‘Well crap’ has kind of been my attitude these last few days. For those of you who don’t know, a large chunk of the part of Oklahoma where I live in has been under siege this week from a highly unusual late October ice storm.
The power has been out, folks with cotton in the field are looking at potential damage and with the weather climbing back into the 60s we can expect sick calves. Uggg!
On top of that, my in-laws who live in Oklahoma City have health issues and are not the most prepared for extreme weather (of course I probably should keep my mouth shut — I thought I had at least another 2-3 weeks to service that old generator I have in the shop) and with their power being out, I have been shuttling back and forth between Oklahoma City and Loyal (a roughly 70-mile commute) to help them while also taking care of things at home.
To add insult to injury I’m also a week behind on this blog — after all, I thought I could whip something up earlier in the week. I mean, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Well, the ice storm put the kibosh on that.
What all this shows, just like my delay in servicing the generator and writing this blog, is that it’s never a good idea to procrastinate. This is especially true when it comes to planning for extreme weather.
I know I seem to harp a lot about getting a plan together to at least try and deal with events like droughts, floods, wildfires and, yes, ice storms. But I honestly believe we all would be MUCH better off if we would take the time to put some thoughtful consideration into how prepared we are for extreme weather.
Do you have a drought plan? Are you prepared if the power goes out due to an ice storm or a blizzard? Have you taken steps to get ready for a wildfire? Are you doing things that “harden” your farm and ranch to these kinds of events?
It’s easy to get complacent. In this wonderful, modern America we live in, we rarely are without the ability to get what we need when we need it. The power comes on when we flip the switch. The rains come when they are supposed to. One season predictably follows the other… it all seamlessly flows together…until it doesn’t.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—the time to plan for a problem is before it happens. Mother nature often times won’t allow you the chance to play catch up, whether you’re talking about servicing a generator, controlling wildfire fuel load or writing a blog. Put things off and you will get burned—or frozen—literally.
Get a plan.
