Flood Report

First it was massive snow and now it is massive rain causing--what else--massive flooding. Although we are high and dry, hundreds of thousands of others in our state aren't. Here's a bundle of random observations:

• Keep your road drains clear. When they get covered up with leaves and debris, even moderate rain can back up and cause minor flooding.


• This is another reason to have a BOB (bug out bag). Many people were caught unprepared in areas that flooded rapidly. They had to evacuate with very little notice and many on the news were leaving with just the clothes on their backs. Always evacuate with a well-stocked BOB.


• Think again about your evacuation plan. When people in our area think about evacuation, we think we have a number of options--north to Canada, east to Idaho, or south to Oregon. As of this afternoon ALL of these roads were closed due to flooding and mud slides so we are, in effect, an island with no way out other than boat or aircraft.


• Think also about keeping your food stocked up. Because all roads in and out are closed due to flooded roadways, it means that delivery trucks which are carrying the food that stocks our grocery store shelves can't get in. While this shouldn't last for more than a week or so, I am guessing there are plenty of families with children that are going to be needing milk, diapers, and other basic supplies who aren't prepared.


• The best sources of information about current road conditions: local online newspapers, TV news broadcasts, AM talk radio, department of emergency management websites, and county road department websites.


• Speaking of AM talk radio, one particular station was doing an excellent job today of letting the public get on the air and give first hand reports about the roads in their area. They also were allowing people who needed help with sandbagging and other tasks get on the air and ask the public directly for help which seemed to, pardon the pun, bring out a flood of volunteers.
• There are some areas that flood like this every year. Why people insist on rebuilding in these areas is beyond me.
• Note that floods are usually not covered by homeowners insurance. Without separate flood insurance you will be (another pun) up a creek without a paddle.
• Don't drive over flooded roads. You hear this every time there is a flood and every time there is a flood, somebody drives over a road that is flooded. While they may have driven over this road every day for years, as one guy saw today, the road that he knew so well was actually missing under all of the water. It had washed out and so instead of driving through a puddle of water, his car hit the drop off and floated away, with him inside. He was able to get to the roof of the car and call for help which required a swift water rescue team and no doubt a lecture by the local fire chief.
• If you have a septic tank and/or well, you will have problems if your area floods. If there is any question about flood water getting into your well, always boil your water until you get the all clear from the health department. This is also a good reason to have water stocked for an emergency.
• You need an evacuation plan for just these types of emergencies. Where would you go? What will you do with your pets and/or livestock? How will you get to your destination? Do you have alternate ways to get to your destination and/or alternate evacuation destinations?
• Keep your cell phone charged. When you evacuate, or in the case of the guy stranded in his floating car, you may need to call for emergency help. If the battery on your cell phone has died, you will have a problem.
• In situations like these is is always good to have skis (in the case of heavy snow) and a boat, even if it is a simple kayak or canoe, in the case of heavy flooding.

Anyway, that's my observations of the situation. Some preparedness ideas: never build in a flood plain. It is fine for pastureland if you also have much higher ground available for your animals, but the thought of having to sandbag each year or move your furniture to the second floor each winter is ludicrous. Always have a BOB, cash, and charged cell phone on hand. If you are high and dry, stay home where you are safe; wandering around to "see what's happening" can put you in a precarious situation.

Survival Skill #4 Make Stuff

Another skill to help you survive hard times? Make stuff. If you take a look around your home, you will find many consumer goods that you can make yourself. Aside from complex technological goods and alloying metal, many things can be created with your own hands (and with practice the items can look quite professional). Here's some ideas:

