How to remove cornsilks

This is a really neat little video that shows you how to remove cornsilks from corn on the cob. It's so wild,...I want to try it now! Click the link and see for yourself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4&feature=youtu.be

Yeast from Scratch?

Yeast doesn't store forever, so what have YOU done to ensure you have plenty of yeast for your baking needs? Perhaps you have a 1-year supply, but what about a 2-year supply of yeast? Are you depending on your refrigerator and electricity to maintain the quality of your yeast?

Have you even THOUGHT about this subject before?
Honestly, I haven't! I came across this information that actually shows you the different ways you can obtain yeast on your own (and just bypass the grocery store altogether) and what foods can provide you with what type of yeast. Take a look at THIS WEBSITE and read it thoroughly! If you want to have bread in your storage long-term, this may be the way you should you think. And what about people who are allergic to wheat? Are you currently storing yeast that comes from wheat? If you don't know, shouldn't you know?

Knowledge can be power!

Using Emergency Bandages

The important thing to remember when using an emergency / trauma bandage is to keep it tight so it can help control bleeding. The illustration above shoes some different ways to tie it for this purpose. It doesn't have to be pretty,...it DOES have to be effective.

Practicing tying this type of bandage might make a great family home evening activity sometime!

Emergency Crayon Candles

This is completely cool and is one of the MOST inexpensive ideas I've ever come across!
Go to the Dollar Store and pick up a box of cheap crayons and try this.

Get a small saucer or plate or even a candle dish...something fire-safe. Crayons are flat on the bottom side and will stand on end. You'll be taking advantage of this feature. Paper is flammable. You'll be taking advantage of this feature also.

Take the crayon and break off the point so that the crayon is flush with the paper. With a lighter or match, melt the broken end of the crayon and allow the paper to catch fire. The paper is your candle wick. Once it starts burning, place it flat end down on your dish and allow it to burn. One average crayon will burn for about 15 minutes. A box of 24 crayons will provide light for 6 hours.

Want to watch it happen? Check out this little video:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-make-emergency-candle-from-crayon-157507/

Freezing Without Blanching

Canning is the preferable way (in my opinion) to preserve fresh fruits and veggies from the garden. Sometimes, though, I only get a few things out of the garden and it just doesn't seem worthwhile to can up 8 tomatoes, ya know? So in cases like that, I opt to freeze. Freezing is not a long-term solution because "what if the power goes out?" You lose your frozen foods, that's what. But if you only freeze those small portions, chances are that you'll get them used in a more timely manner and won't have to worry about it anyway.

A lot of foods need to be blanched to stop the action of enzymes. Those enzymes continue processes inside the vegetable that will ultimately cause it to lose color and texture and flavor. But there are a few you can get away with NO blanching!
So what foods can you do that with and how do you do it?

• Blueberries
  Don't even wash your blueberries! Just spread them out in a single layer (such as on a cookie sheet) and freeze them. Once they freeze, put them into a bag, label the bag with what they are and the date you picked them, and store them in the freezer. Wash them after you thaw them out for use.
  
• Cucumbers
  Peeling is optional. Slice them up like you like them, bag, label, freeze!
• Mushrooms
  Slice them, bag them, label and freeze!
• Onions
  Slice, dice, chop, however you like them, bag them, label them, freeze them.
• Peppers
  Wash, slice and remove the seeds and membrane thing in the middle, bag, label freeze. (NOTE- I particularly like bell peppers this way, making them great to toss into spaghetti sauce or to saute in stir-fry or include in pepper steak recipes. You can do other peppers too, so don't hesitate to freeze all different types.)
• Tomatoes
  Wash and dry them, cut the core out, half or quarter each one (if desired, or just leave them whole), pack into freezer bags, label and freeze. When using, rinse in warm water to get the skins to slip off easily.

It is normally not recommended to keep these foods frozen for longer than 6 months, but if you are only freezing SMALL quantities, that shouldn't be too terribly difficult, right?

Good luck to you preserving even the small amounts!

Preserving Memories

When I was a little girl, I remember my grandparents and aunt coming over to our house for "garden work." What that really meant was that Daddy (and maybe me too) would go out early in the morning to pick tomatoes or corn or okra or squash or whatever else was ready. If it was corn, we ALL sat around the yard with knives and bowls of corn pulling husks and digging out silks. Then the women moved into the kitchen and canned it all. I remember a day we did corn....it was mushy corn. I hate mushy corn. (That would be translated as cream-style corn.) Another time, I remember we worked on vegetable soup. I had to shell butterbeans for this project. Another time I can remember canning tomatoes. I was a little older at this one, because this time I was in the kitchen helping Mama and Grandmaw and Aunt Thomasene with the tomatoes. I remember being fascinated watching the tomatoes go into the hot water for a few minutes, then dipping them out and watching the cold water split the skins. It was so amazing! And slipping those skins off was too fun! I imagined what it might be like if we dipped a little brother or sister into boiling water and then ice water. Would their skin slip off that easily?

