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Healing Bipolar and MS Naturally: How Ancestral Eating Changed Emily Penton’s Life · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

• 0:00
  You know, the world has been experiencing a lot of emergencies as of late from floods
• 0:05
  to hurricanes to tornadoes to fires.
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  We thought since this is emergency preparedness month that this would be an ideal time to
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  bring back Miradeci to talk about emergency preparedness.
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  She is very passionate about this.
• 0:19
  She has lived through many emergencies and she's come up with a fantastic program that can
• 0:25
  ease anyone into resilience around upcoming potential emergencies.
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  So up next on the everyday and social podcasts, Miradeci, we're diving into emergency preparedness.
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  Why is this a topic we should be discussing?
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  For so many people, emergency preparedness has a weird label, you know, you think of
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  preppers and people doing all kinds of unusual things.
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  And the truth of the matter is, for those of us who choose to eat in a particular way
• 1:00
  or who have concerns about the safety of their family, the ability to leave in an emergency
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  if you have to, thinking about this is simply being responsible, especially over the last
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  three months, we have seen such a devastating number of natural disasters happen.
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  So being prepared for that.
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  And then there's also some financial concerns.
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  Like if you are someone who's paying attention to what and how you eat and how to prepare
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  and how to make sure that you have supplies handy in a financial situation, you might have
• 1:37
  a little bit more of a cushion because you've done that.
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  A lot of times though, like, okay, if we even use the devastating flood that just happened,
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  that just so deeply affected us emotionally since we had kids that camp ourselves, nowhere
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  in that danger, but still, like, I just can't even imagine what those parents were going
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  through, but kind of devil's advocate would say, well, okay, the people that were directly
• 2:02
  affected by that flood, even if they had been prepared when the shit really hits the
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  fan, is anything going to really help?
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  I think having a bug out bag, having supplies ready to go, if you need to, and also perhaps
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  having other informational sources can be very useful, you know, for example, our family
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  went through Hurricane Harvey, we were flooded, our house, our daughter's house, it was
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  pretty devastating, but we knew where we were going and we knew what we were bringing
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  with us.
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  We weren't able to leave exactly when we wanted to because of the nature of what was happening,
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  but as soon as we were able to, we left.
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  And our house did flood, our daughter's house, our daughter actually lost everything because
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  her house flooded worse than ours did.
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  So sometimes emergency preparedness is also knowing how to leave.
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  And then I will also share another aspect of preparedness.
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  I have a class that I teach called first aid preparedness.
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  If you know how to deal with first aid situations in an emergency, you are not as reliant
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  on first responders because they're going to go where it's worst.
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  And I hope that's not you.
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  But if you know what to do and how to take care of yourself and those you care about
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  and those around you, it's going to help you be able to get through the situation a little
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  bit better.
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  So it almost sounds like you're saying, like not only is it just an important individual
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  service to be prepared for the worst, but also it's important as a community service,
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  potentially.
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  Yes.
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  I firmly believe that if communities come together and support each other, for example,
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  there was a huge storm, I live in Texas.
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  There was a huge storm in 2021 and a lot of trees came down and there was a winter apocalypse.
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  We called it the snow apocalypse.
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  The power grid went out for the entire state and neighborhoods were shut off.
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  So people being able to come together, if you had supplies, if you had power because
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  you had a generator, if you had other things, you were able to help the people around you.
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  So it wasn't like those apocalyptic movies where everyone's like hoarding and they're
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  like, don't come to my house or I'll shoot you.
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  No, no.
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  And as a matter of fact, I have, so one of my mentors in this is a gentleman, Dr. Mark Vorder
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  Brugan.
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  He goes by Maryweather.
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  And he talks about how during hurricane season, like he finds out who in his neighborhood
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  has a chainsaw and who's able to go out and help with the cleanup.
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  He's always teaching people, this is where you go.
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  This is what you do and I take a lesson from that and part of the reason why I encourage
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  people to learn these things and to begin to do this is because I feel like self-reliance
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  and the ability to take care of yourself is something that we've really lost and we
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  need to reclaim that because things happen all the time.
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  The best time to plan for an emergency is before there is one.
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  I talk about resilience all the time just around modern day society of like that it's
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  not always just about being granular and being worried about what's going to touch your
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  lips, your body, but more about, okay, can you be resilient if these things come into
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  your orbit?
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  How do you, how does your body, how does your immune system work through them?
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  So I think that is a really great point that we're not just talking about inner resilience
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  but we're also talking about that emergency preparedness so that you outside of your body
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  that you are prepared can support your community, support your family, hopefully support yourself.
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  So can you talk a little bit about what got you here?
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  Was it because of the flood?
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  When I met you this is not what you talked about.
