Sam's Musings

Today I opened this new blog without an agenda other than my thoughts.
Sam

Chapter 3

Late October, 2007

"All these pictures are from the Real Estate Broker," Connie said. "He emailed these to me, so they are a lot larger and clearer than the ones on Internet. Just look at those trees! Aren't they gorgeous?"

Connie was thinking. 'Frank isn't angry, but something isn't right. I thought he'd be at least interested.'

"It is gorgeous, really nice", Frank said. "The cabin looks kinda small, but the land looks healthy, those weeds are huge." Frank wanted to be encouraging, but the IRA thing was just too much. He studied the pictures for a few minutes, making comments and chatting.

Then he said, "Connie, I do like the looks of this place, really. But I have to think a lot about cashing out the IRAs."

Connie's commitment to preparedness was coming into focus for Frank. Connie is an organizer, and when she finds a project needing her talents, often jumps in with both feet. But something was different this time. Frank knew his reasoning for preparedness, he was caught flat footed without preps when he first began to understand about preparedness. As a man that worried him. He has always done his best to provide for his family, both financially and with his time. It is in man's nature to take care of such things.

Connie, on the other hand, is all woman. He vividly remembers how she was at first angry at the very idea of leaving her home if SHTF. The idea of leaving her home did not appeal to her, until she thought of owning a mountain cabin like her cousins did in their youth. Then she jumped on board and started organizing their preparedness efforts.

'Thats it,' Frank thought, 'She is doing the preparedness thing because of my concerns and her love for me. Plus she just might get her childhood dream of a vacation home out of the deal. Well fair enough. She is helping for one thing, and she is as smart as they come for another. Maybe she will internalize preparedness and... Hey! She already has! She is really getting into the food part and is figuring out all sorts of things.'

Frank returned to the subject of Connie's lists. "I've been thinking about your categories. We need to add four more. Power is one of them, what I mean is 12 volt electricity and rechargeable batteries. With regular batteries, when they're gone, they're gone. With rechargeable batteries, we need fewer and some of those suckers are good for hundreds of recharges. We can recharge them in the car, or even with a solar battery charger. One rechargeable battery replaces several hundred regular batteries."

"What about 12 volt electricity? What are you talking about?" Connie was relieved to be talking about something besides the retreat.

"Motor homes have almost everything a house does, and it can run on 12 volts like a car. I don't know much about it, but it would be a way for us to have lights, and maybe some other household things if the power goes out. Making it a category seems like an appropriate step to make it a priority."

"Another category is communications. We are dependent on our cell phones today, what if they go out with the electricity? I've seen some inexpensive handheld two-way radios at Costco, I think it was a package of three of them for $80 or so. And we can use rechargeable batteries in them too."

"Both of those categories make a lot of sense. You said you thought of four, what are the others?" Connie was thinking she never would have thought of these first two, certainly not the power thing.

"Transportation. Not just the 4X4, but bicycles and hiking too. There are the issues of some spare parts, tools, oil, fuel, hiking shoes, extra socks, several kinds of maps, compasses and so forth. I assume if we have to evacuate it would be in my rig, but what if we couldn't use a vehicle? Bicycles or hiking makes a lot of sense. Oh, and getting a trailer goes in the mix too."

"The last category I was thinking about is security. Keeping our stored food secret fits in this category. How many times have neighbors come over and borrowed something over the years? I haven't minded, I just don't like the idea of that kind of openness with our "Food Savings Account" and other preps. I think the whole preparedness thing should be kept quiet and out of sight. Otherwise its like advertising our savings account. All things for SHTF should be kept completely private.

"I've read that term, SHTF. Does that mean what I think it means?" Connie asked.

Frank smiled, "Yup. Stuff Hits The Fan. It really says it all when you think about it."

Connie smiled back, "It does say it all, and rather well at that. The kids will catch onto it in about two seconds after the first time they hear it. Don't use that term around them, okay?"

"Check, Mom." Frank was giving Connie his imitation of their daughter's roll-eyes look.

