National Preparedness Month

September is national preparedness month, and it falls during the perfect time to think about this stuff. With back to school starting and the beginning of hurricane season, plus winter is around the corner, September is the perfect time to think about these thing.

Being prepared for anything is a must these days. With hurricanes wreaking havoc all over the world, or the fires in California, it makes me really want to prepare for something. Watching the news, these are the questions that have been going through my mind lately when I see disasters. I'm sure I'll be adding to this list of questions over time.


Pets:
What do I do with my pets in an emergency?
Can I bring them with me to where ever I am evacuating?
 If not, where can I bring them?
 If I am staying home, do I have enough food for them for multiple days of being stuck in the house?

Thankfully, a lot of animal shelters and vets will open their doors to pets if need be. Plus, some emergency shelters will allow you to bring your pets with you. Each town will be different though and you should know where to go a head of time.

Kids: (for me it's my nieces and nephew, but most will apply when I have children of my own)
Where will we go if we need to leave?
Do I have enough food and drinks in the house for the kids?
Do I have anything to entertain them? (yes, I know!)
Where are all the flash lights and batteries? Do I need more?
Where can I charge our cell phones so we can use them if we need them?

Other:
If someone needs medicine, do I have enough? Where can I get more if we are out?
If we lose power, how long until the food is no good in the fridge/freezer?
Do we have enough propane for the grill so we can cook if we lose power?
If it snows, can we get to the snowblower/shovels? Can we get to the wood pile for heat?
Do I have enough gas in the cars in case we have to leave?
Can I access water? If the pipes freeze or get turned off, will I have enough bottled water to flush the toilets or wash things?  Note: during a snow storm, our water was turned off (water main break! yikes) so we heated up a pot of snow to have to flush our toilets.
Is the generator set up properly?


Good websites/apps for info

• WMUR app. I have this installed on my cell and it updates me constantly on everything!
• Call 211 for non-emergency information!
• Massachusetts Alerts app put out by MEMA.
• Check MEMA.com or FEMA.com
• https://www.mass.gov/be-prepared-for-emergencies-and-disasters has some great info!
• Follow local police on social media (not just your town but surrounding towns and state police)
• Join local facebook groups to get updates from other people
• https://safety.macaronikid.com/articles/5993b3151f397745e4eb090c/september-is-national-preparedness-month
• https://www.popsugar.com/moms/photo-gallery/35948232/image/35948233

Tips:

• Buy items you will use that don't need to be refrigerated, in case you lose power.
• Have a car charger or portable chargers for your cell phones. We bought 3 at Walmart last year for like $5! They charged our cell phones and kindles a few times before we needed to charge them (which we just plugged them into the car charger or brought to work with us)
• Make lists on your cell. I use the memo app that is on my smart phone. I have one list for where certain things are in the house (extra batteries, flash lights, candles, etc). I have another one with links to specific websites that will update frequently. I have another with if we need to evacuate, what I should bring.
• Call 211 if you need information about shelters, getting medicine, needing transportation, where to get food, etc. Basically all non-emergency questions should go through 211
• download WMUR (NH) and Massachusetts Alerts apps onto your cell phone

Buyer beware

This past week had me thinking about recalls. I was shopping with my nephew in one of those 2nd hand stores that people donate to for charity. I can't remember which one it actually was, but we went into a Savers, Goodwill AND Salvation Army that day looking for Harry Potter books. Any way, as we were heading up to the check out counter, I looked at some of their baby gear. They had a bumbo that was recalled. No big deal, I let the guy know at the counter and went on with my day.

Later that night I started to think:

1. Did that guy really listen to me when I told him it was recalled? Did he take it off the shelf?
2. What if someone had bought it before I told him? 
3. And how many of recalled baby items were sitting on their floor?

Being a 2nd hand store manager and a buyer, we check every item that comes in. If something is recalled, we tell the person it was recalled and give it back. Some items, like the bumbo, I can easily get the recall piece for. Others, like a drop side crib, we don't take the risk. Some people have no idea their item was recalled.

I took a short survey of mothers in a few of the groups I am in on Facebook. A lot of them don't look up recalls for their items. Granted, most of them do register their big ticket items and should get contacted if there was a recall. Many admitted that if they were selling their item (to a 2nd hand store or donating) they don't look up any recalls for it.

After reading some of the responses, it made me think..

Facebook market place is a popular place to sell baby equipment. Do people keep track of recalls if they are selling it online? Do people do their research before buying something online?

So, I'd like to take a moment to share a few ways as to our we find out if a product is recalled. 

I literally google it. I will type in Bumbo Recall into the google search and it will tell me what, if any, recalls there are. Usually it will take me to the Bumbo website where I can request a recall piece to fix the issue, sometimes it will take me to the .gov websites that list all.

If there is a year on the item, like a stroller, I will type in 2011 BOB Jogger Recall.

We check recalls.gov often too. This site allows you to sign up for emails, which we get too, that list the most recent recalls on all items. 

If you shop in our store, or any other Children's Orchard nation wide, we check and double check our toys and equipment to make sure they haven't been recalled. Even some clothes and shoes have been recalled. Please be extra careful buying from other places or online. Most people are honest and would never knowingly put someone's child in danger, but some people don't care or are just trying to make a quick buck.

