The Campfire Trail: January 16 - The Campfire Trail - My Lack of "Biscuit Preparedness"

January 16, 2024

Day 838 of the Adventure

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I was fully planning my post today to be about Biscuits! My recent rant over the cost of "Womp-um" biscuits prompted a commitment to find a great home-made biscuit recipe. In my excitement, I used up all of the milk making gravy without thinking that all of the snow would prevent me from getting more milk and other ingredients for the biscuits. Fortunately I still had one final tube of "instant biscuits" left in the refrigerator. I guess that's a testimony to my being "un-prepared". So, speaking of preparedness, or lack of it, I've found another reason to jump on one of my favorite soapbox subjects.

As I checked through my various newsfeeds this early morning, I noticed a flurry of conversational activity surrounding a City Utilities message that went out regarding energy usage. Specifically on how conservation measures needed to be practiced during this spell of frigid weather. At the same time I was seeing this, the Weather Channel was attempting to instruct people in the southern states how and what to do about the sub-freezing temperatures currently affect them as the cold raged through their states. In both cases, here locally and in the south, was trying to prepare people for an extreme situation. Something many of them are not prepared for. This brings me to the subject of preparedness. In the case of the folks down south where extreme cold weather is seldom an issue, they aren't typically concerned with cold weather preparedness. Not because of anything other than it's not part of their "Normal". Where residents of the north don't even need to be told to drip faucets, for example, southerner may not even know that's a thing. It's not normally a thing up north either simply because they have prepared for the cold by burying waterline deep enough for that to not be an issue. Preparedness is necessary dependent upon factors that vary. Having lived in the north and now in the mid-south, cold seldom catches me off-guard. Usually only when something breaks down that I wasn't expecting or "prepared" for outside of the typical cold preparing I've already done. Preparedness beyond our control would be City Utilities suggesting we be prepared for the possibility of high electrical demand and potential electrical service disruptions. Knowing that is a routine annual possibility around here, we are also prepared for that with our alternate source of heat (woodstove and lots of firewood) and a solar/battery back-up. to take things a step further, there's a pair of generators to back all of that up. Back-up, back-up generators as Burt Gummer would say.

Preparedness goes beyond extreme weather situations. I'm concerned with the general lack of preparedness I see in other areas related to food, energy and economic conditions. It's all subjects for another day, but worth taking a few moments to think about as wages stagnate and costs of living continue to rise. More importantly the general direction of inflation and potential recessionary possibilities indicate at some level of preparedness would be prudent. All things to consider.

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “there's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst.”

― Stephen King

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