Are YOU Ready? (preps part 1)

Earlier this year I started telling Our Story of hurricane Rita.
The written story kinda petered out. (yep.. I suck)
Anyway...
Hurricane preparations are in full swing here on the farm once more.
Gustav is on his way. (with two more storms following him! GREAT!)
Hopefully, he won't hit our farm full-force, but we needed to make sure our preps were ready for anything.
I'm gonna chronicle it all here in hopes it can help someone else be a little better prepared.
Even if you don't live in a hurricanes pron area, you still can have power-outages for many other reasons.
Maybe you live in an area where you have tornadoes, or severe winter weather.
Heck, even a few downed trees can cause lengthy power outages round some parts!
Everyone should have some plan in place and some sort of preparations just in case.

Gustav looks to be a very powerful storm.

Our Hurricane Gustav Preparations
(in real time)

First we had to get the Man-of-My-Dreams RV out of harms way (on the coast of Louisiana)
We also needed to have a plan for if we decided to evacuate. (we are gonna head West, towards San Antonio, if needed)

3 days before the storm

Now we need to get everything ready here on the farm...

1. Trim any over-grown and/or dead limbs from trees (less for the wind to toss around)
2. Put up or tie down anything blowAwayable (I love making up new words!)
3. Make sure all animals and livestock have identifiable markings/phone numbers on them. (in case the fence breaks)

Because we almost always lose power (we went without power for over 2 weeks with Rita & lived in a tent!)...

4. make sure we have plenty of fresh water stored. (for drinking and washing)
5. make sure we have plenty of easy to cook over a fire/grill food.
6. fill propane tanks on the grills.
7. fill any empty spaces in the freezer with ice. (a full freezer stays cold longer)
8. make sure all flashlights & radios are in working order and easily accessible.
9. fill and prime all oil lamps and have em in a central location.
10. Make sure all laundry is clean.
11. fill all car/truck gas tanks full. (no power = no gas, if we evacuate gas is hard to find)
12. trip to ATM for cash. (no power = no credit cards working)
13. Fill all portable gas tanks on the farm. (to keep the generator humming 5 gal gas = 10hrs power)
14. burn the burn pile (ashes can't become damaging projectiles in the wind)
15. hit the feed store. (no power or storm damage might make feed hard to get later)
16. check to make sure we have plenty of bleach and chlorine. (disinfectant & water purification)
17. make sure we have enough bug spray.. then buy even more! (these TX skeeters can drive a person insane!)
18. double-check first aid kits and prescription drugs (don't wanna run out)
19. make sure the plywood we have for covering windows is in good shape.
20. have plenty of ammo (for critters/snakes/?)

So far, so good.
We'll see what needs done tomorrow.
Have fun y'all!