Connie smiled at Frank. "Thank you Sailor man." He had served in the US Navy years ago, and could cuss like a logger. He has worked at not swearing since the day they met. 'He keeps it clean almost all the time', she thought. 'but when he is with some of the guys...'

"Anything else to this security business, tough guy? It sounds rather ominous, I was thinking you might go nuts with guns like some of those survival guys on the Internet."

"I have been thinking about it. Truth to tell, it sounds kinda fun to me. I used to like shooting my 22 when I was a kid. There is nothing wrong with having guns and shooting, but it somehow feels wrong, or maybe naughty, nowadays. All that politically correct crap has worked with guns. Like I said, it feels wrong even though I know there is nothing wrong with having and shooting guns. Gun safety is critical... just like driving a car, safely is a big deal. After that, its just plain old fun."

"Do you think we should get a gun?" Connie was not alarmed, but certainly curious. She had never seen Frank with a gun.

"Well, if SHTF, it wouldn't be very darned long before some yahoo or another decides his hunger justifies doing something stupid. Protecting you and the kids would hit me like a ton of bricks. That would be a little late in the game to start thinking about getting a gun. Yeah, I do think we should get several guns. And for you too, my little woman." Frank said with a grin. "Learning about the guns available today is the first step, then deciding what guns are best for our circumstances, then we buy them. After that we get training on them, including safe handling, then we do a lot of shooting to get used to them, become good shots, and use them till they become second nature to us."

Connie was looking at Frank. "Really? I somehow had the idea you don't like guns. I mean, I don't mind getting them and learning about them. I would rather have one and not need it, than need one and not have it."

"I'll look into it and tell you what I learn, Love. There are tons of opposing opinions out there as to what is the right way to go. I'll start researching to see what makes sense for us."

After Frank's time in the Navy, guns lost a lot of their appeal to him. He got interested in other things, like hot rodding cars instead. Frank changed the subject.

"The Shelter category needs to include more possibilities than just our house and a tent. Like your retreat for instance, and something less temporary than a tent. Remember when we stayed in that yurt a couple of years ago at the coast? I think I can build one of those fairly cheaply. And if we can find and hook up with other preparedness people, we might be able to create a small community. Strength in numbers and all that."

Connie asked Frank take on the water Category. "I'm up to my ears in figuring out the food and clothing stuff. Would you mind?"

"Okay Babe." It seemed more like his kind of thing anyway. 'Good ol' Google', thought Frank, 'You can learn about anything there.' He Googled emergency water storage and started taking notes.

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The next evening Frank said, "Connie, lets talk about these Categories. I'm having way too much fun checking out guns. I need a budget to work with. It would be easy to spend everything on guns and ammo. I suppose its like that in your categories too?"

Connie laughed, "Yes, it is. I keep finding more things and gadgets that really make sense to me. It would be incredibly easy to spend $3,000 just in the kitchen. I have a rough plan for our savings... here it is. If we're careful, we can get buy for a month on $1,500 - no frills at all. We have $5,247 in savings. So if we pull out $1,500 in cash and keep it here at home, we are in ready if stores cannot process debit cards. Then we pull out another $3,500 in cash to get our preps, and leave the last $247 in savings."

"So it gets down to this. We cannot afford to get everything we need, at least not right now. Frank, do you remember when I first suggested Stage 1 is for a week long emergency and Stage 2 would be for a two week emergency?"

"Yeah, I remember." Frank replied.

"We have 11 categories so far, all of which will cost us at least some money. When we complete all the categories in Stage 1 then we'll be completely ready for a week long crisis. After that we start on Stage 2, complete all it's categories, and then we'll be ready for a two week long crisis. Then we start on Stage 3 and so forth."

"My thinking," Connie continued, "is that somewhere along the way we will exhaust our prep budget, so after that we'll buy the rest of our preps from our income. Sooo... I think we should prioritize the categories, the fun category is obviously less important than the food category. This way when we have used up the $3,500, we will have progressed through the Stages as far as we can. And whatever Stage we are on, we will have spent the money on whatever categories are the most important to us."

