The Covert Preppers list of Christmas Gifts

I read a blog called "The Covert Prepper", and although it may be a little too doomsday for some of you, he has a really good list today of presents he wishes he would receive for Christmas.  I read the list, and thought I should share it with you all.

These items seem to be really top quality items.  I know the last one on the list (The Sawyer water filter) is the one we have, and we highly recommend it.

http://www.thecovertprepper.com/?p=659&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thecovertprepper%2FgfCM+%28The+Covert+Prepper%29

Homemade 100-Hour Candles

My friend Keri sent me the link for these instructions.  It looks like a pretty easy preparedness gift you could make for all your friends and relatives.  The candles are made inside cute little 1/2 pint jelly jars.

http://saltnprepper.com/diy-100-hour-candles/

Dec. Challenge: Buy Preparedness Gifts

December Challenge: Buy emergency preparedness items as CHRISTMAS GIFTS for many of your friends and family members.
Gifts for lighting or making a fire during a power outage. Flashlights, lanterns, oil lamps, glowsticks, solar powered yard lights, candles, Bic lighters.


Gifts for keeping warm in a power outage. Winter clothing, down coats, down blankets, ski pants, knit caps, mittens, snow boots, wool socks, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, wool or down blankets, indoor emergency heaters.


Buy gifts for auto emergencies: Battery charger, fix-a-flat, wool blanket, emergency kit, star wrench, jumper cables, car phone charger, flares, fire extinguisher, maps.


Buy gifts for coping with disasters: medical emergencies, cooking without power, camping, etc.


I am sure you can think of a lot more!

Another comment on No Grocery Store for 6 Days

It wasn't too hard not to go to the store since I keep a lot of stuff on my shelves, in the cupboards, freezer, etc. I like to coupon and look for bargains but I think I saved myself some money but holding off till Friday. I think we could go several months without the grocery, although some things would be greatly missed--eggs, butter, fresh milk and fruit.

Thanks for doing this......  K.B.

Comments about "No Grocery Stores for 6 Days" challenge

Amy,

I try to only shop at most once a week--I usually try to go two weeks, so this challenge is something I do all the time. I enjoy the game of making what I have. I consider my pantry, freezer, and food storage my personal grocery store. With this method I am pretty good at making sure it stays well stocked. Anytime I'm running low on something, I add it to my grocery list so I can be sure to have it on hand when needed.

I also feel I save A LOT of money this way by meal planning, going without if I just don't have something, etc. I'm always amazed how you can somehow create something out of nothing!

Eggs are the one thing I consistenly seem to be missing ( on Sundays I'm always borrowing from a neighbor!)--L.H.

 

 

 

 

Of course I forgot to buy milk before the "No Store for 6 Days" challenge. Wayne was unwilling to drink powdered milk, so he tried grape juice on his GrapeNuts cereal and said he really liked it! ( It sounds gross to me.)

We are having the missionaries over for dinner tonight, and Wayne is making BBQ pork (using a can of pork that I pressure canned a couple of years ago) and I made cooked chocolate pudding. The secret to making cooked pudding using powdered milk, is to thoroughly mix the dry powdered milk with the dry pudding powder before adding water. Then I cook it in the microwave. It turns out great!--A.W.

 

 

 

Hi Amy,

We only ever shop once a month, so our food is always under control. However, my girls announced last night that they were suddenly out of hair conditioner! So we'll be doing mayonnaise hair masks this week--and using up some old mayo that I'm glad to get rid of! :) -B.S.

 

 

Amy,

We actually did the challenge last week. I plan my meals a week in advance and try to go grocery shopping only once a week, so it wasn't very different for us. On a normal week, however, I will sometimes pick up an extra bunch or two of bananas halfway through when our fruit is getting low. But during the challenge we just leaned more on the applesauce we keep in our 3 mo. storage to supplement our fresh fruit. And I did have to remind Quinn not to grab any ice cream for us while he was out running errands on Friday night. We made do with the flavors we had:)  -J.M.

 

 

 

 

November Challenge: Don't go to the store for 6 days

(Thankfully, our area didn't get affected by Hurricane Sandy.  This challenge will help you practice what it would have been like.)

Picture a big disaster, with no stores open.  Don’t buy anything or go to any store from Sunday to Friday afternoon.

Rules:

Do not buy anything at any store or  restaurant.

You may buy gasoline.

Use only food and items you have in  your pantry, fridge, and freezer.

You will find out if you have enough non-food items such as  diapers, baby formula, feminine hygiene, toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry soap, etc.

You will find out if you have all the groceries you need for the week.

Our goals:

To become more aware of the supplies we need to have on hand,

To stock up on supplies so that when a store is not available, we have them in our house.

