libertybelle diaries

Here’s a real dose of reality at analyzing a Buffalo blizzard news story from Fox weather. The first sentence in this news story killed me: “About 30 people were forced to spend part of their Christmas weekend in a Target store while they waited out the blizzard that crippled the Buffalo area.” Those people weren’t “forced” to do anything. They chose to be out in a blizzard, but for some reason the media always absolves people of any responsibility for their own bad decisions and acts like they were helpless victims. I’m glad they found shelter and are safe, but they should not have been out in a blizzard – that’s common sense. I’ve learned a lot of practical emergency preparedness tips from the AlaskaGranny YouTube channel:

That’s a beat up cheap piece of wall decor I have in one of my bathrooms. I liked that saying, so I’ve held onto this tacky wall “art” for decades, despite being urged to ditch it many times, usually after it fell on the floor one more time. I have it hanging right near the toilet in the bathroom by the master bedroom. My husband wasn’t a fan of knickknack junk or sayings. And he did not like the location where I hung this- at my eye level, not his, so he was always bumping it. It was so cheerful that I didn’t want to part with it.

Often, after I write a blog post, I reread it and wonder if I sounded mean or bitchy, so with my latest post doubts cropped up again. Saying something like, “A comprehensive plan would include a tiered level of goals, ways and means to achieve those goals and some timelines for the various moving parts. Into all this comes dealing with adversity and failure, which are going to happen, even with the best laid plans.” sounds pretentious and is the result of my interest in military strategy, I suppose. So, this post is laymen’s terms, because truly just about all of us have “tiered levels of goals” – stuff we’re working on now, stuff we would like to get done in the near future and stuff that’s off in the distance or even things that are present projects, but that we’ve had to prioritize. I don’t want to be mean-spirited or haughty.

It’s not just businesses or the military that come up with tiered levels of goals. Anyone working on home DIY projects or building a homestead constantly lives in the world of tiered levels of goals, because there’s only so much money and time, plus always lots more things that crop up to do.

The most serious problem for all of us in crisis situations will likely come with the people who don’t have any goals or just assume other people will be available to handle things for them, especially in an emergency situation. They assume someone else will figure out a solution in a crisis. It’s not just people who are obviously dysfunctional, like drug addicts, who are not prepared at all, we have an entire culture of unprepared people, who wait for some “experts” to tell them what to do and when to do it. They aren’t prepared to respond to any type of emergency situation. When I googled what percentage of Americans are prepared for emergencies I came across several articles that estimate over 60% of Americans aren’t prepared for a natural disaster, but I suspect when it comes to big storm events, as storms move closer more people rush to the store to buy food, water and supplies. That’s how hurricane preparedness works where I live.

In this recent large winter storm, many of the stories about strangers helping strangers that came out of Buffalo were heartwarming, but I listened to some news stories that left me wondering. For instance I saw a news report when grocery stores opened back up and a reporter was talking to customers lined up outside. That storm lasted a few days and I saw one guy tell the reporter he was completely out of food. Another lady started listing all the things she was out of – all the basics.

So, I want to mention some of my own typical planning failures that often led to outcomes that were disappointments. These were trivial projects, whereas being prepared for emergencies can be a matter of life and death. Often I would come across some project idea that someone else had done and that became my latest dream project of what I wanted too. It could be something little like a craft or sewing project or a cooking or decorating project, not necessarily some big project like building something or a project that would take a long-time to execute.

The first problem I often encountered when I attempted new projects was I did not do enough research before I started and didn’t have the requisite skill sets to successfully create these projects. Over time I learned to carefully read instructions to see what materials, tools and skills were required for each project. And that often led me to start on smaller projects to learn the skills I needed before attempting the bigger “dream” projects or I had to wait until I could afford the new supplies or equipment required for that dream project. I have some dream needlework projects that I still don’t feel confident in my skills to attempt.

Here’s a true story from when I was newly married and my husband and I had invited friends over to our apartment to eat. I had baked a cake for one friend’s birthday. Being young and clueless, I bought a small cake decorating kit. I thought I was going to be able to create elaborate flowers and turn out a cake that looked professional. My overconfidence stemmed from the decorator’s frosting recipe wasn’t that complicated. My husband had asked me if I was sure I knew how to do all that and I confidently smiled and told him, “How hard can it be?”