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  I will share that Hurricane Harvey was sort of a tipping point for me where as I began
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  to share people were like you need to teach other people how to do this because I was,
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  I started talking about some of what we were going through but it actually began a long
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  time ago when my husband and I were newlyweds and we went to Florida for his work and all
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  the sudden one day a neighbor came over and knocked on my door and said hi there's a hurricane
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  coming we have to go to the grocery store and we went to the grocery store I've probably
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  bought a bunch of crappy things that I wouldn't buy now but we also she talked to me about
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  water and batteries and things like that and we went through Hurricane Elena and it brought
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  a tree down luckily not on the house we were living in but when we opened the back door
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  the tree came in so it was really close and then over the years different places that we
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  lived we kept having different situations come up so Hurricane certainly we had blizzards
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  where we were locked in we had ice storms where it was really bad we had times when we couldn't
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  get out to get to the grocery store and at this point I had kids in the house so I was learning
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  how to do this as I went along and then I also learned some of the safety things that we don't
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  really think about again because nobody teaches us for example during storm winter storm uri
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  which is the snow apocalypse of 2021 a lot of people died because they didn't know that you can't
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  bring a propane grill into your house to cook on it what time you're home this is Texas people
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  are not used to thinking about that I'm laughing at the you know sort of night because it's funny
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  but because it's uncomfortable there are people who didn't know that sure you can wear coats and
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  hats and gloves and things where you gotta cover your head to you lose so much heat through your
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  head and then people not knowing how to deal with the grocery store being out of food I share this
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  regularly on social media I'm like hey you know my gas tank said half a tank got to fill up
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  because you should never go below half a tank because if the powers out guess what the gas station
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  can have all the gas they want they can't deliver it to you you have to be able to get out of town
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  if you need to and at least a half a tank is going to get you further than coasting in on fumes
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  all right so already there's three we want to see preparedness things we have to be aware of one
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  do not bring a propane based barbecue pit into your house and think that you can cook inside there
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  to make sure your gas tank is over goes below half a tank the third was not having a preparedness
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  like I believe you should have two kinds of pantries in your home the first one is your everyday
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  pantry that's the one you cook out of that's the one that you know you're making a meal or you're
• 8:54
  looking for a snack or whatever the one that you shop for most often however is your preparedness
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  pantry that's the one where you have supplies ready so that you don't run out now obviously we
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  can't do that very much with fresh food so we do shop for fresh food a lot but how often are
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  you buying perishable or non perishables rather that if you had it at the house it would be fine
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  for example maybe your family uses a lot of condiments and making sure you always have condiments
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  on hand maybe your family it's certain products pasta or whatever to have that certainly having
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  the staples things like olive oil and salt and baking supplies and sugar and whatever those things
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  you can store those in your home and you know you've been a guest in my house you've seen my
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  preparedness pantry it's not huge but it's there my goal is I encourage people to have enough
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  on hand in prepared food that you could feed your family for two to four weeks okay that was
• 10:04
  going to make my next question so two to four weeks is what you're planning out yeah because if
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  it's more than that you've probably got bigger problems than maybe you need to leave and here's the
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  thing no shade to anybody who's like I have a whole years worth of supplies or two years or whatever
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  great if you have the room for that and you can do that that's fabulous where I live I would have
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  to give up so much of my house to be able to do that it's not worth it okay so you're already
• 10:30
  convincing me more because of that exact point when people talk about having like a year's worth of
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  supplies that's where they lose me I'm just like we're never gonna use that I don't know where to
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  store it and then of course there's the turnover because of course they'll be like well but you
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  also have to replace it every five years so not only you putting all the finances into that
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  then you have to track it all and that's where they lose me it's like I have enough responsibility
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  I don't need to then track with the expiration dates for a year's worth of food or whatever