Such memories... sweet memories. Grandmaw and Paw are no longer with us. Mama and Daddy live in another state. Aunt Thomasene has a different life now. My memories continue though.

When we moved to Idaho to go to Ricks College, it turned out that someone in our apartment complex was also from Georgia! It was someone I had known in the Douglasville ward, so that was really cool! I made great friends with his wife, and together she and I canned some apples and some pickles. I learned a lot from her. Somehow we canned those things even with her 4 kids and my little Manti all underfoot. Not one time we did feel the need to nail them to a wall to get them out of the way! I don't know how that happened! I remember that she couldn't wait 6 weeks for her pickles to "pickle" and she had them opened and eaten before 3 weeks was up! I sure did love Anna. I learned a lot from her.

And then there was the time we moved BACK to Idaho to try and finish school. Tonya was my best friend....she was more to me than she will ever know. She still is! One day, she and I went to another friends house and we picked cherries. We picked a BUNCH of them too! They were pie cherries, so together we canned cherry jam and some cherry pie filling. It was MOST AMAZING! Tonya helped me develop a side of myself I didn't believe in.

Once we came back to Georgia, Angie Harcrow and I got to be good friends. She helped me can my first batch of green beans. It was the first time I had ever used a pressure canner. Let me tell you, it was SCARY! I just knew that pot was going to blow up! We canned a lot of beans, and we laughed a lot. I loved every hot minute of it. The next time I wanted to can green beans, I had to call Angie and ask to borrow her canner. She let me! And the year after that, SHE LET ME AGAIN! She's let me use her canner almost as often she's used it herself! Now that's a good friend!

Two years ago, Tommy bought me my own pressure canner. With my job and his disability and all the responsibilities tied to me and my time, I didn't get to can last year. This year, I wanted to can so badly! Last week, Manti picked me a 5 gallon bucket full of green beans. I was afraid I wouldn't have time to can them. I was seriously worried. Friday night, I asked Mesa if she felt like helping me and learning a little about it. She shocked me by saying "sure", so we headed to the kitchen. I showed her what to do, and she did it. She canned 12 quarts of green beans largely by herself!

Now, I have a new memory!



And perhaps Mesa does too. This is the point of my post: if you have memories tied to canning, relive them often. Give them as a gift to your children, to your girlfriends, to your neighbors...to anyone who comes into your life. Someone will treasure the memory you preserve as they preserve foods in the future. What a blessing to all involved!

Are you preparing your MIND too?

Food storage has been drilled into our minds. We know we need to collect those staples that will keep us alive if/when things go haywire in our economy. We also know we need to store non-perishables and sanitary items and water and clothing and other things that help with survival. All of these things will take care of us IF that's all that goes wrong.

But there is more you can do! And I learned today that you can't start learning it too soon!

I'm a cub scout den leader. I have 2 little boys under my care, plus 2 more that we affectionately call our "Honorary Cub Scouts" and do things with them too so they feel as official as they can be while they wait till they are old enough to be official. Today was our den meeting. The two official cub scouts were there and my youngest child, Jared, was with me. It was 99 degrees outside today....and this is the south where humidity is commonly as high as the temperature. It was a painful heat, as if we were cooking from the inside out.

In our meeting, we were in a room with no air conditioning. We practiced tying some knots and then I taught the boys how to tie neckties. They were having a blast, but I saw their attention spans waning fast. Mesa, my daughter, is my assistant den leader. So I told her to help the boys collect our things and I would go check with the other group of boys to see if they were ready to join us in a game.

I was gone less than 2 minutes. When I walked back into the room, the boys were concerned about Mesa---who was laying in the floor. I asked the boys what had happened and they told me that she had passed out. They checked her to see if she was bleeding and they reported to me all that they knew. They told me she wasn't playing around and they were leaning over her to figure out what more they could do. Then they moved back to allow me space to take care of her.

What makes this significant is 1) they boys had just learned some very very basic first aid steps just two weeks ago, and 2) their ages: Jared 5, Luke 8, Morgan 9.