My mother had taught me how to make buttercream frosting and I had done that many times, so I ended with an inexpertly frosted cake with buttercream frosting – no cake decorations whatsoever, besides I tried making some swirls with the frosting like my mother did. Mine didn’t look too great.

Another thing we often don’t realize is how much time and resources various projects or new tasks take, because the glossy magazine spreads or the engaging scenes content creators put online makes things look easy. What you aren’t seeing is the years of hard work and/or practice those people put into creating what you’re seeing. They didn’t wave a magic wand to get where they’re at. They worked very hard to get there. Many endeavors have to be done in stages or require ongoing care and maintenance, not just once and done.

With the emergency preparedness efforts, many people react to fear-laced warnings or news when a big storm is expected to hit and while it’s good to get serious about emergency preparedness when an emergency weather situation is imminent, rushing out to just grab as many supplies and as much food as you can isn’t a good way to prepare. Calming down, assessing what you have, how you can better utilize what you already have, then working out a plan with a budget ahead of time can help you avoid mad dashes through storms. If you wait, crowds of unprepared people will be swarming stores trying to grab supplies too. Having a budget and a shopping list is a better way to utilize your resources and end up with food you can incorporate into meals. At this point though, if you see some bargain for some basic item that you know you use and you can afford it, it’s probably better to stock up now rather than wait. I also do pick up items that I find at Dollar Tree, that I think might be useful for various purposes.

Sometimes, life throws us curveballs, where we’re required to learn critical skills quickly, like people who reacted in that major winter storm a week ago. One young woman brought an elderly man into her home suffering from severe frostbite and was rendering first aid care to try to save his life. It could be some personal emergency. For instance, I did not know if I was up to the task of being a 24 hour a day caregiver for my husband, when he was sent home from the hospital on hospice care and completely bed bound. It’s not easy caring for someone who is bed bound. The hospice nurses taught me how to change him and change the bedding without being able to get him out of bed. They taught me how to handle all sorts of problems and issues. I learned that I could handle nursing care tasks that I wasn’t even aware of and some I never imagined I’d have to handle. You never know what life’s going to throw at you. Don’t ever say you can’t – just take a deep breath and try. The alternative would have been putting my husband in a nursing home of some sort in the midst of the COVID craziness and perhaps not even being allowed to visit him (now there’s a cruel COVID policy that still makes my blood boil – keeping family away from dying loved ones). That was not an option I considered. You just never know what kind of emergencies or crises you’ll face in life.

Having big dreams is something we should all cling to, because those can keep us looking to the future with anticipation, and optimism rather than fear and dread. Big dreams really are the seeds from which tomorrows grow, but we’ve got to figure out the right time and location to plant them, then invest the time to nurture them. We also need to be prepared for those seeds of dreams to perish. That’s when we really get tested, because most people will give up, while a few others will take a deep breath and start all over again. They’ll replant more seeds until those dreams bloom.

Changing that ratio is a challenge for all of us, because in a major crisis we’re all in it together.

Greetings from southeast GA.

It’s 61 degrees Fahrenheit here and we’re supposed to be looking at the freezing weather in the rearview mirror now, so I’m going to do a bit of my own personal “lessons learned.” Although I didn’t face any cold-related problems, I did worry about family in other parts of the country. Some have been very sick. Some don’t really worry much about emergency preparedness and this morning I’ve been browsing cold weather car emergency items to send to granddaughters who live in IN, who have cars and drive.

I moved a few plants from outside into my sun room before the storm, pictured above and I have some plants on my front porch that I’ve covered with a sheet (some have some frost damage and some seem fine).

I live in a home in a residential area in southeast GA, that was built in 1994 and we bought it in 1994. While generally I have liked having electric heat, when bad weather happens and now with all the warnings in America about potential grid failures or rolling blackouts, I have some concerns.

There’s a fireplace in my living room that I do not use in the winter, because most years it’s not really cold enough here to use a fireplace regularly and the other issue is my home’s layout is not conducive for a fireplace to be helpful as regular heating. The living room gets nice and toasty, but with that fireplace heat radiating down the hallway, where the thermostat is located, the electric heat doesn’t kick on and the bedrooms and bathrooms become iceboxes. I also choose not to have a wood pile, because it would just be a termite magnet here, considering I don’t use my fireplace. So, I have several boxes of fire logs in my garage, in case of emergency. With this storm I purchased a Big Buddy propane heater to have too. I didn’t need to use either during this deep freeze, because my power did not go out. However, I did run a small portable electric heater in my bathroom to warm it up more before taking showers. Like, I said, no real drama or struggles at my house.

