Texting

I just read a really good book, Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family From Disasters by Lt. General Russel L. Honore' (U.S. Army, retired). He was the commander of Joint Task Force- Katrina, the officer on the ground in charge of all active-duty military forces sent to Louisiana and Mississippi.

At the end of every chapter he gave ten- to- twenty "Lessons Learned for Building a Culture of Preparedness."

One of the tips that I got from the book was to teach myself to send and receive text messages on my cell phone.

"Text messages were still working for many people even though the cell towers were down. There were a few cell towers out there somewhere with just a hint of life in them. They had enough power to enable people to send text messages.

Anyone who has a cell phone needs to know how to send text messages in the event of an emergency. A text message is a burst transmission and uses only a fraction of a signal whereas a voice call will eat up a lot of bandwidth.

It is especially important for the elderly or the disabled who live in areas prone to hurricane, floods, earthquakes, or wildfires to have a cell phone and be able to send text messages. Learning that simple skill could mean the difference between life and death. " page 117

"Shortly after our arrival in New Orleans, my headquarters in Atlanta began receiving text messages from people trapped in their homes...These people would send a text message to a friend who would forward it to the Times-Picayune, which would then send the message on to First Army headquarters. The message would be sent from there to the Coast Guard search-and-rescue officials with information about where these people were... " page 116.

(Not from the book) I was also thinking about communicating in a disaster where there are no cell towers left. I am really proud of my friend Patti, who just got her Ham Radio license. I am definitely planning to take that training someday and get my license too.

Washing Machine for Emergencies

I just bought this emergency washing machine from Emergency Essentials. It cost $14.95.

It looks a little like a plunger. (In fact, some survivalist books say you can use a clean plunger. But this one has been engineered to do a better job on clothing- see the grill? That keeps the clothes from getting sucked up into the plunger, and creates a vacuum to pull the water through the clothing better.)

You take a 5 gallon bucket and cut a hole in the lid for the handle to stick through. Put water and some laundry detergent in the bucket with the clothing, and beat the clothing like you are churning butter. (If you don't have a lid with a hole in it, you can churn it without a lid, but you have to be more careful not to slosh the water.)

I think it looks like it would do a better job than scrubbing on a washboard, which some of my boys had to do on their missions.

Increasing in Frequency

From an article written by E. Dale LeBaron "The Savior's Ministry to the Nephites: A Millenial Prototype"

"Why will many be unprepared for these events? Because they ignore the prophets and because the destructive events, while they increase in frequency and power, blend together, and little regard is given to them. In October 1992 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard said, "Recently, I read a newspaper article that cited statistics from the U.S. Geological Survey indicating that earthquakes around the world are increasing in frequency and intensity...."

(still quoting Ballard) "According to this article, only two major earthquakes---earthquakes measuring at least 6 on the Richter Scale---occurred during the 1920's. In the 1930's the number increased to five, then decreased to four during the 1940's. But in the 1950's nine major earthquakes occurred, followed by fifteen during the 1960's, forty-six during the 1970's, and fifty-two during the 1980's. [Note this was given in October 1992.] Already, almost as many major earthquakes have occurred during the 1990's as during the entire decade of the 1980's." (close quote Ballard)

"In light of this tremendous increase in one of the signs of the times, are people flooding to their churches...? Hardly. Why not? Nearly thirty-five years ago...President Joseph Fielding Smith testified, "The words of the prophets are rapidly being fulfilled, but it is done on such natural principles that most of us fail to see it."


(p. 5-6, Transcript, F.A.R.M.S. Book of Mormon Lecture Series, (c) 1995 Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies)

A Survival Guide to Catastrophe

Months ago, I gave a book review of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--and Why. © 2008 by Amanda Ripley. A couple of days ago, I was reading something on the internet and they had a link to an article she wrote. This article from Time magazine, May 29, 2008, contains some of the best parts of the book. (Who survived when a ferry sank, who survived in a restaurant fire, and who survived in the World Trade Center.) Read it and get some good ideas!


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810315-1,00.html


To learn more about survival skills in a disaster, go to www.TheUnthinkable.com

Making Cheese

I read "Totally Ready" on Feb. 18, and her post was all about making cheese. It had the recipe and the instructions for making a cheese press. I was fascinated with the idea, although it seems really time consuming.

Click on her blog on Feb. 18 "Say Cheese...Yummy" and scroll down and look at the cheese press, it would be pretty easy to make. But I guess I would have to have access to a cow to get some milk.

I am hoping that someday I have all these useful contraptions: a cheese press, an alfalfa sprouter, a solar oven, a woodburning stove, etc.

When Shall These Things Be?- Ballard Ensign Dec 1996

M. Russell Ballard, “‘When Shall These Things Be?’,” Ensign, Dec 1996, 56

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=0830dbdcc370c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

These are the last days. As foretold by God’s holy prophets since the world began, they are challenging times, and they are going to become even more challenging.