Now this story is simplistic, but it is also profound. These boys remained calm, and by doing so, they set the tone for me to also stay calm. They checked for the immediate signs of trouble and reported their findings to their leader- me. They stepped back immediately to allow space and air, and then they moved along to the next phase of the cub scout meeting.

These children listened and learned and then APPLIED their new knowledge. They have no idea just important it was that they perform in exactly the ways that they did. They didn't do it for reward or even congratulations (they will be getting one though! I'm just too proud of them not to reward their efforts), they just did what needed to be done. Because they did, a bad situation was avoided and Mesa is just fine now.

Imagine this situation were an adult situation. Imagine it is your elderly loved one that passes out and hits their head on a cement floor. What will you do? What is your reaction likely to be? How well will you keep it together? Will you know the best way to care for them? Or perhaps a little bitty child has an asthma attack and there are no medical professionals in the area where you are. Will you know how to respond? Will you panic and get foggy minded, or will you have enough knowledge of what to do to remain calm and just do it without having to scrape together bits and pieces of remembered techniques?

We never know what accidents or incidents are waiting in our future. We don't get to choose what experiences are coming our way, so that means preparing for those exact things is really hard. So prepare your mind the way you prepare your pantry. Study emergency first aid. Study CPR. Keep your CPR training current, because those people change the guidelines of "how to" administer CPR all the time. Know about the common distresses that you might come in contact with and what the best methods of care are in just such a circumstance. And when you have done all you know to do,.....ask someone for other suggestions.

Remember that no matter how much you prepare, there is always something more you can do. FIND THAT and get to work preparing that much more. In the famous words of Tony Little,.... "You can DO IT!"

Taking Inventory

My personal opinion is that from time to time (perhaps once per year) it is a good idea to take a personal inventory of your storage items. How far you take it is certainly up to you, but DO it. How else will you know if you've got enough to survive 3 days? 3months? a year? 3 years? You might find you have weak areas or that you've completely overlooked certain items. Having a chance to take care of those things when there is no real emergency is definitely preferable!

Whether you hand-write a list or just look at your pantry and think to yourself, consider what you've stored.

Do you have flour/sugar/wheat?
Do you have cooking oils?
Do you have bottled fresh vegetables? fruits? meats?
Do you have dehydrated vegetables? fruits? meats?
Do you have freeze-dried vegetables? fruits? meats?
Have you thought about eggs and butter?
What about spices to make your foods taste good?
Did you remember adequate water? (at least 1 gallon per person per day for drinking, more for cleaning/cooking)
Did you consider sanitation? Toilet paper, baby wipes, soap/shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, feminine needs, diapers?
Do you have sufficient first aid items in a kit and do you know how to use them all?
Do you have a well stocked 72-hour kit? (The FEMA type people say that "The first 72 are on you" and THEN they will consider helping your needs.)
Do you have clothing and blankets and a tent?
Are your flashlights holding fresh batteries?
Do you have extra batteries?
And a battery powered radio for emergency communication?
Do you have copies of important documents (birth certificates, insurance forms, medical info, etc) in waterproof storage bags and in a handy location?
Do you have a few dollars set aside in case you have to evacuate?

If that's not enough, I have more for you to consider...
Do you have a recipe booklet to help you cook up those foods you stored?
Do you rotate those items so that your body accustomed to them and you won't suffer diarrhea?
Do you practice fire drills or evacuation steps or tornado drills so you can take cover quickly?
Do you maintain enough fuel in your vehicle to get you out of the area at a moments notice?
Do you check your home regularly for little safety problems you can fix and avoid hazards?
Do you have an escape plan in place for your home? Church? Workplace?
Do you have emergency phone numbers posted and up-to-date?

If you think that you've stored plenty and haven't checked it to ensure it is still free from water damage, bugs or spoilage...if you feel comfortable that you have enough and have no need to store more,....I hope you will take a moment and re-evaluate. If are always preparing, or improving your preparations, you will come out much further ahead should the need arise.

Gardening Time!

