 lb. bag of dog food will cover them for a few days in the off chance that I needed to go to the store the day we lose power.

Ammo. Let’s say 200 round of range trash in both 9mm and .223? That’ll probably be good for anything unexpected that could come up. I’ve currently got 206 rounds of .223 on hand, so I just need to get a few more boxes of 9mm and I’ll be set.

Emergency money in bank. Think “I need a new hot water heater/home repairs/transmission” kind of cash. I’m not going to say how much I try to keep ready, but that’s the level I’m trying to be at. I’ve almost reached my goal, and should be able to achieve it by Fall.

Emergency cash on hand. This will be about 5%-10% my emergency bank account, but it’s in cash. Why? Because cash is king. No card readers, no checks, no internet connection required. Everyone accepts cash, and a lot of people give discounts for pricey items if you pay in cash. Honestly, having the knowledge that I can survive a monetary emergency really helps me sleep at night.

Portable battery chargers. So what if you lose power? You can always just call for help, right? What if your phone dies? Having a couple portable phone chargers hanging out and full of juice in case you lose power isn’t a bad idea. This is an area where I need improvement, because the only one I have is a little dinky one I keep in my travel bag. Also, since I’m on Android and the wife is on Apple, I need to make sure we’ve got the right cords available. I’m shooting for 10,000 mAh. I hope I remember to check the charges on them periodically.

Lighting. When I was a kid, this meant candles & matches. With the current place LED and battery tech is at, it means flashlights. Bonus points if the flashlights are USB rechargeable so you can use your phone chargers with them. Penalty points of you don’t get more chargers to accommodate the increased demand. I’m going to stick with candles. They smell better.

Gasoline. I drive a gas powered car. If you roll coal, imagine I wrote ‘diesel’. If I need to go somewhere, my bicycle isn’t likely to be a good option, and if I’m running low I’m stranded. Keep some gas on hand. If your car gets 12-15 miles a gallon, a 5 gallon gas can should get you 60-80 miles down the road. Better mileage means more distance in that calculation. I’m going to choose a 5 gallon can for me, because I don’t see myself having to drive 100+ miles with zero notice and no place/time to get more gas on the way. Also of note: gasoline isn’t shelf stable for years on end, it will need to be freshened up regularly. Luckily, this is easily done. You just pour the gas can into your car, drive to a gas station, and refill your can. Repeat every 3-12 months.

First aid/trauma gear. I’m sad to say that the only first aid kit I have is the one that came with my car. That’s really cool of Hyundai to include, honestly. Unfortunately the car is a 2009 model, and I didn’t know it was there until last year. It is also a standard first aid kit, meaning it’s limited to band aids, Neosporin, burn gel, etc. No TQ, chest seal, or hemostatic agent. Honestly, medical might be where I need improvement the most. With multiple kids running around, I have got to learn how to deal with this kind of stuff. No excuses.

Fire extinguisher.  Currently I have a couple bottles of “Fire Gone” in my house, one in the kitchen and the other in the garage. I didn’t know until recently that actual fire extinguishers can be bought at Lowe’s for ~$20 each. I will be getting a couple in the near future.

That’s about all I can think of that I’d be likely to need. I know that I could just get an emergency generator and take care of half or more of my list, but I don’t think I can justify that to my wife who never lost power for any significant amount of time in her life.

Do you guys have any suggestions? Am I over estimating anything? Underestimating? Should I be prepping for longer periods than just 3 days? Did I completely miss something important? Let me know in the comments.

Stay busy, and I’ll see you next Friday. -S_S