Preparedness Wednesday: December in Review

Oops! Took the kids to the pediatrician this morning and had this set to publish automatically before I finished it. 

For those of you just tuning in, every week of 2011 I tried to do something to get my house in order (fix things, get out of debt, etc.) and purchase something to add to my emergency supply. If you are interested in following deals as I find them I post them on my public facebook profile.

Doing:

• Installed a coat hook rack in my entry way. *Hopefully* this will make finding coats and getting out the door a little easier.
• Did a little research on supplies that are good to have in an emergency. Besides food, water, and toilet paper, a few suggestions that I repeatedly saw included: iodine water tablets, tarps, solar blankets and a shovel. I also bought some heavy duty plastic pins to put these items into.
• Bought several plastic bins to put toys in. At some point I will have enough time and motivation to organize all of the toys, so they will be in these bins and not on the floor. Someday...

Emergency Preparedness:

• Pompeian Olive Oil- $3.99 for 48 oz @ Albertson's
• case of Charmin from Amazon- 21 cents per roll
• more peanut butter from Amazon- I can't remember how much it cost, but when I signed up for it to come automatically it was a great deal.
• brown rice- $13 for 20 lbs @ Costco
• #10 can of freeze-dried strawberries- $8.79 @ Costco

Preparedness Wednesday: November in Review

October was a crap shoot: newborn with pretty bad reflux, 4 surgeries, a root canal, Halloween, ring-around-the-rosie with the insurance company over my baby's medication and a few more curve balls that life had for me, meant that I didn't accomplish any of my preparedness goals. But I did better in November.

Doing:

• Bought a second shoe rack (this one for my closet), so the area by the backdoor could feasibly be a little more organized
• Attended a meeting where mom's shared ideas about how they manage to keep their houses clean and organized.
• Paid off a chunk of my husband's student loan with my credit card, because the interest rate is significantly better. (Sad, huh?)
• Had a gate installed so my neighbors dog won't be able to poop in my backyard anymore. Yay!

Food Storage:

• Dole pineapple tidbits- 50 cents per can @ Albertson's
• Campbell's cream of mushroom soup- 39 cents per can @ Smith's
• Swanson's vegetable broth- 39 cents each @ Smith's
• Natural canned black olives- $8.97 for 8 pack @ Costco (We recently discovered that not only are these cheaper than your average black olive, they also taste much, much better.)
• S&W canned black beans- 49 cents each @ Smith's
• Progresso Vegetable soup- 75 cents each @ Albertson's
• Cold milled flax seed- $8 @ Costco, shelf life is not as long as whole flax seed, but it's still a couple years and it sooo much more convenient.

Preparedness Wednesday: September in Review

For those of you just tuning in, every week I try to do something to get my house in order (fix things, get out of debt, etc) and purchase something to add to my emergency supply. If you want to follow my deals as I find them, I post them on my public facebook profile. For those of you who have been reading for awhile you know that I have an adorable new baby with reflux. The upshot is that I am no where near as productive as usual, so there was a lack of getting things in order this past month. It was all I could do to maintain things, and even that was questionable. But look how cute my baby is!

 

Doing

• Paid off one of my husband's student loans- the big one with the higher interest rate. Hooray!

Emergency Preparedness/Food Storage:

• Made and canned Asian plum sauce (recipe to follow in an upcoming post)
• Canned homemade salsa
• Canned apple pie filling
• A case of instant oatmeal from Smith's- $18
• #10 cans of powdered eggs @ Costco- $12.47 (Best price I've ever seen, I highly recommend you take advantage of this if you can.)
• Vital Wheat Gluten @ Walmart- $6 for 15 oz (although I discovered you can get 27 oz for $8 at the local Bosch store, so if you live in St George, I recommend that.) Wheat gluten is a great shelf stable source of protein. Unopened it is good for 10 years.

Preparedness Wednesday: August in Review

I didn't quite make my typical preparedness goals, but I feel entirely justified because it was over 100 degrees here every single day of the past month and I had a baby. I'm amazed I got anything done .