If you have any helpful tips for people concerning recalls, please feel free to comment below!

Note: this isn't meant to make anyone feel like they aren't doing everything they can to keep their child safe. It is being written because of what I have seen recently at other 2nd hand stores and on Facebook market place. 

Online shopping/ Stores closing

Last night, while watching T.V., I saw multiple ads for online shopping. While I was watching the commercials, I was also on Facebook reading how everyone is sad that stores are closing.

As a someone who works in a small business, a brick and mortar business, I can tell you exactly why stores are closing.

We have become too reliant on online shopping. I know, I shop on Amazon too! However, because I work in a store, I force myself to go to a few stores before turning to Amazon. 

If we continue to shop online, we will continue to see stores closing. And what happens when stores close? We lose jobs!

Please do my store a favor. Shop in stores! Shop small, local businesses. Support your neighbors who own businesses. 

The Children's Orchard franchise once had 100 stores nation wide, we are down to less than 30. Stores are closing left and right for us, and other stores! 

Think of stores as being on the endangered species list. Pretty soon we will be extinct, if we don't do something about it. Please, shop in small stores like us!

From a grandmother's perspective (Stephanie): It's a good learning experience for children to be out in stores. It is a good place to teach them how to behave in public. If we don't teach them, no one will. It helps them learn how to interact with people: have eye contact, speak with adults or other children. We can teach them to respect other people's property.

America's Stonehenge, Salem NH

Monday, right before the new school year started, we visited America's Stonehenge in Salem NH.

Prices: $12 for adults, $7.50 for 6-12 year olds, $10 for seniors, Free for under 5. (some libraries have FREE passes!)

My sister-in-law brought her 3 kids (8,5, and 3) plus another 8 year old. This was the perfect outing! Educational, hiking, and fun all wrapped up together!

The kids all loved the Kid's Gemstone Dig. Here the kids dug in the dirt to find pretty rocks, which they were allowed to take 3 home each. Any other artifacts had to be left on the bench. We spent a good chunk of our visit digging in the dirt.
 

After the kids finished their digging for gemstones, we started a little hike to the different sites:

 

 

We got to view the ruins and explore. There was an informational sheet that explained each site.

We found a rock that said Share A Smile, each of the kids HAD to share a smile! :)

 

 

After hiking around the place, going off on different paths that followed the sun sets during times of the year, we ended with the Sun dial.

All in all, we had a very fun visit. We will defiantly be visiting again! We highly recommend this place for any age, but keep in mind it is a lot of walking. We should have used the back pack carrier for the 3 year old, next time we will make sure we bring it!

Don't Hire Derek Fuller from Royal Painting and Building out of Ipswich, Ma!

This blog wasn't meant to do this, but since they keep deleting my reviews, I wanted to warn people in our area about him!

We hired Derek's company, Royal Painting & Building to do our roof back in April/May of 2016. He had a great quote and was a customer of ours (he used to shop in our store 3-4 times a week!). He took a little longer than quoted to finish the roof, which we assumed would happen because once they started we had a heat wave, so they moved slower (which we were fine about).

A few weeks after they finished, we had our first rain storm. The ceiling in our living room was slightly leaking. We called him and he said he would send someone out ASAP to fix it. We called a few times, and he kept apologizing because they were busy and he had a death in the family. My grandmother passed the same time period, so we gave him another chance. It didn't rain the rest of the summer (other than maybe a light rain), so the leak of "out of sight, out of mind". 

In October, we had another big rain storm. The living room was still leaking slightly, but my niece's bedroom ceiling collapsed in from the rain! We didn't even know there was a leak until it was too late! This was a Sunday night (Monday being a holiday). We called their 24/7 emergency number they had listed online. No one answered or called us back. We called several times between 7PM on Sunday and about 1PM on Monday. We finally hired someone else to fix the roof area of that side of the house and fix the damage of my niece's bedroom. Derek finally called us back on Tuesday and said he would fix it, we told him we hired someone to fix because he didn't get back to us fast enough (We had a HOLE in our ROOF and it was supposed to rain again!). Derek was fine with that, and said he would come look at the pictures and the damage and that if we gave him the receipts/invoice he would pay for the damage. About a week after we saw and spoke to him, we email his wife Jessica (she answers the phones and emails), the invoice and he refused to call us back to set up a payment plan. My mother called a few times and Jessica would tell her he would call her back, then they stopped answering when she call all together. I tried from my cell and they called back within 5 mins (right after my mother called them!).  Jessica said they would have to talk to their other partner then call us back to set up a plan. I have called a few times since then with no return calls. It is now May and they are still refusing our calls and have yet to pay us back!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not hire them! Don't fall for their low estimates! They claim they use products, bought specifically for our house (that we paid for) and turns out they weren't put down! Take a look at the following photos of some of the damage!

Slight leak (June 2016) in the living room, the reason we called them.

This is what my niece's bedroom ceiling looked like the night it caved in!

This is a new(ish) leak we found during the snow/rain storms this winter (Feb-ish) of around our sky light,

We will need to re-do our whole roof this summer!