Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I was thinking about Joseph in the Bible who was sold into slavery by his brothers and how he was able to end up being a blessing to his own family by storing wheat before a famine. He saved many from dying in the famine by storing wheat ahead of the famine. 

Can we get ahead of our personal famine? Yes, we can by having storage and rotating it. We never know what lies ahead of us. There is no job that is totally secure, there is no one that can promise we won't have another depression, there is no guarantee that we won't get sick, laid off or have a natural disaster.

So we need to learn skills, we need to learn how to make do. I know I keep pressing the basics, it is because we need to know how to do these things. Even if you only learn how to budget better to get from payday to payday, most likely you will use some of these skills.

I will say it is a lot easier to learn how to make bread before you need it.

Mending our clothes - it would be good to know how to mend before you rip your pants.

Things won't always be as easy as they are now for anyone. So while things are a bit easier lets learn the basic skills and put in storage.

So have you mastered making bread from scratch? You could live without bread but it makes life taste better. Learn how to do it by hand first then use other methods so long as you know how to do it by hand, know how it feels to work it and know all the steps and store the ingredients to make it, plus the pans.

When you have that all tended and learned, you can use a bread machine to make the dough and put homemade bread into your meals so everyone is used to it.  

Look for machine recipes given to us by Liza in the near future.

Once you have mastered a skill move on to the next one. Be a collector of skills.

https://foodrevolution.org/blog/how-to-wash-vegetables-fruits/ - this was shared with us by Mary Ann, thank you for sharing!

Look around for a used sewing machine. Every home should have a sewing machine. Then gather scissors, thread, and needles (both hand and machine).

This is part of a storage. If you ever sewed something big by hand you will be glad not to have to.

When my daughter was home we made a pattern off a shirt she had and made t-shirts using the pattern...

The first thing Gus said was you will need a pattern weight. Here you see him being the pattern weight.

The last picture here shows how to make the sleeve bigger.

Each thing you learn will add to your collection of skills...

I was visiting with a lady working at the hospital while I was knitting a sock. She said her favorite pair was homemade and they got a hole in them, she said she wished she had her mother's darning tool... I said that you can use a plastic Easter egg to put in the sock to darn it. She left so happy with that solution saying she had one of those. We have to think outside the box sometimes.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+darn+socks+by+hand&docid=608044948597573766&mid=AE7F9F49A1BF62279168AE7F9F49A1BF62279168&view=detail&FORM=VIREHT - she uses a tennis ball here so lots of things could be used.  

Socks might not cost so much right now but this is a good time to start mending them, learn this skill.

A reminder to start getting going on your Christmas gifts, do not wait till last minute. We are all about thinking ahead.

So work on these few things mentioned and add to your storage and remember to be kind and helpful to others.