Develop a three-month supply,

And eventually obtain a one year supply.

“Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life…As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year’s supply of necessities.  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 of the Quorum of the Twelve, “If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear,” Ensign, Nov. 1995.

After you do this challenge, please email me and tell me what you learned, and I will post it here anonymously.

Slacker Gardening

I planted a garden in the spring, and got so involved with househunting and preparing my old house for sale, and moving, that I never cared for the garden at all. I never weeded it or even watered it (thank goodness it rains so much in North Carolina!).

Last week my husband and daughter and I pulled out all the knee-high weeds to make the yard look better so we can sell that house, and we discovered so many sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, carrots and green onions, they filled an entire box. That is what I call "low maintenance gardening". I will be sure and try that again next year.

What is in Survival Mom's Pantry

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/03/06/anatomy-of-the-survival-moms-pantry/

What We all should learn from Hurricane Sandy

Here is a great article:

http://eatingfoodstorage.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-we-all-should-learn-from-hurricane.html

Can Organizers

This looks like a great product.
http://canorganizer.com/index.php?p=home

Panic buying in Northeast

Mac Slavo has written an article about the panic buying going on in the Northeast right now, ahead of Hurricane Sandy's arrival.  I urge you to stock up on preparedness items now, so when a big disaster hits our area someday, you won't have to deal with these kinds of crowds.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/panic-buying-grips-the-east-coast-mad-rush-for-supplies-ahead-of-mega-storm_10292012

Great supplies to buy at the Dollar Store

Here is a great article written by Calamity Jane about emergency preparedness supplies you can buy for just a few dollars each.

http://www.calamityjanet.com/the-doomsday-five--dime.html

Advice for Hurricane Sandy

One of my favorite blogs, FoodStorageMadeEasy.net, has asked readers to share tips on how to prepare for Hurricane Sandy.  These are really great comments, please check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/foodstoragemadeeasy/posts/10151197704023666

Laundry and Dishwashing during a disaster

"Survival Mom" gives some good instructions about how to do your housework when you have no electricity or running water.

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2012/03/21/cleaning-house-teotwawki-style/

She gives a lot of advice about doing laundry during a disaster.

Here is part of the instruction:
Have at least two very large buckets (you can pick up some 20 gallon tubs at the big box store for just a few dollars), a Rapid Washer, a wash board, and wringer if possible.  If you don’t have the funds to purchase an actual clothes wringer, a mop bucket wringer will work as well.  You need something that will get as much water out as possible to help the clothes dry quicker. You will also need to have a clothes line outside or some sort of rack inside to hand the clothes out to dry.

She also tells about doing dishes:  

Washing dishes would be similar to washing your clothes. Fill one bucket or side of the sink about half full with very warm water and let the dishes soak a bit, wash, then rinse.  A bit of vinegar in your rinse water will cut down on soap suds for both clothes and dishes.


Please read the rest of her article.

Mom's Survival kit for the car

I watched a video of "the Survival Mom"  http://thesurvivalmom.com/ but the link to the video was bad so I can't give it to you.

Anyway, she talked about the categories of things for moms to always keep in your car.
She called them "the five S's":  Sanitation, Sustenance, Survival, Security, and Sanity.

She ran out of time on the video to talk about all of them, so I will just wing it from here on, with stuff I came up with in those categories.

(My ideas)

Sanitation:  
To wash hands- a clean sodapop bottle filled with water, some paper towels OR a package of WetWipes.

Do your kids get motion sickness?  Carry extra large paper cups with snap on lids. Extra clothing.

Potty problems:  extra underwear for your little kids,  diapers.

A way for your children to go to the bathroom.  Does your toddler need his potty seat?

Toilet paper (the Survival Mom showed some TP she had taken the cardboard tube out of, and then sealed inside a Vacuum Sealer bag for longer term storage.)

Sustenance:
Moms know that they need some food in the car for every day emergencies.

The hotter your climate, the shorter your food will last in a hot car.  She suggested only keeping things like hard candy.

Another option would be to have a small totebag of snacks that you carry in and out of the car each day in the hottest months.  This would keep the food safe longer.

Another option is to rotate the food quickly.  Only put in enough granola bars or juice boxes for the next few days.

Bring LOTS OF WATER.  She keeps a couple of sodapop bottles filled with water under the back seat. also a case of commercially bottled water.

Bringing water in the car with me has been one of the best habits I have ever had.  With 6 kids, I used the water to clean them up, to refill the radiator, and to drink.  It was a lifesaver.

Survival:
The only thing I heard Survival Mom say about this one was to keep good walking shoes and socks in the car for every family member.  She said if your car breaks down, you need to be able to walk.

