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!