Now that we're smack in the middle of a worldwide crisis, we are in the prime position to revisit and reassess our prepping plans. Now is not the time to rest on our laurels and previous planning. Now is the time to KEEP PREPPING. Prepping does not end when an emergency scenario begins; it's just the beginning!
First, we are lucky that this pandemic hasn't caused a water shortage. Use this opportunity to store drinking water for 6 months/person, using the correct storage containers (see blog post, "Storing Water", part 1 in a series on finding potable water supplies).
Speaking of storage, now is the time to practice food rationing using your emergency supplies. Rotate your foodstuffs by eating the oldest supplies first. Find unique ways to prepare foods so that they taste good and there is enough variety. Nobody wants to be stuck in the apocalypse with food that tastes awful, or eating the exact same thing day after day.
Do you have enough homeschool materials? Do YOU need refresher homeschool materials, just so you can figure out how to teach your child math? I admit, I had forgotten a LOT from elementary school and had to re-educate myself before trying to teach things to the kids…
PLANT YOUR GARDEN! It's the appropriate time of year, anyway. Plant it as if you will need to feed your family from just this garden for the year. Do you have enough seeds?
Daily exercise (walk your pets). What would you do for exercise (and pets' potty time) if you COULDN'T leave the house?
Start prepping for this same pandemic... but as if the world had also lost its internet connection! What would you do?
Using this experience, make a list of things you hadn't thought of before that you need to add to your prepping stores. Board games? Paper and pen? Toilet paper? Diapers? Sanitary products?
Re-visit emergency evacuation plans and incorporate contingencies for "bugging-in" for this type of virus, or if a virus deadlier than this would become airborne.
ARTISTS NEEDED: From back in the cave painting days until now, humanity has always needed artists to document the times we’re living in. I daresay we need artists even moreso than reporters: Nobody remembers the news report from Egypt circa 2000 BC, but everyone has heard about the beautiful hieroglyphics painted on the insides of pyramids and tombs, documenting their times’ current events, and their religious interpretations of those events. Nowadays, photographers from across the country are taking pictures (from a distance) of families on their porches, of sequestered doctors waving “hello” to their children through thick glass windows, etc. Musicians are conducting performances online via technology for free to citizens of the world, to keep us feeling together. There is never more of a need for artists than during a crisis of humanity. Even if you never share your art with the world, create artifacts to be passed down to your children’s children so they remember the Pandemic of 2020, and the message that humanity never exists in isolation: we are all in this together.
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