Planning Ahead To Have The Things We Want
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Each morning we get up and make a pot of coffee. We enjoy the morning ritual of drinking a cup of coffee, together or alone, to get the day started. And in the future if the world, as we know it, has ‘collapsed’ that doesn’t mean we still don’t want that morning cup.

We’ve discussed storing enough coffee to last us through most hard times. But what if the electricity is out, short or long-term, and the electric coffee grinder and the electric coffee maker don’t work? What’s the backup plan?

We have a hand coffee grinder, just like our grandparents would have had (if they had a hand coffee grinder…). With very little effort you turn the knob and grind the coffee into the attached jar. Or, of course, you could instead just store coffee that’s already ground.

Then what? We have two options to make our coffee: 1) a percolator, and 2) a french press. Both are easy and work well. With the percolator, you fill it with water, and put the ground coffee in the bin at the top. Then heat it, over your preferred heat source, until you see it “percolating” through the clear top portion. With the french press you put the ground coffee into the press, add water that you’ve previously boiled, then put the lid on and let it steep. After about five minutes, press the handle to the bottom of the pot and the coffee is ready to serve.

This backup plan, including redundancies, is just an example of ‘making a plan’ that allows you to still function–on a semi-normal level–even when the SHTF. This concept should be applied to everything you’d like to continue to be able to do: cooking meals, drinking clean water, having a warm/cool house, having available power, keeping your family safe, etc.

The key is to make a plan, put the pieces into place to be able to execute it, then PRACTICE it. Remember, we don’t get to choose our disaster, when it will be, or where we will be when it happens. But for now, we still have time to plan and prepare.

(Friday: What We Did This Week To Prep)