Monday Message

"Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program. We could refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in relation to holocaust or disaster, but in cultivating a life-style that is on a day-to-day basis its own reward." (President Spencer W. Kimball)

"Way of life" I think sums it up pretty well. I don’t know about you but I feel like I have a crisis every week of late. July fourth we got huge rains flooding our basement - seven inches. It was way hard wet work. I worked hard preparing for if it happened again. Little did I know two months from that very day twelve inches would come in, this round more costly but it would have been a lot harder if that week in July I had not thought of things I could do to not have it so bad in the future and worked extra then making it a whole lot easier now.

Sacrificing time money and comfort for a future time of need sounds kind of like food storage doesn’t it?

A way of life…preparing for our future trying to make things better.

It is all hard work, not always wet work, but it could be.

I can tell you I could have done a commercial for vacuum sealing for I had sealed jars of food floating…sealing them kept it from ruining the food within.

I had an empty bucket sitting on the floor. I sat a bucket on that one to get to it later, it had pasta in it. Well water at twelve inches floated the bottom bucket and caused the pasta bucket to tip into the water and it was floating. Now I know some science is at work there, fill a five gallon bucket with pasta and lift…. it is really heavy. You would think the empty bucket would have been weighed down…nope not with twelve inches of water. 

We have been having so much rain our Relief Society president encouraged everyone to check on each other so I did that talking with one woman, she was getting in water but could keep wet vacuuming it up each day. She asked how we were, I said dry so far but at that very time twelve inches was already in. I went to check and booooo. Good thing I checked or a new in-basement pool would have been there by morning.

The bucket of pasta came out dry. I would not have thought so but it was a blessing for sure.

Also, water we got in was ground water which is way better than the sewer water...a big blessing.

So keep working on that storage. You just don’t know what is coming around that corner. I have no storage that is labeled when "bad things happen" storage. I have storage that is used daily. If something happens that makes it hard to get groceries and you were eating with us, you would not know anything had changed because we use it every day.

It is easier to get in as you go rather than all at once…way easier.

Same with your skills, build them as you go. When you learn a skill  keep on learning, add to what you learned.

Here is a way to make bias tape - http://www.modabakeshop.com/2018/09/how-to-make-continuous-bias-binding.html#more-48073

This week I was given peppers. With jalapeno peppers I take them off the stem end then freeze them whole. When I have a recipe that uses jalapeno peppers in it, I pull one out of the freeze, let it sit while I gather my ingredients. Then I chop the pepper while still very frozen. This is so easy and none of that really hot juice on your hands.

The red chili peppers pictured at the top I tied in a hanging strand. You can also string on thread like beads and hang them to dry. Once dried I crush up and put in a jar. We like these on pizza or in recipes that call for them. The orange and green peppers I chop and freeze for using in recipes.

I was given this green vase which I use to store my short knitting needles. Have you ever thought you could decorate with your supplies? Well this shows you can.

Same with my emergency candles pictured here…

You already know I decorate with oil lamps. They look attractive but are way more useful as oil is stored in them. They are just waiting for another power outage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIjoSjmssLg - these can be made with equal parts water and mix and are good that way but even better the way she does them.

Mixes are great to have on hand. For some reason fall makes me in the mood to get my mixes made up.

Having your mixes ready is great as a frugal thing and also great to help make your meals fast.

So keep working as you can, the best you can.