09:05 – I got email from Jen to update me on their progress. They have all their food neatly stored on shelves in the basement, with the exception of the 50-pound bags of dry staples. They’re planning on having a packing party next weekend with her brother and his family to get those into Mylar bags and on the shelves. They also picked up several kiddie pools, which they plan to leave on the shelf. They’ll deploy them on the basement and garage floors, wash them out, and fill them with a hose in an emergency, which will increase their stored potable water significantly.
Jen also had an interesting across-the-fence conversation with one of their neighbors this week. The neighbor had noticed Jen and her husband hauling in cases of canned food and asked Jen if she was one of those prepper types. Jen hemmed and hawed and finally told her neighbor that she and her husband were getting more concerned about current events and had decided it’d be a good idea to lay in some supplies in case of emergency. She expected the neighbor to tell her she was nuts, but was pleasantly surprised when the neighbor told her that she and her family were also preparing for bad times. Jen was surprised because they’d known this family for years and had no clue that they were also storing food and other supplies. They had a long conversation, and the upshot is that the neighbors are going to come to the packing party and help Jen and her extended family get their dry staples into Mylar bags this coming weekend.
Prepared neighbors are a Very Good Thing, and Jen’s story made me wonder how many of our friends and neighbors are also preparing. I know of at least one family a couple houses down the street who’s doing so, but there may be others in our immediate neighborhood. It sure makes it easier to know that you’re not on your own.