'For the millionth time', Frank thought, 'I am amazed at how Connie can make an organizational nightmare seem so simple.'

"Okay," Frank said, "So the next thing we do is prioritize our categories, right?"

"Not only that, but we need to figure out about what we need to have for at least the first few Stages in each category."

Connie continued, "Obviously we need to have more food in Stage 2 than Stage 1, but what about clothing? Will that really change all that much from Stage 1 to Stage 2? We won't need more jackets or boots, probably just more underwear. I'll have to think about this some more."

Frank hadn't thought about that part of it. There is little difference between one and two weeks as far as shelter is concerned, if we are camped out. A tent will get old, sure, but it is still doable. But what about for a month, or even more?

Frank and Connie worked this out over the next couple of days. They decided their order of priority would be based on survivability factors. Without water for example, a person will die in 3 or 4 days. Without food they can last for weeks. Other factors they used were: comfort, psychological needs and safety.

Frank and Connie's categories listed in order of importance to them:

#1 - Water: for hydration, cooking, cleaning & sanitation. They need some water stored at their home, and they need a way to filter water at home and in evacuation mode. Boiling water makes sense too. They will look into several ways of procuring potable water.

#2 - Food: Cooking, storage and eventually growing. Some can be canned food, but it is heavy (a big factor if they have to evacuate). Dry foods makes sense too, and stores much better. They decided to look into getting a food dehydrator and a pressure cooker: both make sense for the longer term and the short term (saving them money with their initial stored food if they do it themselves).

#3 - Clothing: They need to take into account weather considerations; hot, cold, rain, snow, wind, etc and combinations of these: including layering cloths, a plan for washing, drying, repairing. They also need good footwear, including hiking boots.

#4 - Shelter: While staying in their home, what adaptions would they need to get by without electricity, running water, heating or cooling? If they have to evacuate their home, specifically where will they go? What alternatives are there? For the short term they can use their tent. What about a longer term? What about getting together with some of their friends and family?

#5 - Protection: This is their old security category. They decided that keeping their preps private is the best way to avoid most prep problems. Keeping quiet is part of this, but also being as anonymous as possible, like buying their preps out of town and paying cash. This way no one they know should be aware of their preparations. They decided to call this Protection sub-category Anonymity.

As the discussion progressed, they realized they could not hide everything, their home is just not big enough. Most of their preps were going to wind up in the garage, so they would have to hide it in plain sight, so this Protection sub-category is Stealth.

If they had to evacuate their home, contact with others must be avoided. They would need multiple routes to multiple locations, unless they get a retreat of their own. Even then, they need multiple routes. This Protection sub-category is Evasion.

Even if they did everything right, they still had to be prepared for conflict. Frank's experience taught him that many potential conflicts can be avoided by being ready, and formidable. Anyone can become formidable, but this is not so easy. This Protection Sub-category is Formidability.

The last sub-category in Protection is Weaponry. Frank was still researching guns, but he did not want to limit this to only guns. All weapons are useless without skill, so skill and practice with weapons also fits under weaponry.

#6 - Transportation: Planning for SHTF has to include general "bugging-out", getting around and/or engaging in trade. This includes vehicles (car, truck, bikes) plus walking. Every post-SHTF trip should have at least three alternative routes. Additional considerations: fuel, oil, parts, etc for each mode of transport; plus maps, compasses, emergency supplies, etc.

#7 - Health: Physical & mental health; considerations for prescriptions, glasses, first aid, training, remedies, supplies and learning about natural remedies.

#8- Financial: Keep cash, silver coins, and extra supplies for barter. Also digitize copies of their important records (such as insurance policies, car titles, birth and marriage certificates, etc). They decided to include plans for charity and barter in this category too.

#9 - Communications: Telephones and cell phones won't work. They need to research all of this, but initially they would get a battery powered AM/FM radio for news (that can use standard rechargeable batteries) plus FRS/GMRS handheld radios for themselves and their kids. Connie is interested in HAM radio, she thinks her sister may be as well, maybe someday.