Doing:

• Had the air conditioning fixed, which should dramatically reduce our next power bill
• Made 4 digital photo books (I think this falls under getting things organized)
• Experimented numerous times with my sun oven
• Harvested onions and peppers from my garden, then planted seeds for our winter garden

Emergency Preparedness

• Cottonelle Toilet Paper- $3.25 for a 12-pack at Walgreens
• Geisha canned mushrooms- 25 cents each at Walgreens
• Skippy Natural Super Chunk Peanut Butter- Amazon Subscribe & Save- I love it when my food storage buys itself.

Preparedness Wednesday: July in Review

For those of you just tuning in, every week I try to do something to get my house in order (fix things, get out of debt, etc) and purchase something to add to my emergency supply. If you want to follow my deals as I find them. I post them on my public facebook profile as I find them if you are interested.

Doing:

• Had the yard done. It looks soooo much better. It makes me happy.
• Bought a sun oven. Actually my husband bought this for my birthday. For all of the sun that we get here in St George, why not use it to cook my meals instead of heating up my kitchen? (I'm putting this with doing because it makes my home more energy efficient.) Expect a post about this in the future.
• Replaced the air conditioning filter to help it run more efficiently
• Got an estimate on air conditioning and heating installation for our basement so we can start finishing it.
• Made curtains for the area under Thing 1's loft bed. Ok, actually I just bought the material and my mom made them when she came to visit for my birthday while I took a nap. Thanks Mom! This was very important to Thing 1.

Emergency Preparedness/Food Storage:

• Made peach salsa & peach raspberry pancake sauce
• Bought a few jars of Classico Pasta Sauce- $1.04 each after coupons at Smith's
• Maggie Moo's Powdered Milk & Chocolate Milk- $11 each for a #10 can at Walmart (this is was their everyday price) I've had friends claim that their families can't taste the difference between this and fresh milk.
• Wheat Gluten- I thought we would try this stuff out, but I didn't buy much because I've yet to find it at a good price. But we have been experimenting with it.

Food Storage Friday: Storing Water

 As I have mentioned before I live in a dry hot climate. At no time has this been more real to me than now being 34 pregnant and finding myself drinking 3-4 liters of water a day. (If I don't drink that much I find my throat parched and I wake up in the night because of terrible Charlie horses.) So I find myself thinking, do I have enough water stored for an emergency? (The answer is probably not.)

WATER—Water is more essential than food in sustaining life.  Store a minimum of seven gallons of water per person for drinking and food preparation.  Store an additional seven gallons per person of the same quality water for bathing, brushing teeth, and dishwashing.  Use heavy plastic containers with tight-fitting lids.  Metal containers, which may corrode, tend to give water an unpleasant taste.

    If you have any doubt as to the bacterial safety of stored water, you may purify it by boiling vigorously for one to two minutes or by adding chlorine bleach (5 percent sodium hypochlorite solution).  Generally, half a teaspoon of bleach will purify five gallons of clear water, and one teaspoon will purify five gallons of cloudy water.  If you store it away from sunlight in clean containers, and if it is safe bacterially at the time of storage, water will remain pure indefinitely. EPA water treatment recommendations are for 1/2 teaspoon bleach per gallon of clear water.- The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints January 20, 2002

So that means that for my family of (soon to be) 5, for a 2 week supply of water. I need to store 140 gallons of water. That is a bare minimum. That means we're all a little on the dehydrated side, we're not bathing everyday and we are staying out of the sun. Yet, 140 gallons of water still sounds like a lot. Where do you put 140 gallons of water? Not to mention that containers that large can be expensive.The answer is a little at a time.

One of my favorite food storage stories happened to my aunt. She lives outside of Seattle. At the time she didn't have money to invest in food storage, but she wanted to be actively working on it. So she started storing water in rinsed out soda and juice bottles. Her friends and neighbors thought that she was insane. The Seattle area is never going to have a drought, she was never going to need the water that she was storing. Then one winter they had a very hard freeze and every one of her neighbors' water pipes broke. Because she had water stored she was able to share with them and help them in their crisis. (And it helped that her water pipes happened to not break.) So you can't say that you and your family don't need to store water, because you never know when you will need it.

