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Friday, July 30, 2010

Ten Reasons for Not Starting Food Storage

There is a great website put together by the Daniels Park Ward in Colorado, which contains nine great videos about food storage given by Wendy Dewitt. I will try to link to them every few days so you will remember to watch them all.

In Video #1, Sister Dewitt talks about the ten main reasons people give for why they don't have food storage. She gives the arguments FOR having food storage.

http://www.danielsparkward.com/fsv1.aspx

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Got Matches?

Hurricane season is here. There is always a possibility that we will be out of electricity, so it is a good idea to have plenty of sources of light. I try to collect candles and have them in various rooms in my house.

I had a decorative box with candles inside.




One day it occurred to me, that it was silly to have the candles scattered around my house, if I didn't put matches with them. So now I have tried to hide matches with every candle.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Walton Feed Order

(I don't put last names on this blog. If you need to know where to mail the check or who to make it out to, post a comment and I will respond to you.)

Fall 2010 Walton Order

Dear Morrisville Ward members:
We have less than a month to get our food orders in to the Walton Feed Company, a supplier of food storage items. The deadline is Aug. 22.

Members of our stake have been doing group orders from this company for as long as I have lived here (22 years) so it is a reputable company. However, our stake president wishes to make it clear that the orders are not sponsored or endorsed by the LDS church, that there is no gospel obligation to participate in the order, and that these group orders are not the only way to build food-storage.


Please call or email me with questions. If I cannot answer you, I will refer you to the Apex stake volunteer Walton coordinator, who is Aimee S. But please call me first, so she doesn’t get so many calls.

HOW TO ORDER
There is a printable price list attached to the email you got from our Relief Society secretary, and the Excel Price List, which is easy to use. Just type in your quantities, and it will add everything up for you.

DEADLINE: The order form and a check (made out to _________) is due by Aug. 21 if you mail it to my house or you can bring it to me on Sunday Aug. 22. I do not want to do any money exchanging in the chapel. Please give it to me in an envelope somewhere other than the chapel. I will not look at it until I get home so please make sure all the numbers add up correctly.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES: Please realize that if you order, you are responsible to pick up your food when the truck arrives. Walton has orders all along the East Coast. All food arrives on a semi truck in pallets, and the group that ordered has to unload the food, organize it and then pull their orders and get checked off. It usually takes the
average group 1 1/2 hours hours to do the whole process, depending on the size of the order. We have a good system in place, and if followed, it is fairly quick and efficient for the individual. By doing these group orders, we save lots of money on shipping and receive product discounts off Walton Feed's regular retail prices!

DELIVERY: The truck may be here sometime between October and January, they will let us know in plenty of time, don’t worry. But if you are only living here for the summer, don’t order.


New Products:
Walton Feed is now carrying Freeze Dried products...freeze dried fruits, vegetables and shredded cheese. They also have canned meats. Please look at the "Product Info" tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet to find more information on these products. Please note that when comparing prices on freeze dried products from other companies, you need to check the weight of the product. I have noticed that a few companies put in less product than Walton Feed does, sometimes much less.

"Ten Things I wish I had Known" by Kellene Bishop

People are sharing lots of great Preparedness blogs and websites with me. Here is an article from Preparedness Pro, which the author gave permission to share. I think all ten things are things I still need to learn. I have a lot of book-learning, but not any practical experience with any of these.





10 Things I Wish I Had Known
About Food Storage 10 Years Ago

http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/10-things-i-wish-i-had-known-about-food-storage-10-years-ago/
By Kellene Bishop

I hate having to learn dumb lessons. Don’t you? As I’ve looked back and realized all the simple tricks and strategies I’ve learned over the last 10 years, I cringe at the thought of all of the money, time, anxiety, and energy I’ve wasted. So I decided to share them with you. You’re sure to learn something in this list! I hope you’ll learn from my mistakes NOW!

Yeast will last indefinitely if stored in your freezer! Outside the freezer it only lasts a year, but inside that freezing climate it lasts over 5 years—so far. When I use it in my bread, I just use it directly from the freezer into my bread dough with no problem. I cringe at the though of all of the yeast I’ve wasted over several years.