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  you know I'm saying so I love that you're talking you're condensing it you're saying two to four
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  weeks and then what you're what I'm also hearing is that you're talking about foods that you do
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  regularly use so let's use the posses as an example so you go through let's say one box a week
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  so you're buying four to six boxes four boxes and then when you use one you replace it
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  I am a big fan of when you're shopping it's because you're replacing what you need
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  I think that's really key is that this isn't like some kind of food that you don't normally eat
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  that you're just holding on to but you're you're the focused on the foods that you would normally
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  be eating that are maybe diet or or specific to your health needs and you're just
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  maintaining those that is great are you just going like first in goes to the back and are you
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  just rotating it like that like what's your process of rotation let's say we'll we'll use mayonnaise
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  and your family uses about one jar of mayonnaise a month so you're always going to want to have
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  an extra jar of mayonnaise so that when you run out of mayonnaise you know there's another one
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  in the pantry when you go to use that jar of mayonnaise your very next trip to the grocery store
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  is to add mayonnaise but you don't need it for another month because you only use one jar a month
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  I mean I don't want you to run it to the edge but you've got it let's say it's something that you
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  use a little bit more often like let's say canned beans maybe you eat beans twice a week and so
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  you're using canned beans because I admit there's a convenience factor there you have 10 cans of
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  beans if you buy more beans the new cans go behind the old cans so we don't shove them in the front
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  we always arrange it so that the new stuff goes in the back and moves its way forward
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  how do you organize your pantry so that everything is visible so you can keep track of these numbers
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  I'm not able to see everything at once just because shelves are so deep I do try to keep things
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  lined up and then I also have a worksheet so I teach a class that is called the preparedness
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  pantry masterclass and there's worksheets in there and I encourage you twice a year to go through
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  and organize your pantry and look at what's in there and so when you're organizing it though
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  are you organizing it by what's the category so it's like what is it how many do I have and
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  what are the dates are there some that that dates getting a little tight I need to use it because maybe
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  it got lost in the back and I'll confess even in my house that happens because I'm the one who's
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  more finicky about that than maybe other people but if you go through it twice a year you're never
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  going to have anything that's seriously out of date like I will share I have someone that I was
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  just talking to recently and she shared that she had been through a lot of stuff a lot of things
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  that happened in her life and she was all of a sudden cleaning everything out and realized that
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  she had a whole bunch of expired food because it had sat at the bottom of her pantry where she
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  wasn't paying attention to it and she didn't regularly go through it I'm not going to lie it's a
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  pain in the butt to rip that thing apart it takes me a half a day but I also know that A I'm
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  planning meals around what I know I need to use up quickly and B I know that there's nothing
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  in there that's seriously expired or not good to eat what about for the things that are not as
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  easily quantifiable so like water for example like how do you do water and what about the categories
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  of the food like so for example there are perishables like let's say if I eat meat and I have a
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  freezer well the electricity goes out what meat is going to go bad so should I be thinking about
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  proteins differently for my emergency kit versus my every day both really good points so let's
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  start with water and then we'll go to the proteins water one thing that most people don't realize is
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  you need a gallon of water per person per day and a pet counts as a person by the way in terms of
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  having good drinkable water and then you also obviously we don't drink a gallon a day but then
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  that gives you some for cooking and that sort of thing it's really hard to store that much water
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  I encourage people to try to store three to five days worth if you can and I will share that the
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  two and a half gallon containers that they sell at the grocery store don't work because over time
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  they split those seams give way and the way I know this is at one point I had stocked up a whole bunch
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  of water and then one day I went into the closet and I noticed that the carpet was wet so those
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  seams don't hold up so you need to have something that is a good sturdy water safe container I happen
