Practical Emergency Preparedness With Mira Dessy

You know, the world has been experiencing a lot of emergencies as of late, from floods to hurricanes to tornadoes to fires. We thought since this is Emergency Preparedness Month that this would be an ideal time to bring back Meera Desi to talk about emergency preparedness. She's very passionate about this. She has lived through many emergencies and she's come up with a fantastic program that can ease anyone into resilience around upcoming potential Emergencies. So up next on the Everyday Ancestral Podcast, Mira Desi. Why is this a topic we should be discussing?

I think that for so many people, emergency preparedness has a weird label. You know, you think of preppers and people doing all kinds of unusual things. And the truth of the matter is, for those of us who choose to eat in a particular way, Or who have concerns about the safety of their family, the ability to leave in an emergency if you have to. Thinking about this is simply being responsible. And especially over the last 3 months, we have seen such a devastating number of natural disasters happen. And so being prepared for that. And then there's also some financial concerns. Like if you are someone who's paying attention to what and how you eat and how to prepare and how to make sure that you have supplies handy, in a financial situation, you might have a little bit more of a cushion because you've done that.

Hmm. I mean, a lot of times though, like, okay, if we even use the flood that the devastating flood that just happened, Oh my gosh. That, yeah, that just so deeply affected us emotionally since we had kids at camp ourselves. Nowhere in that danger, but still, like, you know, I just can't even— yeah, I just can't even imagine what those parents were going through. But the kind of devil's advocate would say, well, okay, the people that were directly affected by that flood, Even if they had been prepared, it would've been all washed away. Like, you know what I mean? Like, what about for those people that say like, well, when the shit really hits the fan, is anything gonna really help?

Great question. And I will share that I think having a bug-out bag, having supplies ready to go if you need to, and also perhaps having other informational sources can be very useful. You know, for example, our family went through Hurricane Harvey. We were flooded, our house, our daughter's house. It was, it was pretty devastating, but we knew where we were going and we knew what we were bringing with us. We all, now we weren't able to leave exactly when we wanted to because of the nature of what was happening, but as soon as we were able to, we, we left. And our house did flood, our daughter's house flooded. Our daughter actually lost everything because her house flooded worse than ours did. So sometimes emergency preparedness is also knowing how to leave. And then I will also share another aspect of preparedness. I have a class that I teach called First Aid Preparedness. If you know how to deal with first aid situations in an emergency, you are not as reliant on first responders because they're going to go where it's worst. And I hope that's not you. But if you know what to do and how to take care of yourself and those you care about and those around you, it's going to help you be able to get through the situation a little bit better.

So it almost sounds like you're saying not only is it just an important individual service to be prepared for the worst, but also it's important as a community service potentially.

Yes. I firmly believe that if communities come together and support each other, You know, for example, there was a huge storm. I live in Texas. There was a huge storm in 2021, and a lot of trees came down, and there was a winter apocalypse. We called it the snowpocalypse. The power grid went out for the entire state, and neighborhoods were shut off. So people being able to come together, if you had supplies, if you had power because you had a generator, if you had other things, you were able to help the people around you.

So it wasn't like those apocalyptic movies where everyone's like hoarding and they're like, don't come to my house or I'll shoot you.

No, no. And as a matter of fact, I have, so one of my mentors in this is a gentleman, Dr. Mark Vorderbrueggen. He goes by Merryweather, you know, and he talks about how during hurricane season, like he finds out who in his neighborhood has a chainsaw and who's able to go out and help with the cleanup. And, you know, he, he's always teaching people, this is where you go, this is what you do. And I take a lesson from that. And part of the reason why I encourage people to learn these things and to begin to do this is because I feel like self-reliance and the ability to take care of yourself is something that we've really lost. And we need to reclaim that because things happen all the time. The best time to plan for an emergency is before there is one.

It really is a, it really is a great point. I mean, I talk about resilience all the time, just around, you know, modern day society of like that. It's not always just about being granular and being worried about what's going to touch your lips or your body, but more about, okay, can you be resilient if these things come into your orbit? How do you, how does your body, how does your immune system work through them? So I think that is a really great point that we're not just talking about inner resilience, but we're also talking about that. emergency preparedness so that you, outside of your body, that you are prepared, can support your community, support your family, hopefully support yourself. So can you talk a little bit about what got you here? Was it because of the flood? Because I, when I met you, this is not what you talked about.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I will share that Hurricane Harvey was sort of a tipping point for me where, as I began to share, people were like, you need to teach other people how to do this because I was I started talking about some of what we were going through, but it actually began a long time ago when my husband and I were newlyweds and we went to Florida for his work. And all of a sudden one day a neighbor came over and knocked on my door and said, hi, there's a hurricane coming. We have to go to the grocery store. And we went to the grocery store. I probably bought a bunch of crappy things that I wouldn't buy now, but we also, she talked to me about water and batteries and things like that. And we went through Hurricane Elena, and it brought a tree down, luckily not on the house we were living in, but when we opened the back door, the tree came in. So it was really close. And then over the years, different places that we lived, we kept having different situations come up. So hurricanes, certainly. We had blizzards where we were locked in. We had ice storms where it was really bad. We had— times when we couldn't get out to get to the grocery store. And at this point I had kids in the house, so I was learning how to do this as I went along. And then I also learned some of the safety things that we don't really think about, again, because nobody teaches us. For example, during winter storm Uri, which is the snowpocalypse of 2021, a lot of people died because they didn't know that you can't bring a propane grill into your house.