"The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."
~~~~ President Ezra Taft Benson

Think back to the story of Noah's Ark. How many people survived that tremendous flood? Only those who were obedient and followed Noah into the ark--which were very very few. Once the rains came and the doors of the ark closed, how many people "saw the light?" I would say very very many...but at that point, it was too late. The only way to survive was to get on that ark.

We have been told to "build an ark" of our own. The time is fast approaching when the ark doors will be shut and only those who got on board will be protected from the storms. Our storms can come at any time and in a multitude of ways, and we NEVER know when that might be! Just ask those citizens of Japan, and Louisiana, and Haiti, and New York City, and Homestead Florida, and,.... countless other regions that have suffered some type of devastation suddenly. These things are happening more and more frequently, and that limits our time between storms to prepare. The more we do today, the brighter tomorrow can look.

The prophets have said to plant a garden.
"We will see the day when we will live on what we produce."
~~~~ President Marion G. Romney

The result of us NOT following this counsel is found here:
"When people are able but unwilling to take care of themselves we are responsible to employ the dictum of the Lord that the idler shall not eat the bread of the laborer."
~~~~ President Boyd K Packer

I wish not to be an idler. I do not wish to beg my neighbor to give to me what I should have gathered for myself....and KNEW that I should have gathered and yet did not. I also do not want my extended family to have to starve to ensure that I am cared for. So I will be planting my garden. And as I do, I will also be offering my prayers to ask the Lord to bless that field that its fruits may be a blessing to my family and a testimony to my children of their parents' faithfulness.

Where are your 3-month supplies?

Tonight I attended my meeting at the stake center for the ward emergency preparedness coordinators. One thing that was brought to my attention is a question asked from our stake representative: Where are you with your Food Storage?

I have items stored. How long will the items I've stored last? Do I know what to do with the things I've got? I've got a can of freeze-dried bell peppers. What in the world will I do with that? None of us just eat bell peppers like that. I use them as an ingredient in a few things like spaghetti sauce. So do I have spaghetti stuff stored? Actually,... no I don't. So I'm storing bell peppers that I can't really use unless my family is literally starving to death. I need to remedy that by storing other ingredients to go with my bell peppers.

But still, I've got items stored. How long can I survive if what I currently have is all I have when emergency strikes? Honestly, I don't know. It's time to evaluate! Not only that, but its time to fill in the gaps that I already know exist in my food storage.

Why are we storing food?
No, we're not trying out for the Hoarders tv show. We're not even preaching doomsday theories here. Instead, we're suggesting wisdom that thinks ahead. Nobody plans to lose their job. Nobody plans to get hurt and be physically unable for a time to care for their needs. Nobody plans on economic hard times. They do happen, though. They happen everyday to somebody. That means YOU will likely have your own turn at some point. Prepare to deal with it now while you can!

Now that brings me to another thought. How do you afford food storage?
One of the members of my ward mentioned to me several months ago that she and her husband had purchased a years supply all in one fell swoop. She said it cost her around $3000.00 which is an amazing price if you add up what you normally spend week by week for a year. That big round number took my breath away, and I dare say there are many who would feel the same way. So if you can't do it that way, then you do it little by little...."line upon line, precept upon precept" until you finally get there. Storing your food should be a constantly ongoing effort anyway. Why? Because what parent can let their children-even grown children-go without food should crisis strike? And what about grandchildren, ... or maybe its your parents who fall upon hard times. Take care of YOUR needs first, and then build upon on it so you can help your neighbor and other family. You should be EATING those foods you store too. Its devastating to spend time and money storing food only to find it has gone bad or been infested by bugs or rodents or received water damage, etc at the time you suddenly need to depend on it. Rotating keeps you aware of the condition of your food and lets you get the most good from it regularly.

So now I ask you: Where are you with YOUR food storage? Do you have three months worth of food in your pantry? Not just those things you can stash for 25 years before opening. I mean those simple things you use on a daily basis and keep close at hand, NOT in the basement. Do you have adequate water handy to re-hydrate those dehydrated and freeze-dried foods?

You can afford what you want to afford. You can collect what you want to collect. You can make any effort you choose to make. What will YOU do?

EMCOMM Exercise

Those of you who became licensed ham radio operators, I felt the need to commend you for your efforts and let you know that your obedience has been noticed well beyond Powder Springs stake--- word has spread to surrounding stakes as well. You have set an example that is impressive. So feel good about yourself! You've done a good thing.