I have a little butane stove to use to heat food and water, in case of emergency, plus a gas grill on my patio and I have a small charcoal grill and bags of charcoal in my garage. I’ve got food and water stocked too and blankets galore. I wasn’t worrying about freezing to death in my home, but I did think about some other things that I should do to be better prepared next time – things I’ve been putting off.

One thing I did before this storm was check the insulation on my AC/heat condenser outside and the outside faucets. I replaced the insulation on my condenser, because it was old and damaged. I bought outdoor faucet covers at Lowe’s and put them on. In 2018, we had a little snow and some unusual freezing temps here too and one morning my pipes were frozen. I hadn’t left a little stream of water running inside, but I learned my lesson. Luckily, I didn’t have any pipes burst, I had plenty of bottled water and the power was on. If we hadn’t had plenty of bottled water, the situation would have been a real problem. Stores here close at the first hint of bad weather and bottled water sells out before storms. I would have had to go to neighbors and ask for water, because it took almost a whole day for the pipes to thaw.

However, I waited from 2018 until weather forecasts in 2022, before a major storm, to purchase outdoor faucet covers, that cost around $4 each. I’ve got some other emergency preparedness things I want to do and instead of procrastinating, I need to get moving and take care of them.

I’m used to family making fun of me and my emergency preparedness efforts, because my husband and kids used to do that before storms, when I would check flashlight batteries and get them out to have ready. They all used those flashlights when the power did go out. Now, our cell phones have flashlights, which is handy, but I still have flashlights and emergency lanterns.

There are some things I want to do to be better prepared, but I have been thinking about family/friends who make fun of “preppers” and also a few things I saw online. With the people who make fun of “preppers” and don’t do a single thing to be prepared themselves, well, all I can say is a “Doomsday prepper” likely has plenty of food, water, a way to keep their home warm and medical supplies, so that even if illness left them “stranded” and unable to venture out – they would have the basics to manage.

I want to try to say this without picking on anyone or being too critical, but here’s the thing – too many people (I’ve been guilty of this too) procrastinate too much. I saw a very nice guy on YT (in the Deep South) talking about their power going off and using a fireplace, but he mentioned tearing apart wood pallets the day before to have for firewood. It’s good he did that, but the day before is cutting it close and I can understand not keeping a wood pile down here, because I don’t keep a wood pile either. What’s way worse is people who live in areas of the country that get snow and freezing weather every winter, yet don’t bother with being prepared for emergency power outages or other winter weather emergencies.

With the economy predicted to worsen in 2023, getting personal finances in order should be on all of our to-do lists. Here’s another procrastination story. I thought about eliminating personal debt for years, but my husband and I didn’t do it. When he was placed on hospice care in January 2020, I was scared and I decided to pay off all of our debt, besides the mortgage. Once I committed to that, it took me a little over a year to pay off all the debt and then I debated for months about paying off the house completely after my husband passed away. I paid it off and I’m glad that I did. I’ve thought many times that we should have done that years ago. How you go about getting your finances in order may be different than how other people do it, but stopping the excuse-making and rationalizations for why you haven’t done it is the first big hurdle.

A lot of times we make up excuses for ourselves to fall back on for why we haven’t made the changes we know we should have made long ago. I’ve been guilty of this so many times myself and I’m trying to just focus on getting started and doing things rather than making up excuses for why I haven’t done a single thing yet or worrying about being called a crazy prepper. The people who do absolutely nothing to get their finances in order or take seriously preparing before a major storm are assuming someone else will come rescue them if there’s an emergency. During hurricane Ian in FL this year and winter storm Elliott this past week, the truth is in a lot of the hardest hit areas, emergency responders couldn’t respond in the midst of the storm. They can’t come help you.

We all have a responsibility to our families and ourselves to be better prepared rather than being lazy and expecting someone else to rescue us. Responsibility – now there’s a word that seems antiquated these days…