The main focus of your food storage efforts should be aimed at—you guessed it, food (and water). But, for those of you that have several month’s to a year’s supply of food, and at least a couple week’s worth of water for each individual in the household, you may be ready to graduate to some of the not-so-necessary emergency supplies that will go beyond sustaining you to actually helping you maintain some semblance of normalcy in a survival situation. Just as you might want some comfort foods in your food storage (like chocolate!), you’ll be rewarding yourself more so by securing some “appliances” that make for a more livable situation when the proverbial poop hits the fan.

Electricity is a wondrous modern miracle. Heck, without it we wouldn’t be able to see pictures from space taken at nighttime that show a bunch of bright dots bunched up together on half of the globe. But more importantly, we couldn’t light rooms, refrigerate our food, cool our homes, and a long list of other things that we’ve grown so used to.

A 72 hour emergency kit is essential for short-term well being and survival, but think how much easier things could be during a distressed moment if you had more light than that shining from the flashlight provided in a 72 hour kit. The kids are getting restless, the baby is crying, you’ve got some candles lit, and you’re running around trying to restore order in the dark. A power supply in the form of a generator comes in extremely handy at this juncture. Sure, a generator is expensive, but so was your wife’s diamond ring (sorry, ladies). I’m just pointing out that the money is well spent when the lights go out ($ for diamond$ and generator$).

It gets better. Generators require fuel to run. At least most do. And so you have the added expense of the fuel; the needed space to store the fuel may be a problem, too. I say it gets better because there are actually solar powered generators. Yeah! Who’da thunk it? These puppies run off of the stored up power they derive from the sun—just like your calculator. Too bad your calculator won’t help you get out of an emergency.

The fuel for a solar generator is free, unless and until the government can find a way to tax it. In the meantime, you’re home free! Think about it—let’s say you even just wanted to experiment and cut down on your power bill by utilizing your new solar generator. You could do it! And in an emergency the wife will thank you and kiss the ground you walk on for such astute foresight! You’ll light up her life, and then turn off the generator for the candlelight—but not because you have to.

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