I can obtain food storage for FREE or better, and certainly inexpensively, if I just use coupons and an organized system! Now that’s really something to cringe about! I acquired a great deal of my food storage over the years from Costco, but now that I can get name brands for free or dirt cheap elsewhere, I figure I can’t afford to shop at Costco, thanks to coupons! It really IS worth using coupons. I can’t believe I was so pious to think that coupons were “beneath me.”

Cooking with a pressure cooker is a sanity saver. They are fast, nutritious, fuel friendly and SO easy to use! I wish I hadn’t been afraid of them way back when. I’m so grateful that a patient teacher showed me their merits!

Yes, you can CAN MEATS! And it’s the easiest thing in the world to can. Simply stuff the RAW meat into a mason jar with a bit of salt, put the clean lids on it, put the jars in your pressure canner for the recommended period of time, and VOILA! You have BETTER THAN CANNED meat. (The canned stuff you buy has been processed twice.) This meat will be SO tender, so juicy, and will save you a BUNDLE over the canned stuff! (Let’s see. Tastes better. 25% cheaper. Easy to do. Dang! I wish I could relive the last 10 years!)

Cheese wax is a God-send! I can have all of the REAL cheese I want if I simply use cheese wax to preserve it! The cheese will keep for 25 years using this method. Now I’ve got Swiss, Monterey Jack, Colby, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Gouda, Blue Cheese, and even a delicious smoked cheese literally sitting pretty in my food storage! If I had known about cheese wax 10 years ago, I would have made much better use of the cheese sales over the years and never tried that nasty processed stuff.

Preserving eggs that I buy from the store is a snap! After I wrote a lengthy article on egg preservation, I discovered that a quarter cup of warmed mineral oil, coated on my eggs that I buy from the grocery store works great. I then can store them pointed side down in a Styrofoam carton, in a cool, dry place. I don’t have to get the eggs FRESH from a farm. And I don’t have to stack them carefully in anything. How’s that for easy?! I have WHOLE, REAL eggs for up to 9 months! Forget the bran flakes, the paraffin wax, the salt storage. Just some mineral oil is PERFECT. WOW!

I never have to live without yummy chocolate again! I can buy all of the candy bars, Hershey kisses, chocolate chips, peanut M&Ms, Dove chocolates, Lindt chocolates, stuff them in a Mason jar, and with my trusty Food Saver jar attachment, seal their goodness for YEARS! (I like getting them on sale after a holiday) This also works for ANYTHING that doesn’t require refrigeration. When I open the jar years later, they still taste as fresh and yummy as they would have on the day I bought it!

ONLY store what you eat. If I don’t eat it, I won’t eat it, and thus it’s a waste of money. If you can’t eat wheat, DON’T store it. If you can’t stand the taste of powdered milk, store canned milk or soy milk instead. Fortunately I’ve learned to prepare all my oddball foods that weren’t previously in my regular diet, but it sure would have saved me some headaches if I had done things differently. If I store what I eat, the rotation is a cinch!

You can have meals already made, cooked, and stored in a Mason jar! You can bake bread, cake, cookies, casseroles, pudding, and more, in a Mason jar, seal it, and they will last for SEVERAL years! That way you don’t have to figure out how to cook up something every day while you’re enduring a crisis. Do it in comfort now, so you can live in comfort even in the worst of disasters!

Solar ovens are the bomb–not just in an emergency, but every single day the sun shines! I LOVE cooking in mine. I haven’t found anything that I can’t cook in it that doesn’t turn out wonderful! I’ve essentially tripled the life of the fuel that I have stored, since I won’t need to use any of it on cooking anymore except on cloudy or rainy days! Not having to worry or pay for a years supply of fuels such as propane, kerosene, fire wood or isopropyl alcohol, makes the price I would pay for a solar oven well worthwhile. So… like any woman, I bought two!

I’ll be writing more about each of these items later, if I haven’t done so already. The point is food storage can be GLORIOUSLY DELICIOUS. You don’t have to do without and it doesn’t have to be expensive and boring either. One dollar a day, per person, will provide you with absolutely comforting and delightful meals regardless of your challenging circumstances. Enjoy!

Copyright 2009 Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop. All rights reserved. You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to Preparedness Pro & Kellene Bishop.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Got Water?

