After I posted this morning, I had a busy day of prepping dinner, taking the kids to their swimming lesson, visiting a sick friend and so on, but I jotted down some more thoughts concerning this whole topic.

1. I’m making sure that we’re all up to date on our dental and eye exams. (This annoyingly means that I am looking forward to a small filling next week, but at least I am not procrastinating about getting it done.)

2. I won’t be planning any long distance travel, particularly air travel, after my silver wedding retreat in early December.

3. I am making sure that all family members are kitted out with warm clothes in good condition. After years of wearing thrift store boots that don’t fit well and are not keeping my feet warm anymore, I have invested in some new snowboots that claim to keep me warm down to minus 50! Only $39 at Walmart.

4. If you want to see a really comprehensive survival list, google LDS or Latter Day Saints. These guys have been doing this stuff for years. It seems they like to plan for a year of self-sufficiency and they have lots of good advice (though I won’t be following the recommendations for guns and ammo!)

5. If the kids won’t have their video games and other electronic toys while the power’s out, it’s a good idea to have books, board games, playing cards around – remember those?!

6. A piece of advice from someone on a Ravelry thread before Hurricane Sandy hit – clean your house. After a week of not cleaning, the house stinks and you’ll be glad it started out clean. Also keep your laundry up to date.

7. And one from me. We have a propane campstove which I can use with my regular pans. But I found a small cast iron frying pan at the thrift store which I could use on an open fire without any worries of spoiling it. I also have plenty of sticks that the boys have amassed from our walks, which we could use to wrap bannock around and cook over an open fire.

8. Do any mending that requires a sewing machine sooner rather than later. I have a quilt that I have been patching by hand but the edging needs machining. It’s on my To Do list.