A REAL Dry Spell!

We got to stay up really late Sunday night and wonder what was going on when all our faucets started spraying sandy water. After a midnight visit from my father in law (who tried to look down the well with those darn moose who are wearing out their welcome just a few feet away!) we were instructed not to use any water until he could come back and check it out in the daylight. Not an easy task with 3 kids, and inevitable cooking and cleaning to do. My awesome sister came to the rescue and brought me a few gallons of water in the morning, but it really showed me how unprepared we are for a real emergency! I do have storage water in the garage, but I never put bleach in it so I'd only be able to use it for toilet water and washing anyway. So if there was a catastrophe today, I'd have NO water!

I've always kept a MAJOR disaster plan that we'd use the 800 gallon water bladder under my house that my well feeds to, but unfortunately my father in law discovered the bladder was the culprit of our sandy issues. Apparently my well is pretty dry this time of year so the bladder was completely full of AIR, instead of water. That would have really sucked in an emergency!

I'm just glad that for now, hopefully, we'll have water as long as we try to conserve and not leave the well pump on all the time. And I also want to point out that I've never wanted to shower more than right after I haven't been able to...

So, my mission for this week is to fill up my empty 5 gallon water bags with bleached water so I'll be more prepared for next time. My life has always followed the "if you have it then you'll never need it" philosophy, so I like to look at my future water supply as insurance against 2012 and zombies. My friend linked me to this awesome emergency preparedness blog that lists the amount of bleach per gallon for storing drinking water. I immediately subscribed because the whole blog was filled with great ideas!

I'm thanking my lucky stars that my supplies were tested without the consequences of a real emergency and now I'll be able to get my act together! Being prepared with even basics like water Works For Me!