#10 - Power: Electricity, heat, lighting, some kind of cooling? Rechargeable batteries (& chargers), propane, wood for fires, 12VDC system, other? Frank decided most of this category will evolve as they figure out the other categories; then he will know what power stuff to get.

#11 - Fun: Entertainment: wherever they are, they need to have a life... whatever is going on. Connie thinks this is a lot bigger deal than she thinks Frank does. She is thinking of their two teen aged kids, they get bored more easily.

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The next evening Connie had news as Frank came in the door from work. "Frank, did you see the news? There is going to be a rice shortage! That is one of our basic staples, come on, lets go get some rice."

In Franks rig and on the way, Connie explained, "We have been reading about the coming rice shortage on the blogs for a week, and then today it was on the regular news, channel 6 I think. That was my trigger to stop planning and start buying."

Frank asked, "How much rice are we going to buy?"

"Three hundred pounds, half long grain and half short grain, both of them organically grown. Costco has them both."

"Three hundred pounds! We don't eat rice that often, what is this, 10 years worth?" Frank was more curious than annoyed.

"As you know, I have been working on changing our normal diet. Rice is really good for us in a number of ways, and it can be used to stretch a single meal with meat and veggies into three or four or even five nutritious meals. And it is really cheap as food goes. Frank, it is a no brainer when you look into it. This is a years worth of rice for six people."

"Okay, if you say so. What is this 300 pounds of rice going to cost?"

"About a buck a pound for organically grown. It is whole grain, and grown without chemicals. It really is the way to go."

When they got home, Frank backed his truck in and closed the garage door. Then he unloaded the rice onto his new shelving and closed the shelving doors.

"Hey Connie! Is this cool or what? Not even the kids know we have all that rice, and its already locked away and out of sight."

"It does feel good to have all that food stashed away. Don't forget that we still need to put it in 5-gallon buckets for longer term storage."

Frank had all the rice stored in sealed 5-gallon buckets (with all the oxygen removed) and back on the shelving two days later. Six days later Costco started restricting rice sales, then they ran out of organically grown rice.

Chapter 2

Late October, 2007

Frank had just returned from his annual week-long business conference in Dallas, Texas. He thought he was ready for whatever Connie had cooked up on the preparedness front, but then, she still surprised him almost every time they talked. She had been going through their stuff figuring out all sorts of things they ought to have on hand "just in case".

Last month Frank gave Connie a long list of web sites where he'd found survival information, news, gear and food. They had talked about it endlessly, and she had been smart and enthusiastic. The last month had been very busy for him, getting ready for the big conference. Connie spent the week he was gone working on their plans nearly full time. When he got home, she waited a day before telling him what she had figured out.

"Frank, do you remember when we bought our house? Almost everyone in the development had a brand new house and either put in sod or hired landscapers. We planted our own lawn, shrubs and trees. You built our deck, fence and the shed. We saved a bundle of money and now our yard is wonderful."

"Yeah, I remember. It took all summer and you helped with lots of stuff. Now it's a fond memory, but at the time it didn't seem so fun."

"Well Honey, thats basically how we can afford the things we have, including this house. We are D-I-Y-ers." Connie was obviously proud of whatever she had cooked up.

"Do It Yourselfers. Yup, thats us."

"Well, I've checked out the websites you gave me, plus a bunch more." Connie said. "I found that if we buy our own rice, beans and other basic foods locally, and store it properly in 5-gallon buckets, it will store well for years. It also costs way less if we do it that way instead of freeze dried food." She was extraordinarily pleased.

"Okay, sounds good to me. What about our camping gear? Will it do the job?" Frank was curious, he always handled just about everything in their lives that was outdoors related.

"We can use a lot of it, but we will have to get some things. Cast iron pots and pans for one, some 5-gallon propane tanks, a second tent, some more tarps, rope, two more camp chairs and a bigger camp table. Probably need an ax and some other stuff you will have to figure out."

