Chcken Coop

Preparedness Challenge 33

Today is the monthly Preparedness Challenge and the give-away sponsored by USA Emergency Supply. I hope that youre prepping and putting something aside each month! Now is the time to prepare for those unexpected events.

Think of it like a savings account for when the car breaks down. Only this is for an emergency situation where money isnt the best resource when the actual "event" happens. Instead, the supplies youve stored and skills youve learned are your savings account.

And dont think that a little here and there isnt enough! Over time it adds up. Just like consistant small deposits into a savings account add up to something big after many months, so does your food storage, emergency survival gear, and even your sustainable resources and skills.


USA Emergency Supply has graciously sponsored a wonderful prize this month... a 3 book give-away! (Did you know they have books on their site? Check it out!) Theres one book for each of the 3 categories in the Preparedness Challenge.




To help you with your food storage...
• The Beginners Guide to Preserving Food at Home by Janet Chadwick

For emergency preparedness...
• Passport To Survival by Rita Bingham and Esther Dickey

And for sustainable living...
• Homegrown Whole Grains by Sara Pitzer

When you visit USA Emergency Supplys site youll find they have a great section on Using Whole Grain Foods along with other helpful articles.  

How I Met The Challenge!

Heres what I did this month in each category (see category definitions near bottom of the post)...

• Food Storage: I added extra chicken feed, coconut oil, essential oils, and dish soap along with supplies for making shampoo bars.

• Emergency Preparedness: I dropped the ball here... again! is the hardest area for me. I did really well last month, but I need to be more consistant. On the other hand, I did keep track of our firewood usage this year, and seems like we need 3 cords to get through the entire winter. Knowing this will help us this summer as we cut and split wood. I added the information to my Tickler File so I wont forget and I have a deadline for gathering and splitting wood for next year.

• Sustainable Living: My favorite category... I had to rebreed the Kinder goat this month (but I think I timed it better this month), I got the bare root fruit trees planted, my husband is half way finished with a new coop run for chicks, and I ordered the spring chicks. Ten of which are White Rocks which will be for meat. When I decide on a breed I like, I might start hatching my own. And guess what else? Drum roll... I finally got two pick up truck loads of wood chips! Score! They are composting now in preparation for future use in my garden. I also started several cool weather plants indoors and some I directly seeded outdoors, so we should have some vegetables growing again soon.

Speaking of gardens... with such nice weather, weve been working outside a lot, so its easy to forget to do any prepping. Make a list of items you need in each category and keep them in your purse or on a separate shopping list so you can refer to it when youre out and about. Pick up an item every now and then to add to your "savings" account!

For more information on Preparedness or to find out where I stand on all this "prepping", youll find there is a Prepping Basics Index with all my posts on the subject (so you dont have to scroll down through every post, but you can jump to each one directly). Someone asked this past month if I plan on finishing the series on Prepping Basics. Yes, but I have no clue when! Im in the throws of major gardening right now, so if I promised a date, Id probably fail! But dont give up on me entirely!

Now its your turn to join the Preparedness Challenge..

Join the Challenge & Enter The Give Away

To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment on something you did this week to be more prepared in terms of food storage, emergencies, or sustainable living (or all three areas!) OR link up your Preparedness Challenge blog post (you only need to comment or post, not both). Posts not related to at least one of the three areas of preparedness will not be counted toward the give-away. Please be sure to clearly state in your comment or post what you did this month to be more prepared (see my example above as one easy way to do this). Again, the three areas we are focusing on include: 


• food storage for lifes unexpected events whether related to long term effects from a disaster or a job loss and everything in between

• emergencies for times of power outages, natural disasters, and such

• sustainable living in order to be more independent, both physically and financially, and to live as close to the land as possible given each individuals situation