So where do you put all of that water? Well, you get creative. Before I lived in the home I do now, we owned a townhouse that was not designed with storage space in mind. We didn't have a garage, our pantry was small and the closet space was insufficient. We did however, have a space under the stairs that you had to crawl over the washer and dryer to get to. There was no lighting and the space was tiny and awkwardly shaped. It was totally impractical for storing anything that I intended to use on any kind of regular basis. But instead of letting that space be wasted I filled it with water in old juice bottles. And at the time it held enough water for my family. When we moved I dumped out the water, gave away the containers and started over.

 Now I wait until bottled water goes on sale for less than a dollar a case, (and it does if you watch for it) and I stock up on that. My husband mocks me and my habit of buying bottled water, but I only buy it when it is cheaper than the price of the bottles themselves. And when Powerade goes on sale for $5 a case I buy several of those. My husband drinks them after his bike rides and I save the bottles to refill with water. Over the past couple years I have acquired a substantial supply of water bottles.

What ways have you found to store water?

Preparedness Wednesday: June in Review

I hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend.  I would have to say that it was a pretty good one for us. I think it was the first time that we've done home fireworks that both kids were old enough to appreciate them. :) And here's what we have been up to this month...

Doing:

• Decided to give up on the battle with the weeds. I called a landscaper who came and told me that whoever had done our yard in the first place was an idiot (which I unfortunately agree with) and we needed to rip most of it up, put down a weed guard and then put it back together. So that's where all of my spare money (and then some) will be going in the next little while. Put when it's done it will save me tons of time and effort on yard maintenance.
• Bought a mini-van. Now we have room for the four of us plus baby and storage room. We planned on doing this later, but having our other car totaled made this a little more imperative.
• Created a game plan for paying off the student loans
• Took a well-needed mini-vacation :)

Emergency Storage:

• Made Strawberry Vanilla Sauce
• Went to the local cannery where we put together a few cases of powdered milk and a few cases of various kinds of dry beans
• Went back to the cannery a couple weeks later and bought a couple cases of pancake/waffle mix (After trying it out my family has become big fans, especially when I top it with strawberry vanilla sauce)
• Bought 8 lbs of cheese on sale, my friend was telling me about a way to preserve it  so it will last in your pantry for 25 years. (Expect a blog post to come on that one.)

Preparedness Wednesday: May in Review

For those of you just tuning in, every week I try to do something to get my house in order (fix things, get out of debt, etc) and purchase something to add to my emergency supply. If you want to follow my deals as I find them. I post them on my public facebook profile as I find them if you are interested.

Doing:

• Pulled and sprayed weeds like a crazy woman, paid the neighbor boys to pull more weeds and finally bought some industrial strength weed killer
• Set up an appointment to visit the cannery next month
• Read a book on canning and preserving
• Hung up several pictures on my walls.

Emergency Storage:

• Case of Skippy Peanut Butter- $1.55 per jar (another fabulous deal from Amazon Subscribe and Save)
• Case of various staples from the local LDS Cannery- I just walked in and bought a case of whatever was already canned, and now they let you put it on a credit card. Sweet!
• Planters peanuts- $1.49 per 16 oz jar @ Albertson's
• #10 can of biscuit mix- $9 @ Walmart- that plus cream of chicken soup makes a complete meal
• New wheat grinder- my husband recently surprised me with this, it comes with much higher reviews than the last one I bought. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
  

Preparedness Wednesday: April in Review

For those of you just tuning in, every week I try to do something to get my house in order (fix things, get out of debt, etc) and purchase something to add to my emergency supply. If you want to follow my deals as I find them. I post them on my public facebook profile as I find them if you are interested.

Doing:

• Taxes
• Bought a push lawn mower, not only is it powered by exercise instead of gas (which saves us money with rising gas prices), it doesn't send a fine spray of cut grass into the air, which always makes my husband's allergies go berserk. It's definitely the best lawn mower for us.
• Bought materials to build a few more shelves in our home
• Worked some extra hours

Emergency Storage:

• Case lot sale at Smith's- Ramen 10 cents per package & canned corn at 47 cents per can.
• More canned tomatoes from Lin's Case Lot Sale- 48 cents each
• #10 Can of powdered orange drink mix- $10 Walmart
• Idahoan Mashed Potatoes- 19 cents per package at Albertson's
• A case of Charmin- $22 (Thank you Amazon Subscribe and Save)

Food Storage Friday: Powdered Milk

First I must say I that I am pretty picky about my milk. I only drink skim milk and I only drink it from certain stores. So the thought of drinking reconstituted non-fat dry powdered milk <shudder>, not going to happen, it smells too weird to me. However, I feel that storing powdered milk is an important part of emergency preparedness, so I store it, and I even use and rotate it. I try to consistently have some made up in my fridge and use it in recipes that involve cooking milk. I generally can't taste a difference. I have also used it many times when I am out of evaporated or sweetened condensed milk.