"Whoa there Missy! Why will we need so much propane? We never needed cast iron pots before. The hatchet has always been just fine." Frank was surprised.

"First of all, its crazy to do this for just a one week emergency. Once we get started, we will actually save a lot of money on our regular groceries. We can buy in bulk, pack the food in 5-gallon buckets, then use it as we need it. Frank, this is great! Did you know I can buy a 25 pound bag of Pinto beans at Costco for $12? The same amount of beans in cans costs almost three times as much, it is not as good for us, and it will not store as well. We'll rotate our food when I go shopping and eat the oldest food first. It makes so much sense! I should have started doing this years ago."

"Whats a Pinto bean?" Frank is good on the Barb-B-Que and doing the dishes. Other than that, Connie runs the kitchen. His ignorance in the food department is a family joke.

Connie laughed and continued, "As long as we're at it, we can easily have several months of food in buckets. It will be like another savings account, but its food instead. See? Buying in bulk is very inexpensive, so it just makes since to have enough propane to cook it too. The cast iron cookware is better and cooks more evenly, and you can use it on a camp fire! Isn't that cool! There are so many good things about this preparedness thing it is amazing. Our quality of life goes up, and our costs go down! The ax is in case we need firewood, by the way. Your hatchet is fine in a campground, but what if we were out in the woods somewhere?"

"Now who's the survivalist?" Frank said. They both laughed.

"I see why you were overwhelmed. Our lives are built around what we know, like the stores in town always having food. Gas stations always have gas, and everyone lives, more or less, with the same lack-of-thought and habits. Electricity and tap water have just been there, like air, all our lives. We count on it, but never thought about it. Getting prepared for some emergency changes everything we know, this also forces us to think and live outside our comfort zones."

Frank was amazed at how quickly and thoroughly Connie had grasped the bigger picture. "So what do you think we should do first?"

"Of course the first thing I did was go nuts in the kitchen and pantry. Once I figured out the savings and better nutrition we'll have, I was ready to go shopping. But we need some more shelving, the pantry isn't big enough, I need more counter space, and I would have spent about half our savings. I wouldn't do that without both of us agreeing to it." Connie was on a roll.

"I thought you said this would save us money. Half our savings? Thats, what, $2,000?" Frank was not keeping up.

"We need a grain grinder, some plastic 5-gallon buckets, filled propane bottles, a bunch of other stuff, plus the food. I know there is lots I haven't thought of, and thats where you come in."

Connie continued, "So I came up with a way to keep us organized and on task so we don't get lost in all this. It sounds like a lot to do Frank, but really, now that I've thought about it, its no more than changing a few priorities and the way we do some things. And the benefits to us and the kids are amazing."

When she finished talking, Frank knew there would be paperwork involved. Connie always has lists and some kind of organizing going on. What surprised him was how little paperwork there was. She was holding just two pages.

"Here's the drill. I've broken it all down to 7 categories: planning ahead, food, clothing, shelter, health, financial and fun. Planning ahead is what I've been up to. Food includes cooking, storage and water. Clothing includes all kinds, for different weather and conditions. Shelter is your department; our house plus the tent and stuff. Health is things like a first aid kit, prescriptions, and so on. Financial is having enough cash on hand, plus important paperwork like our insurance policies. The Fun department is so we don't go crazy; some games and books, things like that."

"So other than changing our lives, spending our savings and going nuts in the pantry, what else did you do while I was gone?" Frank was smiling, and deeply proud of his wife.

Connie smiled too. "Since you asked, Smarty Pants, I also broke all this down into stages. In no time I would have bought enough food and kitchen things to last six months. But then our savings would be way down and we wouldn't have the other things we need for even a week long crisis. I think we need to first get everything we need for a week without electricity, water and heat. That is Stage 1, then test ourselves by going camping with that stuff - and nothing else. Then we could figure out what we missed. When we're satisfied, we check off Stage 1 and start on Stage 2, which is the same thing as Stage 1 but for 2 weeks. We just build on top of everything we did in Stage 1. Whacha think?"

