Guest Post by Michael Wu: "Knowing What To Do During a Home Emergency Situation"

Guest Post by Michael Wu:

Knowing What To Do During a Home Emergency Situation

Knowing what to do during a home emergency situation can make all the difference in the world in saving the lives or preventing serious injury to family members and yourself. First of all, it is a good idea for every person in the family who is old enough to take a first aid course from the Red Cross, so that they are familiar with commonly accepted procedures of taking care of someone else in the case of an emergency. Most of the time an ambulance is called during emergencies, but there may be instances when an ambulance is not available when first aid knowledge would be necessary.

A good example would be if a family is caught in a tornado or a hurricane and they cannot get out and no one can get in, for perhaps a period of 24 to 72 hours. If a medical emergency were to occur, knowledge of basic first aid could make a great difference if somebody were injured.

Situations such as fire, storms, car accidents, electrical shock, falls, bicycle accidents, hiking and climbing mishaps, and a host of other potential problems all can happen when and where no immediate help is available, so first aid knowledge is valuable to have and can mean the difference between someone surviving and not surviving when trained emergency help is not readily available. If an injured individual can be stabilized and immediate shock can be mitigated until trained emergency personnel can arrive, it can be a difference maker.

Plan ahead and anticipate possible emergency situations and have a plan for dealing with them. If you are going for a hike along a forest trail, pack an emergency kit with first aid supplies, and enough extra provisions that will last for at least 24 hours in case you get lost or stranded. Leave word with someone that knows your expected time of return, so that if you don’t make it back by that time, they will suspect that you might need help and they can then contact the authorities to come and look for you.

If you live in a storm prone area, such as central Oklahoma or the coast of Florida, pre-planning is one of the most effective ways of dealing with unexpected emergencies that are created by storms. If the local authorities and weather personnel tell you to evacuate, you should already have a plan in place where you can just pick up and go. An emergency kit should already be made up for each family member so that no time is wasted wondering what to do or what to take with you.

If you cannot leave, have a plan of where in the house you will go if you need to ride out the storm. If you have a basement in the case of a tornado, or a room in the case of a hurricane, be sure that it is stocked with enough supplies such as food and water to last you a good 72 hours. Being prepared ahead of time is the best method of dealing with many emergency situations.

Michael Wu has been working in safety supplies and emergency kits industry for more than five years. As a product manager for EDisasterSystems, he knows his merchandise and all the requirements from OSHA. He likes to write and share his ideas about the importance of safety and emergency prevention.

Buying in Bulk and Food Storage Ideas:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that when I feel worried about the world, I feel better when I buy food.  This has turned out to be a good idea, I think.  I was reading my friend Gloria's blog, The Little Red House With The White Porch and she lives in the path of Hurricane Irene. (How are you, Gloria?  Please let us know!)  When she went to the store to pick up a few last items, many shelves were practically bare.  And that is exactly what I fear will happen around here if some sort of disaster strikes.  Except that our disaster will probably be wildfire and I don't know how much food I can put into the car with my dogs, computer, pictures, etc., but that is a different story.  We have a pickup too, so that would help.

Anyway, back to the topic.  Last week, Kylie and I went to one of my favorite stores to buy food, CASH AND CARRY in Bend.  They used to only sell to restaurants, grocery stores and other food service outlets, but now they sell to anybody ... even me.  Thank goodness.

We bought a lot of food and brought it home.  Then I needed to figure out what to do with it all.  The dry foods are the easiest to figure out, if you have a lot of canning jars or other good airtight containers that mice or bugs cannot get into.  I have been planning on canning, but that is still a bit intimidating for some reason.  Still, I am good at buying canning jars.  Bi-Mart keeps them in stock year round now, so I try to pick up a boxful of one size or another every week or couple of weeks, especially when they are on sale.  The average price is $8.99; sometimes less and sometimes more.  I am partial to the quart jars because I like to use them for my cookie mixes, but have been buying other sizes too.  If I do want to use all of these jars for canning, I'll just dump out the popcorn and rice and put them into something else.  Even big Rubbermaid totes will do fine, if you  have the room for those.  

The food on this table (not counting the containers) was only $82.83.  I was curious to see how much 25 and 50 pounds of stuff really was, so here we go:

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Ahh!  The harvest table.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Fifty pounds of popcorn.  You may be asking me why I would want to buy so much.  Well, the bag was only $20.89 (or .42 lb) at Cash and Carry, I love popcorn, and it will keep well.  I am thinking of selling the smaller jars after decorating them with fabric and raffia with a matching gift bag in my little store. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here is fifty pounds of rice ($17.99, or .36 lb) and fifty pounds of onions ($11.25, or .23 lb).  There were really 17 more onions, but we used one and I dehydrated the other 16.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

These two jars contain 16 dehydrated good sized onions.  Pretty cool, huh?  Our house smelled like onions for a day, but there are worse smells.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I put the 25 pounds of quick oatmeal into Ziplock freezer bags, because I have room for them and will be using them in my cookie mixes.  At Cash and Carry, it cost me $15.00 for 25 pounds (.72 lb).

