How to avert a water crisis ...

It seems these days everyone is concerned with emergency rations and supplies. Let me just say that I am NOT an 'end of the world nut'.  However, I do believe in preparing for emergencies. And there is somewhat of a point in some of their theories. Please let me explain...

Not only do I live out in the country, I grew up living way out in the country. Country life helps prepare you for emergency situations. In the country you don't just run down the block to get groceries or supplies from the hardware store. You need to be prepared. 
One of my 'oddities' as my husband like to call it is that I keep quite a few gallon jugs full of water in our basement. He used to get such a kick out this. He could never understand why I did 'such a foolish thing'... until this past weekend. 

My husband is an early riser; he's mostly up before 6 every day. On Sunday, when he awoke we had no water. After checking to see if the pipes were frozen, he discovered that our water pump's motor had burnt out. (Luckily my husband is quite the handyman and can fix these kinds of things!) Needless to say, he quickly found how much water is taken for granted...he couldn't flush toilets, or shower, or brush teeth, or most important...make coffee. The poor guy found out all of this before my son and I woke.  Then a light bulb turned on; he remember all the jugs of water that he made fun of me for in the basement! By the time my son and I awoke, he had a jug in each bathroom, one at the kitchen sink, and was no longer laughing at me. He finally understood why I had all of those jugs of water. You see although he laughed at me I was preparing for emergencies, just not the kind he tried to associate it with. You never know when something is going to happen. You could loose power, your well could run dry, your pump could burn out, etc. And if you live out in the country, it isn't always easy to just run to the store.


Be ecOnomical and prepared... fill gallon jugs with water from your tap and store them. I recommened at least 2 gallons per person per day. I try to keep at least three days worth of water in our basement. And so it's always fresh, I water my plants each week (rotating two jugs). I know to some people it might seem crazy or over board, but it saved us this past weekend. Not only were we still able to have drinking water and coffee, we were able to flush the toilets, wash ourselves, brush our teeth and do some dishes! And I've only rubbed the 'see I told you so' in a little bit!