Thursday, August 30, 2018

Earthquake Preparedness on Wednesday

Yesterday's 4.4 earthquake was a good reminder that I live in earthquake country and should be prepared for an emergency.  If a major earthquake is to occur, we are likely to be without electricity, natural gas, running water and sewer service.  Without electricity, most grocery stores will close, gas pumps won't work, credit cards won't work, ATMs won't work, and probably, banks will close, too.  So, I keep some emergency cash on hand and I try to keep the car's gas tank at least half full.  I keep extra boxes of trash bags on hand, to line the toilet, if the water mains are damaged and there is no running water to flush the toilets/or sewers are broken (the trash bags maybe disposed of in a pit dug in the garden, until waste disposal services are restored).  We are supposed to have at least a 3 days supply of food and drinking water, preferably more, and I like to think that I have a well-stocked pantry, but, I checked today, and I saw that there are gaps!  I am all out of canned milk and fruits and I could do with a few more gallons of drinking water!  I have lots of cans of soup, but only one can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), and no peanut butter other than the jar I am currently using.  I also think a box or two of granola bars might be a good thing to have on hand.  So, this weekend, I will go grocery shopping to stock up my pantry with a few essentials.

The pharmacy had texted that my refill was ready for pick up, so I did that, this afternoon.  I also changed the sofa dust covers, lint rollered the sofas and sprayed them with flea spray, just in case, and washed the old dust covers.  I put away the laundry from yesterday, too.

I called aunt C to check on her and cousin P called to say that she took her car to the mechanic and he had told her that the repairs would be costly and probably not worth it given the age of the car and how many miles it has on it.  So, cousin and her daughter will be car shopping, in the near future.  One of the monks from the temple called, too, to check on how I am feeling after last week's procedures.

I also spent some time sewing more patchwork pieces.  Eileen had asked me to post some pictures of the mile-a-minute method:

Step 1: sew random pieces of fabric to a long strip of fabric



Step 2: Iron to press out the sewn pieces


Step 3:  Cut to separate the pieces

Then, repeat these three steps, until you have pieced a big enough patch to cut out a square to the size you want.  Since I don't have lots of long strips of fabric, I just sew random pieces of fabric to each block until I have one that is big enough - for this quilt, I decided to go with 9-inch square blocks.  I have a hard time sewing 1/4 inch seams, so I am allowing 1/2 inch seams and my finished blocks should be 8-inch square.  I took some additional pictures of some of the finished squares, but they are taking their time to upload!

In the evening, I video chatted with daughter.  Today, I could see her without any problems, but she couldn't see me as I was frozen on her screen!  But we were able to chat.  They had a "healthy snacks" day at her office, today (that's what happens when you work in a nutritional policy-related office!) and she had made her spiced, roasted garbanzo beans and she said it was well received and a couple of her colleagues asked her for the recipe.  She uses canned garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed, and patted dry, spreads them out in a baking sheet with a little bit of oil, sprinkles seasonings on them (garlic powder, chili powder, etc.), and roasts them for about 30 minutes (or until crisp).

Today, I am grateful for:
- The opportunity to check my earthquake supplies
- My medication refill was ready for pick up
- There were no unwelcome pests on the sofas!
- Being able to spend a fun afternoon sewing
- Phone calls and video chats

 
Wednesday's To Do List:
- Call and make a doctor's appointment
- Pharmacy for refill - DONE
- Change the sofa dust covers - DONE
- Load of laundry - DONE
- Do the dishes - DONE
- Paperwork/filing - DID SOME
- Vacuum

Thursday's To Do List:
- Call and make the doctor's appointment
- Paperwork
- Vacuum
- Put away laundry
- Do another load!

How was your Wednesday?  Do you prepare for emergencies such as earthquakes or hurricanes or being snowbound for days?  Supposing you lost electricity for days, if not weeks, after a natural disaster in your area, and grocery stores are not open, do you have enough food and drinking water and other supplies to manage for the duration?  If you have pets, do you have enough pet food, etc., to manage for a couple of weeks?  How will you cook or reheat canned foods?  Do you have a generator?