• Food (everything from pot roast to yogurt to bread)
• Furniture (bookcases, bed frames, desks, etc)
• Jewelry (a great activity for the kids)
• Clothing (with a sewing machine and pattern you will be on your way)
• Medicine (plants are the basis of many medicines)
• Crafty things (paper, candles, weaving)
• Home decor (curtains, paintings)
• A car (some people piece together working vehicles from parts)
• Personal products (soap, toothpaste, laundry soap)
• Grow a garden or flowers (grow your own food and medicine)
• Breed animals (technically you are helping to make a new animal)
• Raise chickens for eggs and meat (make your own eggs in a manner of speaking)
• Treats (candy, cookies, cinnamon rolls)
• Music (if each family member plays an instrument you will have a band!)
• Special food (dog food, baby food)
• Write a poem to your beloved (instead of buying a trinket that will soon be forgotten)
• Make a special card for a birthday or anniversary instead of buying one (ditto)
• Special skills will allow you to make shoes, weld a fireplace insert, even build a house

There are many more things you can make yourself if you just think about it. And, if there is something you want to make but don't know how, simply Google the topic and you will find a wide range of instructions.

Reminder--It's Gardening Time

Well actually not gardening time yet since the tiller won't be digging through the six inches of snow that is currently on the ground, however now is the time to start planning your garden. I was going to type out a list of all of the best seed companies so that you can order your gardening catalogs now and start dreaming of...um, planning...your summer harvest, but I came across this nifty list.

10 Ways We Are Disconnected From Nature (And Why That Isn't Good)

As the US has increased it's wealth throughout all classes, especially over the last few generations, we have moved further and further away from nature. This isn't good. Here's why:

1. Decades ago, before computers, video games, VCRs, and more than three channels on the TV, kids were encouraged to go outside and play. Actually "encouraged" isn't the word...it was more like: kid "I'm bored", adult: "go outside and play". This conversation repeated itself a dozen times a day. When I was growing up, that was the standard answer no matter if the weather was 20 degrees or 110 degrees, just to keep the kids out of the way of the adults. Kids had to use their imaginations and make up their own sources of entertainment (stick ball, cowboys and Indians, hide and seek, etc) rather than having commercially created entertainment force fed to them on a 24/7 basis.


2. I'm no scientist but it seems quite odd that so many kids these days have asthma and severe food allergies. When I was a kid, maybe one kid in an entire school has asthma and no one in the entire school had food allergies to things as common as eggs, peanut butter, shellfish, etc. Why is this? I don't see these problems in third world countries where the kids entertain themselves by playing in polluted water, eating everything even marginally edible, and spending the entire day from dawn to dusk outside.


3. Many people in developed countries don't know how the steak they are eating gets to their plate. People literally "freak out" when they see an animal being butchered. Years ago this was, well, the way that food got on the table--deer hanging in the shed so it could bleed out, grandma wringing a chicken's neck so that it could become the evening's meal--it was just the way food was procured. If people suddenly had to start providing their own meat, who would be around to do this? Certainly not your average American.


4. People cannot provide the most basic food stuffs for themselves. Victory Gardens, even in the smallest city lots, were quite common during the war. People knew that if they didn't raise their own fresh food, they may not get any. Fortunately during the war years, the people were not too far removed from the farm so gardening skills were still known. These days, if people had to grow their own food, I'm afraid many people would be ill prepared to do so.


5. Kids (as well as older people in today's world) have missed out on the opportunity to develop self esteem by being successful at useful things. When kids bring back a string of fish and are praised by their elders for their skill and for providing food for the family, it build their self-worth. When a boy (or girl) gets a deer, tills acres of land, or helps bring a calf into the world, they have visible reminders of how useful and skillful they are. Without this connection to life, death, and hard physical work, the connection doesn't get made. IMHO this is why we have so many shiftless, depressed, trouble-making people in the world today--they haven't done anything to build their responsibility and self esteem.


6. The world is too "safe" these days. Granted when you have a loved one lost in the wilderness, I'm sure being able to reach them by cell phone is immeasurably comforting, however years ago, people had to rely on themselves to find their way out of difficult situation, provide their own basic medical care, and send word anyway they could (I remember the ubiquitous paper plates with messages posted on them and nailed to trees in the wilderness as a way of providing information to others who were following).