Types of Powdered Milk

 This is pasteurized skim milk reduced to a powdered concentrate. It can be found in two forms, regular and instant. They are both  made from milk in a spray-drying process, but the instant variety has been given further processing to make it more easily soluble in water than regular dry milk. Both types have the same nutrient composition.

Regular Powdered Milk

•  More compact and requires less storage space than the instant variety.

• To make; mix your milk with warm water using a wire whip, then chill. Before serving, give it another quick stir and serve. This will give the milk better flavor.
• Need 4-#10 cans per adult = 1 c. per day. You'll need more for children.

Whey Based Milk (Morning Moo, Swiss Maid, Mountain Mills, etc.)

• Most of the milk protein has been removed: Morning Moo, Swiss Maid, etc.
• Does NOT meet protein needs of growing children.
• Best tasting of the milks
• Will NOT make yogurt or cheese because the milk solids have been removed. Whey is what’s left over after making cheese or yogurt.

Instant Powdered Milk

Instant milk is made by taking regular powder and making it a little flakier.

• Most common variety found in grocery stores.
• Dissolves instantly in cold water (will lump up in warm water)
• Need 5 - #10 cans per person = 1 c. per day, more for children.

Flavored Nonfat Dry Milk
This may be found packaged in a variety of forms from a low calorie diet
drink made with artificial sweetener to cocoa mix or malted milk. The key
ingredient is the dry milk so buy and store these products accordingly. They
have less calcium than plain milks.

Dry Whole Milk
This dry milk has a higher fat content and therefore a shorter shelf life than nonfat. Other than that, it can be used in exactly the same way. Dry whole milk is difficult to find, but can sometimes be found where camping supplies are sold and from a few online providers, or in the Mexican food aisle of the grocery store under the brand name of Nido by Nestle.

Buttermilk Powder

Dry buttermilk is for use in recipes calling for buttermilk. Since it has a slightly higher fat content than nonfat dry milk, it generally does not keep as long. The acid in buttermilk reacts with baking soda or baking powder in your recipes to make batters rise a bit. This is what gives you puffy pancakes and batter breads.

Advantages to Using Powdered Milk

• It needs no refrigeration (until reconstituted)
• It is easy to store for long periods of time
• By making just what you need there is less waste
• It is fast and easy to measure and mix
• Adding 1 T. dry milk to 1 c. fresh milk increases: protein, B vitamins, calcium and minerals.

Here are a few recipes that I use powdered milk in on a regular basis.

Noodles & Company- A copy-cat of the restaurant's creamy macaroni and cheese from I Dare You To Eat It.com

Apple Wheat and Buttermilk Pancakes- My own crowd-pleasing creation, that's easy to make and uses most food storage ingredients.

Pumpkin Apple Oatmeal Muffins- I've been making these for decades now and I still love them so much. Actually I use powdered milk in almost all muffins.

Now here  is the most important reason I think that people should store powdered milk. You can use it to make baby formula. I have personally never tried this. My kids refused to drink formula, period. (Which is ironic because for whatever reason formula companies still send me samples and coupons. At least my local food pantry got something out of it.) If there was some kind of crisis and I have a neighbor with a baby, I want to be in a position to help out. So here are a couple of baby formula recipes. Now this won't work if the baby has a milk allergy, and it doesn't have the extra vitamins and additives that commercial formulas do, but in a bind, it will do.