"Well, I hardly know where to start. I am very impressed Connie. It looks like you have brought order to chaos. Good job!"

"You brought up a number of things that got me thinking. Security for one and transportation is another. If we see all this food and stuff as another savings account, so will others. If there is a crisis and folks start running low on food, they will remember when they saw our food stash and want to borrow some. Then we wouldn't have enough. Another is if we go camping for a week with all this extra stuff, we will need a trailer. My 4X4 is already stuffed when we go camping for just a weekend."

"Any thing else?" Connie asked.

"Yeah. We could just turn off the utilities in the house and live here for a long weekend, that ought to show us what we missed. And where am I going to build all these new shelves, under the house?"

"I'm not sure either, now that you bring up privacy, or security as you call it. That is a good point."

Eventually Frank and Connie decided to put extra shelving (with cupboard-like doors) in their garage on the north side where it is always cool. Frank built them after they bought some 5-gallon buckets so he knew what height spacing they needed.

They also decided to break out water as a separate category. It is more important than even food. The needs for storage, filters and containers change depending on if they are in place or evacuating, and the length of time for the Stage they are preparing for. Water is needed for hydration, cooking, cleaning & sanitation too.

Just after the first of November, Connie cornered Frank on their food category. He had been avoiding that because he felt Connie could figure out that whole thing just fine without him. "Frank, I think I will store the rice we are getting in a 55 gallon food-grade barrel. Then we will... "

"How am I supposed to move around a 3 or 4 hundred pound barrel of rice?" Frank asked. "Are you nuts?"

"Well Dearest, I understand the jury is still out on that. It will cost less for one 55 gallon barrel than for eleven 5-gallon buckets." Connie was setting him up.

"And just how am I supposed to get it in the trailer if we evacuate?" Frank knew she was up to something.

"If you want to make those decisions, you are going to have to get involved. I cannot think with your head."

"What do you want me to do, make up recipes?" Frank was more curious than anything else.

"I think I can handle that, big fella. But all this is new to me too, and I think we should figure it out together. For example, you know what happens to your body when you first start out on so many whole grain foods?"

"Uh, we get healthy?" Frank was clueless.

"The point Dear, is that you should probably do the food storage part of this, along with all the transportation issues. You are good at that sort of thing, and I am not. I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to use foods that store well and blend them into our diet so that we enjoy them. I am also learning about what we can and cannot grow and what it takes to do this, on our land." Connie was smiling.

"In the back yard?" Frank was again surprised by her.

"I've been looking around on the Internet near Millersburg, the population is 1,530. Its 320 miles away, near mountains and trees. It sounds wonderful! There is a 12 acre place with a tiny cabin and a spring. Part of it is more or less flat, and part of it is on a hill. It has 7 acres of trees and a pretty view, which I hope also means it is defensible. We could pay for it if you cash out your IRA. If we cash out my IRA we could use that for improvements."

"You're kidding." Frank's mouth was hanging about half open.

"I'm serious. We could own it free and clear! We should check out the possibilities of actually living there, you know, just in case." Connie was starting to worry that he wouldn't like the idea.

"But cash out our IRAs? Thats for our retirement."

"Well, I doubt Real Estate will go down in value, one. Two is that we would actually have a retreat to retreat to. Three your pension at work is doing fine - and it is way bigger than both our IRAs. Four is that it would be really fun and it is beautiful. Look a the pictures on my computer, in the folder on my desktop. Its called... " Connie blushed, "Its called 'Our Dream Home'."

Frank was just about speechless. He remembered it had been a dream of Connie's, when she was a little girl, to have a ranch. Obviously all this preparedness stuff had rekindled her childhood dream.

"What about the taxes and penalties for early withdrawal? Thats a huge hit Babe. Have you talked to an accountant?"

"Yes, and you're right. On the other hand our gains have been huge too, we chose our investments rather well. Owning that land free and clear using your IRA is after all the taxes and penalties.

