Use Your Emergency Gear

I’ve never actually used my gas can to put fuel in my cars. You can guess what happened next.

I am more than a little embarrassed to admit I’ve never used my own gas cans to put fuel in my cars. A large part of that I guess is just plain luck. When I was first driving back as a teen, I had no issue in pushing the limit of the tank and never once ran out of gas. Maybe I should have. But as part of trying to cycle through gas I’m storing, I was trying to put gas into the vehicle tank so I could refill with new gas. It turns out the nozzle on the can is doing everything in its power to keep the gas in the can. Luckily I was at home and could use a funnel to get the fuel in, but if I had been relying on that for an actual roadside problem, I would have failed. I now have a different nozzle that I can use.

But for me, this is a reminder to myself to use the emergency preparations I have stocked to make sure they are in fact usable. Because if I can’t use them outside of an emergency, there is no way I will be able to use them when I need them most. This was brought to my attention again when we turned on the faucet one day and nothing came out. That will be an upcoming post. For me though, I will be checking the following this month to make sure we know how to use them and that there are written instructions in case during the emergency I am unable to carry out the tasks.

Generator

Well Pump

Electrical Panel

Propane Tanks

What are your emergency preparations you need to test?