Baby Formula
⅓ c + 2t. instant powdered milk
1 ⅓ c boiling water
Mix together completely. Add:
1 Tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons sugar

Baby Formula 2
1- 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups of water
1 1/3 Tbsp sugar
Boil water for 5 minutes, add milk and sugar. Pour into prepared bottles and cover.
Ready to use. Refrigerate unused portion. (DO NOT use Karo syrup or honey for sugar)

Product Review: CSN Grain and Nut Grinder

 Recently CSN Store contacted me to do a product review. They provide a gift certificate, I choose an item and review it here on my blog. And being the food storage nerd that I am I chose a hand-cranked  Universal Grain, Corn and Nut Mill. I am fully aware that an electric one is faster, but I want to have both in the event that there's a power outage/ shortage.

Picture from CSN Store site

 As for the shopping process, I wished there was a product description or review. I realize that they ask people to do these things so they will have those reviews, but there wasn't enough information. I had to search for the same product elsewhere on the internet to get a description. They were however, very prompt in their shipping.

Here it is, set up in my kitchen

 Another minus for this product was that there were very little instructions. Just one diagram on the side of the box on how to assemble. I could only fit it on the back side of my kitchen island because the tightening screw is too wide to tighten it on the side counter lips. As I began to use it I found that the pieces don't fit together very well.

View looking down into the mill.

 As you can see there is a small gap between the two of the pieces where you pour in your product that you are grinding. No amount of turning closes this gap. This means that as you operate the mill little bits are flying onto the counter and floor and generally making a mess.

 Now it's kind of hard to see from this picture, but when all the pieces are tightened all the way, they don't fit together. When slightly looser, the gear and grinding plates are centered, but not very effective for grinding. And as you crank the mill, the pieces tighten a little more on their own, meaning that once again the pieces are not fitting together.

 Here are the wheat kernels that I sent through the mill ten times. They changed very little between the third and the tenth time through. I don't think that this thing could ever turn my wheat into flour. The picture on the website and the box show a bowl of finely ground corn meal. I can't imagine ever getting anything so fine out of this mill. It works for making cracked wheat or perhaps for grinding coffee beans, or corn kernels into feed, something where you want a coarse product, but not for turning grain into flour.

Now I really wanted to like this product and give it a good review. I was excited to get it and I have had good experiences with CSN Stores in the past, but I was less than impressed. I can't honestly recommend it. If I hadn't gotten this product for almost free I would have returned it, but it's not really worth the hassle for the chance that I might get back what I payed for shipping.

Preparedness Wednesday: March in Review

Doing:

• Hung energy efficient curtains in front of the biggest window in my house (Saved $21 using coupons at Bed Bath and Beyond)
• Planted a garden
• Planted a pomegranate tree
• Fixed one toilet so it didn't take literally hours to fill with water after flushing
• Sorted through and packed up clothes that are too small for Thing 1 and Thing 2
• Worked a couple extra shifts to put money into savings (or car repairs)

Food Storage:

• 24 boxes of Annie's pasta and cheese in various varieties (49 cents each)-Smiths
• 6 packages of various pastas (Free with coupons)-Smith's
• Multiple cases of water My husband mocks me for purchasing bottled water. 1.39 for 24 bottles after catalina deal at Smith's (Plus I found a couple $1 off coupons which made two of them 39 cents per case)
• Canned tomatoes, beans, green chiles and mushrooms (48-70 cents each) from Lin's Case Lot Sale
• Sliced almonds from Costco

Preparedness Wednesday: February in Review

Doing:

• Have garbage disposal replaced (Not one I was planning on, but it had to be done.)
• Had our locks replaced (Again, not planning, but one morning we woke up and our front door lock was broken in locked position.)
• Lots of car repairs and maintenance.

Emergency Supply:

• #10 can dried green and red peppers- about $10 @ Walmart
• #10 can cream of chicken soup mix- about $13 @ Walmart
• A few more cans of Hormel Chili- because I found another coupon to make them 29 cents each @ Smith's
• 4 liters extra virgin olive oil- $18 @ Costco
• 4 bottles of Ragu pasta sauce- 65-77 cents each @ Smith's

Preparedness Wednesday: January in Review

 So originally my plan was to every Wednesday blog about what I am doing to get my house in order and build my food storage. Then I decided that it's just not interesting enough to merit four blog posts per month. Maybe one blog post per month. So here's what I did in January:

Doing:

• Worked an extra shift to have money to put towards debt
• Took inventory
• Read Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-Day Saints
• Read Emergency Food Storage and Survival Book
(We were out of town multiple times, reading was as much doing as could be happening.)
• Changed all of the burned out bulbs through the house. (ok, actually my husband did those.)