What?

Inside your home. Yeah, no, there were people, this is Texas. People are not used to thinking about that. I'm laughing at the sort of weirdness of it, not because it's funny, but because it's uncomfortable. There are people who didn't know that, sure, you can wear coats and hats and gloves and things, but you got to cover your head too. You lose so much heat through your head. And then people not knowing how to deal with the grocery store being out of food. People also not knowing, like I share this regularly on social media. I'm like, hey, you know, my gas tank said half a tank, gotta fill up. And because you should never go below half a tank because if the power's out, guess what? The gas station can have all the gas they want. They can't deliver it to you. You have to be able to get out of town if you need to. And at least a half a tank is gonna get you further than coasting in on All right.

So already there's 3 emergency preparedness things we have to be aware of. One, do not bring a propane-based barbecue pit into your house and think that you can cook inside there. 2, fill your— make sure your gas tank is— never goes below half a tank. And what was the third? Was, well, you talked about people going to grocery stores and having no food, but there was another—

Not, not having a preparedness pantry. Like, I believe you should have 2 kinds of pantries in your home. The first one is your everyday pantry. That's the one you cook out of. That's the one that, you know, you're making a meal or you're looking for a snack or whatever. The one that you shop for most often, however, is your preparedness pantry. That's the one where you have supplies ready so that you don't run out. Now, obviously we can't do that very much with fresh food. So we do shop for fresh food a lot. But how often are you buying perishable or non-perishables rather, that if you had it at the house, it would be fine? For example, maybe your family, you know, uses a lot of condiments and making sure you always have condiments on hand. Maybe your family eats, you know, certain products, pasta or whatever, to have that. Certainly having the staples, things like olive oil and salt and, you know, baking supplies and sugar and whatever. Those things, you can store those in your home. And, you know, you've been a guest in my house. You've seen my preparedness pantry. It's not huge, but it's there. And it is something that can support— my goal is I encourage people to have enough on hand in prepared food that you could feed your family for 2 to 4 weeks.

Okay. That was going to be my next question. So 2 to 4 weeks is what you're planning out?

Yeah, because if it's more than that, you've probably got bigger problems and maybe you need to leave. I'm not one of these people that, and here's the thing, no shade to anybody who's like, I have a whole year's worth of supplies or 2 years or whatever. Great. If you have the room for that and you can do that, that's fabulous. Where I live, I would have to give up so much of my house to be able to do that. It's not worth it.

Okay. So you're already Convincing me more because of that exact point. When people talk about having like a year's worth of supplies, that's where they lose me. I'm just like, we're never gonna use that. I don't know where to store it. And then of course there's the turnover, cuz of course they'll be like, well, but you also have to replace it every 5 years. So not only are you putting all the finances into that, but then you have to track it all. And, and that's where they lose me. It's like, I have enough responsibility. I don't need to then track with the expiration dates. For a year's worth of food or whatever, you know what I'm saying? So I love that you're talking, you're, you're, you're condensing it. You're saying 2 to 4 weeks. And then what you're, what I'm also hearing is that you're talking about foods that you do regularly use. So in a sense, you know, you're buying what, like, let's use the pasta as an example. So you go through, let's say, one box a week. So you're buying. What, 4 to 6 boxes?

4 boxes.

4 boxes.

And then when you use one, you replace it.

So you're buying 4 boxes and then you just keep replacing them as you use them.

Right. So I am a big fan of when you're shopping, it's because you're replacing what you need.

I think that's really key is that this isn't like some kind of food that you don't normally eat that you're just holding onto, but you're focused on the foods that you would normally be eating that are maybe diet or specific to your health needs, and you're just maintaining those. That is great. And then how do you, are you just going like, um, you know, first in goes to the back and are you just rotating it like that? Like what's your process of rotation?