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  to be a fan of something called an aqua tainer they look like gasoline containers but they're blue
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  and you put water in that so you can store water in that is it aluminum or what is it no it's plastic
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  it's food grade plastic but here's the thing you know you got to make a choice here you know you're
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  like me and typically we prefer glass and metal and all of that kind of stuff but glass and water
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  is really hard because if it slips it's going to shatter and break and metal is going to
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  taint the water the plastic won't however beyond that three to five days that's where we look at
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  what are our secondary options for example you can get a life straw and I do have one for everybody
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  in the house what is this a life straw is a device that allows you you could basically drink swamp
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  water through that thing and it cleans out 99.999 percent of the bacteria and those kinds of things
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  so that's an option if you have a water source nearby that you could potentially go get water from
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  and bring it to your house if you don't have that are there other sources one of the biggest ones I
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  get all the time is people who are like oh I have a swimming pool well that's great but there's all
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  kinds of chemicals in there that you should not be drinking so then you have to have some kind of
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  a filter whether it's a burky or you know one of those other brands that will filter out the things
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  that are not going to be supportive for you but looking at what is your secondary plan
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  having the three to five days and then having the life straw one of the things I like about a
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  life straw as well is those are great if you have to leave because you can tuck them in your bug out
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  bag and take them with you because you don't know what the water situation is going to be where you're
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  going so that's the water situation I will also share that there are water saving habits that you
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  want to get into and and I do encourage families to like let's play blackout oh gee waters out
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  powers out what are we going to do we're going to have dinner by candlelight we're going to maybe
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  cook differently and then we're going to think about the water that we're using for example a
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  bowl in the sink to wash your hands or you know how how do we reduce our water usage so that we're
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  not using as much because we can't turn on the faucet today this is just all stressing out my goal
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  is not to stress you out with this because the other thing is James every single change that you
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  make is one thing more that you're doing to protect your family so even if all you do is change how
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  you store food in your pantry and make sure that you're storing at least some water that's great
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  you don't have to do more than that as you get comfortable with that then you look at maybe doing
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  more right but the key is to not sit and wait just to start with that one thing can we talk about
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  protein yeah let's do it because that's another one of my very favorite topics I am a big fan of
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  having a freezer if the power goes out the freezer needs to stay shut as long as possible if the
• 19:04
  power starts staying out for an extended number of days obviously things are going to start to thaw
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  in there so that's when you have to cook them because that'll give you a little bit more time
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  you know if it goes bad while it's it's raw then obviously there's not much you can do but if
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  you cook it you get a few more days out of it you also look at alternative ways to store protein
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  can you for example look at canned fish that's a great protein source can you look at dried protein
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  sources if you have them beans certainly are great jerky is another option and then another thing
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  that I encourage people to look at is the concept of freeze dried foods and they're very easy to get
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  if you don't open the can they're good for 25 years I do encourage you to open the can and learn
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  how to use it though because it is a little bit different you do have to hydrate it before you can
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  use it but that's another way to make sure that you have protein available okay that's great and I
• 20:03
  think I was sharing one with you last I saw you a great opportunity to plug the corn of ore bar
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  because I don't know if they're up to 25 years in terms of preservation but they're pretty high
• 20:14
  up there it's either 15-12 something like that and it's basically a pemican bar which is an
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  ancestral way of preserving meat it's basically dried meat protein with fat or tallow in this case
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  and it's about typically about a 50-50 mix they sometimes add salt sometimes honey as well and
• 20:36
  it's amazing like it's completely preserved if you're eating pemican it is a very satisfying
• 20:43
  like it fills you up yes it really does it's a true meal replacement and a little goes very far
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  you keep matching this bug bag what is that look out bag bug out sometimes referred to as a go bag
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  is a bag that you can grab and go in a hurry and it's where you have you know a few supplies that
• 21:06
  are good to help you get out of town I encourage people to have things like you know a little bit of
• 21:12