I recommend having a flashlight, matches, flares, camping knife, cell phone charger, maps, and big pieces of paper and markers to write a message to passing cars.

Security:
If you don't have a concealed carry license, maybe you want some pepper spray, mace or bear spray (whichever one is legal in your state).  Even wasp/hornet spray that shoots 10 feet would work if you need to spray some attacker in the face.  I even saw a self defense show once that said to put your auto fire extinguisher up to the window and spray out the window into the attacker's face.  That little bit of knowledge makes a fire extinguisher even more useful.

But of course its better not to get yourself into a dangerous situation.  Keep your cell phone charged, learn how to change a tire, keep your car repaired.  Always let a loved one know where you are going and when you are going to be back.

Sanity:
For kids, you need something for them to do.
While driving:  Don't you just love those DVD players?
While stopped.  If your vehicle is in a traffic jam, or it is broken down, or if your errand requires you to sit in a waiting room for hours, keep toys, gadgets, books, snacks, etc. ready to go.  That will save your sanity as well as the children's.

October's Challenge was to practice your skills at the Ward Campout.

At our recent ward campout, what did you learn?   Did you realize that while you were camping you were using the same skills and supplies necessary for coping with a disaster?  For example, you cooked without electricity, slept without your normal bed, had no fridge or freezer, and lit your tent without electricity.

Now ask yourselves:  

Did you pack enough food for your family, and were you successful at preparing it outdoors?

Did you have enough lighting, did your tent protect you from bugs and from the weather, was your bedding adequate?

Did you have the right type of gear, or do you need to obtain something better?

We are all familiar with that statement “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30).  But we must also bear in mind that this most powerful statement has an equally powerful but completely opposite meaning—“If ye are NOT prepared, ye SHALL fear.”

You might think camping is no fun, but when you look at it as a dry run for a disaster, you can practice your skills and test out your equipment, and know that each camping trip is making your family more prepared.

Cool Propane Oven

 Our ward campout was last night, and one of the greatest things I saw there was the C. family's propane oven.

It is a self-contained unit which attaches to a small propane bottle.  They baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies in it, and generously shared them.

What a great piece of equipment!

John C. baking chocolate chip cookies at the Ward Campout in a propane oven.
(Photo taken by Heidi C.)

An Emergency Kit to keep under your bed

Calamity Janet describes the kit she keeps under her bed, in case there is ever another earthquake or train wreck in her town.  This is really a great idea, and you could tweak her supply list to cope with disasters which are common in North Carolina, like ice storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

http://www.calamityjanet.com/oh-sht-kit.html

We love our StoveTec outdoor stove

http://www.stovetec.net/us/index.php

This really cooks well, using charcoal or wood.  I really like ours.

It is quite heavy, you wouldn't want to carry it very far.

Here is a picture of ours, you feed the wood in through the little door at the bottom.  As the wood is being burned, it rests on the metal rack, and you push it in a little at a time.  All the heat is concentrated right up the hole.  You can see the open door flap with the very thick ceramic lining.  The whole stove is lined with that ceramic.

"Power Loss" challenge

 In case you want to follow along with the FoodStorageMadeEasy.net Seven Day challenge, today they have a good one. 

They give the rules and the goals for pretending like there is no electricity at your house for one day (today).  Then you can go on their blog and website to see what all the comments are from the people who participated.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2012/09/16/the-7-day-challenge-day-5-sunday/

Wanna do the FoodStorageMadeEasy Seven Day Challenge?

 My apologies for not blogging much lately, some major events are taking place in our lives and I will tell you all about it in a few weeks.

I love the FoodStorageMadeEasy.net website, and have done their Seven Day Challenge for each of the last two Septembers.  If you want to join in, it started today.

The mock disaster for today is "Global Food Shortage".  Read the rules and how to participate here:
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2012/09/12/the-7-day-challenge-day-1-wednesday/

Evaporated Milk went bad

This week, I opened some evaporated milk I had purchased in 2011.  Evaporated milk is usually a pale beige color, but this looked very yellow.  After pouring it all out, there was about a 1/4" - 1/2" inch layer of stuff in the bottom of the can that was of a consistency like pudding.  I said, "That can't be good," and I threw it away.

Then I opened another can, also purchased in 2011, and the same thing happened.  I was very disappointed that I had wasted two cans of evaporated milk.  They were stored inside my house at room temperature, so I expected them to last about two years at least.  I wonder what happened to make them go bad.  I will have to investigate this further.

Its Emergency Preparedness Month in North Carolina

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/11496012/

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue has proclaimed September as Emergency Preparedness Month to encourage North Carolinians to prepare themselves for a variety of emergencies.