So I encourage people to, let's say we'll, we'll use, I don't know, What's a common condiment? Mayonnaise. Let's say mayonnaise, and your family uses about 1 jar of mayonnaise a month. So you're always going to want to have an extra jar of mayonnaise so that when you run out of mayonnaise, you know there's another one in the pantry. When you go to use that jar of mayonnaise, your very next trip to the grocery store is to add mayonnaise, but you don't need it for another month because you only use 1 jar a month. So you've 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 use a little bit more often, like let's say canned beans. Maybe you eat beans twice a week. And so you're using canned beans because I admit there's a convenience factor there. And you have 10 cans of beans. If you buy more beans, the new cans go behind the old cans. So we don't shove them in the front. We always arrange it so that the new stuff goes in the back and moves its way forward.

How do you organize your pantry so that everything is visible so that you can keep track of these numbers?

Great question. And I will share that I don't necessarily, I'm not able to see everything at once just because shelves are so deep. I do try to keep things lined up. And then I also have a worksheet. So I teach a class that is called the Preparedness Pantry Masterclass. And there's worksheets in there. And I encourage you twice a year to go through and organize your pantry and look at what's in there.

And so when you're organizing it though, are you organizing it by what's the category? Like, do you put all the beans together?

Yes. So it's like, what is it? How many do I have? And what are the dates? Are there some that That date's getting a little tight. I need to use it because maybe it got lost in the back. And I'll confess, even in my house that happens because I'm the one who's more finicky about that than maybe other people. But really, if you go through it twice a year, you're never going to have anything that's seriously out of date. Like I will share, I have someone that I was just talking to recently and she shared that she had been through a lot of stuff. A lot of things had happened in her life and she was all of a sudden cleaning everything out and realized that she had a whole bunch of expired food 'cause it had sat at the bottom of her pantry where she wasn't paying attention to it and she didn't regularly go through it. I'm not gonna lie, it's a pain in the butt to rip that thing apart. It takes me half a day. But I also know that, A, I'm planning meals around what I know I need to use up quickly. And B, I know that there's nothing in there that's seriously expired or not good to eat.

What about for the things that are not as easily quantifiable? So like water, for example, like how do you do water? And what about the categories of the food? Like, so for example, there are perishables, like let's say if I eat meat and I have a freezer, well, the electricity goes out, that meat's going to go bad. So should I be thinking about proteins differently for my emergency kit versus my everyday?

Both really good points. So let's start with water and then we'll go to the proteins. Water. One thing that most people don't realize is you need a gallon of water per person per day, and a pet counts as a person, by the way, in terms of having good drinkable water. And then you also, obviously we don't drink a gallon a day, but then that gives you some for cooking and that sort of thing. It's really hard to store that much water. I encourage people to try to store 3 to 5 days' worth if you can. And I will share that the 2.5-gallon containers that they sell at the grocery store don't work because over time they split, those seams give way. And the way I know this is at one point I had stocked up a whole bunch of water, and then one day I went into the closet and I noticed that the carpet was wet. So those seams don't hold up. So you need to have something that is a good, sturdy, water-safe container. I happen to be a fan of something called an AquaTainer. They look like gasoline containers, but they're blue and you put water in that. So you can store water in that.

Is it aluminum or what is it?

No, it's plastic.

It is.

It's food-grade plastic. But here's the thing, you know, you got to make a choice here. And so I'm, I know, you know, you're like me and typically we prefer glass and metal and all of that kind of stuff, but glass and water is really hard because if it slips, it's going to shatter and break. And metal is going to taint the water. The plastic won't.

Right.

So, uh, you know, we go with that. However, beyond that 3 to 5 days, that's where we look at what are our secondary options. For example, you can get a LifeStraw and I do have one for everybody in the house.

And what is this?

A LifeStraw is a device that allows you, you could basically drink swamp water through that thing and it It cleans out 99.9999% of the bacteria and those kinds of things. So that's an option if you have a water source nearby that you could potentially go get water from and bring it to your house. If you don't have that, are there other sources? One of the biggest ones I get all the time is people who are like, oh, I have a swimming pool. Well, that's great, but there's all kinds of chemicals in there that you should not be drinking. So then you have to have some kind of a filter, whether it's a Berkey or one of those other brands that will filter out the things that are not going to be supportive for you. But looking at what is your secondary plan. So having the 3 to 5 days and then having the LifeStraw. One of the things I like about a LifeStraw as well is those are great if you have to leave because you can tuck them in your bug-out bag and take them with you because you don't know what the water situation is going to be where you're going. So that's the water situation. I will also share that there are water-saving habits that you want to get into. And I do encourage families to like, let's play blackout. Oh gee, water's out, power's out. What are we going to do? We're going to have dinner by candlelight. We're going to maybe cook differently. And then we're going to think about the water that we're using. For example, a bowl in the sink to wash your hands, or how do we reduce our water usage? So that we're not using as much because we can't turn off the, turn on the faucet today.

So, gosh, see, this is just all stressing me out.

