Excellence 🏆

Please don't make me break you guys out of jail, that probably won't go over too well with the Mister. He'd rather I didn't actually fight cops 🤷🏻‍♀️

I also hate it, lol!

But it's so pretty 😍

Spagnum? I hardly know him!

Don't forget the comrades at !vegan@hexbear.net

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There are dozens of us!

I'll start this off by saying I am probably a lot more prepared for emergencies than most people I know, but I have such a long way to go, even to hit all the items on the list above.

Types of Emergencies

I think there are three emergencies I am trying to be prepared for: non-weather related utility outage, extreme weather (wind, rain, snow, ice), and fire. I have a lot of ground water, but I am not on a flood plain. Hurricanes don't really make it this inland and north, but we have had extreme storms from previous hurricanes. I am near a fault, but earthquakes are not common. When I say fire, I mean like, a house fire. I'm farm rural not forest rural and while I know farms burn too, wildfires aren't common here at this time.

Main impacts of these emergencies

• If I don't have power, I don't have water, back up heat, light or a way to cook foods. I will not be able to operate my sump pumps so my basement may flood. I won't have A/C, and the food in my fridge/freezer may spoil.
• If I don't have propane, I don't have my main source of heat.
• If weather or debris after weather makes it unsafe to drive, or if our car has been damaged, we may be stuck at home for a few days and be without utilities at the same time.
• If there is a fire, we will have to leave quickly.
• If I am at work when this happens, it may be hard for me to get home.
• If I am helping with disaster response (it's part of my job) it may be hard for my family to contact me.

News

We did get a wind up/battery radio last year after the tornados. There is a weather broadcast channel that is highlighted on the dial. It helped us know when the tornado warnings and watches were going on.

When we had major storms about 3 years ago I had a really hard time getting information. There didn't seems to be too much on the radio. We had no power for 3 days and roads were impassible, but the outside world seemed to be going on just like normal! Cell phone and internet was disrupted for a long time too, so local groups or news sites were not accessible.

Stay or go

This is something I need to work on with my family. For most of the likely situations we are thinking of, being at home is the best option. Fire is not (lol) but there may be others. We will need to plan where we would meet up if going home was not an option or where we would head to if we had to GTFO.

Accessibility and medications

This is a weak spot for us too! Like Hamid said, it's important to have whatever consumables you need and to understand what would happen if you stopped taking them (i.e. if you are running out, do you have to taper off? Are their certain foods or activities you need to avoid if you stop taking something?)

Utilities

I do know where my utilities shuts off are, yay! I have a general idea about my fuse box, know where my propane is, know how to isolate that from the furnace, know how to drain my water lines.

Documents and contacts

I also need to improve here. I am generally The Holder of Passports and Birth Certificates for the household, but I do not have a good idea of where my insurance policy is lol.

Ditching consumerism really helped me, I think. I no longer feel like I am giving things up. Just because something is available to purchase and I can afford it doesn't mean it is 1) good for me, 2) ethical ) harmless. This applies to food, goods, services.

I'd say that probably started with thinking about what it means to buy something and then being responsible for it. So the habit is thinking, "What am I going to do with this?" whenever I am considering buying something. Eventually the desire lessens and I no longer want things.

Thanks for participating and giving such a detailed comment :)

To be clear, I think deciding ahead of time if you should stay or run for different situations is a really important part of planning!

Looks so nice and warm and comforting.

Thanks! I didn't know chemical dehumidifiers existed. I know about hygroscopic salts but have never seen them outside the lab lol.

Could you focus on how easy and cheap it is when people are antagonistic? It might help people see it's not as radical as they think.

Thank you! I was also thinking about spores and their impacts. I generate way more water than I can use, but I will keep some aside for my non-eating plants.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply - so much good info here <3

Thank you!

I appreciate the bok choy experience you shared. I may try doing leafy greens indoors because they get riddled with insects outside.

I think the fact that I don't depend on the garden for food helps to keep it fun. Things might be "chores" but it feels like a privilege to do.

LOL, I'm not sure. Either jasmine or basmati. I buy 10 kg bags and put them in large plastic containers so the package has been lost to time.

Firstly, I love your username!

You and I have a very similar approach. I know my 'extreme' views are off putting. But I make good food that aligns with my views. If people can see how easy (inexpensive and healthy) it is, maybe they will take off the meat goggles, lol.

I'm so sorry to hear that you are unwell!

The clay pot is amazing! Did you learn about purifying the clay online? I recently started taking a wheel pottery class and the instructor mentioned that clay came from my home town. That and how heavily clay my soil is at home got me thinking about if I could do something similar.

Do you have access to a kiln, or will you try and construct your own? I've been thinking of getting a burn permit next year to make some biochar with all the woody waste I collect that doesn't break down very quickly in the compost. I wonder if once I master that I could build a little kiln...

So becoming vegan, I lost lots of friends (although veganism was just one of many things that amounted to that), accidentally converted one to vegetarianism, and only once successfully created another vegan. I’m quite ashamed of how little (perceived) impact I’ve made, but recently I have been quite proud of my one convert as they are my best friend now and I don’t have to deal with carnists on a day to day basis.

It would be wonderful if we could flip a switch and have everyone become vegan just by explaining the facts about the exploitation of animals, but it's not our burden to carry. This is a generalization, but I don't think we all became vegan as soon as we understood that certain "foods" came from violence. Each person makes the decision to participate in this violence with every meal. One day it clicked for you. Maybe one day it will click for them. You can't hold yourself accountable for other people's actions.

Although I feel conflicted about this one because I don't believe people are irredeemable, I do think it makes sense to have distance grow between people when their ethics are fundamentally opposed to one's own. I'm guessing I'm at a different life stage than you, and I don't want to downplay how hard this sounds like it was. I can share that friendships exist in all sorts of ways and sometimes they wind down because we or they aren't the same as we were when the friendship started.

Comrade, did you ask why it got deleted? I don't know the answer (because I didn't ask) but I also didn't notice. I'm curious why you reposted it with this title and what you are seeking to say with it?