What do when you are snowed in - and everyone else is panicking

or rather how I've been coping!

Its been snowing here for a week now and it seems as if the country has ground to a halt! We hardly ever get snow here, a mild dusting if we are lucky, never enough for a snowball let alone a snowman or sledging, yet we have had 5 inches on the ground for the last week.
Before the snow, we dropped our car at the mechanics for repairs, bad move! Unable to walk very far in the best of weather I have been almost housebound for 7 days ! Even if we had a car we couldn't get far - the councils in the south west are running out of grit to treat the roads.
The start of this week was traditionally when I would have done my fortnightly shop, so Yesterday I finally ventured out, (we needed eggs and sugar), the snow was beautiful as we walked into the village..... if you see the two footprints with the small round hole next to them, littered with smowballs that me!! trainers with breadbags inside to stop my feet getting wet (my wellies give me blisters!) and a walking stick to steady me whilst the kids and PJ attacked me with snowballs!!
The village was transformed it was full of families walking together (school has only been open 1 day this week) but when we got to the shop the shelves were alarmingly empty - no milk at all! We popped across to the butcher for free range eggs and local cheese then headed home, thankful that I had supplies at home of the staples that were quickly disappearing from the Cooperative!

Steps to take to be prepared:-
Keep a stockpile of essentials to keep you going
MILK - we always buy cartons of UHT milk anyway, and always ensure we have a weeks worth in. A supply of dried powdered milk is our backup for longer periods.
BREAD - we have frozen loaves at home but also enough supplies to make our own for a few weeks
WATER - We have bottled water, but are looking at ways we can harvest rainwater for drinking etc.
FOOD - we have frozen meals and ingredients at hand to last and a good supply of tinned goods and dried food to keep us going for a good while. Thinking about whats plentiful / in short supply can help us emergency meal plan. Luxeries are put on hold or rationed out.
FUEL - (essential as I can't walk far) we keep our car tanks topped up with diesel so strikes and shortages shouldn't bother us for a while. We minimise car useage.
ELECTRIC - We have candles for power cuts and for the future we are looking at solar panels and storage.

This isn't by anymeans a complete list just a reminder for me more than anything. A good post on stockpiling can be found here and here The website food lifeboat gives great daily dietry recommendations .

Rhonda over at down to earth has loads of posts on this whole topic here