As thunder storms are scheduled to move in tonight, I always think do I know where the candles are? How about a lighter? Flashlight? Are the dishes done and laundry caught up?

But this is just a few hour storm. We’ve had a few hurricanes come our direction in the last few years and that requires too much preparation for me. But that has taught me to make sure to always have a couple gallons of water on hand as well as a case or two of bottles for drinking. I also now keep a lot more batteries on hand than I used to, and now visit Prepare Wise to make sure that I plan out our food accordingly as well.

PrepareWise.com specializes in food survival kits to make sure that in an emergency you can feed your family. Last time we had a hurricane move our direction, we went about 8 days without electricity (I know not as long as others but a long time for us). Our stove is electric so we did not have a way to cook, and to add to that the food in the freezer was thawing due to the lack of electricity. So we had food thawing and needing cooked and no way to cook it! YIKES.

Click here for more information about preparing for an emergency.

One of my best friends recently got married about 5 hours from where we live, and it got me thinking about how difficult it would be to plan a wedding from a distance. Five hours probably wasn’t so bad, but what if you were planning a wedding A LONG ways away. How do you manage? If you lived in Texas (like I do) and needed a philadelphia wedding photographer, how would you find one you really felt comfortable with? And even harder how would you pick you baker for your cake or a restaurant or company to provide food for the reception without tasting it? I don’t think I would have been able to plan the wedding she did that was 5 hours away but even further than that would be impossible!

This has been a dry year.  Everyone here is desperate for hay.  We cut hay every summer, and while we are still cutting, we are getting about 40-50% what we normally do!  (That’s why everyone is so desperate!).

This is hard for us because we still use the same amount of supplies – gas, hours,thrust bearings, chains, oil….and then there’s all the inevitable issues you have – a flat tire, broken rake, etc.

Record highs, record number of dates we’ve been over 100, and no rain….not a good hay season. 

My grandfather’s poor health and my grandmother’s “creeping up there” age have me really thinking of who and how will we handle the process of losing them should we do so before our own deaths. 

My grandfather (to my knowledge) has made really no plans at all. However, my grandmother (I guess because of her knowledge from running an adult foster home) many years ago sought out Burial Insurance quotes and since bought a policy to relieve the burden on us should something happen to her.  It is nice to know that if we should lose her, she’s taken this step for us.

After reading up on it, I think it’s something we should all consider.  In some ways, we need to think of what would happen if we left this world. Who would be burdened with caring for our bodies and making decisions, and who would burdened with the finance of those responsibilities.  From there we need to take steps to decrease those burdens through something such as insurance and writing down our wishes.

I posted on my other site, but just in case you don’t follow – my grandfather was life flighted last Friday and is still in ICU with basically no improvements.  All of my spare time is being spent at the hospital so blogging will be sporadic, short, and random for a brief period. Please bear with me.  I don’t have time for the obvious – grocery shopping, etc.  No time for the home improvement projects – buying an lcd tv mounts and getting my tv off the dresser, or any fun events like going to the movies.  This also means very little time for blogging, facebook (don’t think I’ve been on in a week), or any of my online world.  Stick around. Hopefully life will become normal sometime soon.