The 25 pounds of sugar cost me $17.62 (.72 lb).  I put most of it into old spaghetti sauce jars.  I also bought 50 pounds of flour for 16.09 (.32), but I left it in a Rubbermaid tote in the garage for now.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I also bought 5 dozen eggs for $6.00 (.10 each).  I boiled up 4 dozen, and we made egg salad and pickeled eggs.  The pickled eggs will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge.  I just put pickle juice over the eggs ... beet juice works well too.  

I have a bunch more food in the fridge that I need to deal with, and my freezer is full so I have to figure out something else to do with it.  I think that I will dehydrate some broccoli and green onions, and more of yellow onions.   Though buying this way is less expensive, it does take a lot more time to make things convenient, but the work is easy. 

Best of luck!  I'd love to hear about how you guys do this sort of thing, so please leave me a comment or an email if you want to.


~ Kathy Matthews

Cash and Carry, Ziplock Bags, Ball Canning Jars, Rubbermaid ... none of them even know about me ... I only wish this were a paid advertisement!

Staying Warm in a Cold Snap:

It is very cold in Mayberry.  I think it was -10 this morning ... perhaps it is a little bit warmer or a little bit cooler.  I am too lazy to go outside and start my car to find the temp gauge that I find to be the most accurate ... the one in my rear view mirror.

Long ago, I self-appointed myself to be the one in charge of home atmosphere.  When we were little and I was the babysitter of my bro and two sisters, they had to clean the kitchen and family room and I was in charge of the living room.  Even back then, I thought that the living room should stay clean,  just in case company dropped by.  They felt this was unfair, because they said that all I did was rearrange magazines on the coffee table.  However, that was not true at all.  A lot goes into to making a good first impression. 

That bit of information aside, let us get back to it being cold in Mayberry.  I still like to be in charge of our home's atmosphere, and that includes keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  Since we don't have to worry about keeping it cool right now, I will tell you how I try to keep it warm.

We are grandparents, and grandparents like to stay warm.  We live in our sweatshirts and sweatpants when we are at home.  I like to keep the heat set to 71* or so.  My husband likes it at 73*, but sometimes I get too hot.  So I think that I have figured out a way to make 71* feel like 73*.  For you new people, this is what we looked like last summer when we were camping.  Just to get a visual of these particular grandparents.  Cary was wearing a sweatshirt then too.  I think he gets colder easier than I do.   

Oh, my best friend husband is so dang cute!  Sorry ladies, he's taken.

Anyway, back to keep our home warm when it is below zero outside.  First of all, I think that the snow actually helps keep our home warmer, when it gets deep enough.  It forms an insulation around the foundation.  Second, not only do I close off the back bedrooms, I keep those heater vents closed and covered with something over them.  In the Mom Cave, there is a bookshelf on top of the vent.  In the guest room, there are just pillows.  I don't want our guests to freeze.  I also do that in our computer/sewing room, and only have one vent open in our bedroom.  My theory is that this technique forces more warm air into the living area.  


We are living in an manufactured home, and our ceilings are kind of high and vaulted.  So, here is my little plan to help keep things warmer in here.  I know, this is an ugly picture below, and our carpet really needs to be cleaned, but the key here is the little fan, which actually is on, though you can't tell by looking at this photo:

The fan is facing up to the ceiling.  There is another identical fan in the dining room.  Because heat rises, these little fans really help to keep the warm air circulating through out the area.  Ceiling fans would work too, but we don't have them in these rooms.

Keeping the mini blinds and curtains closed on the cold days and nights really does help keep the heat in too.  Though if we are home, I love looking out at he snow, so that doesn't always happen during the day.    

This house is around 10 years old, so it is insulated well.  Super good cents or something similar, and we are lucky there.  I like how there are heater vents under all of the sinks; that really helps to keep the pipes from freezing.  We also leave the faucets dripping with COLD water on these cold  nights.  Hot water causes condensation and your pipes can still freeze if you are using that.  I keep the cupboard doors open at night also, but I don't think I really need to in our case.  In our master bathroom I keep them closed, because that is where the mice were last year and it freaks me out.  Still, I want a hot shower in the morning, not frozen pipes, so I make appropriate judgment calls to myself on this sort of thing.  I just like thinking and figuring out these sorts of things.  Of course, make sure that your hoses are unhooked from the faucets outside.

Speaking of frozen pipes, here is a little story that my friend Bunny told me about.  On a cold snap a year or so ago, their pipes were fine.  Bunny went to do a load of laundry, and ended up with a flooded laundry room!  That happened because there was some water in the wash machine drain pipe that had frozen the last time that she had washed some clothes, and the ice blocked the water of the new load from draining.  Who would have ever thought about that?  So, I decided to hold off on washing clothes until it warms up a bit, just in case.