Now moving forward, Saturday (1/15/2011) we will have the first multi-stake net in North Georgia. We will practice (probably relay style) communicating with each to see how we will have to do it to get the most communication accomplished. If you are a Ham and are unable to attend, then look into downloading Echolink and go to Walmart or Staples and purchase a headset (headphones and mic combination). Crank it on and start your highspeed listening....working up your confidence to interact there yourself.

As I said, this is the FIRST multi-stake net, implying there will be others-- and there will be. There will also soon be a local WARD net too. It will operate a little less often, but will operate soon nonetheless. Hopefully it will provide an opportunity for some of us to gain more courage and confidence AND EXPERIENCE so that larger nets and communication activities will scare us less.

So this is your heads up! If you are interested in participating, be at the church Saturday morning by 8am, or post/email your questions.

Prepare for Power Outage

Sunday morning, I woke up not feeling quite right. I stayed home from church and as the day went on, I got sicker and sicker. By the night, I was asking for a blessing because of intense body pains and misery. It wasn't hard to make myself go to bed that night either! I woke up off and on all night, but when morning came, I woke up and noticed it was pretty cold in the air. I live in a house... in GEORGIA... and its barely December... and we went to bed with the heat on... Where did this frigid air come from? Tommy tells me --- the power is out.

What timing!!

Thank goodness I had done lots of laundry just 2 days before and had pulled out quilts to wash so they wouldn't smell musty. The kids had ample to wear and extra covers to wrap up in. The power outage only lasted a few hours and then it was back on again, but what if it wasn't? I had no electricity to run my tv to tell me if something was wrong. My storm radio is ready, but the weather was fine so I wasn't going to get answers that way. The internet was down because it requires power to operate even off a satellite. I had taken a hot bath before bed, but had not washed my hair,...so my head felt especially yucky knowing I couldn't go jump in a hot shower right now....because my hot water heater needs power to work.

It could have been a bad situation. Luckily it was just a warning call. If I had needed hot water, I do have a camp stove and a bottle or two of propane left from camping season. I had all those warm blankets and quilts and plenty of clean clothing for everybody (including socks!) and even have a kerosene heater I could use (if I go buy some kerosene to put in it--oops, something I haven't thought to do yet!) I was fine -- THIS time.

But what about next time?

And what about if it were you?

Time for Batteries!

Normally you see signs up this time of year saying "Change your batteries when you set your clocks back!" Well, the powers that be are changing the timechange date on us again, so that puts us resetting clocks on November 7th.

Well that gives you time to get new batteries! Scour your house and your storage items. Get an idea of the sizes and styles of batteries you need and start shopping now to get them! You can find coupons in store circulars to make this easier on your wallet too. (Try sites like http://www.qponqutie.com/ for a wide variety of printable coupons.)

You need batteries for things such as:

• smoke alarms
• carbon monoxide detectors
• portable radios
• weather alert radios
• ham radios
• flashlights
• hearing aids
  

And a little "survival trick" that uses a battery....
Use some steel wool with a battery (we keep a 9volt on hand for this). Put the battery to the wool and have some wood on hand because you'll have a fire in literally a second or two. Firebuilding is one of those survival skills that is critical, and preparing in this way can be a huge blessing.

It never hurts to have an extra battery or two on hand either ;)

Where Are You?

There is much to consider in the efforts of Emergency Preparedness for a family. I've found that you can't judge a family's preparedness by how they look, what their income level is, or how actively they collect food storage items. I've discovered that some of the lowest income families have a larger storage than some higher income families! I guess that comes about due to prioritizing funds. Of course, the opposite is just as true- some higher income families are quite well prepared too.

So where are you?

Food storage seems to be the larger number of items to collect, and is generally where most people start. So take a moment to look at YOUR collection. Do you have a week's worth of food to sustain YOUR household without having to go shopping? If not, I challenge you to accumulate that much and store it with appropriate dates, and have at least that much completed BY December 31st of this year. This can be as overwhelming or as simple as you make it. Achieve this goal and set a new goal, a 3-month supply for your household.

Times are more difficult than they once were. Money is less available than it was not very long ago. The weather is a bit more unpredictable than in times past, making growing seasons fluctuate a bit and conditions less productive. You may need your storage sooner than you realize! It may be due to a job loss, or a loss of a family member who normally provides an income. It might even be due to the "end of days" predictions coming to pass. No matter what causes you to need that storage, it is better to have it and not fear.

If you have collected a 1-week supply of food storage, then set your goal to a 4-week supply instead...and still aim for December 31st. Be as complete as you can, including fruits, vegetables, grains, powdered dairy products, snacks and seasonings. Dehydrated, frozen (but don't rely on a freezer for the majority of your storage!), freeze-dried, canned,...whatever form your food is in, collect it now! Hurry before Christmas shopping takes your last available dollar for something a little less valuable!