"Really? I had no idea we were that close to the possibility of owning a retreat. You have been busy." Frank was at that moment, without an opinion on a retreat. He really wanted one, sure, but the IRAs! They had made a huge profit several years running, true. But getting the bucks to put in them in the first place had been brutal. He had given up a lot of his wants to pull that off. After his promotion years later the IRA contributions were far easier.

He went to her computer to look at the pictures of the land with Connie.

Chapter 1

A Story of Pre-SHTF

Mid September, 2007

"Frank, are you worried about something? Whats wrong?" Connie asked.

"I've been reading that survival web site for a month now. It isn't just the one guy writing this stuff, its hundreds of folks from every kind of profession, and every walk of life, sending in articles and tidbits of info. New blogs are popping up all the time with fresh views. Stuff is going on we just don't know about. Its a bunch of little things adding up to something bigger than even our parents generation had to deal with." His concern was showing on Frank's face.

"The Katrina thing was a total rescue disaster, a blame-the-other-guy-fest. Thousands of folks were really hurting bad and all the government did was stop individual volunteers from helping on a personal level. I'm convinced that if something happens, even just around here, we will be totally on our own. We are not ready for much of any kind of problem."

Connie, ever the "git 'er done" girl, asked, "What should we do Honey?"

"I'm not sure. There are literally thousands of recommendations in hundreds of areas. I am completely overwhelmed. Every time I think we should do this, or that, I worry about the cost of everything else we should do. A guy could easily spend $50,000, maybe even $100,000, and not have tons of really important stuff. We can't afford anything like that."

"What in the world are you talking about? We're in good shape. Our house payments are small, we both have IRAs, your pension took a small hit, but it is still worth a lot and doing alright. The kids education fund is okay and both cars will be paid off within a year. We are frugal people and our kid's values are top notch. What have we missed Sweetie?"

Oh crap, thought Frank. I should have kept my mouth shut. We are gonna disagree and I don't know enough about all this stuff to convince even myself. "Babe, I just don't know. I don't have the answers. I read whatever I can find that seems relevant, and all I wind up with is more questions. Its starting to get to me."

Connie is an organizer. She has organized everything from the local Little League to the church bazaar. "Frank, how do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time. Connie, I don't just know where to start. I don't know a single soul that even thinks our economy is in trouble. They just blame Bush or the democrats, sometimes both. Everyone thinks maybe I've lost a marble or two."

"Well, I don't." Connie said. "You are just trying to take care of your family by planning ahead."

"What, Babe, am I planning for? I don't even know that! There are hundreds of pretty serious things wrong in the world that I was simply not aware of a month ago."

"Lets start with a problem we can do something about. What if the power goes out for two days? How many candles would we need?"

"I have no idea Connie, but thats only a tiny part of it. What if we loose power for a week in the winter? How will we heat the house? I read that if we loose power for any length of time, we also loose water. All the city water is pumped with electric water pumps."

"Really? I had no idea... Umm, what else would we loose Frank?"

"After a while, we would loose Natural Gas. The gas stations couldn't fill our cars. The grocery stores are dependent on electricity to charge our debit cards. In no time, if they could even stay open, they would require cash as the only payment they could accept."

"Oh... This is way bigger than I imagined," Connie said. "So we should keep some cash around the house, fill some gas cans, get more food for the pantry... Oh dear, what about the refrigerator and freezer?"

"I don't know Babe, but I'm thinking that whatever is in them at the time is what we'd be eating while it is still good. I've read about some folks that got a generator to keep some electrical things going. But that worries me, at least after I thought about it for awhile."

"Whats wrong with having a generator?" Connie asked.

"Nothing for a couple of days. But what about after a week without public electricity? It would use a ton of gas for one thing, and that would be in short supply. In our neighborhood, our neighbors would certainly know we have power, generators are noisy. Besides, we would have some lights on at night too."

"Whats wrong with the neighbors knowing we have a generator?"

"They would want to use our electricity for their needs. In no time at all we would have a house full of people that we would have to feed from our pantry. Our pantry may feed us for a week if we were careful, but how long would it feed 20 or 30, or even 40 people?"

