Monday Message

(President Ezra Taft Benson, General Conference Oct 1980 "Prepare for the Days of Tribulation", now as the prophet offering his own remarks and in addition repeating many quotes from past prophets and apostles) - 

"Plan to build up your food supply just as you would a savings account... We urge you to do this prayerfully and do it now."

“There are blessings in being close to the soil, in raising your own food even if it is only a garden in your yard and a fruit tree or two. Those families will be fortunate who, in the lasts days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own.”

It is coming up on planting time here in central Iowa. It is safe to plant after May 15, so you should make a plan.

How are you being frugal and how are you coming on your skill building?

For me, I am still working on the hat and mittens from taking the craftsy class on their free weekend.

Here is a clever tip - I use this board that was made for lockers that I got used. It holds my patterns with a strip of magnet. I put ribbons on it to make me smile :)

Now, I have lots of ribbon and so on my second board I keep many strips I have made to keep them handy. I got all of them at yard sales over the years. The boards were given to me. The magnetic strips I have in rolls and partial rolls which I laid flat on metal till they stopped wanting to roll.

I have been doing some spinning.

One sleepless night I did some sewing. I was given some dresses a couple of years ago. They had slits and I hate slits. So I matched colors and zigzagged the slits. These are big enough on me that I don’t need the slits to walk or sit.

I also had gotten a flannel dress for free but it was too short for me so I was able to make a shirt out of it instead.

So that was frugal sewing using a skill.

One of the things I want to learn is how to use the many feet, old ones as well as newer ones.

The sewing feet go with my Kenmore. On my list of skills to learn is figuring out how to use each of these feet.

http://www.aldermanfarms.net/sourdough.html - they have a few tech problems but stay with them. I have been following her step by step to do sourdough. I have tried to do sourdough for many years and failed each time so watching this has helped me learn what went wrong. So this is an area that I am trying to learn. I have so far had success in starting the starter and plan to try her bread Friday night and Saturday.  It would be good to learn and have success with this. 

So these are some of the things I have been doing to build skills and be frugal. What have you been doing? Let us know.

http://www.honeybeepantry.com/topics/view/51cbfc92f702fc2ba812dda1/ - I think it would be good if you research her bread information. Look at the items on the left. This lady is fantastic. So what is the window pain test, do you know? She will tell you. If you know the answer you are probably a bread baker.

If you do not know the answer, read here: http://www.honeybeepantry.com/topics/view/51cbfc9bf702fc2ba812f492/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LnmzFxlkpw - this woman shows how to make hamburger buns, has an accident with sesame seeds but it is helpful. She is making her supper so keep watching to the buns.

Both of these ladies sell their baked goods at local farmer’s markets. See how helpful their skills are to their families? Not only do they make things for meals but make income with these skills as well.

We may never need our skills for making income but we can bless our family with them every day.

Before we had kids and we were living in South Dakota, my husband was in the military and we were still very young, the county had a great program where they sent this lady on request. She would come and teach us how to do things. You invited friends and she would come teach and cook. I remembered this one time she told how you could shred and dry carrots. This was wonderful to me but she was also teaching how to make noodles. I was equally excited for it. She fixed a broth and threw them in, I loved it. She let us each taste it.

But before everyone came she asked me what church I belonged to and I told her The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She said I thought so. I thought, how? She said because I loved learning new things and it seemed like everyone she met from the church was wanting to learn. Of course, I am thinking everyone she taught was wanting to learn since her teaching was by invitation but it makes me think we all should never give up learning, there is so much to learn. Yes, I still love learning new things.

Keep building your storage and finding how you can be more frugal. Work on your skills and share with us what your working on.