I don’t expect Prepping to go as mainstream as preppy, but if you see someone with a popped collar working in their garden, you might want to worry. The world might actually be ending.

Last year, we tried a few freeze-dried camping foods during some local power outages. These were, how do I say this?…. Not your brother’s MREs of questionable age. These were fantastic. In fact, we kind of wanted to enjoy a few more once the power was back on. Camp out in the living room anyone?

During the hurricane, we tried Mountain House Chicken and Mashed Potato pouches, chocolate mousse for a comfort food and a few others. This week we also tried Alpine Aire Foods. We gobbled these up with great taste, no cleanup and kept working with full bellies. Both were excellent and depending on flavours, I would recommend both brands. The both are easy to rehydrate and the taste is more than adequate. For example, to heat and serve the chicken and mashed potatoes, remove the mashed potato packet from the pouch. Add hot water and rehydrate the chicken breast, remove chicken and use the water to make mashed potatoes. Serve and eat. Nom, nom. Yum!

This past week, we gave good reviews to the rice and chicken, mexican style chicken and rice, lasagna and well… everyone was a little afraid to try the ice cream, but it is next on the list. These are expensive, but well preserved with a long shelf life of 7 years for pouches and closer to ten or more for #10 cans. We are buying a few more and will probably pick up a few for each car and backpack “just in case.” Well okay, we will probably pick up a few for those backyard campouts as well!

Next on the list, I SO want to try some Mary Jane’s Organic BackPack Foods. This looks incredibly good and love all the extra information about the company and philosophy. That’s being Ready with responsibility!

This has some nastiness potential, but it seems all government agencies including the CDC and WHO are doing all the right things for social containment. World Health Organization has declared the Swine Flu Epidemic and International Public Health Emergency which gives them the personnel and resources to follow, track and support the local agencies.

For information on how to respond and recognize symptoms, review the sites above. Now is a good time to top off any over the counter medications to support a flu like illness and check expiration dates on medicines. Make sure you have current medications for diarrhea, fever reducing medication, and rehydration solutions. Have on hand Pedialyte or similar such as Gatorade diluted with water to support an illness of stomach flu symptoms. If you are out at the store, make sure you have some easy to store foods requiring little or no preparation such as soups, juices and teas.

Finally, make sure you keep good disinfectants on hand and remember to wash hands often, keep surfaces clean, and cough or sneeze into tissues that are disposed of properly. Watch your local news for updates and take the time to talk about Pandemic preparedness with your family since it is on the news anyway.

Follow recent events using these resources:

Use the HealthMap to track events for last 30 days.

Subscribe to the RSS feed for news from the World Health Organization.

Subscribe to Breaking News Online for updates via Twitter
@CDCemergency and @breakingnews

Flu Wiki Forum and FluWiki website. Maybe a little more anecdotal, but full of information.

The journey officially begins in May after we finish renovating our 1998 Fleetwood Bounder. We will move into our RV and live in it “full-timing.” Not necessarily traveling, but mostly parked at RV sites in our metro area. Weekends will be spent in town or at our land where we will work on developing a weekend getaway in the country.

After months of research and test drives, we purchased the RV last month from Best PreOwned RV and have started some basic updates and renovations. The 35’ gas powered RV has been mechanically checked and the onboard living appliances tested. We just replaced the carpet with new flooring, but didn’t quite get the chance to make sure the new wood was as earth friendly as possible before installation. It may come out someday and be recycled for something more sustainable, but we will work with what we have for now. We have ordered no V.O.C. paint from the helpful staff at www.newliving.net and are currently deciding on countertop and tankless water heater options. One of our goals is to decrease our footprint, be more earth friendly and responsible towards our self and our neighbors. So far, pretty good. Anticipation is building!

The biggest challenge is rightsizing, but we are finding it easier than expected. So far, quite a few large pieces of furniture have been placed in new homes through Craigslist and we continue to sort smaller items for upcoming garage sales and charitable donations. Some objects definitely hold memories attached, but letting some of those go for new adventures and travels seems like a fair trade when we wrestle with it a few days. The steadily reducing clutter is keeping us focused. Our new life will cause some choices, but we are looking forward to it and the lessons along the way.