If you have a big windstorm or snowstorm coming, and live in the country where you depend upon a pump, it is a good idea to fill up your bathtubs.  Not for drinking water; but you can fill up a pan and use that bathtub water to flush your toilets.  Some folks new to the country don't know about that handy little tip. 

We don't have a wood stove or and alternative heat source, and we aren't too worried about it for now.  I wouldn't mind a wood stove though.  We have a travel trailer, and if we lose electricity for too long and get too cold, we can just go out there and use the propane heat and watch movies with our little t.v. that plugs into the truck cigarette lighter.  Heat up cans of Ravioli.  And snuggle by candlelight.

There are also these little propane heaters at Bi-Mart though, that are safe for use inside a house, trailer or tent.  They are called "Mr. Heater Buddy" and they cost around $80.  You just screw in those little bottles of propane that cost around $3.00 each.  I got a medium-sized one, and it will heat up to 200 square feet.  Just in case we would ever want to use it.


So, there you go!  I think that this is going to be a very cold and snowy winter out here in the Pacific Northwest.  I always try to plan ahead, and these are just some of the ideas that I have thought up to keep us warm.

Oh, the fuel was jelled in Cary's diesel truck this morning and he barely got it started.  Make sure you keep some anti-gel jell on hand if you are not using a gasoline engine.  And, it goes without saying to take extra special care of your outside animals.


Stay warm and stay safe!


~ Kathy

Canning Jar Lanterns:

Speaking of being prepared, here is a very easy little thing you can do ahead of time and then just put away until you need them:  Canning Jar Lanterns.

I have seven of these made up, and a bunch of extra candles.  I just used fine gravel in the canning jar to hold the emergency candle up.  How easy is that?

I found that the emergency candles are actually cheaper at the grocery store than they are at Bi-Mart.  Who would have guessed?   The last time the power actually did go out, Cary was pretty impressed when I whipped these little babies out.  Being inside the jar, the candle gives off more light than it would by itself.


Ti-da!

Home Schooling Highlight:

Home Schooling Highlight:

http://oldfashionededucation.com/

I am highlighting this website, because Maggie accomplished quite something when she made this website about homeschooling.  Incredible hard work went into its development.  I just found it today.

If you like what I am trying to do on my Children's Literature website, you will love what she has already done.  

Another thing that I have been learning today, as I have been gathering links on home schooling, is that these sites are invaluable when it comes to American History.  Make sure to check out the links offered by the home schooling sites.   This is a whole new world to me.  I didn't home school when my kids were little, but am strangely interested in learning about it now.  I love the internet!
 

New Project: Recording America as We Know It

I have been expanding and working on one of my other blogs with a purpose in mind.  I want to capture, to remember and pass on, the America of my lifetime.  There are many links, songs and time lines provided as a resource for others to use.  One idea is for you to copy, paste and print out the information you like and then place it into a notebook or scrapbook.  That way,  you will have a hard copy to pass on to your children and grandchildren.

Children's Literature, American Folklore 
and American Traditions

http://ogocaj9.blogspot.com/

Health Care Alternatives: Taking Charge

I don't have a well thought out speech or article today.  I am just thinking about how we need to really take being healthy into our own hands, now more than ever.  This is a good time to learn about natural healing and alternative medical practices.  Educate yourselves.  Buy books.  Take classes.  Learn about and buy homeopathic medicines, and herbal medicines, or find a practitioner that already knows how and learn the basics from them.  Research how people did things effectively in the old days, using what they had available.

Our medical physicians are great people, but we do not know what the future is going to bring with this new government health care plan.  I really just do not see how we will be receiving any better care than we are now.  Fining people for not having health insurance does not guarantee that we will have better health care provided to us.  I think that a lot of doctors are going to quit because they are not going to be paid enough.  Fewer young people will even want to venture into medicine, because they will not even make enough to even pay off their student loans. 

Be aware of what corn syrup does to the body. It is in so many processed foods right now because it is cheaper than sugar.  Corn syrup is one food that bypasses the liver, and probably has a lot to do with so many little kids being obese in America.  I haven't really researched this yet, but have heard some things about it.  Hmmm, I am feeling a "term paper" coming on right now.

Take a look at the prescription medicines you are taking, and learn if there are other ways to address your medical conditions.  In many instances, you have no choice.  If you are diabetic, you have to have insulin.  But, are there other ways to lower your cholesterol?  Your high blood pressure?   Your depression and anxiety?  I don't know if there are or not.  I'm just asking you to think about it.  

Another thing to look at is food allergies.  The main ones are cows milk, gluton and peanuts.  Does your baby get ear infections all the time?  Most likely he or she is allergic to cows milk.  Before getting tubes put in the baby's ears, check out your options.  No more cows milk and homeopathic medications fixed my baby right up.  Be careful of Tylenol; too much damages the liver.  Baby liquid Tylenol is easy to overdose.

I appreciate our doctors and hospitals, and am so glad they are there.  I am just trying to encourage people to be proactive and learn about their other options.  Knowledge is power, and while we still have a free internet, spend some time on it learning about alternative medicine.