Back to basics. Being sensible by Bridget.

 

When Annabel asked me if I would write a blog post, I was over the moon and couldn’t quite believe that I would have anything to offer to the beautiful Bluebird community. After all, this was the place where I had come to learn and grow as a person. Annabel is my equivalent to Taylor Swift to the Swifties. 

 

I first ‘met’ Annabel on a savings Australian website. I was amazed by her kindness, generosity, and willingness to help anyone. Her great love for her family and Christian values inspired me.

 

I first started our journey because my (now) husband had been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. It had come out of nowhere and we were young. I knew at that point that our lives had changed forever. I knew then that if we were blessed with being able to marry (at that point even that was a dream) and have children that our life course would be different to others our age, due to his health issues and its impact on our lifestyle and finances. So, we began to be seriously frugal. Luckily, we had always been responsible with money and both of us were on the same page with our goals. My family helped me tremendously with good advice, help with education and giving me guidance with how we could achieve our dream. 

 

From our skills and frugal ways, we have been able to buy a house and be without debt, except for the mortgage. 

 

After some time, we were extremely blessed (and I thank God every day) to have two children. This helped to up our ante in being prepared. I have always followed Annabel’s advice and really appreciate the idea of having a pantry in all senses of the word. I have clothes for the children in their current size and two sizes up, and then then same with shoes. I search on the free pages, thrift stores and shops for mark downs. We have learnt to accept things when they are offered with gratitude. My husband said yes to a man that he knows from his work to accept about 10 pairs of children’s shoes. I recently said yes to my friend who was giving boxes of men’s clothes from her husband who updates his clothes and style regularly.

 

My husband is a tradesman and does all the maintenance on our house and cars. He also built our chicken coop and vegetable beds. 

 

I listen to Patara from Appalachian Homestead on Youtube. I will happily put my headphones on and complete chores and housework, it feels like a treat when listening to her. I have heard some people say that they couldn’t listen to her or others that talk about preparedness, because they find it negative. This astounds me. As Patara once said you don’t need the world to end to justify being prepared. There are so many things in the world to be prepared for….. and this isn’t even world events like wars, shipping issues, and covid….and as we well know that they can happen at any rate and any day. This is about personal circumstances too like loss of job, reduced hours at work, illness, disability, instability of housing, weather events etc.

 

In the last 6 months to a year, we have been through a few of them, and this has further cemented my wish to be prepared. My father was diagnosed with a serious illness last year and needed treatment in another city. At the same time, my husband was diagnosed with epilepsy and couldn’t drive and has had to reduce work hours due to the side effects of his medication. This meant I was busier and had to be careful in managing our budget. I thought we were at the end of the stressful period, but then a natural disaster hit, and our city flooded. Many homes and businesses were destroyed, including our friend’s house. 

 

We had been preparing for a cyclone, which did cross the coast North of us and with cyclones, they usually (not always) bring rain to the south of the system, so we knew we would have rain. We live in the Tropics, and this is called our ‘wet season’ so our environment is well suited to getting big rainfall totals. However, this cyclone passed, we had some rain and then it stalled over the coast. No one had been prepared for that, not even our national weather service that is responsible for putting out emergency warnings. In fact, about 4 days had passed and we all thought that we were in the clear.

 

Funnily enough, it was some independent weather watchers on Facebook that warned people that there may be a lot of rain. An older neighbour that has become our friend told us that he was more worried about the rain and not the wind.  It pays to watch news and heed warnings from multiple sources. I won’t ever just watch and listen to one source anymore. And I do ask questions when I hear information.

 

I think it pays to know your area well. Speak to locals and gather information from family and past generations. We had thousands of ants in our house before the rain, and I mean that they were so bad that they looked like shadow shapes walking along the wall. We have always been told that with ants, comes rain. 

 

In the midst of handling my father’s and husband’s illness, I sat down at the library while my children played and put together a cyclone checklist prior to Summer/our wet season. I wrote down emergency power-outage meals and had a meal plan. I probably wouldn’t win a Chef of the Year award, but we would not be hungry. I wrote down lists of what to do before, during and after the event. This helped my nerves tremendously as I can freeze in such situations. I made sure our cyclone box was replenished. When there is a low (rain depression) out at sea, I usually check is my car full of petrol, are our gas bottles full, do I have money (all banks and atms are down), do we have enough batteries, have I got everything for our pantry meals. We have gas cooking and gas hot water, so this is helpful when the power is out. So, it is good to have multiple sources for energy. 

When an event is declared or there are warnings, I find people to be quite incredible. Many were at the big grocery shops waiting for their online orders because they had decided to stock up (yet there wasn’t any staff and shops were closing), or they were out at restaurants and bars and cafes. Some panic and the petrol stations are miles long and some carry on as if nothing is happening. They act as if you are boring to be staying home and listening to warnings. 