Food Storage/Emergency Preparedness Additions:

• Emergency First Aid Supplies
• Wheat and more wheat-Costco
• Vegetable Oil- Costco
• Enough salt to reach a year supply for my family- $4 at Walmart
• Hormel Chili- 29 cents each with coupons-Smith's
• Hunt's Diced Tomatoes- 16 cents each after coupon-Smith's

Book Review: Emergency Food Storage and Survival Book

Because I have this thing with food storage, my husband got me the Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis by Peggy Layton for Christmas. In it she provides a list of what your family would need to survive for a year if their were a crisis and grocery store were not available, this includes food, cooking equipment, medical supplies and gardening needs. She also gives many helpful tips on the logistics of food storage, including finding space and improving the storage life. She talks about the pros and cons of various food storage items, how to grow your own sprouts and how to create a 72-hour kit. And of course like anyone with any sense about food storage she emphasizes the importance of storing what your family with use and rotating what you store.
Now there is tons of information here and it can be somewhat overwhelming, but I like that she has outline a systematic action plan which you can take at whatever pace suits you. And honestly you don't have to take them in the order listed, although I highly recommend taking an inventory somewhere near the beginning. (I personally think that staples are a much higher priority than pet food or gardening equipment.)

Step #1 Organize

• Prepare space in your home
• Build shelves and organize
• Create a 1-week menu
• Take inventory

 Step #2 Water, Survival Equipment and Gardening Needs

• Water
• Basic survival equipment
• Cooking equipment and fuel
• Garden seeds
• Sprouting seeds

Step #3 Medical Supplies and Special Needs

• Pharmacy and medical supplies
• Baby food and supplies (if applicable)
• Pet food and supplies (if applicable)

Step #4 Basic Ingredients for Baking

• Basic baking needs
• Sweeteners
• Fats
• Basic spices and flavorings

Step #5 Soups, Sauces and Spice Mixes

• Canned soups
• Dehydrated soups
• Sauces and spice mixes

Step #6 Staples

• Cereals
• Rice
• Grains
• Legumes
• Pastas

Step #7 Protein Foods and Dried Dairy

• Commercial and home-canned meats
• TVP
• Peanut Butter
• Dehydrated eggs
• Dried dairy

Step #8 Fruits and Vegetables

• Commercial and home-canned fruits
• Dehydrated fruits
• Commercial and home-canned vegetables
• Dehydrated vegetables

Step #9 Fun Foods

• Dry drink mixes
• Canned drinks
• Desserts
• Boxed mixes
• Condiments
• Additional spices

Step #10 Nonfood Items

• Paper products
• Cleansers
• Personal hygiene

I think that this book is good reference, but there were a few things I didn't like about it. There is a huge chunk of wasted paper (60 pages) in middle for you to plot out what your family needs of each item for 1 week, 3 months, 1 year, etc. If I am going to calculate that, I'll just get a spread sheet program to do it for me. I also question the accuracy of some of the recipes in the back. There's a dessert recipe without any form of sweetener and her chart for reconstituting powdered milk just doesn't add up. I'm pretty sure that the laws of physics apply to food storage too. Despite these problems, I think that the book was still worth the read.

