The Twelve Days of Christmas- Day 2-Shelves

I was browsing on one of my favorite websites, Food Storage Made Easy.net, and found that in 2009 they did a whole series on gifts you can give for the 12 days of Christmas.

Here are their suggestions for Day 2.  The theme for the day is "Shelves" .

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/12/01/day2/

The Twelve Days of Christmas- Day 1- Emergency Preparedness

I was browsing on one of my favorite websites, Food Storage Made Easy.net, and found that in 2009 they did a whole series on gifts you can give for the 12 days of Christmas.  Here are their suggestions for Day 1.  The theme for the day is Emergency Preparedness gifts.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/12/01/day1/

Some preparedness items on sale

Just in case you are in the market for some big ticket items, look at FoodStorageMadeEasy.net and see the items they have on sale this weekend:

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2011/11/22/black-friday-weekend-sales/

Preparedness Christmas gift ideas

When and if the turmoil of the world changes our lives (think of natural disasters, economic problems, unemployment, war, or disease), won't we be thankful to have food and supplies which can help us?

Giving these items for Christmas is a great idea, because if you are going to give them something anyway, why not make it something that might save their lives or enable them to live through a disaster?

Here are some great ideas to give for Christmas:

Food storage of any type.

Equipment to help them use food storage:  Wheat grinder, dehydrator, pressure canner, food processor.

Camping equipment:  Tent, sleeping bag, hammock tent, flashlight, lantern, water filter, Noah's Tarp for shelter,

72 hour kit:  back pack, mess kit, cookstove, fuel for cookstove, emergency blanket, compass, flashlight, glowstick, water filter, individual packs of food such as MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), ramen, spaghettios, instand oatmeal, poptarts, etc (they need to rotate those after 6 months).

For heat:  an indoor propane heater (like a Big Buddy)

Items to help them start a garden:  "The New Square Foot Gardening" book, shovel, hoe, kneeling pad, order seeds from a seed supplier, coupons for helping them in the garden in the spring,

Car emergency kit:  warm blanket or sleeping bag, flashlight, glowsticks, bottles of water, phone recharger,

Communication:  wind-up or solar radio, solar cell phone charger,

A recipe book of the food storage recipes you love.

These were just things I thought of off the top of my head, I'm sure you can think of a lot more very useful gifts which can help your loved ones be more prepared.

Water Storage in case you don't have it

Just when we thought we needed to store water in case of our water supply being compromised by hurricanes and power outages, now we hear about foreign countries cyberhacking water plants!

Foreign hackers broke into an Illinois water plant control system and damaged it, using the internet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/foreign-hackers-broke-into-illinois-water-plant-control-system-industry-expert-says/2011/11/18/gIQAgmTZYN_blog.html

Well, now we know that can happen, better get some more water stored in your house.  Better safe than sorry.

We're getting a canner!

Our ward building will be receiving a canner any day now!  This is good news, because now we will be able to check it out and use it in our homes to do dry canning of items like rice, sugar, macaroni, wheat, etc. You will just have to obtain empty cans and lids from the cannery in Greensboro, and your food items.  It is very easy to operate one of these dry canners, I've used one several times.

More information to come.

Relief Society lesson "Signs of the Second Coming"

I was the substitute teacher in Relief Society today in my ward.  Here is the summary of the lesson.

Relief Society Lesson 43, “Signs of the Second Coming”, a little from Lesson 44, “The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.”

Jesus has told us that certain signs and events will warn us when the time of His Second Coming is near.

I gave the analogy of Google Maps. We can print out the list of directions. Some say “go 82 feet” and some say “go 160 miles” before looking for the next signpost or turn. We cannot see by looking at the list of directions because the words show no sense of scale.

Conversely, if we only print out the map, there could be 10 turns at the beginning, and then a long stretch of 160 miles where we look for the signpost of where to turn but there is nothing. Suddenly we get to the next signpost, and we need to make 5 turns quickly.

We could wake up as a passenger in a car, and have no idea where along the 160 mile stretch we are. Unless we see the signposts we have no idea how much farther we have to go.

I said that this is like the signs of the Second Coming. We don't know the scale between the signs, or how long we have to wait before the next one, or if many signs will happen close together soon. We have to be ready spiritually and temporally at all times.

Before the Savior comes, there will be great trials and calamities.

Heavenly Father wants us to be prepare for these troubles.

Heavenly Father expects us to be spiritually ready.

All faithful followers of Christ will know what the signs are and will be watching for them. D&C 45:39. D&C 39:23. If we are obedient and faithful, we will study scriptures and know of the signs.

Not all events preceding the Second Coming are dreadful. Many will bring joy.

For what purpose does the Lord give us these signs? He gives these signs to help us. First, our Heavenly Father wants us to be prepared for these troubles. Second, he also expects us to be spiritually ready when the Savior comes in his glory.

