January 27, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

This morning, I was much less than thrilled to hear the local forecasters predicting a major storm.  We often joke in this area that the local chain supermarket pays the weather man on the only Asheville TV station to forecast much more snow than we’ll wind up getting in a bid to sell extra milk, bread, eggs and bottled water.  Historically, they predict worse weather than we wind up getting so many people cook French Toast in their warm homes the morning after the storm, but this year that has not been so.

This could potentially be our second major storm this winter, with the prediction that we might get large amounts of snow beginning on Thursday.  We did see snow Monday and it’s been quite cold this week, so I won’t be surprised if we do wind up with another big storm. We went through an extended storm in December that dumped 15 inches of snow with 2-3 foot drifts with the power out for a few days and three downed trees on our house.  Some people in the immediate area went without power for a week.  Due to icy conditions on our roller-coaster road with no curb and sudden drops off the sides and multiple trees downed across the road, we were stuck in our house for a week.  We have one ‘hill’ at the top of our road that if you drive over at any real speed, you get the sinking feeling in your gut that you’ve just gone over the edge, like cresting the big hill at the beginning of a roller coaster.  We knew that getting out would be difficult at best since none of our vehicles have 4WD.  You might notice in the picture above that we’re living on a 3:1 slope and there are steeper places in our neighborhood.  The snow from that storm took over a month to melt on our little patch of the wooded mountain.  These storms are quite unusual for our area, but we must be prepared for them in case it does get bad.

Here is a list of what I do to prepare for a Winter snow or ice storm that could involve an extended power outage. Read the rest of this entry »

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January 22, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

If you had one hour to leave your house, knowing that when you return it might not be there, what would you take with you?

Growing up in Florida, we never had more than minor damage to our home from a hurricane, but we had multiple friends and close family who literally lost everything but what they evacuated with in Hurricane Ivan in 2004.  They came home to unsalvageable houses after the storm, when authorities finally let them back into their neighborhoods.  What little was left from the flooding was covered in mold and severely water damaged after sitting under water for days.  Read the rest of this entry »

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January 21, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

I was born and raised in Pensacola, FL, where hurricanes and their resultant tornadoes are an expected part of each summer.  We stayed home for them all and prepared for the potential flooding, damage and power outages that come with the territory, no mater their severity, realizing that it was just part of choosing to live in Florida. One of my earliest memories is getting out during the eye of a hurricane with my parents in the short period of time that it was sunny with no rain, to go check on an elderly neighbor since the phones were down.  The eye of the storm came up so quickly from the severe weather we were having that the calm was startling to me.

Currently living in the Appalachian Mountains, we don’t worry about the severe winds and surging tide from a hurricane, but we do worry about flash flooding taking out roads or ice storms and severe winds bringing down power, damaging the house and making our very steep road impassable.  We also have to give consideration to the nearby river in case it floods.  Several years ago, flooding from the remnants of a hurricane that came up through the Gulf of Mexico devastated this area and some roads are still not repaired.   Right before Christmas we had a snowstorm that brought in 15 inches of snow and had three trees fall on the house due to the ice that occurred after the storm.  We went without power for several days in severe (for this area) cold, and it was several days longer before our curvy and steep road was cleared of multiple downed trees and the road was plowed so we could get out.

Sometimes when disaster strikes, you have to stay where you are.  If you are unable to leave your home or you choose to stay during a disaster, it is called sheltering in place.  There are a number of things you can do in order to make sheltering in place a more pleasant experience.  Being prepared ahead of time for a potential loss of power, water and essential services can make life much easier for your entire family while you wait for things to return to normal.

What you should have on hand for sheltering in place depends largely on the type of crisis you could face.  Think about where you live.  Are you located near a river or body of water that could flood?   What roads cross that river and can you get around without them?  Don’t let the 100-year flood plain fool you, that 100 year flood has to happen sometime.  Anyone in weather, geology or urban planning can tell you that two one-hundred year floods can occur back to back.  Are hurricanes or earthquakes a possibility?  Tornadoes or severe weather that could take out power for a week?  What about forest fires, a flood or a train wreck taking out a road you need to reach town?  Maybe you still have power, but you can’t get to a store or easily get to medical treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

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January 17, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

The world has watched in horror as the crisis in Haiti unfolds, as we did a almost five years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Haiti and Katrina have two things in common, both that we can learn from.  First, if the event is not extremely localized such as a tornado or chemical plant explosion, you can not expect help to come for 72 hours at the earliest.  Depending on where you are located and the severity of the damage, it might take much longer.  Second, the only person you and your kids have to depend on until help arrives is you.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Natural Disasters, Bug-Out, Food Storage, Emergency Preparedness | Print | 1 Comment »

January 16, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

Ever since I laid eyes on it, I’ve been drooling over this beautiful dress shrug in the Knit 2 Together book by Tracy Ullman.  Because I can not machine knit the lace in the pattern on my Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine, I had to find something else to use.  Google to the rescue.  I’m currently working on learning Porcupine Quill Lace, as I thought it would be gorgeous attached to the shrug body.  So I picked up some Red Heart Baby Soft, which is 22 sts per 4 inches, the right gauge for the pattern.  It’s acrylic and cheap, so I figured it’s be great to learn on. Read the rest of this entry »

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January 12, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

Our 2009 Garden

The week before Christmas, we had 15 inches of snow unceremoniously dumped on us. We had a half-white Christmas. It still hasn’t completely melted. And we’ve had more snow repeatedly fall since then, more times than I care to count or remember. The end result of the white blanket was a total collapse of my garden structure. Today, it started snowing again. We chose to live in North Carolina, in part, because while it does get cold here for a few weeks a year, it normally doesn’t dump snow like this. Where’s that global warming we were warned about? It’s not here, because this is the coldest winter they’ve had in Asheville since before I was born!

The end result of all of this white mess? Garden Fever.

Read the rest of this entry »

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January 11, 2010 by KerryAnn Foster.

For a while now, I have considered blogging as a way to share what I am working on, accomplishing and learning from day to day.  I wish to blog about a wide variety of topics including traditional foods, natural family living and home care, food storage, crafting, homesteading, gardening, homeschooling, homemaking, alternative health and anything else I am exploring at the time.  I hope it will be an enjoyable read and will give you inspiration for your own work to better your family.

I do so many different things and often have people ask me, “How do you do it all?”  So I decided for my first post to give you a peek into my day-to-day life.  Homeschooling, running a business and working full-time from home, crafting, running the forum, assisting my parents, gardening and livestock, plus all of the from-scratch cooking, cleaning and laundry that a household needs to run smoothly.

Many times, I believe part of the answer to “How do you do it all?” lies mostly in what I do not do.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Homeschooling, Routines, Organization- inside, Kids | Print | 5 Comments »