"I don't follow your logic Frank, and this doesn't sound like you at all. You have always helped any neighbor that needed a hand. Thats one of the things I love about you. Whats going on here?" Connie was getting a little upset.

"Sweetheart, I do help people. But I would not take the only food we had, dole it out, and then watch our kids starve when we cannot get any more food. Ditto for propane."

"Propane? What do you mean? Oh, for the Bar-B-Que?" Connie was calming down, and her curiosity was aroused.

"Definitely not the Bar-B-Que. For our camp stove. We could use it to cook in the kitchen, with a window cracked open. The Bar-B-Que would attract hungry folks to our backyard like flies."

"I get it. Hold that thought for a sec." Connie went and got a tablet and pen, then started writing.

"Okay, how does this sound? We plan for what we would need to have on hand for a week long emergency. We probably have most of it, so it shouldn't cost us too much to buy the rest. We can organize this stuff in plastic bins in the garage so we always know where it is." Connie was warming up to the idea.

Frank's relief was evident. "She is so good at this stuff," he thought.

"What about flashlights and batteries? We can't heat the whole house, so maybe we can pitch our tent right in the living room. What an adventure, the kids would love it! We can heat with the pellet stove. We should get some extra bags of pellets just for an emergency. We... What is it Frank?"

"The pellet stove uses electricity. Thats how it keeps putting in the right amount of pellets."

"Well, thats stupid," Connie said. "How will we heat?"

"Before we go there, remember those folks in Katrina? They had to evacuate. We should have two concurrent plans: one if we stay, and another if we have to leave our home."

"Give me just one example of why we would ever have to leave our home!" Connie did not like that prospect even a little bit.

"A bad earthquake, storm damage, the utilities out for an extended period of time, a fire, local riots, the economy collapses...

Connie was quiet for a moment. The she asked, "Where would we go?"

"Some folks buy land out in the boonies, as a kind of vacation home. They set it up as a home away from home, stock it with stuff they would need if they had to evacuate their primary home."

"Like a cute cabin in the mountains?" Connie had a strange look on her face. "I used to dream of living on a ranch when I was a little girl. My uncle had this cabin in the middle of nowhere. He had some horses my cousins would ride sometimes. Kind of like that?"

Frank was surprised. "It could be whatever we make of it. You like this idea?"

"Yes. Where would it be?"

"Babe, that is another of a thousand things I just don't know. According to the experts, it is supposed to be more than a tank of gas away from any big city, have soil that will grow food, a southern exposure, good water, and be defensible."

"Defensible?" Connie asked.

"Yeah. In case others decide they need our stuff more than we do. In really bad times just about everybody gets desperate enough to do the unthinkable. The morality in America has gone in the tank, it would probably get worse than we can imagine today. Its not a lot of fun to contemplate."

"I see... No... I mean, I really do. This is why the guys think you're a card or two short of a full deck? Have you talked bout this to your pals?"

"No, not in this detail. Just in general terms about the economy. They think things will turn around soon enough."

"Well... I find this all just a little scary, Dear. Its one thing to plan for a week long adventure without electricity, and quite another to abandon all we know and move to the sticks at the first sign of trouble. Are you serious?"

"No. I was just answering your question. Having a place to go to in an emergency is a good idea. But I think it is a better idea to plan on a week long emergency of any kind, and then prep for it." Frank was watching Connie, and thought maybe he had just been trapped into something. Connie can do that, and he rarely sees it coming.

"Prep? Are we going to become survivalists now? Come on Frank."

"Knock it off Constance! Don't start throwing around labels like a politician. We were having an intelligent conversation about how we would handle a week long emergency. You asked questions and I gave reasonable answers. Preparing to handle an emergency for our family is just plain smart. Thinking about the possibilities and their solutions is an evolutionary process."

Connie starred at Frank for a full 30 seconds, then smiled. "If we get some kind of macho man-cave type cabin, I will put lace curtains in every window and paint the front door pink. Got it?"

"I'll be damned", Frank thought. "She wants to do this!"