  food so a carnivore bar or something like that would be a great choice in something a life straw
• 21:18
  maybe a little bottle of water but you're not going to carry three days worth of water on your back
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  you know so that's a challenge change of clothes maybe some first aid equipment you know there are
• 21:26
  things that you want to keep in there just in case you have to leave you want to make sure that you
• 21:31
  have supplies that will help you get as far away as possible to get to something safe how do you
• 21:37
  account for the emotional change it's one thing to plan things in our current state because there's
• 21:44
  no emergency so it's like oh I'll tuck this here I'll put that there I keep my bag there when we're
• 21:51
  actually in an emergency though a lot of times people panic and they're like wait wait where is
• 21:55
  this where is that how do you prepare for that I really encourage people to regularly go through
• 22:04
  their things you know for example if you have a bug out bag where do you keep it if you have
• 22:10
  you know a bin maybe that's got supplies I have a class called building a bug out bag
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  and in the class one of the people that I interviewed was a pet wellness expert and she talked
• 22:21
  about what do you do for your pets well chances are I mean dogs maybe you can put a little backpack
• 22:26
  on them but most pets you know if it's fish birds cats whatever they're not going to have a backpack
• 22:30
  so you're going to have a bin and hopefully be able to get it in your car and carry it presumably
• 22:36
  you're leaving by car at that point but it's about going through your supplies and again I recommend
• 22:42
  every six months pick a time that works for you generally not December or January because those
• 22:50
  are taken up with other things so maybe you look at whatever your birthday month is unless it happens
• 22:56
  to be December or January and then six months after that and those are the times when you're like okay
• 23:01
  this month I'm going to go through my stuff and the more you touch it and the more you pay attention
• 23:06
  to what's in it do you have to replace things for example I recently went through our bug out bags
• 23:12
  and realized that some of the supplies that were in there I really don't need to have in there
• 23:18
  anymore because how we live our lives and some of the choices that we're making are different
• 23:24
  I just change out the supplies it's same thing with kids you know if you have kids and you've got let's
• 23:29
  say you're going to put a couple sets of clothes in there because you don't know well they grow so you
• 23:34
  got to replace those and I mean imagine something like this would have been very handy for example
• 23:40
  with the LA fires right that just happened a lot of those people lost everything so now what do you
• 23:45
  do about things like the things that you're using every day that you can't have replicas of
• 23:53
  like passports wallets how do you you know what do you do because a lot of times in an emergency
• 23:59
  that's the thing that people might forget and it may be very needed I don't believe it's possible
• 24:06
  to anticipate every single emergency nor do I want to give that much emotional space to it
• 24:13
  I know where I live hurricanes are a thing so that's what we're planning for you know and we also
• 24:20
  we have a family plan we know if the if things are down if the cell services down or we can't
• 24:26
  communicate with each other everybody knows where we're going what's the meeting point what are we
• 24:30
  going to do and hurricanes are our biggest thing someone else it might be in earthquake someone else
• 24:37
  it might be wildfires like you plan for what's in your area you don't plan for everything and
• 24:43
  yes there may be an offshoot something might happen that's out of the ordinary for your area
• 24:49
  but you do the best you can so if you have a bug out bag one of the things that can be very useful
• 24:55
  is to have photocopies at least of all of your important documents I do know for some people depending
• 25:02
  on how much you have or what needs to happen you can also get like little fireproof boxes and maybe
• 25:07
  that's one of the things you grab you grab your bag you grab your box and you go you mentioned you
• 25:12
  didn't want to give certain things too much emotional weight can you talk about why is that and
• 25:18
  what do you mean by emotional weight so by emotional weight I mean getting so consumed by worrying
• 25:28
  about what might happen that you forget to enjoy life and forget to do fun things or whatever
• 25:38
  it's okay to plan or to prepare for things but not to the point where it becomes obsessive
• 25:44
  and every single situation is a you know danger what could happen kind of thing when I say the
• 25:51
  emotional weight of it I know that for example we live in a hurricane zone so it means during the
• 26:00
  summer hurricanes are a possibility I don't sit there and obsessively check the weather I mean I
• 26:08
  check it a couple times a day and I know what we're going to do if a hurricane strikes but I'm not
• 26:15
  planning on really being so overwhelmed by it that it takes up too much working space in my brain
• 26:22
  I think there are times sometimes where it's possible to get so deep into that that you start
• 26:29
  going into things that either might never happen or are so remote for your area for example
• 26:36
  yes in Texas a couple of times we've had bad winter weather and yes it has been devastating and
• 26:41
  the grocery store can't resupply and roads are closed because they don't have you know
• 26:46
  clearing equipment but I don't spend every winter sitting there going okay so now I have to have
• 26:50
  bags of ice and I have to have you know all these equipment and all this stuff like that's
• 26:55
  challenging too because I also recognize you know I'm a real person like everybody else there's
• 26:59
  only so much money that you have to spend so you you spend what you can as you can and you prepare
• 27:06
  for the things that you know are a possibility if there's a reason why something needs to change
• 27:13
  then you make adjustments but I think it's very easy to get to a point where you're just constantly
• 27:20
  living on edge and that's so bad for your nervous system that it would be really really challenging
• 27:28
  what is the financial investment range that you see as a healthy barometer of like this is for
• 27:36
  obsessive range this is mid-range this is low range like what's the best range that is so hard
• 27:43
  to answer I think each person needs to figure out what it is for themselves and needs to figure
• 27:48
  out how much I know for example some of the people who've taken my class you know they they can go
• 27:54
  out and they can spend a couple hundred dollars a month slowly buying supplies there are other people
• 28:00
  who are like hey I got five dollars a week I'm gonna focus on food and I'm gonna add an extra five
• 28:04
  dollars a week great like you just start where you are to me I see it as a progressive journey
• 28:12
  rather than an end destination I don't know at what point you go okay I've got everything I need
• 28:18
  but I do know for example maybe you start with having two to four weeks worth of food