Honey Storage

This post is more of a personal nature, but in sharing it with you, I hope you get ideas of things you can do to increase your own storage by relying on Mother Nature a bit.

As some of you know, our family raises bees. Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying,..."I" do not raise bees...nooooooo way! My daddy did that while I was growing up and I didn't enjoy a single minute of it. I told my husband when we married that if he wanted to get involved in yucky hobbies like beekeeping, he had to deal with it by himself. A few years ago, we moved in with my parents for a few months, and of course it was during the honey season. Daddy got Tommy hooked...and now I live with bees again. For some reason, its not as terrible now that I'm grown as it was when I was a kid. Perhaps that's because we tend to worry about the bees together instead of it being just one person in the house doing that. Perhaps its because I'm a Family Herbalist now and I recognize benefits I never even heard of when I was kid. Or maybe after all these years, I've gone crazy. Who knows!

Anyway, here in Georgia, the "honey flow" as it's called happens just as summer is beginning. Sometimes you can even rob the bees a second time at the end of summer. And because bees are especially dedicated workers, they do their best to keep that honey coming in. [Inserting a sidenote here: I've written an ebook about bees and beekeeping. It doesn't teach how, but instead it correlates bees with life and looks at them in a spiritual way. Interested? Visit www.4m-designs.com and click on The Honeybee Religion.]

Last Saturday, our family went into "busy bee mode" and robbed three beehives. Tommy and Manti suited up in whites, hats, veils and gloves and approached with smoke. The smoke is used just to help calm them down a bit...the bees, not the men. It makes me think a little of those old ways of Native American people where they sat amongst their enemies and smoked a pipe. It was a calming experience then too so that matters of importance could be spoken of in appropriate ways. Interesting thought, don't ya think?

Anyway, back to the bees... When the bees move out of the way enough you can put your hands inside their house, boxes of frames filled with wax are taken off and carried inside. Some beekeepers believe that they can form a relationship with the bees, where the bees recognize the beekeepers scent and mannerisms and respond differently towards them than to other people. Tommy is this type of beekeeper.

Once you have boxes/frames of honey-filled wax inside, you quickly find you have a dripping mess and sometimes even bees who just can't walk away from their hard work.

I was particularly intrigued to watch these bees cleaning each other up. Some of them get squished as their hive is disturbed, and some of them get honey dripped on them. They actually tended to each other and worried over the other bee instead of themselves. Impressive characters!

Notice the covering you see on the frame of wax? The bees make that, and it is formed over those little slots to act as a cap. It protects the honey once it is "ripe"...I guess you could call it that. It means the water content has been sufficiently evaporated and the honey is ready to be used. You can't get honey out of it that way though, which means you have to slice off those cappings and quickly put the frame into your big gadget called an extractor. It's an ugly gadget, but it does the job!

Our extractor has 3 slots for frames. You can see a frame in each one. A lid goes on top of it, and then you turn the handle on top. This causes the basket inside (which holds your frames) to spin, thus slinging out the honey from the open wax compartments. It slings little droplets of honey all inside this big barrel (which is the size of a 33 gallon trashcan) and collects at the bottom. After you spin it one direction, you turn the handle in the opposite direction to more fully empty the wax frames. THEN,....you open the lid, remove each frame and turn them around so you can spin the honey out from the other side of each frame. If you don't put the lid back on,...you will be glittering from honey splatters! Ask me how I know!

(overlook my unorganized pantry showing please)

When you complete all the frames, you've got gallons of honey in the bottom of your extractor. There is a "gate" on a spout at the bottom of the extractor, and you open the gate to let the honey flow out. It is always possible for debris to get into it at this stage, but not a lot. From here, it pours into a 5 gallon bucket that has 3 baskets on top of it. The first basket has a mesh bottom that filters out the large particles of broken wax and whatever else. It's very much like bridal veil fabric. The next basket has a smaller weave that filters even smaller particles, and the third basket has such a tiny weave that it can catch the ittiest bittiest things you can imagine. What you collect in the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket is clean honey. This bucket also has a spout and a gate, and from here, you fill your clean jars and cap them. Here is our first jar of honey this year:

There is something about bees that is really remarkable... take a look at last Saturday's honey collection in jars....

Do you see how there are 3 different colors of honey here? Remember that we robbed 3 different hives. Each hive made its own unique honey blend. As tiny as they are, they are still so individual!

Vinegar Magic

