Expect the unexpected, not possible.

It is raining again tonight as our English summer draws to a close. It has come in handy as I was going to water the garden earlier and found that the girl next door, five years old, had knocked the tap off my water barrel when she rode her bike up my path to deliver a message. The barrel is completely empty.

Our kids have been told to go around the car the other way to avoid this and have been doing it for so long that I forget the risk is there. I don’t have any spare taps nor did I have any water in the other barrels having used them all over the summer. It isn’t such a big deal at the moment because a day or two without water is not an issue and I can get replacement parts over the weekend.

But it nagged me that I had become complacent and had no real spares for the barrels. Some are over ten years old now and although in good nick overall the taps are not perfect. I should already have spares.

It made me think of the phrase ‘Expect the unexpected.’ It is impossible though, sometimes the only thing that makes you think of things is having experienced the issue you make sure it doesn’t happen again but there are so many things we just don’t know. We have not experienced and we just cannot prepare for unless we are told. I started this site to share this sort of knowledge but even here there are areas that none of us have experienced and we will find out the hard way.

I’ve found my risk mitigation plans contain a lot of risks, they mitigate risks that are very unlikely yet as this shows there are risks, simple risks, which we don’t think about. No matter how much you think you have covered everything.

I am now thinking of finding a remote prepper, starting from first principles, reviewing the basics and my home and what I have done, looking at what should be covered with a view to identify and filling any gaps. An extra pair of eyes can see things you take for granted. While I can still fix them and before they become an issue.