Getting Ready for Storm Season

Get ready, Queensland.

No, seriously, you need to get ready. Why? Because storm season is once again approaching! I've blogged about prepping for the unexpected before, and one of the things I am hellishly passionate about is being somewhat ready for things like rain, hail, wind, lightning, floods, bushfires, blackouts, cyclones and plagues. Ok, maybe not so much that last one (though speaking as someone who has lived through the horror of a mouse plague, I would not wish one on my worst enemy).

This year, Queensland Government has launched Get Ready Queensland week. It runs from 14-20 October and focuses on knowing the risks, being prepared, staying alert and knowing when to take action. Visit their website here for more info,or hit up your local council site. My council, Moreton Bay, will be having stalls at local Bunnings as well as sausage sizzles around various neighbourhood centres, to help educate people on how to prepare for storm season.

You can even download their brochure here. It's full of great tips!

Yesterday, hubby and I decided to muck in and try to clear some of the shed-building debris that has accumulated in our yard. There were steel offcuts, wooden fence palings and the entire old garden shed to be gotten rid of, plus some old chairs that we have been meaning to throw out for years.

 

 So we borrowed a trailer from a friend and loaded it up. Twice. Two trips to the dump later, we have managed to get rid of most of the major risks. Can you imagine if any of this stuff had gotten airborne in a windstorm?

It was a heck of a lot of work but very worth it - not only for the peace of mind but having that junk out of the backyard is pretty great too!

There are still quite a few things we need to do to be completely ready - clean the gutters, do a battery check on all our torches, do an inventory on our go-bags, check the drains, do a stocktake on the pantry and make sure we have bottled water on hand.

And THEN, I might feel prepared for what mother nature decides to throw at us this year.

Do you prep for storm season? Got any hot tips?

Practical Prepping

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So this is not another post about meal prepping. It's about DOOMSDAY prepping.

My twitter followers know that husband and I do enjoy an episode of Doomsday Preppers. In fact, we have yet to get through an entire show without pausing it and having a lively debate about the pros, cons and practicality of some of the things we see on there. And sometimes just have a good laugh.

But seriously - we're getting some good ideas. I'm not embarrassed to admit we are doing a little prepping of our own, on a small scale, just in case.

I've posted before about our Bug Out Bags (or BOBs, though I swear to god I did not know that BOB also stood for something else when I wrote that post) but now we're thinking beyond that to food and camping gear.

The reason I think this is a good use of our time is sometime in the future we may be able to actually use this stuff for camping. Or in a post-apocalyptic zombie scenario. Whichever comes first.

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Today we were discussing freeze-dried foods and MREs so decided to get one from the camping store. We'd been pricing a few over the last 12 months or so, and picked up one which was two servings for $15. Yeah, I know. My justification? I spend more than that on KFC for us. Plus we were going to eat it for dinner tonight (providing it was edible), and all I had to do was boil the kettle and wait 10 mins! Bring it on!

I got to choose the meal type - it was a Thai Chicken Curry. And WOO-WHEE was it hot! But still good. I ended up being able to eat only half of my serve but C ate his and my leftovers. Good to know - that flavour will NOT be going in my Bug Out Bag.

I know some of you may think that we're kind of paranoid. But hey, we lived through one Summer of Disasters. If we get another, and the power goes out and/or we're isolated from services and shops? I'm going to be a heck of a lot less batshit crazy knowing we're at least a little prepared and have things like torches, batteries, radios, a gas stove etc etc.

PS - Queenslanders, just you watch - we'll get another little pamplet and fridge magnet from the State Government over the next two months telling us to prepare for storm season. I still have mine on my fridge from last year. And you know what it says? Always have at least 3 days of food and water on hand. Good tip.

Prepping madness

It's becoming increasingly clear that left to my own devices, I will do just about ANYTHING to avoid vacuuming. So, at a loose end today, what did I do?

I chopped and pre-cooked some meals.

I'll give you a moment to recover from the shock. I know. Me, the most disorganised and slovenly housewife ever, actually cooking ahead? What madness is this?

Don't get too excited. This was no Once a Month Mom marathon of magical kitchen goddess-ness. It was purely an experiment.

So I went out and did the grocery run, the only thing different I did than usual was buy 1kg of mince instead of 500g. I definitely had no room in the budget to be buying in bulk this week, but if this works I certainly will be considering it.

When I got home, I got out two saucepans and chucked the mince and sausages on.

While they cooked, I chopped two onions and put them in with the mince.  Then I chopped veges. Then I diced some chicken breast. I also peeled a heap of potatoes and put them on to boil for mashed potato.

I couldn't be arsed cooking the chicken so it went into the freezer raw, but I am happy in the fact that it is one less thing I have to do on the night we have it.

So this is what it ended up looking like, minus the mashed potato which took ages (I went off and watched half an episode of The Walking Dead waiting for it).

So the meal plan this week looks like: Spaghetti Bog, Sausage Curry, Chicken Stir Fry, Pasta of some kind (no meat or chopping required!) ... and whatever C wants to eat on Friday because I will not be here.

All this? Took about one hour. I'm so hoping it will be worth it. I shall come home from work, defrost the meat and throw together the rest of the meal.

I'll let you know how it goes. C thinks that too many episodes of Doomsday Preppers is starting to mess with my head.

Do you cook and freeze ahead? Any tips on what NOT to freeze?