Last Light inspires me

A few years ago I read Last Light by Terri Blackstock and as I started this blog and thinking more and more about preparedness, it came to mind so much, I re-read it (after checking it out of our local library).  I'm realizing why my daughter does not like book reports - they're harder than you think!

Last Light tells the story of one family's experiences when earth is hit by continual EMPs (electromagnetic pulses).  The EMPs knock out all electronic components, including vehicles, phones, and power.  Deni is a recent college graduate focused on starting her career in Washington DC and how to get back there.  Doug and Kay, Deni's parents, discover that their family's focus has been too much on the conveniences of the world and now they are forced to find new ways to provide for their family in a world without electricity.  The whole family must face the nasty side of people looking out for their own families and they must make the decision of what's worth risking your life to defend.  This book is awesome for inspiring us to be better prepared and remembering what is truly important - family, not things!

Each time I've read this book, it makes me think about the skills I would need to survive in this situation.  How would my family handle this situation?  Would we be prepared?  What can we learn now that would be essential skills if we were facing this situation or something similar?  If we wait until we're facing a NEED for these skills, they'll be hard to learn in the time available and we'll definitely have an advantage if we've practiced them beforehand.

Here are some skills that I've identified:

Source: The Garden Central

Gardening,   Gardening always sounded easy to me.  You put seeds in the ground, water them, and you grow food.  But it's not so easy.  I've done a garden of some kind almost every year for the past 10-15 years and every year I learn something new and realize how much more I need to learn.  In addition to knowing how to prep the garden and plant the seeds correctly, it's also helpful to know when to harvest the foods.

Source: Home-Canning.com

Food Preservation.  In addition to growing our own food, we need to know how to preserve.  I have a dehydrator but I'm not thrilled with my dehydrating results, except for my beef jerky.  My previous attempts have all turned out either too soft, or burnt.  I have friends who know how to can and I really need to learn how but first I need to get my garden to product enough to can.

Hunting,   My husband has volunteered to learn this skill for our family.  Without him, I would probably have to become a vegetarian or rely on the skills of others.  So far, my husband has gone deer hunting several times without success.  It's not so easy to find the deer and then make the shot.  I guess that means I should say that you need to have a rifle and/or gun plus ammunition, plus a knife you can use to prepare the meat.

Source: chicagofree.info

Fishing.  As we learned on our camping/fishing trip, you have to have the right equipment for where you're fishing.  This is our second time at this river famous for it's trout with NO success!  We finally attended a How to Fish this river class in the afternoon and confirmed we were using the right bait - but too big a line.  The fish could see our line and wouldn't bite.  Now we'll be better prepared on our next trip.  And we need to learn the best way to clean the fish and cook it in such a way that all of us like it.  Put fishing gear on your list of items to have.

Defense.  In the story, the characters have to use their shooting skills not only to hunt, but also to defend themselves.  In addition to hunting, my husband also works on his shooting skills by heading to the range.  This is another area that I have little interest in but my husband, and my 9 y/o, really enjoy this as a hobby. 

Source: Compost Junkie

Composting.   Having your own compost pile is a great way to help your garden grow AND to reduce the amount of waste generated by your family.  In Last Light, the trash builds up without trash service, until someone teaches them how to reuse many items and how to compost.

Source: Mother Earth News

How to wash and dry clothes without electricity, A few years ago we put up a clothesline because I didn't like that the dryer heated up our house during the summer.  Last year, I used the clothesline almost exclusively from April until October because our dryer was not working correctly (it made the laundry smell nasty).  Fortunately, by practicing over the previous summers, I'm pretty good at hanging out clothes in a way that doesn't make them stiff as a board.  I didn't realize there were so many tricks to using a clothesline. As for washing, that's a skill I need to develop.

Source: Sports We Play

Cycling.  In Last Light, the EMPs take out all vehicles that use a semi-conductor, which is most vehicles on the road today.   Many people turn to cycling as their primary mode of transportation since this is a suburban area without horses.  My husband is a pretty good cyclist (his favorite Saturday involves a 40-50 mile bike ride).  I am not.  I need to build up my endurance and strength on the bike and my daughters need to learn to ride without training wheels.  We also need a way to haul cargo.

Powerless food preparation.  I grew up in Girl Scouts learning lots of outdoor cooking methods but I haven't used them much since.   I can cook in a dutch oven and that's one of our backup methods in case of a power outage in the winter - dutch oven in the coals of the fireplace.  I can also use our barbecue grill and our camp stove.  Things I'd like to learn/have:  a fire pit in our backyard with a cooking grate, a sun oven, pie irons (like we used camping with my mom).

 Food Storage (you knew that was coming, right?).  In Last Light, stores ran out of supplies quickly and without transportation, they did not get re-stocked.  So having a well stocked home store would be a life saver in the situation presented in Last Light.  But make sure you have a non-electric can opener :)  Yes, I think a garden is essential too but if the situation started in the winter, starting a garden is not so practical living in the Midwest.

Water storage and purification.  Having a supply of water is a great emergency preparedness supply.  But eventually it will run out and I can't use the tap.  So having a way to purify water, and knowing how to do it correctly, comes in handy, especially if we're having to relocate during the emergency.  In Last Light, they learned how to turn everything that would work into ways to transport water so that having a bucket or two needs to be on the list of supplies.