• 28:25
  and to make sure that you have a water plan and then from there you start thinking about okay now
• 28:31
  how often have we had to leave if we had to leave what would we bring with us so here's a
• 28:37
  perfect example where we live we did not originally have a generator and then the power started
• 28:43
  going out a lot and so we saved our money and we got a generator so now we have a generator if
• 28:48
  the power goes out but it wasn't something that was part of our plan before it was just that we
• 28:54
  made an adjustment as we needed to and we got through it when it happened and then decided we
• 29:00
  didn't want to live that way you know moving forward because sometimes it goes out for you know
• 29:05
  a few days I wonder though how do you answer to people that are like well but in my manifesting
• 29:12
  an emergency when I you know like if I put so much effort towards this in my innocence welcoming
• 29:20
  this and maybe I'm answering this myself but that maybe there is no way like if you're prepared
• 29:25
  you're prepared it's not like this is ever going to hurt you going down this path is not going to
• 29:30
  mean like oh you're going to regret it later it's just it's better to have it and not need it than
• 29:35
  to not have it and need it and again I'm talking about what I believe are realistic
• 29:42
  preparedness goals I'm not talking about having you know a year's worth of food in your basement
• 29:48
  I'm talking about having what you eat on a regular basis and if you're someone who has a special
• 29:53
  diet by the way having what you need becomes even more important because the grocery store by
• 29:58
  not have it but enough that you learn how to utilize it in a good way learning how for example
• 30:07
  what supplies do you have in your car so that if your car broke down what would you do you know would
• 30:12
  you have a few things do you have a safety vest for example high-biz yellow safety vest like that
• 30:16
  could be important it's never that we're sitting there saying oh this is going to happen and I have
• 30:22
  to have all this or I will share one of the frustrations I have sometimes I I wind up
• 30:28
  occasionally talking to people who are interested in the preparedness pantry masterclass and they go
• 30:33
  and I don't really care about hurricanes where I live those don't happen okay great for you
• 30:38
  but other things happen every place we live there is something there is going to be something and then
• 30:44
  I also know her example one of my one of my favorite success stories is a woman who is in the in
• 30:52
  the masterclass who went out of the country and then there was a natural disaster that happened
• 30:58
  and she had someone staying at the house to take care of her house and her dog and they were
• 31:03
  communicating with each other by text and this woman was like oh my gosh what am I going to do
• 31:07
  about this and she's like oh don't worry about it it's taking care of this is where that is this is
• 31:10
  where this is and she said I felt so good knowing that this person who was staying in my house
• 31:14
  had everything they were possibly going to need because I had already taken care of that
• 31:19
  that's a huge added plus is that a stressful situation for the person that's prepared is not so
• 31:24
  stressful right maybe where you live they don't have wildfires but there are other things
• 31:32
  but it's not always natural disaster for example there have been supply chain interruptions
• 31:38
  you know what happened with the Suez Canal what happened when that bridge got hit on 95
• 31:43
  like those interrupt the supply chain I had someone who took the class because she wanted to make
• 31:50
  sure that she and her husband had jobs that were sometimes very unreliable in terms of their
• 31:58
  employment level they wanted to make sure that they had stuff so that if they lost their job or if
• 32:03
  they had to take a pay cut which did happen they were not as devastated by that because they
• 32:09
  had supplies that would help them get through what about money how does that fit into emergency
• 32:15
  preparedness like should you have cash what's your thought around that I do think it can be helpful
• 32:22
  to have cash I will say that probably small bills are better only because if you start stocking
• 32:28
  hundreds and you go to buy something like I have no change like that's not great
• 32:33
  by the same token it also can be good to have certain supplies maybe you have extras of certain
• 32:39
  things that are tradable what's an example tradable supplies well good tradable supplies might be
• 32:46
  things like alcohol or first aid supplies or things like that that someone else might need or want
• 32:53
  food certainly is always tradable think about things that might be a value not that you want to
• 33:00
  stock extra of those just to trade them but if you have them to think that those are potentially
• 33:06
  tradable what about medication because a lot of times you can't get more than what your prescription is
• 33:14
  I do have a class called first aid preparedness and we do talk about that and as a matter of fact
• 33:20
  one of the people that I interviewed for that was a medical expert and you can get what's
• 33:28
  called the vacation override for your medications for a lot of people it can be useful to say hey I
• 33:33
  need a vacation override and then you've actually got two months worth instead of one but you
• 33:39
  use them wisely so that you're always using the oldest one and what you're refilling is going into
• 33:45
  your supply right okay so people listening this are inspired what are the first steps so the first
• 33:55
  step would be to go to the kitchen table I can give you the link and sign up so here's the thing I
• 34:01
  have the preparedness pantry masterclass that is everything it's one big all the different things all
• 34:08
  the workbooks all the handouts and then you also get to come to a live call with me once a month
• 34:14
  and we go over a bunch of things if that's a little too much for you and you're not ready to do that
• 34:19
  I have a class on how to build a bug out bag that's a standalone class I have a first aid preparedness
• 34:24
  seminar that's a standalone class or I have the real food and an emergency that's a standout class
• 34:29
  so you could just start with one of those like maybe you you're like oh that bug outback thing
• 34:34
  sounds pretty cool maybe I need to do that just get that class go through that there's some great
• 34:40
  guest experts that I interviewed as well to talk about different things one of them's a wilderness
• 34:45
  expert you know one of them's a medical expert and like I said one of them is a pet wellness expert
• 34:50
  so learning how to do that and then from there if you want to do more do more like I said it's always
• 34:57
  about doing a little bit at a time you just mentioned the wilderness expert that maybe think of is
• 35:04
  is there anything you should be adding to your kits that are probably a little out of the ordinary
• 35:09
  like a fire starter thing should you be thinking like that like in case the entire facility you
• 35:15
  let your entire house is no longer available and now you are in a tent or in a woods should you be
• 35:19
