Longer Term Food Storage

     From the Provident Living Manual: "Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage. For longer-term needs, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans.   These items can last 30 years or more when properly packaged and stored in a cool, dry place. A portion of these items may be rotated in your three-month supply."
     One way to get start on your longer term storage, is to buy a "starter kit" from the cannery.  I'll admit, I have been pretty resistant to storing these longer term items,  they are just items I always thought I don't use on a regular basis.  However, I've had a change of heart lately :)  Most items have a storage life of 30 or more years.  I'm sure between now and 30 years I will have use for this stuff (well, maybe not the beans except in an extreme emergency :)  The truth is, when I unpacked this stuff from the cannery, I felt so darn good about having this on hand!  For those of you unfamiliar with the LDS Church's cannery, you can go and actually can your own food storage for cost!   It's really fun to do ( I enjoy it anyway), I have just found I have a hard time finding the time to do it.  I finally figured out you can just stop in and pick up a "Starter Kit", without having to can it yourself, at least at our cannery.  The cast is $24.95 (Price updated November 1, 2013) and includes the items in the picture above (note that you can save about $1.60 if you were to go into the cannery and can it all yourself, to me, it was worth paying a little more to just run in and pick it up).  The goal for our family, is to have a starter kit purchased for every member of our family.  We plan on doing this a little at a time, buying one with each paycheck, or one a month.
     To see if there is an LDS cannery near you, check this link.  For hours of operation and to see if you need to schedule and appointment, call the number listed in the link.

Power Failure light, 1 of the 2 most important purchases for you to make

I attended the earthquake readiness class at our Stake Emergency fair.  What I learned was that this is one of the most important purchases you need to make, it's probably the best $10.00 you will ever spend.  You plug these night lights into your kids rooms, as well as your own.  If the power ever goes out, these lights come on, when unplugged, they act as a flashlight (that you can actually find).  They have built in rechargeable batteries, so you never have to worry about finding batteries.  I had a little trouble find these at Home Depot.  Just look for the night light stuff, these are with them.  Look specifically for "Power Failure" lights.  They cost right around $10.00.  The other "most important" purchase you need to make is a strap for your water heater.  I haven't bought ours yet, but will post all about it when I do :)

Free Hygiene kit

You may not be thinking too much about adding hygiene items to your 72 hour kit.  I didn't want things that would take up a lot of space (we barely have room for our food), but I found that at Walmart.com you can sign up for free samples.  There are several samples which go well in a 72 hour kit, plus they are small, light, and best of all, free!  I've received vitamins, deodorant, toothpaste, wipes, shampoo, etc.  Here is the link, they don't always have stuff, so you will have to check back: http://instoresnow.walmart.com/In-Stores-Now-Free-Samples.aspx

72 hour kit

I needed a place to store our 72 hour food kits (there is a very nice family in our neighborhood who organizes these every year for our local church group), they cost about $7.50 or so per kit and have a good variety of food.  You do have to replace them every year (you just eat the old ones which is kind of fun).  I plan on supplementing these with emergency food bars from the Army/Navy store which last 10 years.  More on those later.  Anyway, I bought this bucket at Home Depot today for $2.50, the lid was $1.00  I liked it because it's bright orange and would be easy to find, plus it would offer some water protection, and has a handle for carrying.

Adventures in Sprouting

This was one of my favorite parts of the Emergency Preparedness fair, the sprout lady! (Beverly Johnson). She is great! Did you know you need to know how to "sprout?" I didn't! Not only is it healthy for you to eat on a regular basis, but in an emergency, or if you are having to live strictly on your food storage for whatever reason, you will need a quick way to grow "greens". How do you do that? You sprout them in your kitchen in 3-5 days! This was all news to me. I am sprouting some alfalfa right now, I will post more on that later. 

Candles on Clearance

I picked up these large candles at Walmart for a $1.00 each, they are usually $5.00, so that was a good deal. They had unscented candles, but I thought the Pumpkin spice would create a nice "spa like" atmosphere during an emergency :) Keep an eye out for things like this when you are at the store. If you pick up just an extra item or two every time you go shopping, you will quickly add to your food storage and 72 hour kits.

Storing Water

So far, I have 3 whole bottles of water in my storage. Hey, it's a start OK! And it's more than I had a month ago. Our local water is cholorinated, so you don't have to add bleach to stored water. Milk jugs are NOT a good container for storing water, the plastic is prone to break down and may leak. Juice or soda bottles work well. Eventually, I would like to buy a water purifier, they are about $50.00. I think in general, there is water around in an emergency, it is just contaminated, so a water purifier is well worth the expense.

My first purchase: Waterproof, fire safe lock box

My first goal was to obtain a waterproof, fire safe lock box, small enough to carry in the event of an evacuation. I bought this on Amazon for $20.00 with free shipping. I plan to keep cash, important documents (on acid free paper), extra set of car keys, emergency contact info, credit card, etc.

Welcome to my new blog!

Our local church organization had a wonderful Emergency Preparedness fair a few Saturdays ago. I realized how much work I needed to do to become better prepared in the event of an emergency. Feeling overwhelmed, I decided I could either just give up and do nothing, or do something! No matter how big or small. So I made a list of goals I wanted to accomplish, hung it up by the sink in the kitchen so I could see it everyday. I needed to break it down in to baby steps like: pick up waterproof matches next time I'm at the store, move our 72 hour kit to the closet by the door, store more water, etc. So here we are with a new blog! I want to hold myself accountable in some way, and I thought this might help inspire others to set their own goals.