HB Prepper - Emergency Preparedness

 As I type this Donald J Trump has been President of the USA for a couple of weeks.  Since his inauguration he has signed a number of  Executive Orders which have started to add weight to the "common sense" side of the political see-saw. You may not agree with me - and that is your prerogative - but I view most of the rules he's brought in as a positive thing for common sense and the wellbeing of the world as a whole. Some of the major E.O.'s in my opinion were - securing the southern border - abandoning D.E.I. hires, instead selecting the most qualified person for the job based on merit and their ability to actually do the job - withdrawing from the W.H.O. which has outgrown its original purpose and has become a bureaucratic tick box nightmare with a ridiculously high budget - declaring that there are 2 genders, male and female (although technically if you are born with both sets of genitalia you would be a hermaphrodite, so the argument could be made for a 3rd gende...

 My last article, published here on February 9th 2023 was titled "Timely Reminders and General Thoughts" And, timely it certainly turned out to be. Only 3 days later Cyclone Gabrielle paid New Zealand a visit that we on the east coast will never forget. I also said, in that last post, that I would make my next article about what I was doing to prepare. So, here it is.  Let me first say that compared to how Gabrielle impacted people's lives in places north of Hastings and Napier - such as Esk Valley and Wairoa, also Pakowhai - which lies between Hastings and Napier - we got off very lightly. The damage that some have endured, losing homes, livelihood's, livestock and human life has been terrible.  We personally were very lucky that our only losses, during the gale-force winds and driving rain of Gabrielle, were our veggie gardens and fruit trees. This happened because our property from front fence to back fence was under about a foot of floodwater, compromising our sep...