  going that far I think that there is nothing wrong with doing that I will also say again it's a
• 35:26
  matter of figuring out what your personal situation is and what will make you feel most comfortable
• 35:35
  to begin with for most people the two things that are the best place to start are either learning
• 35:45
  how to build a preparedness pantry and making sure that you have food available to feed yourself
• 35:49
  in your family especially if you have a special diet and a bug out bag and then as you get those
• 35:57
  under control then you look at doing other things I don't encourage anyone to try to do everything
• 36:02
  all at once first of all it's exhausting it's a lot because it's a lot of work and a lot of effort
• 36:08
  and a lot of money and the other thing is you always want to make sure that what you're doing is
• 36:13
  something that you feel comfortable with and that will help you feel prepared basically what about
• 36:21
  tools I know when I took my emergency course at Portland they have a neighborhood emergency response
• 36:28
  team and so I took that I went down that path and they had that tool that plier tool that has
• 36:34
  the switchblade style other tools on it what's it called it's called a leather man leather man so
• 36:41
  they had that they recommended that they also recommended the gas shutoff tool what are the top three
• 36:48
  tools you recommend everyone kind of have so I think having a leather man is certainly great because
• 36:53
  there's so many different things that it can do like it has a lot of different items on it I think
• 36:59
  having something that is going to help you start a fire it can always be a good thing and then I
• 37:07
  also think like you said having either a gas shutoff or a water shutoff or whatever you need for
• 37:12
  your house so that probably comes to four tools but those are useful if your water is going crazy
• 37:17
  because your pipe burst you need to know how to shut off water and so again this is where we we
• 37:23
  practice we know where the water shutoff valve is and is it the one at the street that shuts off the
• 37:30
  entire line or is it just the one at the house or you know what is it where is your gas shutoff
• 37:37
  valve and how do you use the tool because these are not intuitive tools they don't look like a wrench
• 37:42
  they're slightly different so you have to know how to attach them it's just a little bit of
• 37:47
  the time my goal is for people to learn to feel comfortable thinking about the fact that it's always
• 37:56
  okay to be mindful of being more self-reliant because that in turn means that when an emergency
• 38:07
  happens you're going to be less stressed because you know you've done things and like I said
• 38:14
  have I done every single thing I can no I'm still always doing little things here and there
• 38:20
  because that's what we do yeah I think that's such a great point that I really like that as an
• 38:26
  emphasis for what emergency preparedness could look like I want to just touch base before we end
• 38:32
  about the plan you mentioned a few times like having a few different plans like not only
• 38:40
  where where do we go where do we meet but also how do we leave the house like what do we take so having
• 38:47
  that plan can you kind of delve into that a little bit more of like what are maybe a few different
• 38:52
  plans that we should be thinking about part of it is to look at who lives in your house and what are
• 38:58
  their needs because let's say for example you have someone who is a senior citizen living in your
• 39:03
  home who has limited mobility and possibly is on medication well you're going to want to make sure
• 39:09
  that if you have to leave that they're taking care of so how are you going to get them out how are
• 39:14
  you going to make sure that whatever assistive devices they need are going to fit whatever you're
• 39:19
  doing and again having that emergency override gives you at least a little bit of a question
• 39:23
  when it comes to medications if you're someone who has small children well obviously your
• 39:30
  situations could be a little bit different because you're going to need some sort of carry mechanism
• 39:34
  really it all comes down to thinking about your personal situation now one of the things that I do
• 39:40
  offer is a consultation where I sit down with people and go over their personal situation and what
• 39:48
  their preparedness needs might be and then I write them a very comprehensive report with links
• 39:53
  and everything but I can't tell you for example what your situation exactly should be without
• 40:01
  actually discussing it with you because your situation is different than mine you have pets in the
• 40:05
  home you have kids in the home you have certain things that need to be taken care of and the other
• 40:11
  question is do you have to leave like that's one of the first decisions I guess in an emergency
• 40:16
  situation do you have to leave or can you stay and if you stay do you have what you need
• 40:22
  yeah so in a sense you have to think through maybe a few different scenarios depending on your
• 40:27
  situation yeah I like that is not a one size fits all that you need to think through it for your
• 40:33
  situation you know an academy too that you know when our kids are in schools they go through all
• 40:38
  these emergency preparedness situations whether it's for earthquakes or hurricanes or when not
• 40:44
  fire or drills and yet we never do that in our homes like ever I think it's a really good point
• 40:51
  I think it's a really really good point that you know we spend a lot of our time in our home
• 40:58
  and they can experience emergencies just like schools can just like places of business can so
• 41:03
  we need to think through what is our exit strategy here what is the scenario and how would we
• 41:09
  potentially work through it I actually just thought of another piece of equipment that I think
• 41:13
  you should have you know how they have those little headlamp things and a lot of people get them
• 41:20
  for working on things where they want to work hands-free everybody in the family should have one
• 41:25
  right because if it's dark you need to be able to see and it'd be nice to be hands-free so
• 41:31
  everybody gets a headlamp and obviously you mentioned candles earlier or you or if you're
• 41:37
  concerned about having open flames like having some kind of battery candle that has refresh batteries
• 41:42
  you know you're constantly checking the batteries and has backups right LED camping lanterns instead
• 41:48
  because those are going to put out more light and they're going to last longer than a regular
• 41:54
  battery because they okay so the LED lanterns what about gas versus electric car because
• 42:02
  that is a huge issue I'm noticing we have a Tesla and it's so interesting what we were in
• 42:08
  organ it was a non-issue didn't come up ever about charging times how long the battery would last
• 42:15
  everything but now that we're on these coast it's serious like during the winter when it's cold
• 42:21
  the thing does not charge we're not using a supercharger because there's a story of that because of
• 42:27
  the house we ran we don't have it set up but because of that during the winter it's really hard
• 42:32