And so this is where I don't, my goal is not to stress you out with this. And because the other thing is, James, every single change that you make is one thing more that you're doing to protect your family. So even if all you do is change how you store food in your pantry and make sure that you're storing at least some water. That's great. You don't have to do more than that. You know, as you get comfortable with that, then you look at maybe doing more.

Right. But the key is to not sit and wait just to start with that one thing.

Start with that one thing. And so I'd love, let, can we talk about protein?

Yeah, let's do it.

'Cause that's another one of my very favorite topics. I am a big fan of having a freezer. If the power goes out, the freezer needs to stay shut as long as possible. If the power starts staying out for an extended number of days, obviously things are going to start to thaw in there. So that's when you have to cook them because that'll give you a little bit more time. You know, if it goes bad while it's raw, then obviously there's not much you can do. But if you cook it, you get a few more days out of it. You also look at alternative ways to store protein. Can you, for example, look at canned fish? That's a great protein source. Can you look at dried protein sources if you have them? Beans certainly are great. Jerky is another option. And then another thing that I encourage people to look at is the concept of freeze-dried foods. And they're very easy to get. They store— if you don't open the can, they're good for 25 years. I do encourage you to open the can and learn how to use it though, because it is a little bit different. You do have to hydrate it before you can use it, but that's another way to make sure that you have Protein available.

Okay, that's great. And I think I was sharing one with you last I saw you, which is a great opportunity to plug the Carnivore Bar because I don't know if they're up to 25 years in terms of preservation, but they're pretty high up there. It's either 15, 12, something like that. And it's, and it's basically a pemmican bar, which is an ancestral way of preserving meat. It's Basically dried meat protein with fat or tallow in this case. And it's about typically about a 50/50 mix. And then they, they sometimes add salt, sometimes honey as well. And it's amazing. Like it's completely preserved. Um, and will last a long time.

Neither. Like if you're, if you're eating pemmican, it is a very satisfying, like it fills you up.

So yes, it really does. It's true meal replacement and a little goes very far. You keep mentioning this bug bag. What is that?

Bug out bag. Bug out bag, sometimes referred to as a go bag, is a bag that you can grab and go in a hurry. And it's where you have, you know, a few supplies that are good to help you get out of town. I encourage people to have things like, you know, a little bit of food. So a carnivore bar or something like that would be a great choice in something. A LifeStraw, maybe a little bottle of water, but you're not going to carry 3 days worth of water on your back, you know? So that's a challenge. Change of clothes, maybe some first aid equipment. You know, there are things that you want to keep in there just in case you have to leave. You want to make sure that you have supplies that will help you get as far away as possible to get to someplace safe.

How do you account for the emotional change? So it's one thing to plan things in our current state because there's 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 actually in an emergency though, a lot of times people panic and they're like, wait, wait, wait, where is this? Where is that? How do I do this? So do you, how do you prepare for that?

I really encourage people to regularly go through their things. You know, for example, if you have a bug-out bag, where do you keep it? If you have a bin maybe that's got supplies, maybe you've got a bin, for example, in my— I have a class called Building a Bug-Out Bag. And in the class, one of the people that I interviewed was a pet wellness expert. And she talked about what do you do for your pets? Well, chances are, I mean, dogs, maybe you can put a little backpack on them, but most pets, if it's fish, birds, cats, whatever, they're not going to have a backpack. So you're going to have a bin. And hopefully be able to get it in your car and carry it. Presumably you're leaving by car at that point. But it's about going through your supplies. And again, I recommend every 6 months, pick a time that works for you. Generally not December or January because those are taken up with other things. So maybe you look at whatever your birthday month is, unless it happens to be December or January, and then 6 months after that. And those are the times when you're like, okay, this month I'm gonna go through my stuff. And the more you touch it and the more you pay attention to what's in it, do you have to replace things? For example, I recently went through our bug-out bags and realized that some of the supplies that were in there, I really don't need to have in there anymore because how we live our lives and some of the choices that we're making are different. You know? And so I just Change out the supplies. It's same thing with kids. You know, if you have kids and you've got, let's say you're going to put a couple sets of clothes in there because you don't know, well, they grow. So you got to replace those.

Right. And I mean, imagine something like this would have been very handy, for example, with the Malibu, or sorry, the fires, the LA fires, right? That just happened. A lot of those people lost everything. And, um, so now what do you do about things like the things that you're using every day that you can't have replicas of, like passports, wallets? How do you, you know, what do you do? Because a lot of times in an emergency, that's the thing that people might forget and it may be very needed.