In a statement, Perdue urged all levels of the community to be prepared. She said individuals and families should have emergency plans and supplies in place, and she added that cities, counties and state agencies should routinely test their response plans.

MORE INFO    Preparing for disasters

The governor said it doesn't take a major hurricane or tornado to cause extensive damage to a home or to disrupt a business. Heavy rains and severe thunderstorms in Halifax and Northampton counties last month produced extensive flooding in only a few short hours.

In 2011, North Carolina experienced 63 tornadoes, nearly half of which during the statewide outbreak on April 16. Hurricane Irene followed four months later.

Woman in my ward did the challenge

A woman in my ward sent this to me, after going 2 1/2 days without eating food from the fridge or freezer:

Hi Amy, I took up the challenge this Sunday to just today.  Let me just tell you one thing that I was very happy about.  I don't use my food storage items, you know the big cans from the cannery, but because of this I did.

I was glad I had powdered milk.  It tasted good and from now on I am just going to use that instead of fresh milk from the store that I pay a lot for and have to carry home.  

I also opened a can of wheat.  At night I would soak it so it would be ready for breakfast then in the morning I'd rinse add more water and either eat that or put it in my Vita Mixer with water and powdered milk.  That was delicious!  I found it very filling.  

By lunch I'd still not be hungry and I lost two pounds the first day!

Thank you for the challenge.  I not only feel more prepared but have found a good way to not eat as much!

Thanks for all you do to help us be prepared.

-C.B.

My Experience doing the No Fridge Challenge: Tuesday

(This is a continuation of my report of doing the Shelf Stable Challenge in my ward.  I had to live without a fridge or freezer for 2 1/2 days.)

Tuesday:

 We have been drinking tapwater, or room-temperature Crystal Light. The house is air conditioned so at least the drinks are a little cool, not warm.  But I want cold milk!

Tuesday breakfast for one adult.

I ate instant oatmeal again.

2 packages of Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal

1 tsp. powdered milk

boiling water

Tuesday Lunch for 1 adult, 3 children.

Three of my grandchildren were here for lunch.  I had to figure out what to feed toddlers.  We had no bread left.  This is what I made:

Instant mashed potatoes

1 jar applesauce (they almost ate the whole thing)

1 banana

1 can mandarin oranges

1 container baby food

Ritz crackers, peanut butter.

Water to drink.

They all seemed happy with the meal.

Tuesday Supper for 1 adult.

I was sick of the food in the pantry.  I didn’t want to cook.  I have to confess that I ate very badly.  I ate the rest of the applesauce, Doritoes, and peanut butter and honey on Ritz crackers.  I know that is a terrible supper.  I wonder what it will be like when we have an actual disaster and our shelf stable food is REALLY the only thing we can eat?  We better be prepared.

Wednesday morning:

The challenge is over!  The first thing I had was a glass of cold milk.  I had really missed that!

Things I learned:

It is going to be difficult not having cold milk.

I missed eating cheese.

We are going to have to open small cans and use them up the same day.

Food in big cans will probably spoil before we eat it all.

We must remember to get foods that children will eat.

Crackers are a good substitute when you don’t have bread.

Vegetable oil can substitute for butter in cooking.

My Experience Doing the No Fridge challenge: Monday

(This is a continuation of my report of doing the Shelf Stable challenge in my ward.  I had to live without a fridge or freezer for 2 1/2 days.)

Monday breakfast for 1 adult

  I wanted cold cereal but couldn’t deal with putting warm powdered milk on it.  Instead, I made hot cereal,  so the warm powdered milk didn’t bother me.

1 banana

2 packages of Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal

1 tsp. powdered milk

boiling water

Monday lunch for 2 adults

I made one box of Hamburger Helper.   

1 box Hamburger Helper

a little powdered milk

tapwater

1 pint canned ground beef (I canned this last year.)

Ingredients for Turkey and Dressing Casserole (substituting chicken)

Monday Supper for 1 adult 

I made Turkey and Dressing Casserole, but substituted canned chicken.  (There was about 3/4 of this left over.)

Sauce:

1 can chicken

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 Tablespoon powdered milk and 1/4 cup water.

1 can peas.

Dressing:

Water

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil instead of butter

1 box Stovetop stuffing

 I realized that I could only make a small meal each time, we couldn’t open more cans than we could consume since there is no refrigeration.

I am accustomed to making more than we can eat, and putting the rest in the fridge, and eating it for leftovers the next day.

I might rethink buying large cans.  Small cans would be quicker to consume before they spoil from lack of refrigeration.

Monday night snack for 1 adult

I craved sweets so I made a little amount of buttercream frosting (powdered sugar, powdered margarine, powdered milk, water), stirred it until it was the right consistency, and ate it on graham crackers.