How does this fit on the Ready Queen’s blog? We are planning on this providing us with options. Options to be more financially secure, live a responsible life, develop a second homesite outside of Houston for weather related emergencies and allow us to focus on simple living. Not the answer for everyone, but one we find is right and rightsized.

Pick a weekend, it can even be at random. If you need, tell your family ahead of time, but just shut off the power. Try it for 12 hours, a day… shoot, even a whole weekend. Put the car keys away, no shopping at the store, no internet… in fact, turn off the breakers at the electrical box. Ohhhh… this isn’t going to be easy. Nope. It is going to kind of suck. But, what if the power were off for 3 days from a storm and you couldn’t go to a hotel or family’s house? What would you need to be comfortable and safe?

If you really want to be strict, don’t use the water faucet’s either. Most major storms, floods, hurricanes totally jack with the water supply and it is usually regulated to a boil-only situation. Do you have enough water on hand for cooking and basic cleanliness?

You thought you were prepared and it would be uncomfortable, but you could hang. But, how about your family? How do you entertain the kids? Are there any special medications the family members need refrigerated or special diets to consider? Do you have a grill, is the propane bottle full? Extra bags of charcoal and lighter fluid? Can you unhook your garage door from the electric motor to get large items out?

The local energy companies in the Gulf region typically indicate that a small Category 1 Hurricane can leave residents without power for 7 to 10 days. A Category 2 can quickly extend that time to 2 weeks.

Mentally, run through this exercise a few times before the test and definitely before the real thing. Then, pick a day… you will feel better after the fact knowing how to keep your family happy and less stressed in a real power out situation.

A recent trip to the Houston Hurricane Preparedness Workshop and meeting the Houston Mosquite Control team taught me how poorly I had underestimated the aftermath of a severe rain and flooding. Recent midwest flooding in the United States has produced a hatch of epic proportions. “For example, last week, 3,674 mosquitoes were counted in Ames-area traps, compared with 182 for the same week last year, Bartholomay said Wednesday. Trap quantities are just a tiny snapshot of the true numbers of mosquitoes flying around.”  The relief workers are being run out of areas or hampered with their efforts. The same thing happened after Katrina in New Orleans. Fortunately for the midwest, they are not fighting the particular types of mosquitoes identified as carriers of the West Nile Virus.

If you plan on weathering a severe storm or returning to a hurricane or flood zone, bring lots of safety measures for working in the area. This also means considering your family and pets. Make sure you have basic quantities of repellent and in your work and emergency kits. Then add more. Here are some basic measures for mosquito control:

• Wear insect repellent containing deet, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus and apply it frequently. Don’t skimp, get 30% or greater percentage of Deet if possible.

• Drain standing water from backyard bird baths, discard old tires and other containers that trap water, and frequently replace water in wading pools. Don’t overwater plants and keep drains and woodpiles clean.

• Avoid going outside from dusk to dawn, peak activity times for some mosquitoes. Mosquito hatches can be present all day, but start as early as 3pm.

• Avoid dark clothes, which can absorb heat and make you more visible; choose neutral colors that blend in with the environment. Purchase mosquito netting for your head and cover other parts of exposed skin with netting if possible.

• Avoid perfumes and sweet-smelling lotions and cosmetics, including lavender scents, which attract mosquitoes.

• Perspiration is a lure, so wash after exercising or sweating heavily.

• Antihistamine tablets taken throughout mosquito season or after being bitten can help reduce bumps and itchiness.

Notes included from Chron.com and Associated Press.

My car keeps failing me L

It should start, Triple A came to the rescue during lunch…but just in case I have to give it another jump after work, does anyone have any cables?

This was the email around my office yesterday. We all snickered, gave our colleague a hard time, but also realized how dependent we are on knowing what to do vs. doing it?  Ask just about anyone, should you carry battery cables in your car? Few would deny that there should be a basic car kit. I replied back to the email with a quick yes and a link to the Red Cross site for recommended car kit. I couldn’t help myself. The real question is, how do you actually encourage someone to do something about it? What is the motivational factor required to not just think about insuring yourself or situation?

Not sure on the answer to that, I am sure it differs across situations and people. Either way, here is the list from the Red Cross.