And so one of the things that I, and here's the thing. I don't believe it's possible to anticipate every single emergency, nor do I wanna give that much emotional space to it. I know where I live, hurricanes are a thing, so that's what we're planning for, you know? And we also, we have a family plan. We know if things are down, if the cell service is down or we can't communicate with each other, everybody knows where we're going. What's the meeting point? What are we gonna do? And hurricanes are our biggest thing. Someone else, it might be an earthquake. Someone else, it might be wildfires. Like, you plan for what's in your area. You don't plan for everything. And yes, there may be an offshoot and something might happen that's out of the ordinary for your area, but you do the best you can. And so if you have a bug-out bag, one of the things that can be very useful is to have photocopies at least of all of your important documents. Now, I do know for some people, depending on how much you have or what needs to happen, you can also get like little fireproof boxes. And maybe that's one of the things you grab. You grab your bag, you grab your box, and you go.

You mentioned you didn't want to give certain things too much emotional weight. Can you talk about why is that? And what do you mean by emotional weight?

So by emotional weight, I mean getting so consumed by worrying about what might happen that you forget to enjoy life and forget to do fun things or whatever. It's okay to plan or to prepare for things, but not to the point where it becomes obsessive And every single situation is a danger, what could happen kind of thing. And when I say the emotional weight of it, I know that, for example, like I said, we live in a hurricane zone. So it means during the summer, hurricanes are a possibility. I don't sit there and obsessively check the weather. I mean, I check it a couple times a day and I know what we're going to do if a hurricane strikes, but I'm not planning on really being so overwhelmed by it that it takes up too much working space in my brain. I'm also not gonna sit there and, 'cause I think there are times sometimes where it's possible to get so deep into that that you start going into things that Either might never happen or are so remote for your area. For example, yes, in Texas a couple of times we've had bad winter weather and yes, it has been devastating and the grocery store can't resupply and roads are closed because they don't have, you know, clearing equipment. But I don't spend every winter sitting there going, okay, so now I have to have bags of ice and I have to have, you know, all this equipment and all this stuff. Like that's challenging too because— I also recognize, you know, I'm a real person like everybody else. There's only so much money that you have to spend. So you spend what you can as you can, and you prepare for the things that you know are a possibility. If there's a reason why something needs to change, then you make adjustments. But it's not, I think it's very easy to get to a point where you're just constantly living on edge, and that's so bad for your nervous system. that it would be really, really, you know, challenging.

What is the financial investment range that you see as a healthy barometer of like, okay, you're either, this is for obsessive range, this is mid-range, this is low range, you know, like what's the best range?

That is so hard to answer. I think each person needs to figure out what it is for themselves and needs to figure out how much. I know, for example, some of the people who've taken my class, You know, they, they can go out and they can spend, you know, a couple hundred dollars a month slowly buying supplies. There are other people who are like, hey, I got $5 a week. I'm going to focus on food and I'm going to add an extra $5 a week. Great. Like you just start where you are. And again, it's, to me, I see it as a progressive journey rather than an end destination. I don't know at what point you go, okay, I've got everything I need. But I do know, for example, maybe you start with having 2 to 4 weeks worth of food and to make sure that you have a water plan. And then from there you start thinking about, okay, now how often have we had to leave? If we had to leave, what would we bring with us? So here's a perfect example. Where we live, we did not originally have a generator. And then the power started going out a lot. And so we saved our money and we got a generator. So now we have a generator if the power goes out, but it wasn't something that was part of our plan before. It was just that we made an adjustment as we needed to, and we got through it when it happened and then decided we didn't want to live that way, you know, moving forward. Because sometimes it goes out for, you know, a few days.

Yeah, it almost sounds like you're talking about Letting it evolve sort of like, and find the balance of natural involvement and slight conscientious involvement. But I wonder though, how do you answer to people that are like, well, but am I manifesting an emergency when I, you know, like if I put so much effort towards this, am I in a sense welcoming this is, and maybe I'm answering this myself, but that maybe there is no way, like, if you're prepared, you're prepared. Like, it's not like you're going to, it's not like this is ever going to hurt you. Like, you just going down this path is not going to mean like, oh, you're going to regret it later. It's just, it's better to have it and not need it than to not have it and need it.

And again, I'm talking about what I believe are realistic preparedness goals. Again, I'm not talking about having a year's worth of food in your basement. I'm talking about having what you eat on a regular basis. And if you're someone who has a special diet, by the way, having what you need becomes even more important because the grocery store might not have it, but enough that you learn how to utilize it in a good way. Learning how, for example, what supplies do you have in your car so that if your car broke down, what would you do? Would you have a few things? Do you have a safety vest, for example? High-vis yellow safety vest, that could be important. And so it's never that we're sitting there saying, oh, this is going to happen and I have to have all this. Or I will share one of the frustrations I have sometimes. I wind up occasionally talking to people who are interested in the Preparedness Pantry Masterclass and they go, I don't really care about hurricanes where I live. Those don't happen. Okay, great for you. But other things happen. Every place we live, there is something. There is going to be something. And then I also know, for example, one of my favorite success stories is a woman who is in the masterclass who went out of the country and then there was a natural disaster that happened and she had someone staying at the house to take care of her house and her dog. And they were communicating with each other by text. And this woman was like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do about this? And she's like, oh, don't worry about it. It's taken care of. This is where that is. This is where this is. And she said, I felt so good knowing that this person who was staying in my house had everything they were possibly going to need because I had already taken care of that.