  to charge the car and then when it's hot like extremely hot it also doesn't charge properly so
• 42:40
  you're in a scenario when the weather is extreme these cars don't function properly
• 42:45
  for that reason or you kind of like I'm not for electric cars or like what's your position on that
• 42:51
  I think electric cars can be great again it comes down to and the example I used is gas
• 42:56
  because I drive a car that is gasoline now I know there's a proper window on an electric car you
• 43:04
  don't want it undercharged and you don't want it overcharged but making sure that you're always
• 43:10
  checking it to make sure that it's at whatever is the most that you can have so that you can get
• 43:16
  as far as possible the goal is if there is an emergency situation to be able to get as far
• 43:21
  away as possible and usually within two to three hundred miles chances are not always but a lot of
• 43:29
  times the situation is different and if that's as far as you can get them like that's as far as
• 43:34
  you can get and then you go from there but again how often is that going to happen and this is the
• 43:40
  emotional side of what I was talking about we think about what we can do and how far we can get
• 43:47
  but we don't sit there and worry about it if you're taking the time to make sure that your car
• 43:53
  has maximum power or maximum allowable power optimal power and that you have some supplies in the car
• 43:59
  and that you have bug out bags if you had to leave short load up everybody and go and you get as far
• 44:04
  as you get but to spend a lot of time worrying about it takes away from your enjoyment of every day
• 44:11
  life and turns you into this very fearful person and that's not how we want to live our lives
• 44:18
  yeah I think that's a really good point lastly what about communication stuff you know because
• 44:24
  obviously cell phones may not work if you're in a true emergency tickly if it's a flood and they
• 44:31
  get wet is there a communication device that you recommend to have on hand or is it more of like
• 44:38
  you know you just deal with the cards you dealt my personal plan is and what I encourage other
• 44:44
  people to do is to have a plan if communication is out everybody knows what the plan is everybody
• 44:50
  knows where we're going and where we're supposed to meet the goal is to hopefully get there somehow
• 44:55
  we managed before cell phones that's true but we had landlines and landlines worked even during a
• 45:02
  power outage that is the big difference yes and I know there are some people who put in a landline
• 45:08
  for that for that matter you know they're like okay I'm putting a landline in because we want to
• 45:12
  make sure that we have it I know there are some people who make sure that everybody in their family
• 45:17
  has a walkie talkie that is good for up to so many miles and that's presuming that they're all
• 45:21
  in the same house and they're fairly close to each other but if they were separated if they were
• 45:26
  away from home they would have it I know there are other people who are very into the idea of
• 45:32
  using a ham radio to stay in touch and to stay connected to what's going on at least an AM
• 45:38
  radio to find out the news but again it's looking at your particular situation of what you can do the
• 45:44
  most important part of that though is to have a plan to say if I can't stay in my house and I have
• 45:51
  to leave this is where I'm going and you all who are part of my little bubble whoever that is
• 45:58
  adult children or neighbors or friends or whatever you all know that that's my plan and you know
• 46:04
  if that's your plan then we will meet up there I think also James to not be afraid to talk about
• 46:10
  this stuff so there can be some people you talk about and they're going to be like whoa dude like
• 46:15
  that's kind of crazy why why are you talking about that I personally believe that it's about
• 46:21
  self-reliance and it's about doing the best that you can I don't claim to be the world's biggest
• 46:28
  you know I can handle anything person but I know there's a lot that I can do and I know that
• 46:34
  there's a lot I have done and my goal is to encourage other people to do that so that you're not
• 46:41
  stuck we got past the point of being stuck a number of years ago now it doesn't mean that something
• 46:48
  won't come up that we're like hmm got to figure this out but the other thing is learning how to
• 46:54
  have that preparedness mindset also helps you be more able I think to figure things out the
• 47:02
  beginning of the emergency you're like whoa but then you're kind of like whoa no wait a minute
• 47:06
  we can work our way through this like we've thought about things we can figure this out
• 47:10
  and I honestly think it's also great for kids too they don't have to worry that they don't know
• 47:15
  what to do or that the people who are in charge of them don't know what to do because it's like we
• 47:19
  got a plan yeah it's a really great point Mira I think if there's anything we're going to anyone leaves
• 47:25
  with is to just start having the conversation and start maybe even forming what that would look
• 47:35
  like and as you said start taking little steps and that it's not about having an end result because
• 47:42
  they're it's impossible to plan for everything but to start the conversation to start taking steps
• 47:51
  so that you are more confident more resilient and more prepared when something does happen I
• 47:58
  so appreciate you coming back to talk about this because we did not get to talk about the saying
• 48:03
  no you're very passionate about this and then it's really important I just love that you are a
• 48:10
  model for really staying true to yourself because I've watched you in the short time I've known
• 48:17
  you evolve your messaging and evolve what matters to you and really that is what you're talking about
• 48:24
  you're talking about as we learn something let's now do better let's not pretend it's not going
• 48:29
  to happen again but you know it's that idea of like do do good until you know better and then do
• 48:35
  better and I think you're really modeling that so thank you I just want to say is to be of service I
• 48:43
  want to help other people not be scared or overwhelmed sure maybe you might get stuck but maybe
• 48:49
  you won't the more you know the better you do and if I can help be an educational conduit for that
• 48:56
  and if I can be a support person for that like that just makes me very happy the more you know the
• 49:01
  better you'll do there you have it everybody mirrored desi and we'll have all the notes for her
• 49:07
  programs and and for every point she made and this talk in the show notes so appreciate you
• 49:14
  sharing your wisdom and your care and your mission with us Mira thank you for tuning in to the
• 49:22
  everyday ancestral podcast please stay curious and take care of each other thank you so much for
• 49:30
  joining me on every day ancestral if you enjoyed this episode hit subscribe so you don't miss
• 49:36
  the next one you could find the show notes links and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com that's
• 49:43
  eatpluck.com and hey if you know someone who'd get something out of this share it with them too stay
• 49:54
  curious live well and keep it ancestral