I'm putting together a powerpoint presentation for my ward, and one of the things I will show them is where you can keep your water storage. (If you are willing for me to take photos of your food storage or water storage, please tell me. I won't give your name during the presentation.)

We have some big barrels of water in our garage, but I also want water in smaller quantities since it is easier to use, or to grab in case we ever have to evacuate.

I wash out every juice bottle and every 2-or-3 liter sodapop bottle we use, and fill them with tap water. (Provident Living says chlorinated water is fine to store without doing anything to it.) (And don't use milk cartons, they develop leaks.) Then I hide them all over the house.






Everyone has a sofa. There is usually a little space behind it, and I can easily fit 17 or 34 bottles behind there, depending on if there is one row or two.





We have an armoire in the living room which holds our TV. Since it is placed diagonally in the corner, I put a bunch of bottles in that little corner behind it.

Once, in the 1990's, our water pipe to our house broke so we had no water for a couple of days. In that amount of time, we used up 60 sodapop bottles full of water, just to flush toilets and wash with.

Please, don't throw away another bottle until you have filled up every little nook, you will be thankful for it someday!

(I actually don't have room for any more, but I am saving some now to give to the missionaries in our ward, so they can fill them up and store them at their apartment. It is hurricane season, you know.)


Comment by Marilu:
Good ideas! I use all my soda and juice bottles for water storage. My favorite storage place is my chest freezer, which doesn't currently have a lot of food in it. When I fill them I leave some room and then squeeze until the water level reaches the top. That way the bottle can expand when the water freezes. By filling any empty space in the freezer it uses less energy to keep the food frozen, and if the power goes out the ice will help the food stay frozen longer.
When we go camping I put the two liter bottles in the ice chest. There's no melt water and I can then use the thawed water for washing dishes or the like.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Aug. 5 presentation on Hurricane Preparedness


I have received my first assignment in my new calling, Morrisville Ward RS Provident Living specialist. I will be doing a powerpoint presentation during an evening Relief Society meeting at the home of Kennon B. on Thurs. Aug. 5, 7:30.

(Sorry, I don't put last names on this blog, unless I get permission.)

The topic will be Hurricane Preparedness, and the importance of at least 3 days worth of food, water, and light.

For future presentations, I'm going to be taking some photos of various people's food storage and emergency supplies. If you are in my ward (Morrisville) or stake (Apex NC) and if you would be willing for me to take photos of your food storage, please contact me! (Just post a comment and I'll get back to you.)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Latter-day Prophets Warn of Tribulations to Come

Click here to watch a YouTube video with conference addresses by LDS apostles and prophets about the tribulations to come.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

My New Calling-Provident Living Specialist

I was just called to be my ward's Relief Society Provident Living Specialist. This is the blog I have set up to store the messages on personal and family preparedness that I will be sending out to my ward in North Carolina.

You'll notice that I have lots of blog posts already. I have been writing on my personal blog about this subject for a couple of years already. So I put all those that I had previously written on here as well.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

You Can Make Them or Buy Them

In yesterday's post, I told you to watch Lana Richardson's video on Emergency Preparedness.

If you did, you saw her demonstrations of :

the manual clothes washer (made of a plunger and bucket with hole in the lid), the metal stove made from a metal bucket,

the rehydration kit,

the Sanitation Kit toilet/sanitation kit,

the Wonder Box stove (using BeanBag type styrofoam pellets to keep hot foods hot and continue cooking),

the Can O' Heat (made from a roll of toilet paper w/o the cardboard center plus a bottle of rubbing alcohol poured into it, and lit)

and lots of other great ideas. She sells most of that stuff on her own website, but she also gives instructions for making them. So look under products and see the pictures in case you want to make them yourself.

http://www.emergencyhelps.com/Emergency_Helps/Products.html

And I am telling my own kids, Lets make these and give them to each other for Christmas. I want every one of them.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Great Video of Emergency Prep ideas

Wow, Lana Richardson has some great ideas of stuff to be aware of in a disaster! This is an hour long, so let it play while you are doing dishes or paying bills or something. It is well worth watching. I took 6 pages of notes!

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6255&Itemid=200049