Preparedness- are we ready?

In light of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter on Sandy's heels, it really got me thinking about how truly prepared we were to face a natural disaster that could leave us without power for days or weeks.

In all our efforts to live sustainably and self-sufficiently from our own land, I'm not sure my family has truly examined our level of preparedness if something were to occur in our region. Sure, we have canned food and extra water, but we haven't stockpiled necessities like batteries, flash lights, gasoline, and other essentials. And what we do have we certainly don't have enough of to last several weeks.

some of our canned food rations in our pantry

A few advantages to our ability to survive on our own would be that we have working fireplaces and firewood stocked up that could supply heat if our heating system failed, we have a battery powered radio set up and ready to go, and as long as our chickens are here with us and fed, we could live off our garden, wild greens and other forest edibles, and the hens' eggs/meat for quite a while.

With that said, I'm taking some steps now to prepare an emergency box or case with several needed items corralled together all in one place.

Our list of emergency supplies will include:

-Berkey Water Filter (this can turn any type of water into potable drinking water)
-flash lights, batteries, candles and matches
-a supply of seasoned firewood
-gasoline
-non-perishable canned food and water, manual can opener
-blankets and/or sleeping bags
-plastic tent or other protective covering
-sanitation and first aid supplies
-toilet paper
-knife and shotgun
-paper and pencil
-cooking oil
-aluminum foil
-garbage bags
-tools
-basic baking/cooking supplies
-salt
-fishing supplies
-duct tape
-baking soda and white vinegar (can be used for so many things)
-small safe with important documents
-survival guide book


I'm sure there is so much more I could add to this list. Every so many months, we will try to use up what is in our emergency kit in terms of food and resupply it. We also plan on investing in a generator. Although expensive, a generator is something we could desperately need since our water runs on electricity.

We have most of these things in the house already, but the difficulty is having them grouped together in a way that would be easy to grab and go if our house were to become damaged or uninhabitable.

So, what about you? Do you have an emergency disaster kit already prepared? I'd love to hear your suggestions of other items that would be important to add to this list!

Turkey Coop Progress

What's that you say?? Yes, friends, you read it right: WE ARE GETTING TURKEYS!!!!

I am so excited to be adding some new animals to our little homestead in the early spring. We are choosing a heritage breed, called Bourbon Reds, to raise primarily for meat. Not sure how they will interact with the chickens, but hopefully everyone will learn to get along :) 

image source, attribution

We are planning to use the partially enclosed, partially open area behind our shed for the turkey pen. We will enclose this area with poultry wire, and we've made a roost for them to sleep on that is underneath the sheltered portion of the back of the shed. We plan to keep the poults here in the pen for the first several weeks until they learn where home is, and then we will let them out to free range. I have heard from many turkey owners that turkeys are just as happy to sleep every night roosting up in trees.

poultry wire will be applied to the metal posts

The back of our shed is partially sheltered--perfect for the turkeys to sleep under

home-made turkey roost out of bamboo

I expect the turkeys to spend most of their time out in the woods that surround our property, and we will just pray they won't all get eaten by predators!

turkey coop looking out-- see the chickens in the background? They will have to learn to share their foraging space!

Once next November rolls around, they should be quite large and ready for processing. We plan to dress one out for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas :) If we are lucky we might have an extra breeding pair we can use for next year! Did you know that something like 98% of all turkeys in the United States are artificially inseminated? Apparently over the years we have nearly bred the natural mating and reproduction process out of these birds, who rarely get to reach one full year in their life-span.

 I guess it's time to stock up on the turkey poult feed before the prices shoot up. Do any of you raise turkeys? How different do you find them from chickens?

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