Thursday, September 21

Welcome to the 7 Day Challenge. For the next 3 days, we are “PRACTICING” our Emergency Preparedness and Food Storage Plans. Each day will bring a NEW mock emergency or situation that will test at least one of the reasons “WHY” we strive to be prepared! REMEMBER: No going to a store, gas station, or spending any money for the next 3 days! Please feel free to adapt the scenarios to fit your own family and situation.

 

There have been a series of TORNADOS all over your town. Maybe tornados don’t typically happen where you live but things are crazy these days with the weather … so just imagine. Some of the tornados have taken out your power and water facilities. Thus you have no water or electricity all day today. To add insult to injury, just after dinner time you get word you must evacuate your home within ONE hour. Fires have started from the downed power lines and they may reach your home. You aren’t sure whether or not your home will be there when you get back. After about one hour of being evacuated you get word your house was safe and you can go home.

Goal: PRACTICE living without electricity and running water

Today’s Tasks:

• Keep your family warm (see list) or cool (see list)) as furnace blowers and A/C will not work without electricity
• Practice powerless cooking by cooking all your meals and snacks using no electricity or gas and no running water
• You can’t use any perishable foods in your cooking today (pretend the power has been out for a few days)
• You must find a way for you (and your family if applicable) to bathe or shower today.
• You can’t flush the toilets because there is no running water to refill the tank. If you have stored water you should use it to manually flush
• Clean all of your dishes using only stored water (practice water conservation tricks)
• Calculate how much water you used today, how long can you live on what you have stored?
• Evacuate your home for one hour with the items you would bring should you be unsure whether or not your house would still be standing when you get back
• Make an inventory list for insurance purpose of the contents of your home
• Before dark, locate flashlights, candles, or other light sources. Assess your battery supply.
• Plan a fun family activity tonight with no electronic devices (board games, ghost stories, shadow puppets, be creative!)
• Share what you are learning with the facebook group – that’s the one electronic you can use (loophole)

Today’s Limitations:

• For this day, and ALL days of the challenge: no spending money, no going to stores, and no restaurants.
• DO NOT USE POWER AT ALL TODAY (even if you have a generator, it helps to practice!)
• DO NOT USE RUNNING WATER AT ALL TODAY (not even for flushing toilets)

Advanced Tasks:

• Make one ore more powerless cooking tools to use today. Here are a few options: #10 can stove, #10 can grill, cardboard box oven
• No laptops, iPads, phones, etc. (even if you have a way to charge them, don’t!) — You can only use them for the purposes of sharing on Facebook for education purposes.
• Calculate how many meals you can cook based on the fuel that you currently have. Use our fuels handout for a guideline on calculating.

 

MAKE SURE to visit the group page on Facebook to discuss your progress and share tips. It’s a great place to learn from other people’s experience and knowledge.

We will also be posting a lot on instagram (@foodstoragemadeeasy) over the next few days. Come join the fun there with hash tag #fsme7daychallenge

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net