Each year, Food Storage Made Easy does a 7 day challenge and each day is a different situation.  I've enjoyed reading the experiences that others share as they participate.  Maybe this year, I'll take the challenge and see other areas I need to work on since I KNOW this list is not complete!

Do I believe an EMP is going to happen?  I don't know.  I've read another series of books where an EMP is deliberately caused as an attack against our country.  I literally pray that these situations don't happen but in my ideal world, I'll be prepared if they do.  And in many other less drastic situations, like a prolonged power outage due to natural disaster, these skills can all come in handy.

Why do I want a home store?

Should you have a home store?  Maybe we should first ask "What is a home store?"  Many people may call it their food storage, but a home store involves so much more than just food.  This shouldn't be only food but other household items, including toilet paper, cleaning supplies, medications, etc.  A home store allows you to have the items your family needs without making last minute trips to the store. 

Many people have found stockpiling a great way to save money because you're buying more of the items your family uses while they are on sale and using coupons.  This is one of the ways that I have been able to stay at home - taking the income we have and stretching it by stockpiling and other ideas (like using a clothesline in the summer instead of heating up my house with the dryer). 

My Story
Just over 3 years ago, my husband's employer started talking about another restructure.  We'd survived several already, including one where all the employees had to reapply for their current job, or other jobs in the division.  After the last restructure, my husband earned his Associates degree and changed positions, moving into another area within the division.  With the talks about another restructure, we looked at the job he was doing and didn't see how his position could be affected.  There were 2 people doing what he was doing and we couldn't imagine how they could do it with less, especially since they were already short one person who had just transferred out.  Can you guess where this is going?

Fortunately, I listened to the whisperings of the Spirit that told me that our family needed to be prepared.  That whispering was always around and we always try to follow it.  But I made an extra effort in the Spring of 2009 to get our finances in order, save up as much money as I could and stockpile food and other household necessities as much as we could.  I looked at our budget and identified those things that we could cut IF he happened to lose his job.  We avoided taking vacation days since at the end of his employment (voluntary or involuntary) those would be paid out to us.  But both of us were confident he would be fine, although we could see the possibility of having to move to St. Louis to be at the Corporate location to keep the job.

Because of work responsibilities for my husband that prevented him taking vacation pay, I took my girls out of town to a family reunion with his family by myself.  The girls and I had a great visit with my in-laws and headed home on Wednesday.  On the drive home, Hubby called to say he had a meeting just before 5 pm and could I be there with him.  Things were going down that day, others had already lost their jobs and he had a bad feeling about the meeting.  As soon as I got back into town, I left my girls with friends and met him at work.  I stood outside while he went in.  It didn't take long before he reappeared with the most defeated look on his face.  His job had been eliminated and he wasn't being transferred into another one. 

Those first days were horrendous for my husband.  On the surface, my husband may not always look to take his responsibility for providing for our family as his top goal.  But as soon as he was unemployed, it killed him and he really struggled to overcome those feelings of inadequacy.

After he regained some equilibrium, we sat down together and went over our finances.  I showed him how we were prepared and that with the severance package, a little effort, and our savings, we were going to be fine.  We set up a timeline for how long we could be without any employment and at what point did I start looking for a job as well.  Our goal has always been for me to be home with our girls.

Friends, family and church leaders came by to check on us, always asking what we needed.  I was actually excited to be able to tell them that we were good for the next 9-12 months financially, but if they wanted to help, the best things were prayers and IT job leads.

How could we make it for 9-12 months without a job? 

• First, we were debt-free, and 
• Second, we had a small home store so we didn't have to buy everything we needed to feed our family

I can't tell you how invaluable having that home store was!  I did still need to go to the grocery store, especially for dairy and meat items.  We were EXTREMELY blessed that my husband's unemployment lasted just 2 short months...  his job ended 1 week after school got out and the new job started 1 week before school started.  So one of the blessings was him getting to spend the summer with our girls, while job hunting.  I doubt we'll ever have that opportunity again!  Well I hope that's true - but if we do, our goal is to  be prepared.

So 3 years later, I value having a home store and I work to get it built up even better.  Whenever I look at what items I want in my next order, I always think "If my husband lost his job again, what foods will we want to have stored?"  My family eats a lot of meals with sour cream so the THRIVE Sour Cream Powder was one of my first purchases.  How nice it would be during unemployment to not have to go buy sour cream.  And cheese too!  Oh and what about Chicken and Ground Beef?!  And don't forget the fruits and vegetables.

There are so many reasons to have a home store.  From planning ahead for emergencies (including unemployment or electricity outages) to being in the middle of cooking dinner and discovering you don't have any eggs in the refrigerator to finish dinner having a home store can give you peace of mind.  If you'd like this peace of mind, I'd love to help you come up with a plan for your personal Home Store.  You can also check out our wonderful THRIVE Calculator!  In just a few minutes, you can create a custom Food Storage Plan for your family for anywhere from 3 to 24 months.  And it's so easy then to turn that plan into action with monthly shipments on the Q.