apocalypse « Robin Writes

I took a road trip this weekend to Kansas City. It was, yes, the 101^st Missouri Writers Guild conference, and normally a four-hour trip, but it got me to thinking.

Many, if not most, preppers have a BOB in their vehicles for those little emergencies, and a lot of “regular” people have at least a car-type emergency kit, which usually consists of some tools, flares, and maybe a blanket or some kitty litter in the winter.

Since we’ve spent so much time on the road the past year, I’ve been careful to keep our BOBs replenished and ready for almost anything:

Matches, knives, heat blankets, water, jerky, applesauce in a pouch (it sounds gross, and maybe is, but it was on sale), water bottles, and some granola and extra ammo. I also carry maps, very detailed ones, and a first aid kit, as well as all the car kit paraphernalia.

And of course, we had all our necessities in our luggage.

This is one of the simplest preps you can do, and it’s not just for SHTF. You could be a traffic jam, accident, overheated car, out of gas, or a flat tire—which we narrowly avoided on the return trip last night.

It goes without saying that you should ALSO know how to use these things, from maps to weapons to tire irons. And practice! The side of the road is no place to figure out what goes where and how to do it and what happens next.

Especially when you manage to wander around in a pretty sketchy area of a major city for twenty minutes or so, all in the name of “adventure!”

A lot. That sums it up nicely, but makes for a very boring story . . .

We’ve planted the April half of the garden:

Two-year asparagus crowns and some seed, just in case;

Potatoes;

Spinach;

Onions;

A few tomato plants, and have some starters to put out next week;

Carrots;

Cabbage;

Garlic;

And kale.

And of course, we have herbs growing on the back porch: cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, and a few others. Next week, we’ll add beans, corn, cucumbers, squash, melons, and peppers to the garden.

So far, NO DEER!

They come up the house and hang out and eat corn and mess with the salt block almost every night; the first wave usually arrives around 9:30 for a few hours and the next one shows up about 4:30 in the morning.

We also added two cherry trees to the orchard and two more blueberry bushes. We’re cultivating a section of wild raspberries and started two grapevines—all of this is INSIDE the FUD. Thank goodness.

I’ve put in some flowers around the house and moved a few iris. I swear, there are bulbs all over this place, and in random spots. Planted my rose cuttings from the St. Louis house and started a few more.

Last Saturday, we went to an auction about 45 minutes away. Came home with two ATVs, a newer tiller, a saddle, and a blade. My husband has been having fun with that ATV and blade—but naturally, my ATV needed some work, so the poor guy spent all day yesterday tinkering with it.

Oh, it runs. Until it doesn’t.

I think I could get used to going out in the woods on this, though. Its name is le Pew. Since the Mule was christened Pepe and both machines are quite contrary, I figured they were related.

Remember that rock crop? When we had the garden plowed, the guy brought his wife and kids to pick up rocks. Now we have a huge pile by my old rock wall; I call it the snake pile. Haven’t seen one yet, but am being very, very careful! I’ve been moving rocks up to the house to stabilize the bottom of the lattice around the decks.

And I swear that snake pile is growing. It never seems to get smaller.