72 Hour Kits

Corey and I decided that when we sold the yellow beast, we'd put some of that money toward completing our 72 hour kits. We kinda, sorta, used to have one. When we were young and dumb and newly married, we bought the MREs for a 72 hour kit, bought a few ponchos and emergency blankets and called it good.

Well, the MREs expired last year and we decided to give them a taste to see what they were like. *gag* Just looking at the ingredients list makes me feel like I'm poisoning myself. So we tossed them out and never replaced them.

The earthquake in Japan made us rethink our need for the kits. Thinking about people suffering without blankets is more than I can bear. I don't want that to happen to our family, so here's what we've done so far:

We bought a tent. It's a small 4 person tent, so if we had to use it, I'm sure it would be very cramped. But it would go a long way toward keeping us warm and dry in an emergency. We got it on sale for $30 last week at Big 5.

We got more emergency blankets (the silver space looking kind) and some ponchos. We got two big knives, two LED flashlights, two candles, whistles and two magnesium fire starters

We already had a mess kit and a fork, knife and spoon set along with waterproof matches.

We need to get:
Food-Corey thinks the dehydrated pouches would be best, since they're lightweight. I am not so sure, but am willing to try one out to see what it's like. The biggest problem with these is that they take up a lot of space. We'll have to see. We've also considered adding a jar of peanut butter and some crackers to help with fat and protein.

Water-for 3 days, we'll need fifteen gallons of water for all of us. There is no way we could carry that; that would be like 125 pounds at least! So we'll have some bottled water and we'll get a water filter. We'll also get a collapsible water jug and either some iodine or chlorine tablets. Bc water is a very big must and if you can't carry it and can't boil it (uses too much fuel) you'll have to use the tablets.

Shelter/Warmth: We have a tent, we have the emergency blankets and we have ponchos. We are thinking of getting these sleeping bags. When they are so cheap and take up so little room, there's no reason to skimp. I'd rather have too much than too little. We'll probably get two of these wool blankets. Note: we are buying a lot of things in pairs so that each backpack can have one, that way if one of the backpacks get lost, we'll still have one. We'll also buy two of these tents. Again cheap and take up little space. If we can't grab our big tent, these will still be useful. And if we do grab our big tent, the plastic can be used for something else.

Clothing: We need to make sure we have warm clothing for everyone. I don't think we need three days worth, maybe just one or two. Corey saw on a blog that someone else put theirs in vacuum bags. Well, lucky for us we have some spare vacuum bags. We'll probably just be buying cheap sweats for everyone. If it's hot out, we can cut off some of the material and use it for fuel. That seems to be our mantra, "Well, if we end up not using it, we can always burn it" We have to gather enough diapers, which will be a pain. I'm not sure how many they'll need to last three days. But I think Harper will be moving up to a size three soon, so at least her and Malcolm will be in the same size.

First Aid: We'll need to get a basic first aid kit.

We need to get backpacks. I'm thinking these ones are the only ones that will do, since Corey and I will be the only ones able to carry anything. Also, back when Malcolm was born, I got 5 yards of Jersey knit to make a moby wrap. I never did for him. But a few weeks ago, when we went to the birthday party at the park, I realized too late that Corey had the stroller in the car and there was no way I'd be able to make it to the park carrying Harper in the car seat. I'd already sold my Baby Bjorn, so there was no choice but to pull the fabric out and make a Moby. It wasn't too bad. I was planning on selling or getting rid of the rest of the fabric, but we think it would be best to cut up the rest of the fabric and make two more Mobies. One for each pack. That way we'll be able to carry Harper and even Malcolm if we need to. The plus side of that is that, they won't take up a lot of room in the pack and if we need to, we can always burn it for fuel.

We'll also get some duct tape and some nylon rope. And maybe some work gloves and a shovel. Sunscreen would probably be good and some extra fishing line (it's strong) and some garbage bags and some hand and feet warmers.

We'll have everything absolutely essential in the backpacks. The tent and some other non essentials will go in a duffel bag. On our closet door we'll have a list of what to grab, depending on the time we have and whether we can take the car or not. If we can grab the car, we can take a lot, canned food, dried fruit, more blanket, our hard drives, etc.

I don't know, we're not very sure about what we need. There are probably other blogs out there that are better than this. But something is better than nothing.

Safely Gathered In
Self Reliant sisters

Corey had found another one that looked good, but I can't find it. If I find it later, I'll post it.