7. Wilderness skills are a lost art. Start a fire without matches, sheer a sheep and end up with a knitted sweater, find your way by the stars, snare a rabbit...the list of skills that one needs to be able do in order to provide for themselves is long, the number of people who could actually do such things these days is few. Sad.


8. Nature is reality. It is cold, it is wet, it is beautiful, it is tragic...in nature the only sure thing is change. Parked in front of a computer all day, you miss out on these things. One could literally stay inside for a year attached to a cell phone/computer/video game and miss all of the seasons, the changes in trees and flowers, the smell of fresh air, etc.


9. Living close to nature requires a wide variety of skills. When I ask a farm kid what they can do I hear: rototilling, running the backhoe, taking care of the horses, gathering eggs, welding, building, roofing, and a myriad other skills. When I ask an average suburban kid what they can do, I hear very few things..."Can you cook?" "We eat out everyday". "What skills do you use during the day?" "Texting, email, chatting online..." "Can you find your way to the next city?" "My mom will drive me." Frightening.


10. Nature is anything but dependable which means that people learn how to be flexible. Raining today? Stay inside and do sewing or reading or baking. Plant the corn today? It will grow at its own rate, you can't speed up nature, and you get to learn to be patient. Nature is fleeting. If it's sunny and the wheat is ready, it gets harvested today--you can't be lazy and put harvesting off until you feel ready to do it.

Now maybe these examples make the situation look much worse than it is, but being so far removed from nature can't be a good thing. As long as we live in an insulated, climate-controlled world when you can call for food to be delivered or you can simply shop for the things you need, I guess survivability of the masses will continue. However should TSHTF, having the skills to live in and with nature will be worth its weight in gold.

Survival Skill #3 Fix Stuff

We live in a disposable society. If something doesn't work, toss it in the garbage and buy a new one. If something breaks, ditto. If you decide you don't like something, again, just throw it away and get something better. For those on the edges of society (ie: low on cash but with ample time and creativity) throwing something out because it doesn't work or you don't like it isn't an option. A family I know who moved to the US some years ago from Iraq takes this idea to the extreme. I guess having very little money and a family of twelve (plus now a number of grandchildren) may have something to do with this, however I have never seen so many ways to keep things going when most people would have tossed said item into the garbage quite a while back. Here's what they do:

• They bought old, used, uncomplicated to fix cars (for cash of course) and between the brothers and the dad have kept them running for years past their usual life span.
• Clothes are handed down through the entire family. With some exceptional sewing skills, all of their clothes also live way past their usual lifespan.
• One of the daughters asked me how to repair the vacuum cleaner belt which had broke. I didn't have an answer for that.
• They keep their home in exceptional shape by fixing anything that goes wrong (leaky roof, broken stairs, etc) which means small problems don't fester into bigger problems.
• One of the brothers is a whiz with fixing electronics (computers, TVs, everything else), in fact, he got a full ride scholarship to become an electrical engineer.
• They are more than happy to take anything that people don't want (furniture, appliances, toys, etc) and fix the item to make it work for them or someone in their extended family.
• They don't redecorate annually like some people do. It's a good bet that the sofa they have now will probably outlive some of the family members. Ditto for the carpets, bedding, and any other item that can be fixed/mended/repaired in order to not have to spend money to replace the item.

Unfortunately, fixing things is almost a lost art. Surviving, however, may mean this lost art makes a come back. I hope so.

