A mish mash of Preparedness; American Indian indigenous recipes; Homemade yard cart

This yard cart made from repurposed materials sure impressed the judges at the Kentucky State Fair!

A word of warning as we slide into another Saturday, Hurricane Irene offers a lesson to us all to play it safe in terms of disaster preparedness. Sadly, we're learning that disasters are becoming the NORM, not the exception, so the wisdom of the ages applies more than ever: better SAFE than sorry!

• Red Cross Preparedness Fast Facts to download
• Red Cross Power Outage Checklist to download
• University of Florida Disaster Cookbook to download
• Ready America: Prepare. Plan. Stay Informed. (with translations)
• FEMA: Are You Ready?
• University of Idaho: General Family Preparedness (quick lists!)

Whether it's all systems go or batten down the hatches, I'm forever nostalgic for times gone by and the can-do spirit of those who have gone before us, so I was tickled pink to probe into the authentic recipes at the American Indian Health and Diet Project website: Traditional Indigenous Recipes.
   I figure if I learn enough of the old ways, I'll be like a good scout, prepared for anything. Unlike a young scout though, I'm lacking in supervision and motivation--no badges offered when I accomplish something! But the threat of an impending disaster (anywhere in the world) is enough to jack up my preparedness efforts!

The creator was kind enough to tape these instructions to his award-winning repurposed cart.

   My heart goes out to everyone in Irene's path! Are any of you or yours living in the danger zone?? Anyone have any preparedness tips to offer?

P.S. An excellent article in Yes! Magazine entitled Small Steps for Growing a No-Impact Family led me to the blog Plant My Garden and a challenge to use these "seed words" in my writing today: learning, warning, supervision, safe, ages, systems, probe, play, slide. If you take up the challenge, please leave a link so we can see in which direction the seed words take you!