We had a neighbour crying to us because water was coming through her bedrooms and asked my husband for help. This was the same neighbour that told my husband when he asked if she’d like help (before the event) that she wasn’t worried at all and was heading to the café.  He was out in the dangerous weather digging channels for the water to dissipate. This would have been alleviated had she cleaned her gutters, and her yard up. Then afterwards is when people really lose it. People were stranded on rooves of their houses for many hours, with no help in sight. No one could rescue them because it was too dangerous. Boats couldn’t get in. We couldn’t get out of our driveway, let alone street. Roads were closed in every direction, and it has taken months for some of them to reopen. Helicopters weren’t allowed to fly. People were having fights in front of young children when the stores re-opened over food. Fresh fruit and vegetables couldn’t be stocked, and meat like beef mince sells out quickly. Eggs, toilet paper, milk and bread all disappears. You need to stock up on medication, as it can be hard to find especially with the ongoing shortages, transport and road closures and chemists can’t always open. We used to say that we would be ok with water as we usually get so much rain. My husband had factored in that water treatment plants would break down. We wouldn’t be able to collect rainwater then because the rain system would pass, leaving filthy water that grows parasites in the soil and we’d have soaring hot temperatures. So, we were lucky because we filled all camping water containers, and our bath for water. Most people only have mobile phones so it can be hard to stay in contact, being able to recharge the phone is a must and can be done in the car, solar panel and or even a small hand crank torch/radio. My friend’s baby was sick during this time and there wasn’t access to medical treatment. Luckily her internet was still working and could video call online medical services (our State has a virtual emergency department, plus there are websites for online doctors). Write these websites down and real-life people that you can call upon, as it can be hard to navigate this in a stressful situation. Being stuck at home for days meant that we needed to have things to do for our children. We had board games and I had been to the library to borrow books and we had craft items. We could help others and make sure that their items were charged with our power etc except we still chose to listen to the local radio. It was very helpful in terms of local reports and local knowledge.

We have learnt a lot through all of this. Your town/city may be well used to natural disasters happening, perhaps bush fires happen or snowstorms, but never be complacent. I have found that it is even more important to have a pantry and interestingly doesn’t need to be full of gourmet things, full tummies are the goal in an emergency. I need to continue to build that. We also need to keep up our fruit trees and vegetable gardens as this is like a pantry. We were able to swap boxes passionfruit for mangos with neighbours and our greens could be quickly added to meals. I think that it is important to use cash regularly, cash is needed and valuable to society. I think that it is a good idea to help others, but there needs to be boundaries in place, or else you may be inundated. Overall, it has taught us that we need to be more self-reliant, a well-stocked pantry, medications and some medical equipment stocked, first aid kits full, numerous batteries. Learning substitutions is a good idea, as bread may be sold out but flat bread over a hot pan may be sufficient. Eggs may have sold out, but egg replacer, flax seeds or apple sauce may be good in the circumstance. Keep learning new skills and invest in yourself. Our mechanic had been flooded, but my husband could do the work instead. Hairdressers were shut and he could cut our children’s hair. The more you learn, the more that you will be ok no matter the situation.

Keeping a list of substitutions may be a good idea. 

 

Another one of our goals is solar panels and a solar battery. Water tanks will be useful too. 

 

I am grateful to my husband for being a smart man who is always willing to learn new skills. I seem to be a bit of a slower learner, but very much enjoy learning new skills and knowledge.

 

Overall, preparedness should never be seen as a negative thing. And how it could be considered boring amazes me. People with incredible skills, knowledge and independence could never be boring! However, I think there is a deep-seated reason as to why this isn’t held in high esteem. People have less power when they are dependent. However, that is probably enough from my soap box!

 

Thank you Annabel, for giving me the chance to write and I am continuing to say prayers for you and your family.

Thank you so much Bridget!  You were hit with so many things all at once and you both did so well!  I am so proud!  

I did laugh a bit about the Taylor Swift comment!

As Bridget mentioned we go back a long way.   Many times I heard her mention her husbands name and home town... which was where I lived and brought up the girls.  I had a neighbour with the same name.  Finally,  I asked Bridge what street had her husband lived on?    HE WAS MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR!   In fact he was friends with my little brother and his parents were friends with my parents.   Who would believe what a small world we live in!?

I listen to Patara also.  I have used her advice a few times when Chloe needed it.  She was feeling knocked for being prepared and I said exactly what Patara would say... do not listen to these people!   They are not going to feed your babies or come help you!'   Don't take any notice of them!    So this is what I am going to say to you....   be like Bridget,   think and plan ahead,  observe and don't trust one source of information,  use your eyes and ears and intuition!  Listen to what God is telling you!   The wise woman is not  afraid of the winter because she has faith,  is diligent, she has been working on getting ahead and prepared every way she can and taking every opportunity! 

If you are not aware I have a whole free preparedness course in my index.   We can do a lot, a little at a time, it all adds up.xxx