Survival Skill #2 Ask for Stuff

Another survival skill that you can use to get things you need is simply to ask. Kids and panhandlers are good at this because they have very limited resources, so they ask and ask and ask. If someone says "no" they will ask someone else. If there is no one else around, they will come back and ask the same person a number of times until they get what they need. This is a basic survival skill.
If you have no money, the common currency in most countries, then you have to rely on what you do have--the guts to simply ask for what you want. It seems like the higher up in society we become, the more "beneath us" it is to ask for things from others. If we don't have money to purchase what we want, we will charge it, save for it, find it on sale, or put it on layaway, but how many people would think to ask for it--for free?
The most recent example I've seen of this skill in action was on a recent Asian variety show. Part of the show is a daily beauty contest with young women who are interviewed by the host of the show. A couple of weeks before Christmas, the host asked each girl, in addition to the contest question, what they wanted for Christmas. All of the girls gave the politically correct answer--world peace, time with family, etc--except one. She stated that she wanted an iPod. After talking with her some more, the host again asked what she wanted for Christmas, again she said she really wanted an iPod. A couple of days later it was mentioned that the host gave her a new iPod. Now I'm sure the dozens of other girls who participated in the contest would really like an iPod too, but no one asked, and as a result no one got an iPod except the girl who asked for one.
So the bottom line is to develop the skill of asking for what you want. Here's some tips:

• If you see something you can use (a broken down car, apples hanging on an apple tree, a raise) then tactfully ask for it. For example, if your neighbor has apple trees, ask if you can have some. Even offer to pick a basket for the owner as a way to "pay" for your apples. Usually the neighbor will just tell you to take what you want.
• Be known as a person who always has a good home for unwanted things. One of my clients seems to redecorate their office seasonally instead of out of necessity. As soon as I see things start to move, I let it be known that if there is anything they want to get rid of I would be happy to take it off of their hands. Over the years, I have been able to update my office and the homes of friends with all of the stuff they would have otherwise thrown out.
• Be very gracious and thankful when you do receive things from people. Drop them by some homemade cookies or something from your business; this will make them remember to call you the next time they have stuff to give away.
• Don't be discouraged if someone tells you no. Just try again.
• Make each transaction a win-win situation. Years ago an elderly neighbor passed away and her only relatives had to come from the other side of the country to take care of her home and belongings. I met the relatives at the neighbor's funeral then introduced myself to them afterwards and stopped by to check on them over the week that they were working on cleaning out the house. While they were getting ready to sell the entire contents of the home to someone who would resell the items, they mentioned that if there was anything I wanted I was welcome to it. I mentioned how nice a bookcase and some other pieces of furniture were and they were more than happy to have me take the things--at least some of their aunt's things would be well cared for. Out of the blue I decided to look up the bookcase on eBay a week ago because it was rather unique and was shocked to find out that the same brand and style of bookcase was listed for $1600!
• Don't be stuck on one certain item; be open to serendipity. My brother in law is an expert at this. He came to visit one time. borrowed the truck and left the house in the morning, then returned in the evening with a salmon (he had stopped by the docks, chatted with a fisherman, admired his catch, and the fisherman gave him a fish), a desk (it was sitting outside on a porch and the owner was working outside, when my brother in law spied the desk he simply asked if he could have it--the guy didn't want it anymore and was going to donate it but hadn't had time), two mp3 players (a store had them on clearance so he asked the department manager if he could buy one and get the other free--and the manager said yes), and an arm load of fast food (he had stopped by a restaurant that was getting ready to close and ordered a burger then asked if he could have any of the leftover food that was going to get thrown away and again was told yes). He has done this sort of thing for decades; he has a laid back way of interacting with people and the wherewithal to ask for the things he would like to have. Cool.

Take this survival skill and give it a try. See what happens if you just ask for what you want. In hard times, this skill will definitely be quite useful.

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing that you all have a happy, safe, profitable, successful, and healthy New Year. My New Year's Resolution this year is to make no resolutions. Each day I want to just go with the flow and see what new and interesting things happen. Often when you are constrained by a list of "have to do's" and "should do's" you overlook opportunities that land at your feet because you are too busy trying to check things off of your list instead of learning from and enjoying events and situations that are totally unexpected but totally rewarding if you give yourself the chance to partake in them. Happy New Year!