Oh, so that's a huge added plus is that a stressful situation for the person that's prepared is not so stressful.

Right, right. And again, you know, sure, Maybe where you live, they don't have wildfires, but there are other things. But it's not always natural disaster. Maybe there's, for example, there have been supply chain interruptions. You know, what happened with the Suez Canal? What happened when that bridge got hit on 95? Like those interrupt the supply chain. There also could be, I had someone who took the class because She wanted to make sure that she and her husband had jobs that were sometimes very unreliable in terms of, you know, their employment level. And so they wanted to make sure that they had stuff so that if they lost their job or if they had to take a pay cut, which did happen, they were not as devastated by that because they had supplies that would help them get through.

What about money? How does that fit into emergency preparedness? Like, should you have cash, a certain amount of cash? What's your thought around that?

I do think it can be helpful to have cash. I will say that probably small bills are better only because if you start stocking hundreds and then you go to buy something, you're like, I have no change. Like, that's not great. By the same token, it also can be good to have certain supplies. Maybe you have extras of certain things that are tradable, you know.

What's an example of tradable supplies?

Well, good tradable supplies might be things like alcohol or first aid supplies or things like that that someone else might need or want. Food certainly is always tradable. But, you know, just to learn to think about things that might be of value. Not that you want to stock extra of those just to trade them, but if you have them, to think that those are potentially tradable.

What about medication? Because a lot of times you can't get more than what your prescription is.

Great question. So I do have a class called First Aid Preparedness, and we do talk about that. And as a matter of fact, one of the people that I interviewed for that was, was a medical expert, and you can get what's called a vacation override for your medications. And so for a lot of people, it can be useful to say, hey, I need a vacation override, and then you've actually got 2 months' worth instead of 1, but you use them wisely so that you're always using the oldest one and what you're refilling is going into your supply.

Right.

Okay.

So people listening to this are inspired. What are the first steps?

So the first step would be to go to the Kitchen Table. I can give you the link and sign up either. So here's the thing. I have the Preparedness Pantry Masterclass. That is everything. It's one big, you know, all the different things, all the workbooks, all the handouts. And then you also get to come to a live call with me once a month. And we go over a bunch of things. If you, if that's a little too much for you and you're not ready to do that, I have a class on how to build a bug-out bag. That's a standalone class. I have a first aid preparedness seminar. That's a standalone class. Or I have the real food in an emergency. That's a standout class. So you could just start with one of those. Like maybe you, you're like, ooh, that bug-out bag thing sounds pretty cool. Maybe I need to do that. Just get that class, go through that. There's some great guest experts that I interviewed as well to talk about different things. One of them's a wilderness expert, uh, you know, one of them's a medical expert, uh, and like I said, one of them is a pet wellness expert. So learning how to do that. And then from there, if you want to do more, do more. But it's not, like I said, it's always about doing a little bit at a time.

Is there anything, you just mentioned the wilderness expert. That made me think of, is there anything you should be adding to your kits that are probably a little out of the ordinary, like a fire starter thing, or, you know, like, should you be thinking like that? Like, in case the entire facility, your entire house is no longer available and now you are in a tent or in the woods, should you be going that far?

I think that there is nothing wrong with doing that. I will also say, again, it's a matter of figuring out what your personal situation is and what will make you feel most comfortable to begin with. For most people, the 2 things that are the best place to start are either learning how to build a preparedness pantry and making sure that you have food available to feed yourself and your family, especially if you have a special diet, and a bug-out bag. And then as you get those under control, then you look at doing other things. But it's not, I don't encourage anyone to try to do everything 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 and a lot of money. And the other thing is you always wanna make sure that what you're doing is something that you feel comfortable with and that you will help you feel prepared, basically, you know.

What about tools? Um, I know when I took my emergency course, uh, I was part of, uh, in Portland they have a neighborhood emergency response team. And so I took that, I went down that path. Um, and they had that tool, that plier tool that has the, the switchblade style other tools on it.

Yeah. Leather.

What's it called?

It's called a Leatherman.

Leatherman. So they had that, they recommended that. They also recommended the gas shutoff tool. So what are the tools that you, what are the top 3 tools you recommend everyone kind of have?