Book Review: Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-day Saints

Prophetic Statements on Food Storage for Latter-day Saints by Neil H. Leash was  recommended to me by a co-worker. I believe that food storage is a good idea whether you are of my faith or not. It just makes sense. Food storage is insurance against whatever life has in store. There is not a crisis I can think of that can't be made a little less stressful by being prepared and having some food and money set aside. The world we live in has many dangers and uncertainties, but if we are prepared we shall not fear.
  If you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this book is a wake-up call. Our prophets have been telling us for 165 years that we need to prepare and set food aside. A man who we believe communicates with the Lord Almighty has implored us to prepare our homes and our families for possible disaster by storing food and putting our homes in order. It would be to our great benefit if we listened to these words of wisdom and warning.
  The saints in Nauvoo were warned to accumulate food and supplies a long time before they were driven from Illinois. Those who did not prepare suffered greatly. When they arrived in Utah they were again counseled to set aside a years supply of grain. Those who followed this council faired much better when plagues of crickets and grasshoppers destroyed their crops. Preceding the US Civil War, WWI, the Great Depression and WWII, prophets counseled members of the Church to store a few years worth of grain, and for those looking back there were obvious reasons for this. After these major events the prophets continued to repeat their advise to store what would be necessary to get by for a year. Now I don't feel that this is the place to wax on disasters and catastrophes that will come with the Second Coming, but I do believe that at some point Christ will come again and it has been prophesied in the Bible that before His coming there will be many great wars and disasters. And given this information it would be a really good idea to do what we can to prepare.
  Now no one can argue that I am not a proponent of food storage, in fact I am border-line obsessed. My neighbors, friends, family and co-workers know this about me. I'm ok with it. I use food storage on a very regular basis and try all kinds of experiments. So while I do make good use of my food storage, I haven't really been storing much lately. Since my husband started school again there has been this thought hanging in the background that there is a strong possibility that we will have to move when he is done for whatever job he may acquire and I am very much not interested in accumulating more stuff just so I can move it somewhere. This book however has really instilled an urgency in me that I need to prepare. If there were a crisis I don't think the cosmos would leave me exempt from disaster in fact I have a reputation for drawing more than my share of random chaos from the cosmos because my husband is a college student and it wasn't convenient for me to store a years supply of food. This does not mean that anyone should store more than they are able, but it did make me decide that every week I am going to do something to make my family better prepared. Yes, storing food can be a bit of a sacrifice, but if we show faith and obedience we will be blessed with the peace of mind that comes from preparedness.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this book:
When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time. --Henry B. Eyring, April 1997

I feel to exhort the brethren, and say to them---lay up bread, do not sell it for a song; let your wives and daughters go for awhile without ribbons and ornaments, let your wheat stay in your bins; let us try to get along with old coats and old hats and keep the wheat, and in a little while you will see the reason why this counsel has been given. Lay up your wheat and other provisions against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted and no mistake about it.--Wilford Woodruff, 1875

More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare.--Ezra T. Benson, October 1980

First, gain an adequate education. Learn a trade or a profession. Second, live strictly within your income and save something for a rainy day. Third, avoid excessive debt. Fourth, acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life.I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness.--L. Tom Perry, November 1995

Family Preparedness is the key to meeting the needs of family members and is the foundation upon which church preparedness is based.--Victor L. Brown, May 1976

Members should be taught to provide for themselves and their families. That is the Lord's way. When they are caring for their own they are in a better position to help others as the Gospel requires.--Joseph B. Wirthlin, 1988

The Church can not be expected to provide for every one of its millions of members in case of public or personal disaster. It is therefore necessary that each home and family do what they can to resume responsibility for their own hour of need.--James E. Faust, May 1986

You have smart women for wives...We have talented women among us and we need their help in this matter. Some may think it is a trifling thing, but it is not; and you will find that the sisters will be the mainspring of this movement. Give them the benefit of your wisdom and experience, give them your influence, guide and direct them wisely and well, and they will find rooms for the poor, and obtain means for supporting them ten times quicker than even the Bishop could.--Brigham Young, December 1867

Let's do these things because they are right, because they are satisfying and because we are obedient to the counsels of the Lord. In this spirit we will be prepared for most eventualities and the Lord will prosper and comfort us. It is true difficult times will come-- because the Lord has foretold them.--Spencer W. Kimball, November 1977

The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare as boarding the ark was for people in the days of Noah.-- Ezra T. Benson

This book convinced me that becoming prepared is a priority. It was written in 1999, and if it was urgent to gather food storage then, it is even more urgent twelve years later. For anyone who decides to read it, I will say that the first half is a little dry, but keep reading, it becomes more interesting and compelling. This book made me want to accost every family member, friend, neighbor and acquaintance and make sure that they are doing something about food storage. It can not be denied that there are some crazy things going on this world, and the state of affairs could go south quickly if we are not prepared. I would feel better knowing the ones that I love are actively preparing for a possible crisis by having at least a little food set aside.