Multi-purpose items are just fascinating to me. I love it when I discover ANOTHER reason why I want something, and now I've done it (yet again) with vinegar. I already knew vinegar makes pickles taste great, and it preserves my hot peppers and cleans my mirrors and windows. Recently I found that vinegar applied to a sunburn will relieve a lot of the fever and pain associated with it. That makes it cool! (ok, bad pun, sorry) Well here are MORE reasons to keep vinegar stored in your pantry:

• vinegar will take out smoke smells from clothes
• vinegar will remove sweat stains from clothes
• vinegar can deodorize the kitchen drain
• vinegar (combined with baking soda) will unclog a drain
• vinegar deters ants

That list is found on dollargeneral.com, so go read more!

My friend tells me that she uses vinegar on insect bites and it takes the itch away FAST and PERMANENT. You don't even see a whelp for very long after using it. See vinegartips.com to learn as many as 1001 uses of white distilled vinegar! That's a LOT of uses!

And after you make a couple pages of notes, head out to the store and stock up on vinegar! Don't forget to label the bottle with the date and USE it. Don't let stuff sit in the pantry and just wait for a disaster to happen. Use the things you store and when you open a bottle, buy a new one to replace it in your storage.

Sun Preparations

I recently dealt with quite an ugly sunburn. In trying to take care of it, I used several different products in hopes of getting pain relief as well as speed up the healing time. Fortunately, I had several options already at home in my first aid kit and in my herb collection. I say "fortunately" because my burn was so severe that certain articles of clothing caused me tremendous pain. If I had to have gone to the store to purchase something, I would have needed to wear very uncomfortable clothes and suffer from those clothes rubbing my burns. Thank goodness I was prepared!

If you are living in a southern state, your chances of getting a sunburn are increased due to the nature of the environment of your area. Don't think that you are "in the clear" if you live in Alaska! The sun DOES still shine there too! None of us want to live in a cave with no sun exposure, so the wise thing would be to store some items you can utilize should you have a little excess sun exposure.

Now remember I tried several things, and luckily I had good results with all that I tried, but I did have some favorites. I think my MOST favorite was aloe gel. My skin absorbed it rapidly which kept moisture in it and I think it has helped reduce the severity of the peeling and itching. I have a Natures Sunshine brand aloe gel that is thin and easy to apply. It doesn't leave a sticky residue behind like aloe gel straight out of the plant does, so it felt good and it brought instant relief. It has citric acid in it too, which is a plant matter that acts as a preservative, so it lasts a while even once its been opened. (I make my own deoderant and this is one of the ingredients of my recipe, giving me a second reason to have it on hand.) I have another aloe product that has menthol in it, which brings on a cooling sensation right away too. I liked that one as well. Aloe is inexpensive and readily available, so its definitely a top choice for me. I also have an aloe plant in my kitchen windowsill which is an added bonus because its pretty, its available if I get a kitchen burn, and it replenishes itself regularly. Renewable resources are GREAT!

Next is lavender oil and a calendula cream. Calendula takes care of the skin and is an ingredient for a lot of skin preparations, even for babies. Adding lavender essential oil to it gives added antiseptic properties and awesome analgesic abilities. So I took the lavender oil and doused my skin with it. Lavender is great for pain relief, but it can get expensive so that makes it more of a second choice option for me. The calendula cream is one I make, so that cuts cost down for me there. It has a wide range of uses, but by itself it doesn't take the pain away nearly as much as I'd like it to.

Third is cider vinegar. Now you can use any vinegar of course, but I prefer REAL cider vinegar (the kind that still has "the mother") because it has none of the chemical stuff in it that I prefer to avoid. Plus, cider vinegar has other abilities (too numerous to mention in this post) and its inexpensive too. I poured a good amount onto a tissue and dabbed it on my burned skin. It eased the pain significantly and immediately, and I think it sped up the healing time too because I started itching immediately as well! Tommy said he thought it was probably the histamine release that caused me to itch,...I don't know. I just know it was maddening for about 45 seconds. Mesa had gotten a bit of a burn too and we tried this on her back with identical results.

Those are my top 3 picks. All three are easy to store and have multiple uses.
Whatever YOUR choices are, plan ahead and store a little extra just in case of burns....whether by the stove, a campfire or the sun...they all hurt! Burned skin compromises your immune function too, so take care of it before it can become a bigger problem.

Sanitation Preparations

We always think about preparing our pantry with food storage, or packing a 72 hour kit, or remembering to store batteries for every imaginable tool, or having enough bandages in our first aid kit...sometimes we remember to store toilet paper and soaps and such...

...but...

Have you ever considered putting a whole TOILET into your storage?


This might sound odd until you've thought on the subject a little longer. I might even suggest you print out this post and take it to your bathroom where you can give it your focused attention (heheh) and consider why it might be a valuable thing to invest in. In our not-too-distant past, a hurricane ripped through Louisiana and other coastal areas leaving terrible devastation for the residents. Some who went to provide aid there saw filth strewn everywhere by the storm and the decay of all forms of matter was dangerous to the health of all there. Sewer systems weren't very helpful for a bit, because there were few homes and no clean water to use. In this extreme example, sanitation was crucial just to survive, and many became ill from exposure.