So I think having a Leatherman is certainly great because there's so many different things that it can do. Like it has a lot of different items on it. I think having something that is going to help you start a fire. It can always be a good thing. And then I also think, like you said, having either a gas shutoff or a water shutoff or whatever you need for your house. So that probably comes to 4 tools, but really those are useful. If your water is going crazy because your pipe burst, you need to know how to shut off water. And so again, this is where we practice. We know where the water shutoff valve is, and is it the one at the street? that shuts off the entire line, or is it just the one at the house? Or, you know, what is it? Where is your gas shutoff valve? And how do you use the tool? Because these are not intuitive tools. They don't look like a wrench. They're slightly different. So you have to know how to attach them.

Hmm.

And again, it's just a little bit at a time. It's, my goal is for people to learn to feel comfortable thinking about the fact that it's always okay to be mindful of being more self-reliant because that in turn means that when an emergency happens, you're going to be less stressed because you know you've done things. And like I said, have I done every single thing I can? No, I'm still always doing little things here and there. Because that's what we do, you know?

Yeah, I think that's such a great point. Uh, and I really like that as an emphasis for what emergency preparedness could look like. Um, I want to just touch base before we end about the plan. You mentioned a few times, like having a few different plans, like not only where, where do we go? Where do we meet? But also how Do we leave the house? Like, what do we take? So having that plan, what are, can you, can you kind of delve into that a little bit more of like, what are maybe a few different plans that we should be thinking about?

Well, part of it is to look at who lives in your house and what are their needs. Because let's say, for example, you have someone who is a senior citizen living in your home who has limited mobility and possibly is on medication. Well, you're going to want to make sure that if you have to leave, that they're taken care of. So how are you gonna get them out? How are you gonna make sure that whatever assistive devices they need are gonna fit, you know, whatever you're doing? And again, having that emergency override gives you at least a little bit of a cushion when it comes to medications. If you're someone who has small children, well, obviously your situations could be a little bit different because you're gonna need some sort of carry mechanism, you know? So it's, Really, it all comes down to thinking about your personal situation. Now, one of the things that I do offer is a consultation where I sit down with people and go over their personal situation and what their preparedness needs might be. And then I write them a very comprehensive report with links and everything. But I can't tell you, for example, what your situation exactly should be. without actually discussing it with you because your situation is different than mine. You have pets in the home, you have kids in the home, you have certain things that need to be taken care of. And the other question is, do you have to leave? Like, that's one of the first decisions, I guess, in an emergency situation. Do you have to leave or can you stay? And if you stay, do you have what you need?

Yeah. So in a sense, you have to think through maybe a few different scenarios depending on your situation. Um, I really, yeah, I like that. It's not a one-size-fits-all that you need to think through it for your situation. You know, it occurred to me too that, you know, when our kids are in schools, they go through all these emergency preparedness situations, whether it's for earthquakes or hurricanes or whatnot, fire drills. And yet we never do that in our homes, like ever.

We should.

Yeah, I think it's a really good point. I think it's a really, really good point that, that, you know, we spend a lot of our time in our home and they can experience emergencies just like schools can, just like business places of business can. So we need to think through what is our exit strategy here? What is, what is the scenario and how, and, and how would we potentially work through it?

Um, and I actually just thought of another piece of equipment that I think you should have. I think, you know how they have those little headlamp things?

Yeah.

With light. And a lot of people get them for working on things where they want to work hands-free. Everybody in the family should have one.

Right.

Because if it's dark, you need to be able to see. And it'd be nice to be hands-free. So everybody gets a headlamp. Now, if that's good, if you have to stay or if you have to leave.

Right. You know, headlamp is great. And obviously you mentioned candles earlier, or you, or if you're concerned about having open flames, like having some kind of battery candle that has refreshed batteries, you know, you're constantly checking the batteries and has backups, right?

I would actually do LED camping lanterns instead, because those are going to put out more light and they're going to last longer. than a regular battery.

Okay. So the LED lanterns. What about gas versus electric car? Because that is a huge issue. I'm noticing we have a Tesla and it's so interesting when we were in Oregon, it was a non-issue. It didn't come up ever about charging times, how long the battery would last, everything. But now that we're on the East Coast, it's serious. Like during the winter when it's cold, the thing does not charge. Now we're not using a Supercharger because there's a story to that because of the house we rent, we don't have it set up. But because of that, you know, it's during the winter, it's really hard to charge the car. And then when it's hot, like extremely hot, it also doesn't charge properly. So you're in a scenario when the weather is extreme, these cars don't function properly. So are it for that reason? Are you kind of like, I'm not for electric cars or like, what's your position on that?

