We had another quiet month around the property.  Last month, we prepared to hold a yard sale in the shop.  This month, we held the sale.  Would have liked for a few more items to find new homes, but the items that did find new homes seemed to please their new owners.

Now, I’m packing up from the yard sale.  Mr. L still wants to get the showroom ceiling painted, and we don’t want anything laying around below to get spattered when he’s doing his Michelangelo impression — with silver paint.

Our local community has an annual clean-up day where they open the dump, and anyone with a current water bill can bring debris and junk for drop off. It was last Saturday.  Last year, we loaded up a trailer with mattresses from the shop, and they unloaded them in minutes and sent us on our our way.  The first load was on the trailer and ready to go by last Thursday — mattresses, box springs, some metal cabinets, an upholstered chair, a few other bulky items.  The second load was a cabinet TV, a coffee table, and some old appliances.  We haven’t gotten the compressors removed from the refrigerator and freezer yet, so we’ll try those next year.  It feels good to get this stuff out of the shop.  It’s stuff I wouldn’t feel comfortable even giving to someone (we put that stuff out on bulk pick up trash day, and it usually disappears before the trash guys pick it up).  If we take a trailer load any other day of the year, we have to buy a permit at City Hall for $80 per load on a 16′, two-axle trailer, so this is a great deal for the local citizens.

I did a little trimming in the yard.  That’s a never-ending process.  I mowed at the store.  Mr. L has been focusing on decluttering in the house, and the areas where he’s focused look great.

We’re working on a few things with an eye for preparedness.  For instance, I need to rotate the generator fuel (by pouring it into the truck gas tanks) and get fresh fuel.  I need to pour the emergency water onto the yard and replenish it with fresh supplies (I’ve been reluctant to do that, because we’ve been under a voluntary boil order for nearly a year, and I figure whatever water I have in the containers is safer than what I’d put in from the faucet.  I suppose I could boil a lot of water and store it, but I don’t want to do that much work.  Alternatively, I could lay in a supply of water purification tablets (which I need to do anyway), and not worry about it.  I rotate foods in the pantry as a matter of course, but I periodically need to check it to make sure something haven’t gotten pushed aside.  We do a few other things for preparedness as well.  I am primarily concerned with what we would need if we were without power or water for up to a week.  Ideally, I’d be prepared for a longer time than that (but what is the right amount of time?), but we haven’t decided what’s best for us, yet.

How about you?  What’s the right amount of emergency preparedness for you and your family?