Some of these things seem to be occurring with ever-increasing regularity. If we measured the natural disasters that have occurred in the world during the past 10 years and plotted that year by year, we would see an acceleration. The earth is rumbling, and earthquakes are occurring in “divers places.” Human nature being what it is, we don’t normally pay much attention to these natural phenomena until they happen close to where we are living. But when we contemplate what has happened during the past decade, not only with earthquakes but also with regard to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and the like, we see an accelerating pattern.

Can we use this scientific data to extrapolate that the Second Coming is likely to occur during the next few years, or the next decade, or the next century? Not really. I am called as one of the Apostles to be a special witness of Christ in these exciting, trying times, and I do not know when He is going to come again. As far as I know, none of my brethren in the Quorum of the Twelve or even in the First Presidency knows. And I would humbly suggest that if we do not know, then nobody knows, no matter how compelling their arguments or how reasonable their calculations. The Savior said that “of that day, and hour, no one knoweth; no, not the angels of God in heaven, but my Father only” (JST, Matt. 1:40).

Food Storage Challenge

I just heard about a Food Storage Challenge that is being done at http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/. I might be a week late in telling you about it, but it is still interesting to go there and learn about it.

They are going to announce, on a surprise date in September, when you are supposed to experience an "emergency", whether it is an electrical blackout, or loss of water, or an evacuation, etc, and you are supposed to try to live as if you are in that emergency. I doubt if I will do it, but I am going to follow along and read the blog posts of everyone else. I need to learn how to get through those types of things.

Wayne and I did a somewhat similar challenge when we were engaged. Our student ward bishop at BYU surprised us one sacrament meeting by asking the whole ward to go without shopping at the store for one whole month, to see if anyone could do it. Wayne and I made it through a couple of weeks I think. I know his roommate Dave quit after just a few days, because he was forced to eat popcorn for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Bakin' with Powdered Eggs

I want to heartily recommend using powdered whole eggs for all your baking, they don't taste different at all. I have used them for at least 21 years, since we moved to North Carolina. I never have to worry whether I have eggs in the fridge for baking. (I only use them for baking. I use real eggs for scrambling, boiling, etc.)

You just use 1 Tablespoons of egg powder and 2 Tablespoons of water to substitute for one egg in a recipe. Easy!

P.S. I was asked where to buy this product. I order it from Emergency Essentials. Their website is www.beprepared.com.

Gotta Have Toilet Paper

I've always been a fan of food storage, but only in the last couple of years have I realized how many non-food items are super important to my happiness and wellbeing. So I have started trying to calculate how much of each thing I need, and to store a year's supply of it.

Carolyn Nicolaysen in Totally Ready blog said to keep track of how much toilet paper your family uses, and then use that figure to calculate a year's supply. I bought a package of Quilted Northern 12 "double rolls" and waited until we were out of toilet paper inside the house, then opened the package. It took us from Apr. 28 to May 19 to use it up, that is 22 days, that is about half a roll per day.

I am going to make sure I have at least 182 double-rolls of toilet paper (365 days X 1/2 roll per day), because I don't want to go without it.

(Of course, if we were stranded at home 100% of the time instead of going to work and school, we would use more, so I should include that in my calculations.)

I store food inside the house where it is airconditioned and heated. But paper goods don't need airconditioning, so here is how I store toilet paper and Kleenex and paper towels in my attic. Seth built these shelves in between the trusses.

Solar Ovens

As you know, I am interested in emergency preparedness, and I worry about things like hurricanes and ice storms, which knock out power in our area on a regular basis, every few years. So I like to see ways to cook or heat without power. Here are several articles with instructions and photos of solar ovens, which can boil water or bake bread or whatever.

Now I am trying to collect the cardboard boxes, plexiglass, black spray paint, etc. that I need to build one.

Making and using a solar cooker

Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven

Solar-powered Cardboard Cooker

Websites: Food Storage, Pandemic

I found two excellent websites about food storage. The first is called Food Storage Made Easy, written by Jodi and Julie. Check it out.

One of their posts that I really liked was entitled "Lies about Long Term Food Storage Debunked!!" You can find it by clicking HERE.

The next website is one that tells you how long the shelf life is for all different foods, including the ones opened in your fridge. The website is called StillTasty.

Non-fiction Books I Really Liked

These books gave me a greater understanding of what types of disasters can happen, and what things I need to think about.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

The Edge of Disaster- by Stephen Flynn
America the Vulnerable- by Stephen Flynn

The Unthinkable: Who Survives when Disaster strikes and why- by Amanda Ripley (See my lengthy book review of this book in my blog Aug. 6, 2008)


MANMADE DISASTERS, CATASTROPHES

Curse of the Narrows- by Laura M. MacDonald (Dec. 6, 1917 Halifax Explosion) This was the largest accidental manmade explosion in history, and wiped out a whole town.

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland- by Jim Defede

The Year of the Great Crash: 1929 by William K. Klingaman