After I got over the shock of what Bryan told us I decided I need to get busy. I told my son to come and help me get some things out of the garage rafters. He had no idea what I was after but he knew me well enough to know that if I didn't do something I would go nuts. When we got out to the garage I grabbed the ladder and had him hold it while I climbed up it. Then I started pulling a board down. I told him to take it carefully because it was full of nails sticking up. He looked at me like I was crazy but did what I asked. I kept pulling boards down and handing them to him. When I had got the last board down I climbed off the ladder. I then told him that once it got dark we would be putting these boards, nail points up under all the windows on the first floor of the house then we would cover them with leaves so no one would see them. Then it hit him what I was talking about. He wanted to know when I had put all those nails in the boards and put them in the rafters. I told him I had been doing it all summer while his dad was in the house and he was at work. I must say that he was impressed with his old momma.
I grabbed the box of seeds and told him we should go into the house so I could fix dinner before it got dark. While dinner was cooking I looked through the box of seeds. There was every kind of vegetable seed in there that I could imagine and there was enough to last at least two years. All of them heirlooms seeds. My husband opened the box of ammo and he told me there were at least 10,000 rounds of 22 LR in it. We thanked God right then for giving us such a wonderful neighbor.
When it finally started getting dark my son and I laid out the nail boards under the windows and covered them really well with dirt and dried leaves. We had plenty of those since it was Oct and the leaves were falling fast. Tomorrow I will be taking screws and screwing all the upstairs windows shut and then covering them with the half inch plywood that I had precut to fit them. I will take the moulding off the windows first so I can screw the boards directly into the studs that surround the windows. There is one window I will leave uncovered since it is on the second floor and no one can reach it with out a 16 foot ladder and I just can not see some one dragging one of those around with them. Neither John or our son knows I have the plywood yet.
I also have pylwood panels cut to fit the bottom halves of all the down stairs windows. Our window are high enough that as long as I cover the bottom halves people will have a hard time trying to get in at the top. I want to be able to get some sunlight into the house during the day time to help get some warmth from the sun in during the winter. I also need to get the kerosene from the garage and bring it in to the house to store it. We are going to need it soon with the temps getting down in the low 40's at night now.
I have been scrounging around for the past few months and I finally have enough to make a rocket heater for the house . I will be putting it in the diningroom and getting it ready for use when the kerosene runs out. Even though I have 100 gallons of kerosene it won't last long when you need 2 gallons a day to keep warm and cook during the winter.
Today while I was outside I had noticed that a lot of the neighbors were out cooking big batches of food on their grills. If they don't watch it they will be running out of food soon. Tomorrow I am going to start canning up the food I have in the freezer. It will take me about two weeks to can it all but I can use the generator a hour or so a day to keep the freezer frozen till its empty. Then I am going to clean it out good and use it to store some of the bottled water I have. I filled up both bathtubs today and the washer to have water for flushing. I imagine the water tower is starting to get pretty low now so we will soon be out of clean water. I am no longer going to be using that water for cooking until after it has been boiled and filtered. And even then only if I have no other choice.
I out of my mind with worry about my daughter and her family. They are over an hour away from us and I know they don't have enough to make it a week let alone months or years. She knows that if there is any way she can get here I have enough to feed them to. Even though I worry about my oldest son and his family I know he can manage. Twenty years in the Army has taught him enough to make it through. He is a strong man and I am proud of him. He will protect and care for his family down to his dying breathe if need be.
I wonder how soon other family members will be showing up. I know of at least 3 I expect to come and I have prepped with them in mind as well as my kids and their families. The rest I will have to turn away. I know I will have to live with the guilt of turning them away but when they could have been spending their money on prepping they were instead spending it on fancy cars, eating out and concerts while we sat home doing with out those things while I spent every penny I could on prepping. My kids and grandkids will always come before any one else no matter what.
I grabbed the box of seeds and told him we should go into the house so I could fix dinner before it got dark. While dinner was cooking I looked through the box of seeds. There was every kind of vegetable seed in there that I could imagine and there was enough to last at least two years. All of them heirlooms seeds. My husband opened the box of ammo and he told me there were at least 10,000 rounds of 22 LR in it. We thanked God right then for giving us such a wonderful neighbor.
When it finally started getting dark my son and I laid out the nail boards under the windows and covered them really well with dirt and dried leaves. We had plenty of those since it was Oct and the leaves were falling fast. Tomorrow I will be taking screws and screwing all the upstairs windows shut and then covering them with the half inch plywood that I had precut to fit them. I will take the moulding off the windows first so I can screw the boards directly into the studs that surround the windows. There is one window I will leave uncovered since it is on the second floor and no one can reach it with out a 16 foot ladder and I just can not see some one dragging one of those around with them. Neither John or our son knows I have the plywood yet.
I also have pylwood panels cut to fit the bottom halves of all the down stairs windows. Our window are high enough that as long as I cover the bottom halves people will have a hard time trying to get in at the top. I want to be able to get some sunlight into the house during the day time to help get some warmth from the sun in during the winter. I also need to get the kerosene from the garage and bring it in to the house to store it. We are going to need it soon with the temps getting down in the low 40's at night now.
I have been scrounging around for the past few months and I finally have enough to make a rocket heater for the house . I will be putting it in the diningroom and getting it ready for use when the kerosene runs out. Even though I have 100 gallons of kerosene it won't last long when you need 2 gallons a day to keep warm and cook during the winter.
Today while I was outside I had noticed that a lot of the neighbors were out cooking big batches of food on their grills. If they don't watch it they will be running out of food soon. Tomorrow I am going to start canning up the food I have in the freezer. It will take me about two weeks to can it all but I can use the generator a hour or so a day to keep the freezer frozen till its empty. Then I am going to clean it out good and use it to store some of the bottled water I have. I filled up both bathtubs today and the washer to have water for flushing. I imagine the water tower is starting to get pretty low now so we will soon be out of clean water. I am no longer going to be using that water for cooking until after it has been boiled and filtered. And even then only if I have no other choice.
I out of my mind with worry about my daughter and her family. They are over an hour away from us and I know they don't have enough to make it a week let alone months or years. She knows that if there is any way she can get here I have enough to feed them to. Even though I worry about my oldest son and his family I know he can manage. Twenty years in the Army has taught him enough to make it through. He is a strong man and I am proud of him. He will protect and care for his family down to his dying breathe if need be.
I wonder how soon other family members will be showing up. I know of at least 3 I expect to come and I have prepped with them in mind as well as my kids and their families. The rest I will have to turn away. I know I will have to live with the guilt of turning them away but when they could have been spending their money on prepping they were instead spending it on fancy cars, eating out and concerts while we sat home doing with out those things while I spent every penny I could on prepping. My kids and grandkids will always come before any one else no matter what.