Preparedness Wednesday: Costco and Inventory

Last weekend when I was at Costco I picked up a food storage items. I got a 45 lb bucket of Lehi Roller Mills white wheat for $12.99 (at 29 cents per pound that is the cheapest that I have EVER seen it), a 3 lb bag of Craisins (there's a $3 off coupon at the front of the store that's good until 1/24/11) for $3.99 and a 5 quart bottle of vegetable oil for $6.29. I read of a man who lived in Germany after WWII, and he said that vegetable oil was the most valuable food item. With it one could acquire nearly any other desirable item. A quart of vegetable oil could trade for 3 bushels of apples or 300lbs of potatoes. It has a long shelf life (he said his lasted for 20 years and still tasted fine), it has a high caloric content and can be used to improve the flavor of many other foods (and non-typical foods such as roots of shrubs and wild plants). He recommended grain as second highest in priority and Craisins are probably the most popular food storage item with Thing 2. So three good food storage items for about $25.
As for the doing this week I took an inventory. Between buying, moving three times and using my food storage in the past two years, I wasn't certain how much I have, and I need to know that before I go crazy purchasing any one item. If you go to this link there is a calculator that can give you a basic idea of how much you need depending on the number of family members and their ages.

Preparedness Wednesday: Emergency First Aid Supplies

Recently I have been reading a couple of books about food storage and emergency preparedness (which I will discuss in more detail later). Throughout my reading I have decided that each week I am going to a) purchase something that makes me more prepared and b) do something to help put my house in order. (This week  the doing is working an extra shift, which monies will go toward debt, but the purchasing is more interesting.)
 I put together a collection of first aid supplies based on what I know my family regularly uses, what we might use in an emergency and supplies that I often use in the hospital. This list is not all inclusive and it is what I think will meet the needs of my family for a year. But it's a good starting place. (This is in addition to the 5 first aid kits that I have around my house and car.) I listed the generic names and then their more recognized brand name in parenthesis and if the quantity is more than one, I listed it in brackets.

• 30-second digital thermometer
• 4" self-adhesive elastic bandage (Ace wrap) [2]
• calcium carbonate, 24 tablets (Children's Pepto-Bismol)
• children's ibuprofen,4 oz (Motrin) [2]
• children's acetaminophen, 4 oz (Tylenol)
• bismuth subsalicylate, 48 tablets (Pepto-Bismol) [2] 
• loperamide hydrochloride, 48 tablets (Imodium A-D) [2]
• added strength pain reliever, 275 tablets (Excedrin)
• extra strength acetaminophen, 500 tablets (Tylenol 500 mg)
• ibuprofen, 250 tablets (Motrin) [3]
• ibuprofen, 180 softgels (Motrin)
• naproxen, 300 tablets (Aleve)
• bandage roll guaze, 4 1/2"x 4 yd [2]
• large guaze pads, 4"x4" [2]
• 1" adhesive wrap (Coban) [3]
• 2" adhesive wrap (Coban) 
• elastic net stretch bandage (Spandage, actually I'm not sure if that's the actual brand name, but that's what we call it at work.)
• 1st aid cleansing spray, 5 oz (Bactine)
• bacitracin, 1 oz
• antibiotic ointment, 1 oz (Neosporin)
• alcohol swabs, 100
• hydrogen peroxide, 32 oz [2]

 Since I am not purchasing these for immediate use I was very careful to check the dates on products, the soonest being 09/2012. I bought most of these items at Target, because I have tried several generic brands of children's medicine and this is the one that my kids like best, and it tends to cost less. (I recently discover that they will not take the Western Family ibuprofen.) After I purchased these I did discover that the bacitracin and antibiotic are cheaper at Smith's. I bought a lot more ibuprofen compared to acetaminophen because I have that it is generally more effective for relieving fevers and general aches and pains.
 If you don't already have a separate first aid kit I would recommend adding adhesive bandages, bandage scissors, tweezers, 2x2's, gloves and burn gel. Other good items to have in there are lip balm, plastic spoons and a clean hand towel. Now getting this all at once can be kind of expensive. I spent $140 on the above pictured items, because I had FSA money to burn. Otherwise I would have hesitated to spend that much at once. However, I have seen most of these items for lower prices than I got at Walgreens, but not all at the same time. It's worth watching their ads and building up your first aid items a little at a time.