I think electric cars can be great. Again, it comes down to, and the example I used is gas because I drive a car that is gasoline. But you know, with your car, you want it now. I know there's like an, a proper window on an electric car. You don't want it undercharged and you don't want it overcharged, but making sure that you're always checking it to make sure that it's at whatever is the most that you can have so that you can get as far as possible. The goal is if there is an emergency situation to be able to get as far away as possible. And usually within 200 to 300 miles, chances are Not always, but a lot of times the situation is different. And if that's as far as you can get, then like, that's as far as you can get. And then you go from there. But again, how often is that gonna happen? And this is the emotional side of what I was talking about. We think about what we can do and how far we can get, but we don't sit there and worry about it. We don't— We don't go, like, if you are taking the time to make sure that your car has maximum power or maximum allowable power, optimal power, and that you have some supplies in the car and that you have bug-out bags, if you had to leave, sure, load up everybody and go and you get as far as you get. But to spend a lot of time worrying about it takes away from your enjoyment of everyday life. And turns you into this very fearful person. And that's not how we want to live our lives.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's a really good point. Uh, lastly, what about communication stuff? Um, you know, cause obviously cell phones may not work if you're in a true emergency, particularly if it's a flood and they get wet, it's like, it's probably not going to potentially work. So Is there a communication device that you recommend to have on hand, or is it more of like, you know, you just deal with the cards you're dealt?

My personal plan is, and what I encourage other people to do, is to have a plan. If communication is out, everybody knows what the plan is. Everybody knows where we're going and where we're supposed to meet. And, uh, you know, the, the goal is to hopefully get there. Somehow we managed before cell phones.

That's true. But we had landlines and landlines worked even during a power outage. And that's, that's, that is the big difference.

Yes. And I know there are some people who put in a landline for that, for that matter, you know, they're like, okay, I'm putting a landline in because we want to make sure that we have it. I know there are some people who make sure that everybody in their family has a walkie-talkie that is good for up to so many miles. And that's presuming that they're all in the same house and they're fairly close to each other. But if they were separated, if they were away from home, they would have it. I know there are other people who are very into the idea of using a ham radio to stay in touch and to stay connected to what's going on, at least an AM radio to find out the news. But, you know, again, it's looking at your particular situation and what you can do. The most important part of that, though, is to have a plan. To say, if I can't stay in my house and I have to leave, this is where I'm going. And you all who are part of my little bubble, whoever that is, adult children or neighbors or friends or whatever, you all know that that's my plan. And, you know, if that's your plan, then we will meet up there. But to, I think also, James, to not be afraid to talk about this stuff.

Hmm.

Because there are going to be some people you would talk about and they're going to be like, whoa, dude, like, That's kind of crazy. Why, why are you talking about that? But really, I personally believe that it's about self-reliance and it's about doing the best that you can. I don't claim to be the world's biggest, you know, I can handle anything person, but I know there's a lot that I can do. And I know that there's a lot I have done. And my goal is to encourage other people to do that so that You're not stuck. You know, we, we got past the point of being stuck a number of years ago. Now it doesn't mean that something won't come up that we're like, hmm, got to figure this out. But the other thing is learning how to have that preparedness mindset also helps you be more able, I think, to figure things out. Sure.

And pivot, right?

Right. The beginning of the emergency, you're like, ooh, whoa, But then you're kind of like, whoa, no, wait a minute. We can work our way through this. Like we've thought about things, like we can figure this out. And so it just, it's good. And I honestly think it's also great for kids too. They don't have to worry that they don't know what to do or that the people who are in charge of them don't know what to do. Cause it's like, we've got a plan.

Yeah, it's a really great point, Mira. I think, uh, if, if there's anything we're going to, anyone leaves with is to just start having the conversation. And start maybe even forming what that would look like. And as you said, start taking little steps and that it's not about having an end result because there, it's impossible to plan for everything, but to start the conversation, to start taking steps so that you are more confident, more resilient, and more prepared when something does happen.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I so appreciate you coming back to talk about this because we did not get to talk about this. And I know you're very passionate about this and that it's really important. And I love, um, I just love that, you know, you are a model for really staying true to yourself because I've, I've watched you in the short time I've known you evolve your messaging and evolve what matters to you. And really that is what you're talking about. You're talking about as we learn something, let's now do better. Let's not pretend it's not gonna happen again. Yeah. But you know, it's that idea of like, do, do good until you know better and then do better.

Right.

And I think you're really modeling that. So, um, Thank you. Thank you for sharing with me.

The big goal also, I just want to say, is to be of service. I want to help other people not be scared or overwhelmed or stuck. Like, sure, maybe you might get stuck, but maybe you won't. Like, the more you know, the better you do. And if I can help be an educational conduit for that, and if I can be a support person for that, like, that just makes me very happy.

The more you know, the better you'll do. There you have it, everybody, Mira Desi. And, uh, we'll have all the notes for her programs and, and for every point she made in this talk, uh, in the show notes. So appreciate you sharing your wisdom and your care and your mission with us, Mira. And for all of you, thank you for tuning in to the Everyday Ancestral Podcast. Please stay curious and take care of each other. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.