Emergency Kit For Your Car

• Battery powered radio and extra batteries
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• Blanket
• Booster cables
• Fire extinguisher (5 lb., A-B-C type)
• First aid kit and manual
• Bottled water and non-perishable high energy foods, such as granola bars, raisins and peanut butter.
• Maps
• Shovel
• Tire repair kit and pump
• Flares

This is a minimum, but surely is a good start. There are tons of more extensive checklists out there. If you get adventurous, make one for yourself and for each car in your family!

From the blog:

Focused on providing families with the information they need as the hurricane season begins, this year’s workshop promises to be even more popular, with an agenda that includes:

• An update on hurricane forecasting techniques and the region’s 2008 hurricane outlook
• Emergency management experts explaining the latest plans for hurricane preparedness and evacuation along the upper Texas coast
• An interactive kids’ learning activity center

Free and open to the public, the 2008 Hurricane Workshop is once again being sponsored by CenterPoint Energy, the City of Houston the National Weather Service. Harris County, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston and the John C. Freeman Weather Museum are also active participants.

– Coupon carefully. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can buy a basket of groceries for pennies on the dollar. It involves using coupons, shopping sales, finding stores that double coupons and putting it all together carefully. One site to check for more information is www.hotcouponworld.com.

You can find coupons to match items on sale at your local grocer at www.thegrocerygame.com. Beware: Unless you’re using good coupons on products you would buy anyway, this can be a spending trap instead of a money-saving deal.

– Buy some good containers. Roughly 13 cents of every food dollar goes to packaging and advertising, and you’ll spend a lot more than that if you are always buying 100-calorie snack packs and tiny bags of chips to send to school with your kids. Buy some reusable containers, buy your favorite products in bulk and make your own individual packages.

– Use meat for flavor, not bulk. A mixture of meat and beans over pasta or rice will satisfy those who love the taste of meat and poultry, but cut costs significantly than eating large cuts of meat.

– Make your dollar buy more nutrition. Instead of buying sugar-coated cereals, white bread and chips, buy items like whole-grain bread and oatmeal. Instead of candy, buy fruit. Popcorn that you pop yourself has been heralded for generations for being cheap, fun, nutritious and tasty.

– Buy frozen fish. Almost all of the “fresh” fish you buy has been frozen and thawed. Fish from the freezer section has often been frozen on the boat, so it’s equally fresh — and cheaper.

– Do your own work, as a family. You’re spending more on labor than on food when you buy lots of presliced, prewashed, preseasoned foods. Yet all the experts seem to agree that family mealtime is an important ritual. Extend the ritual by getting the whole family in on the slicing, dicing, cutting and stirring that dinner requires, even if it’s just a once-a-week cooking session. You’ll save money and maybe bond a little.

– Eat out judiciously. Last year restaurant prices actually rose less than grocery prices, but it still costs a lot more to eat out than to cook at home. Americans typically spend about half of their food budget eating out, according to the Agriculture Department. Cut the cost without cutting the fun by mixing it up: Have appetizers and drinks at home before going to the restaurant, or have dessert at home. Or buy a precooked, carry-out chicken, but fix your own side salad.

– Stock up on sales. You know you’re always going to use pasta, lightbulbs and toothpaste, so buy a bunch on sale. Sure, this is inflation mentality, but double-digit price increases on food means we’re in an inflationary environment, food wise. Furthermore, if you already have easy, good food in the pantry, you won’t have to run out at the last minute and buy over-priced convenience items just to throw together dinner.

– Grow your own. Oh sure, anyone who’s gardened has thrown too much money at their tomato plants. But some crops are more worth growing than others. Basil and other herbs, hot peppers, eggplant and lettuce are some items that are very easy to grow and are never cheap at the grocer or farm stand, even when they are in season.

– Make it fun. Save with a goal in mind so it becomes a game and not just drudgery. Shave $10 a week off of your food bill (that’s less than 10 percent for the typical household), and you can all do something special, like go see a movie at the end of every month — Of course you’ll bring your own snacks.

I really don’t like posting things like this. It seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if it is not true, media attention can make people believe there is a food shortage and cause panic buying. Self-fulfilling.

I will admit my first reaction was to rush to Costco’s and see prices and availability in my area. Maybe buy a few extra things to stock-up on. I didn’t, but will make a regular shopping trip this month. Let me know if you notice any changes in availability in your area.