Some signs have already happened:

The restoration of the gospel.

The coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

The coming of Elijah. He appeared in the Kirtland Temple in April 1836.

People of Judah have returned to Jerusalem.

Some signs are occurring already or have started. (We can be certain that these calamities will become more severe before the Lord comes.)

Wickedness, war, and turmoil.

Waves of sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.

Earthquakes, disease, famines, great storms, lightnings, thunder.

The gospel preached to all the world. (More needs to be done.) The manual says “Before the Second Coming and during the Millenium, the Lord will provide ways to bring the truth to all nations.”

The Lamanites will become a great people.

False prophets.

Some signs are still in the future:

A great hailstorm will destroy the crops of the earth. Hailstones weigh one talent (75.6 lbs) each.

A great burning mountain cast into the sea, a third of the creatures in the sea die

A third of men die..

Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of men for 3 ½ years.

Two witnesses will serve in Jerusalem for 3 ½ years, then will be killed, then resurrected.

Battle of Armageddon.

Waters will flow out from under the Jerusalem temple, healing the Dead Sea.

Building of the New Jerusalem.

Adam-ondi-Ahman

The return of the Lost Ten Tribes and their records.

144,000 missionaries sent out.

The great and abominable church shall be cast down.

Righteous shall be gathered to Zion, the only people who will not be at war with one another.

Great earthquakes, mountains made low,earth reel to and fro as a drunken man.

Oceans will be driven back into north countries, and the islands shall become one land.

Earth will be like as it was in the days before it was divided.

Missionaries called home.

Sun darkened, moon as blood, stars hurled down.

A great sign shall appear in heaven, and all people shall see it together.

Two points to remember as we watch the signs occuring in our lifetimes:

The Lord keeps his promises. As we see the desolating calamities, we need to remember that he has promised they will happen. We should remember that he will also keep all of his comforting promises.

“Be not troubled, for, when all these things (the signs) shall come to pass, ye may know that the promises which have been made unto you shall be fulfilled.” D&C 45:35.

The Lord is just. He will judge his people. Righteousness will be rewarded. Wickedness will be punished.

How can we remain calm and at peace even when some of the signs are terrifying and dreadful?

We can look to the prophet for guidance and follow his counsel. We can live worthy to have the Holy Ghost guide us. We can look forward to the Savior's coming with happiness and not with fear.

Bruce R. McConkie said:

“We do not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of the Saints. The Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and of the tribulations which shall precede it---all as part of the testing and probationary experiences of mortality. He simply tells us to watch and be ready.

We can rest assured that if we have done all in our power to prepare for whatever lies ahead, he will then help us with whatever else we need.

We do not say that all of the Saints will be spared and saved from the coming day of desolation. But we do say there is no promise of safety and no promise of security except for those who love the Lord and who are seeking to do all that he commands..

And so we raise the warning voice and say: Take heed, prepare; watch and be ready. There is no security in any course except the course of obedience and conformity and righteousness.”

Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign May 1979, p. 93 “Stand Independent of all other creatures”

Using freeze-dried Cheddar Cheese and freeze-dried Spinach

This woman has the absolute best looking and best sounding recipes using food storage, I am really hooked on her blog.

In this post, http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2011/11/09/kids-love-it-casserole/  she gives the directions for making a hamburger casserole that her kids really love.

I was fascinated to see the photos and read the instructions for re-constituting freeze-dried cheddar cheese and freeze-dried spinach---They actually look very tasty!  I want to buy some and try it.

She also describes a taste test she did comparing store-canned ground beef, home-canned ground beef, and freeze-dried ground beef.   (I've been canning it myself, so I haven't purchased the store-canned stuff, nor have I tried the freeze-dried variety.  My family really likes the home-canned, they can't tell the difference from cooked fresh or crumble-fried and then frozen.)

Laughing Cow cheese for your 72 hour kits

I really like cheese, and look for kinds that don't need refrigeration.

"Laughing Cow" cheese comes in round boxes, with tiny pie-shaped wedges of individually wrapped cheese inside.  It doesn't need refrigeration, so it is perfect for storing in your 72 hour kit for about 6 months.  (After that, we eat it and buy new.)

Today at Harris-Teeter, the usual $4 containers were on sale for $1.99.

Glad it isn't us

About 143,000 people in Connecticut are still without power 6 days after a big snowstorm, according to  the New York Times, Nov. 5, 2011:

"Russell Hunter, who owns Pfau’s Hardware in West Hartford, Connecticut, said that after a bizarre fall snowstorm knocked out power to nearly one million people in his state and millions more throughout the Northeast last weekend, his store was cleaned out of all storm-related supplies. They went at about five times the normal rate of sale, with everything from batteries to oil lamps to gas grills flying out the door as fast as he could order them.