(To be continued)

My Experience doing the No Fridge challenge: Sunday

I was out of town for both weekends that our ward was doing the Shelf Stable challenge.  The rules were to tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast.  Don't use anything from the fridge or freezer during that time.  Don't use any ice.  See if you have enough shelf stable food in your house to make nourishing meals for those 2 1/2 days.

On Sunday Aug. 26 after church, I surprised my husband and 18 year old son by taping shut the fridge and freezer and telling them we were going to participate in the challenge.  (It was a week late, but I say, Better late than never.)

My son never really went along with it.  He cheated and kept getting the milk out.  My husband is on Nutrisystem so he was eating separately.

I was a little stricter on myself than I had required in the rules of the challenge.   I decided not to go shopping at all, so I could see what I would run out of.  I also decided to leave food out, since in a disaster you couldn’t put leftovers away in the fridge to keep them fresh.

I kept notes of what I ate.  Here is the list:

Sunday after church:

Luckily I had just baked bread and made cookies the night before, so we had plenty for the first day.  

When I came home from church, I noticed we had very little butter in our butter dish (which we don't refrigerate).  That was gone within the first day.

Sunday Lunch, for 1 adult.  

Half a can of Beef Barley soup.

One slice bread.

some Doritoes

Half an apple.

Tap water to drink.

Because I was pretending the power was out, I left the rest of the soup out of the fridge.

Sunday afternoon snack for 1 adult.

The other half of the soup.  (I didn't want it to spoil.)

Some fritos.

Sunday supper for  7 adults, 2 babies.

Some of our married kids and grandkids came over. I made BBQ Pork sandwiches, it was a good supper.

1 quart canned pork (I canned this last year.)

BBQ sauce.

6 hamburger buns  (that was all we had.)

3 pieces of bread

1 can green beans

1 can pears

1 can baked beans

some Tostitoes

8 cookies (now the cookies are gone.) 

tap water to drink.

We pretty much ate everything, so there were no leftovers to spoil without power.

(To be continued)

Lessons Learned One Year After Hurricane Irene

Remember a year ago when New York City braced for Hurricane Irene?  It turned out to be a non-event there, but smacked Connecticut, Vermont, and Maryland instead.

What can we learn from this?  Maybe we better be prepared for Tropical Storm Isaac, even though at this point we don't seem to be in its path.

http://www.weather.com/news/irene-anniversary-20120825

First hand account of using Shelf Stable Food

Here is a comment from a woman in my ward who did the challenge for this month:


Well I did learn a lot from this challenge.  I think the biggest thing is that I should not exercise as much as I usually do because my body does not do so well on that kind of a diet.  Oh, I need my fruits and veggies ;)  We also decided to extend your challenge because when I went to the store I couldn't believe how many options there were for already prepared meals and desserts that you didn't have to add anything but water or milk to.  So I bought one of every kind and we will once a week make 2-3 meals of those and taste test.  Eventually we will be done and be able to decide which ones our family likes and store those.  We have decided to have a 1 year storage of stuff that we are not going to be too happy with eating but will survive.  A 3 months shelf stable that will be what we normally eat just lesser quality, but with that we will open cans of dehydrated stuff like cheese, meat, sour cream, butter, eggs etc...  AND we will store a one week supply of shelf stable that you just add water or milk because quite frankly I don't want to open up one of those large cans for just a power outage that may only last a few days.  -B.D.


What a great example of really diving in and trying to learn from a challenge!

Reminder: Today is your second chance to start the challenge

2012: A Year of Preparedness

Our August Challenge is:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days , while imagining it is a widespread power outage. Did you do the challenge yet?

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Start today!)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn to cook with some substitutions.  Do you own powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered butter, powdered sour cream, etc.?  If you haven’t used them before, buy one can of powdered milk and one can of powdered eggs, and begin using them in baking to rotate them.

Email Amy to tell her what you learned!

Organizing Three Month's Supply in boxes

A person named RS95 wrote the following post about packing all of her Three-Month Supply in boxes. She gave permission for it to be reposted.   I thought it sounded like a good idea.

"In my food storage, I have taken the boxes from the cannery that hold 6 #10 cans, and I put a week's worth of dinners in one box, repeating 13 times, to get a 3 month supply of dinners. I did the same for breakfast and lunch. 

I took a box of each meal to my (food storage) class, and unpacked them, talking about what I chose and why.

For example, I packed this into a dinner box. I don't have it in front of me, so I may be forgetting some things that round it out better. 

*2 meals of what we call Spanish Rice...rice, tomato sauce, a packet of seasonings including dried onion, pinto beans, etc. Those ingredients are stored in a gallon ziploc, in the boxes.

