Sunday, April 26, 2009

How-To of the Month: How to Be Prepared...

I am embarking on the quest...yet again...to begin and maintain an effort to get our family preparedness in order. Food storage, emergency plans, financial reserve, gardening, 72-hour kits. All the good stuff.
Knowing it's important, I've had it on the brain pretty heavily for the past four or five years. Knowing I would like to not have an implosion of my brain, I have avoided focusing too much on it. Right or wrong...that's where I've been. BUT now I am ready.
I've been feeling ready for so many things lately.
(And NO, that is in no way meant to imply that another baby is or will be coming. End of story.)

Anyway, the point is, with some good advice, tools, and references in hand I am traveling the path of preparedness once again, this time with every intent to master the art. I haven't mastered my master plan yet (I always have a master plan)...it's still in the works...but the gist of it is that I'll be doing a little every month and within a year I hope to have a pretty good foundation and after that it will be all about maintenance and tweaking. 
I like tweaking things to the point of perfection.  My sister and I call this our Monkishness.
It's a gift and a curse.
But back to the point...one of the things on my checklist this month:
Tents. We already have a big family tent (not that we've used it as a family...haha...now THAT would be an emergency only activity at this point!) so I needed small ones to put in our 72-hour kits. 
Apparently, these kinds of tents are called tube tents.  Makes me think of an immodest top.

Said tube tents were ordered since nowhere around here decided to cater to my specific needs and carry them...and one day this week, they came in the mail!
Right after rest time when we needed something fun and sort of quiet to do since Ben was still sleeping.
Naturally, the following:


The packaging said to slip the rope through the tube of...tent...and secure to two trees or two car doors (and I'm thinking...then wouldn't you just sleep in the cars...?).
We chose a door handle and a vacuum.
Don't worry, it's a sturdy vacuum.


It said to (argh! My blog is doing that weird thing where it turns my words into a strange color and I can't figure out how to stop it!)...
Anyway, it said to lay down the sleeping bag or whatever would be inside to hold down the "floor" of the tent.
We chose throw pillows.
For the record, not heavy enough.
But two kids crawling around inside seemed to both hold the floor down and simultaneously bring the walls in in a staticy manner.

Oh, and create a few smiles among all that static electricity.

It feels like a strange place to start...but at least I know if we are ever in a situation where we have to use this strange form of shelter, it will not be an unfamiliar thing to the kids!
And I know that throw pillows have no place in them.

2 comments:

katielizabethawkes said...

I couldn't quit giggling once you made the comment about just sleeping in the cars. Duh...

Also...the static suction of the tent walls looked like fun...slash maybe a little nervous if i had been in the enclosed space.

Today's word: Cheissio. A cheesy game of Italian chess. Mama mia! (As in not that weirdo movie we paid 50 cents to see...)

Carrie said...

haha. tube tent. LOL