But despite the windfall profits, even Mr. Hunter is running out of patience for the chill and the darkness because he has no power in his own house.
“At home, it’s getting sort of old,” Mr. Hunter said on Saturday. “And cold! People are really angry that it should take this long.” He was also a victim of his own sales success.
“I took home two bundles of firewood,” he said of his own preparations, but later in the week he “wanted two more, and we didn’t have them.”


Note from Amy:
When I read stories like this, I try to picture what I could do to prepare so it doesn't happen to me.  We need to plan ahead and buy those things that will keep us warm and fed and protected from the elements in case OUR area has a big power outage in the winter time. 

And notice what items sold the fastest during the crisis (Batteries, Oil Lamps, Gas Grills, Firewood).  Those things will be gone quickly here, as well.  So you need to buy them NOW, before everyone else is trying to buy them and you are out of luck.

Disgusting!!

Fruit Galaxy from 1988.  Not appetizing.

This just goes to show that you can't depend on everything in your food storage.  You better open things every few years to see if it is still good.

This can wasted space in my house for years, I should have opened it and used it in the first decade.  Obviously dehydrated fruit does not last as long as rice and wheat do.

Food in your linen closet

Every house and apartment generally has a linen closet.

You can store food there, if you can find somewhere else to put your linens.

I cleaned out one whole shelf of my linen closet by laying some of my blankets spread out one layer thick between the mattress and box springs of each bed.  You can't even tell they are there, but if we ever have a power outage we can get them out and use them for warmth.

Now, with the empty shelf, I can keep all my supply of corn, peas, and olives there.  (Usually it is completely full to the front, this picture was taken just before I bought more.)

Another great tip for closets is, have a carpenter build all your shelves clear out to the front of the closet.
These shelves used to be only half as deep, now they come clear out to the door.  This gives me about twice as much storage space in all my coat closet, pantry, and linen closets.

How to make a food storage end table

Put buckets down, in the size you want your end table to be.  Don't waste the space between the buckets, store clean juice or sodapop bottles refilled with water.

Put boards on top.

Put more cans on top.  Then add a big piece of plywood (not shown.)

Now cover it with a matching tablecloth.   This is a great solution in a small house like mine.

November Ward Provident Living Challenge

November 2011 Provident Living Challenges

Do one of these by the December Relief Society meeting and get a prize!

Challenge one: Buy three months' worth of dishwashing liquid, bars of soap, laundry detergent, toothpaste and shampoo.

In July I challenged you to mark your dishwashing liquid, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. with a line across the bottle, and to write the date on it, so you could see how fast you used it. Now, it has been 4 months, and you ought to be able to look at those containers and get an idea of how much you need to buy to get a three months supply. Imagine if there was a natural disaster or economic disaster which closed all the stores. How much of those items do you want to have stored in your house? We have been taught to get a three months supply FIRST, and then get longer term storage.

Challenge two. Use wheat without a wheat grinder, and learn to make Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

. Here is a delicious recipe for Blender Pancakes. You put regular wheat kernels (not ground up) in the blender with the other ingredients, and blend it on high for 4 minutes, and the wheat gets pulverized into wheat flour in the batter while it is blending. To qualify for the prize, make Blender Pancakes at least once, and buy three month's supply of all the ingredients to make this for your family for breakfast once a week for 13 weeks (this equals 3 months.)

Recipe:

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

makes 4 servings.

1 cup milk (or 1 cup water and 3 Tablespoons powdered milk)

¾ cup wheat kernels

2 whole eggs (or 2 Tablespoons powdered eggs and 4 Tablespoons water)

2 Tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

Blend the milk and wheat kernels on high speed of blender for 4 minutes. (Wheat should not be ground ahead of time!) Turn to a lower speed and add the remaining ingredients.

Make small pancakes on a hot griddle.

This is a great way to use wheat if you do not own a wheat grinder.

Beginner's Luck- Sweet Potatoes

This was only my third summer to have a garden, and I am still such a beginner.  I had purchased 4 little sweet potato plants, and had planted them, and didn't know anything about taking care of them.  The vines spread out all over my garden plots, and basically crowded out all the other things (carrots, onions, radishes.)

I finally read on the internet about harvesting sweet potatoes, and learned that I should dig them up just before the first frost, or just after.  So last week I spent several hours digging, and it was very hard work!

Those sweet potatoes had grown lower down than my garden soil, right down into the untilled clay.  They were imbedded in it like a rock into concrete.  But I was shocked at how many sweet potatoes I had grown from only 4 plants.

My plan next year is to put them in a separate bed so they don't crowd out my other vegetables, and I will definitely plant more than 4, because they must love the climate here, they grow so well without any care at all.