*2 meals of pasta and sauce, complete with parmesan cheese and canned veggies.

*Chicken helper with canned chicken.

*Canned chili and cornbread mix.

*A boxed meal, one pot kind of thing by Stauffers. They are really high in sodium and fat, but it would keep us alive if we had nothing else to eat.

*Spaghetti O's and canned veggies to fill in for the kids, if they don't want to eat something one night.

There are also some odds and ends that I included because of extra space, like a box of Stove Top stuffing mix, candies and gum, etc.

My approach is somewhat unique though. I have those meals safely stored, they are completely shelf stable, somewhat well thought out nutritionally, and will last about a year. The dates of packaging are clearly marked on the outside. I'm not rotating through them on a monthly basis, as many people do. But I don't feed my family shelf stable meals usually. They are not as healthy as what we usually eat. We eat way too much produce and other short term items to make it realistic for us to store a 3 month supply of what we usually eat, but it will be a great variety if we need to live off of it.

The sisters responded well to my display, as I explained clearly that I have 13 boxes of each meal stacked in my garage. I described my method for coming up with a list of things to buy, by planning out a week's worth of meals and including every ingredient needed. Then I multiply the ingredient list by 13, and pack complete meals together, a week's worth at a time.

After losing 3 freezers and 2 refrigerators worth of food in January's 4 day power outage (Western Washington), I refuse to count my freezers as part of my three month supply. We lost hundreds of dollars worth of meat and fruit, not to mention the other odds and ends. 

Shelf stable. Not as nutritious as produce, but it would do in a pinch. My goal was to get the food on the shelves, and as I rotate through it (donate what we don't eat to the food bank before it expires) I'll be able to replace more nutritious foods for some of the less nutritious stuff I already have. It works for us! It's insurance.

I have to add...we have a LOT more stored in our pantry and on a storage unit of "every day foods" that we pull from. Canned beans, canned veggies, bags of oats, pasta, jam, peanut butter, canned meats, etc. Really, I'd say we have an 8 month supply of every day foods stored for our family of 5, because I did our official 3 month supply in handy, movable boxes. I guess the box idea came to me for an "official" way to know we had that food storage, organized into complete meals."

----RS95

Reminder: Start your Shelf Stable Foods challenge today!

2012: A Year of Preparedness

Our August Challenge is:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days , while imagining it is a widespread power outage..

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Suggested starting dates:  today or next Sunday Aug. 19)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn whether you have all the ingredients necessary for making the food you want to eat.  Are the meals nourishing?

Become aware of some unpleasant things you may have to endure.  For instance, you may have to eat cold cereal with room temperature powdered milk.  How will your children handle this?

Consider non-electric methods for cooling food, and plan to buy items which will help you for a future disaster situation.

Please email Amy and tell her what you've learned!

Simple meals for tight times

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/08/08/simple-food-storage-meals-for-tight-times-stock-up-on-three-months-worth-fast/

Another article on the drought

This article gives me incentive to get MORE FOOD STORAGE and gardening supplies and seeds.

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/usda-alert-half-of-u-s-counties-designated-primary-disaster-areas-financial-fallout-intensifying_08022012

Another firsthand story of the Derecho of June 29-30

This man's story of the big windstorm at the end of June 2012 is a real eye-opener, he begs everyone to test out all their preparedness supplies BEFORE a disaster happens.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/effective-prepping-and-survival/

Historic Drought

There is a lot of good information on this website (and it is where I found the link to the Arkansas farmer's article.)

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/historic-drought-giant-dust-storms-and-massive-power-grid-failures-a-glimpse-into-our-future

Arkansas Farmer tells about worst drought he's ever seen

I don't know this guy, but his post about the Arkansas drought is extremely troubling.

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/12_Food_Water/120730.Ron.Klinefelter.html

August Challenge: Tape your fridge and freezer shut for 3 days

August:  Eat no food from the fridge or freezer for 3 days.

Rules:

Choose 3 consecutive days, and during that time, make all your meals out of shelf stable ingredients.  

Tape your fridge and freezer shut from Sunday after church until Wednesday breakfast. (Suggested dates:  Aug. 12-15 or Aug. 19-22.)

Using all other electricity is OKAY during this challenge. Using city water is also okay.

No using ice or ice chests.  We are practicing how it will be after power is out for several days, with no ice available.

If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge, but you can’t get them back out until Wednesday.

You are not restricted from shopping, but you can’t use anything refrigerated or frozen.

Goals:

Learn whether you have all the ingredients necessary for making the food you want to eat.  Are the meals nourishing?

Learn to cook with some substitutions.  Do you own powdered milk, powdered eggs, powdered butter, powdered sour cream, etc.?  If you haven’t used them before, buy one can of powdered milk and one can of powdered eggs, and begin using them in baking to rotate them.