12 comments:

  1. I am sorely unprepared for a disaster. I used to be when there were other people to worry about. My diet has changed recently which affected the kinds of food that I kept in storage. I gave away a lot of my canned and packaged foods. I used to refill all those vinegar jugs with water and squirrel them away, but this past Spring I emptied them all and put the jugs into recycling because I was "getting ready to move" I no longer have an alternate source of heat should the electricity go out. The sad fact is that we have had weather-related events in the past and I have lived through two occasions where we were declared a national disaster area. I still prepare my car with a duffel bag for the winter, but I guess I had better rethink ways to prepare myself in my home.

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    1. I imagine it would be hard to maintain your special diet under certain circumstances; maybe you might discuss it with your doctor and ask what sort of food would be acceptable in an emergency situation. Would canned fish and vegetables be OK? Or, you might buy a few items and keep "just in case" and pass along to family or friends at the end of 6 months/1 year and buy replacements?

      I don't have an alternate source of heat, either - not that it gets that cold here. If there are broken gas mains, we aren't supposed to have open flames, to minimize risks of fire.

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing photos of the patchwork. I love the effect but don't have enough scraps (yet!) to consider doing anything like that.

    I don't live where earthquakes are a threat so no, I don't do any preparation. I do make sure I have plenty of food in for snow days - we don't ever get it too bad in this area but I don't like driving at all in the snow so always make sure I don't have to go outside.

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    1. You are welcome, Eileen. Fortunately, these days, it is very easy to accumulate a good supply of scraps, because you can buy a mixture of fabrics such as jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, and charm packs. :)

      Sounds like a good idea to be prepared for snow days. I'm glad you don't have to worry about earthquakes. :)

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  3. Fortunately preparing for an earthquake is not something that enters my head. we've had the very occasional earth tremor - they tend to occur mostly (and even then, rarely) in areas where heavy mining has taken place in the past. I do hope that you will be safe. XXX

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    1. Thank you, Eloise. I'm glad you don't have to worry about earthquakes - they are a bit nerve-wracking!

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  4. Bless, it's good that you are going to stock up for emergencies. I read about the earthquakes in your area. I've never experienced any, so I found it really scary.

    Here we have hurricanes. I have bought hurricane shutters for several windows, and I keep looking for used ones. I have enough canned food, a small portable gas stove and propane bottles, candles and a stack of batteries. I need to buy water though.

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    1. It sounds like you are well prepared, Nil, other than for the water. That is soon taken care of, though - perhaps on your next trip to the grocery store. Make sure, too, that you have a can opener (a regular one, not an electric one) and a box of matches (or a lighter) to light the candles.

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  5. My husband and son have us stuff to use 'just-in-case'. Sorry about your video troubles. Mum and I were having trouble - she just couldn't get through and stay through so my sister had a look while she was over there and was able to fix things. We had a lovely face-to-face chat yesterday.

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    1. Glad your sister was able to fix things so you and your Mum could chat. My daughter and I have problems with our videos freezing, but, I am not complaining, too much! At least we get to talk. :)

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  6. Emergency Supplies: Emergency situations are quite different here, usual repetitive winter issues, no heat, no electric, frozen pipes, massive trees downed cause road closures that keep us in place . The fire in Ft Mac added a new, previously unconsidered danger and we all know there are oil pump jacks just outside the city limits.

    Thanks, your comment had me check our emergency supply box and back pack we keep in the car. We have a system of managing all flashlights/battery operated devices when clocks are changed out [fall back/spring forward]

    I hope you've devised a system to include prescription medications into your emergency supplies

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    1. Hon, I generally keep all my prescription meds. with me (in my purse) at all times. I get a 90 day supply, so I usually have plenty of meds with me, until towards the end when I start to run low before the next refill is ready. I just hope that there won't be any earthquakes when the supply is low!

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