We never know when our precious running water and comfortable facilities will be lost to us, but our need for sanitary conditions will continue to be mandatory. So how do you prepare for this? One way is to store a portable toilet. It's a simple thing really, its just a bucket with a special lid. The only things you need to store with it are the enzyme packets (or the "blue stuff" as we call it at our house) to help break down waste material, and toilet paper. This is an inexpensive venture. In fact, I'm sure you've spent more on toilet paper than you would on this toilet!

Your health needs you to think ahead about things like this. If you have a portable "john", you have something you can take camping with you. For those with physical disabilities or difficulties, this little gadget is MOST helpful to cut down on the need to search for a place "to go". It eliminates the concern of poison ivy in uncomfortable areas. And on top of that, it is a part of the group specials for the month of July at Emergency Preparedness. (Carrollton Ward, we will be participating in this special so we can get them for $6.) Those of you who do not live in Carrollton, you can still purchase one of these at a sale price too! Visit www.BePrepared.com and place your order, or check with your own ward to see if you can participate in the group specials too.

Are your children safe?

My son Morgan is a cub scout. He is also schooled at home. I have found that combining his schoolwork and his scout work helps him spend more time on studies without feeling like he is "working"...and thus, we accomplish more in both categories: school & scouts.

Recently, he had one requirement left in his book to achieve a new rank: he had to go to the fire department. Luckily, we just got a new one about 2 or 3 miles down the road from our house! So Monday afternoon, we all piled into our car and headed to the fire station. Morgan asked his questions and got his answers, and then he wanted to see a fire truck. The wonderful firefighter on duty that day showed Morgan around and let him sit inside the truck and see all the great gadgets. He turned on the siren and lights for him and took pictures with him. He was awesome!
During our adventure there, the fireman asked ME a question. He wanted to know if I let my kids sleep with their door shut. I said "oh no! I don't! They keep the doors open." He said that if he could make one change in our lives, it would be our sleeping habits. He said "Please have your children sleep with their doors shut." I was dumbfounded! After all, how do you hear your children cry in the night with the door shut? How do you know something is wrong with the door shut? What kind of mother shuts bedroom doors at night and cuts herself off from them? I'll tell you! A mother who is protecting her children in case of fire.

The fireman tells me that more people die from smoke inhalation and heat than from actually burning in a house fire. He told me that if the doors are open, smoke and fumes and flames can rush right in. If you are in bed and the smoke alarm goes off, chances are that you will sit up straight in bed, inhale and pass out before you can get out of your room to help your family. If your door is closed, you give yourself several extra minutes to get out a window without suffering the effects from the fire. He showed us to touch the door with the back of our hand and move it upward to see how high up we can go before heat bothers us. THAT is the level of smoke and fire on the other side of the door. And if the door is hot, the fire is near. That tells us "go out the window instead." Something as simple as sleeping with your bedroom door closed can give you precious extra minutes to get to safety.

As a family, we already have an escape plan and already have a meeting place chosen outside. We already talked about going out windows and which doors and what hazards we have to take care of NOW before something could happen. We've not had actual fire drills, but if we did, that practice would create a memory in our minds and we would automatically do something similar during a real fire. And now we have one more tool to protect us.... closed doors at night.

Moms, if you are truly uncomfortable having your children's doors closed at night, then invest in baby monitors and place them next to your bed. You will hear the sounds from their rooms even better that way.

So ask yourself again,.... are YOUR children protected?

Freeze-Dried Recipes

Our ward has been participating in the Emergency Essentials "Group Orders" for the past few months. I've noticed a trend with the items on the group specials list: lots of freeze-dried choices. You might recognize freeze dried fruits from your cereal box, since that's the same type of fruit. That gives you one idea of how to use these foods, but eating dried food all the time would become difficult if you had no other choices, right? So I've been looking for some recipes (particularly because I got some of the freeze-dried broccoli and I want to know what options I have too!) and thought I'd share some of my findings. Perhaps they will be useful to you also. Just click the name of the recipe and it will take you to the original posting website.

Preparedness Pantry
Turkey Salad Sandwich
Chicken Curry
Chicken Soup

Emergency Essentials
Sunflower Strawberry Salad
Strawberry Cooler
Strawberry Bread
Strawberry Milkshakes
Apple Cake
Crockpot Oatmeal
Beef Stroganoff
Broccoli Soup
Vegetable Fried Rice