Become aware of some unpleasant things you may have to endure.  For instance, you may have to eat cold cereal with room temperature powdered milk.  How will your children handle this?

Consider non-electric methods for cooling food, and plan to buy items which will help you for a future disaster situation.

Research shelf-stable menus, and collect the ingredients for them.

Find out how your children cope with this challenge.

“While it is sincerely hoped that members do not get caught up in any hysteria or obsessive preparations for disasters, the Church continues its long-standing practice of encouraging members to be self-reliant and reasonably prepared.” (Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop, “Conversation,” Ensign, Sept. 1999, 78.)

"Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. Obtain clothing and build a savings account on a sensible, well-planned basis that can serve well in times of emergency. As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year's supply of necessities. 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, "If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36).

Preparedness Article in August 2012 Ensign

I don't have my August Ensign yet, but this article is already online.

Elder Stanley G. Ellis talks about being in the path of Hurricane Rita in 2005, and how the Lord inspired each stake president, each bishop, and each family how to prepare.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/08/natural-disasters-we-dont-have-to-be-afraid?lang=eng&query=over+over

Five Inexpensive Ways to Store Food

Here are some good ideas, in an article written by Tess Pennington.

http://readynutrition.com/resources/are-you-packing-5-inexpensive-ways-to-store-your-food_28062012/

Shelf Stable Meal: Dinty Moore stew

Picture your family without power. None of the grocery stores are open.

Wouldn't it be great to have a week or two of completely shelf stable meals like this one on the shelf.  All you would need to do is get out the camping stove and warm up the Dinty Moore stew mixed with some extra corn, and eat it with crackers.

Just remember to test out all the ingredients ahead of time, so you know if this is enough to feed your family.  During the test you might find out that you need 2 cans of stew, or that you would like to have green beans or canned potatoes instead of corn mixed with it.

I know that some of you cook a lot more sophisticated than this, but for an emergency, you can lower your standards a little and get some easy to fix food that would keep without power.

"Shelf Stable" challenge reminder

I'm sorry I haven't done more publicity about getting your shelf stable meals for the challenge this month.  I have been busy with youth conference (costume committee).

 "Shelf stable" means not needing refrigeration.

In August, we are going to tape the fridge and freezer shut for 3 days and see if you can eat 3 good meals a day without using anything other than shelf stable foods.  It should be a really good learning experience, and teach you what food storage items you need to get, for when the power is out for a week and all your fridge and freezer food is gone.

Look on the right side of this blog, and click on the labels "shelf stable food" and "shelf stable foods" (sorry, there are two different titles, I should combine those),  and all the posts I have written on that subject will come up.

Lessons Learned doing food storage

Here are the top 3 lessons this woman has learned from doing food storage:
http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/2012/05/05/lessons-learned/
Be sure to read it!

Food prices going up because of the drought

Here are some quotes from this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/historic-drought-conditions-can-lead-to-higher-food-prices-experts-say/?test=latestnews
"Prices are going to go up",

"that means across the board higher food prices",

"Since corn goes into so many food products for both humans and livestock, its effect on overall food prices is massive."

"If you like bacon and pork, you should buy it now, because by the fall you are going to be stunned at what it will cost."

How to convert a gas generator to a propane generator

Picture this:

There's no power.  Gas stations have no way for their gas pumps to work. There you sit at home with your expensive gas-powered generator, and all you have is the small amount of gas in your gas can which was meant for mowing your lawn.  Now what are you going to do?

Here is a great article on how you can buy a kit for around $180 which will make your gasoline-powered generator so it is able to use either natural gas or propane.  What a great idea!

(If you buy this, make sure you install it BEFORE a disaster.  It sounds like it will take some time, and you sure don't want to be doing this installation while everyone is suffering and your freezer is thawing.)

http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/the-multi-fuel-generator-dont-depend-on-just-gas_07162012

U.S. is currently having the largest natural disaster ever

According to this article, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared drought conditions in more than 1,000 counties and 26 drought-stricken states, making this the largest natural disaster in America ever.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/us-natural-disaster-area-drought-150130308.html

Our prophets asking us to get food storage for the last hundred years were warning us of troubled times to come.  I wonder if we will begin to recognize that the time for obtaining food storage might be running out, and the time to start living off our food storage may be about to begin......

Drought is affecting Corn Production, Price

This article tells about the recent drought in the U.S. and the increase in the price of corn. In the last 30 days, the price of corn went up 18.9%.

 You may not know it, but a higher price in corn affects almost all the other foods you eat. Many foods contain corn syrup, for instance. 

Corn is also the primary feed for livestock, so the price of meat will go up.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48154510

One Method for Organizing Your 3 Month's Supply

Here is a great article about one woman's method for making sure she has a 3-month's supply of shelf-stable food.  She showed them off during a Relief Society class.

("Shelf-stable" means it doesn't need refrigeration.)

In my food storage, I have taken the boxes from the cannery that hold 6 #10 cans, and I put a week's worth of dinners in one box, repeating 13 times, to get a 3 month supply of dinners. I did the same for breakfast and lunch. I took a box of each meal to my class, and unpacked them, talking about what I chose and why. For example, I packed this into a dinner box. I don't have it in front of me, so I may be forgetting some things that round it out better. *2 meals of what we call Spanish Rice...rice, tomato sauce, a packet of seasonings including dried onion, pinto beans, etc. Those ingredients are stored in a gallon ziploc, in the boxes. *2 meals of pasta and sauce, complete with parmesan cheese and canned veggies. *Chicken helper with canned chicken. *Canned chili and cornbread mix. *A boxed meal, one pot kind of thing by Stauffers. They are really high in sodium and fat, but it would keep us alive if we had nothing else to eat. *Spaghetti O's and canned veggies to fill in for the kids, if they don't want to eat something one night. There are also some odds and ends that I included because of extra space, like a box of Stove Top stuffing mix, candies and gum, etc. My approach is somewhat unique though. I have those meals safely stored, they are completely shelf stable, somewhat well thought out nutritionally, and will last about a year. The dates of packaging are clearly marked on the outside. I'm not rotating through them on a monthly basis, as many people do. But I don't feed my family shelf stable meals usually. They are not as healthy as what we usually eat. We eat way too much produce and other short term items to make it realistic for us to store a 3 month supply of what we usually eat, but it will be a great variety if we need to live off of it. The sisters responded well to my display, as I explained clearly that I have 13 boxes of each meal stacked in my garage. I described my method for coming up with a list of things to buy, by planning out a week's worth of meals and including every ingredient needed. Then I multiply the ingredient list by 13, and pack complete meals together, a week's worth at a time. After losing 3 freezers and 2 refrigerators worth of food in January's 4 day power outage (Western Washington), I refuse to count my freezers as part of my three month supply. We lost hundreds of dollars worth of meat and fruit, not to mention the other odds and ends.  Shelf stable. Not as nutritious as produce, but it would do in a pinch.  My goal was to get the food on the shelves, and as I rotate through it (donate what we don't eat to the food bank before it expires) I'll be able to replace more nutritious foods for some of the less nutritious stuff I already have. It works for us! It's insurance. I have to add...we have a LOT more stored in our pantry and on a storage unit of "every day foods" that we pull from. Canned beans, canned veggies, bags of oats, pasta, jam, peanut butter, canned meats, etc. Really, I'd say we have an 8 month supply of every day foods stored for our family of 5, because I did our official 3 month supply in handy, movable boxes. I guess the box idea came to me for an "official" way to know we had that food storage, organized into complete meals.

3 articles on Hurricane preparedness

Preparedness Pantry has three good articles on preparing for a hurricane.

Part 1:
http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2012/07/hurricane-preparedness-mini-series-part.html

Part 2:
http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2012/07/hurricane-preparedness-mini-series-part_10.html

Part 3:
http://preparednesspantry.blogspot.com/2012/07/hurricane-preparedness-mini-series-part_11.html

The Family Preparedness Song

I found this on the Preparedness Brings Peace Blog 

THE FAMILY PREPAREDNESS SONG
Tune: Did You Think to Pray? Hymn #140

Ere you spent your family's paycheck,
Did you think to save?
Just a little for the storage,
Just a little for the porridge
When the Times are grave,
Oh, how storage helps the faithful
When the Prophet's words we heed,
So, if you would not be Fearful,
Plan what you will need.

When your neighbor tried to teach you
How to can and sew,
Did you feel in-ti-mi-da-ted
And your plans pro-cras-tin-a-ted?
Now you're feeling low!
Oh, how empty are the cupboards,
Oh, how ragged are your clothes.
How you'll wish that you had listened
When the "good life" goes.

Wheat and beans and salt and honey
May not sound so hot.
But if you are going hungry,
If your tummy's cold and grumbly,
They can hit the spot.
Store some diapers for the kiddies,
Everything to see you through;
Cloth and patterns, thread and needles.
Store some long Johns, too.

If this topic's repetitious
And you're dull and bored,
When you've naught but empty dishes
And you've used up all your wishes,
You'll wish you had stored...
Food that's tasty and nutritious,
Cloths and bedding, tools and seeds,
Skills that guard your family's future
Gather what you'll need.
--Anonymous