(Ezra Taft Benson, October 1973)
“The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.”
(J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26)
“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds.”
I think we all saw the empty shelves with hurricane Matthew, it makes so much sense to have food and any storage up in your home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-MSAyMMXAM this is from one of our own, Deb Hadden tells us of her preparedness, they will all follow if you keep on as she did in segments - thanks Deb!
http://theprudenthomemaker.com/living-on-food-storage this is so inspiring to see her storage. I have had this on before and I follow her, she is a member of the church and still works actively on her storage and she works on her skills. She is teaching herself French and makes gifts for birthdays and Christmas.
http://theprudenthomemaker.com/index.php/recipes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=271&Itemid=423 you can see some of her skills on the left.
http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog?view=entry&id=88 this is very much a great read!
I think we all too often think nothing will happen to us, but the truth is we all should be prepared.
Do you know how to can?? I think this we should all know how to do it. I can tell you we have been enjoying homemade bread toasted with peach jam from peaches from our own peach trees.
I have sourdough going and have been adding a half cup into my bread, it is sooooo wonderful.
Does it take work? I have never lied, it does take hard work, but we should never shy away from working hard.
I have been working at learning to weave and while I watched General Conference I worked on the table top loom which has four harnesses. I put it on the foot stool and I worked on it while watching then we broke for chili, stew and big homemade cinnamon rolls.
This is what I am learning and teaching myself it has been hard but worth it. And is helping me make gifts.
I have been knitting, crocheting, weaving, tatting and sewing to get these gifts tended. I like to have my gifts in the mail by November.
I have an incredibly painful tare in the tendon in my right knee so I have been going very very slow, it causes me cry baby pain. I had this a few years ago in my arm but I could rest my arm more, really hard to do when it is the knee. Vary hard, hurts horrid whether or not I hold it still, it is in bad pain. I hate having to slow down but we need to listen to our bodies. The hardest part of having fibromyalgia is I cannot feel well enough to be physically present now when there is so much need. I do pray and send names into the temple. But I hate not being able to be there in person to help, there is no shortage of people who need help.
I am not whining much, things could be far worse.
We must find joy.
I packed my projects in a bag and has everything I need and I keep it near. This has been very helpful.
Keep working on your storage, no matter how poor we are get a jar of peanut butter or two packages of jello or a box of band-aids, very little if that is all you have like us, it will add up. Plus, we have been told if we truly will work on it we will be blessed.
I am noticing we need to build up our milk powder from the cannery. That is our goal to build that and oats and I truly believe a way will be made to acquire these.
We use both these items each day and it has been several years since we got these items and so we stocked well to go three years.
So no matter your income do what you can. Learn skills, build storage.
Cooking from scratch can do two things - one, can extend your dollars and, two, is if you have no dollars you still eat well because you used your skills.
Do the best you can… Pray for what you need.
Provident living class will be on learning to crochet this Tuesday, Sept. 24th at 9:30 a.m. at the Shooks. Bring yarn and a crochet hook size G and a pair of scissors.
"As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year’s supply of necessities. . . . I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With the events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness. . . . Create a plan if you don't already have one, or update your present plan . . . We are not in a situation that requires panic buying, but we do need to be careful in purchasing and rotating the storage that we're putting away." (L. Tom Perry, in Conference Report, Oct. 1995, 47; or Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36).
I hope you had a good week of stocking up with the good sale on hamburger and toilet paper and other items. This is still preparedness month, though I think it is always an ongoing thing. Some things overlooked is sewing supplies - if you do not sew it is a good time to learn. If you mend, make sure you have plenty of mending notions on hand especially needle and thread.
http://www.honeybeepantry.com/topics/view/51cbfc94f702fc2ba812e2be/ to start with, fix a hot cocoa and put your feet up.
Conference is coming up. My favorite all time thing to do is watch conference. We have a tradition of having chili and cinnamon rolls.
I thought I would throw in some things for kids to do during conference:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/children?lang=eng
http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10214
http://www.livecrafteat.com/live/kids-cookie-jars/
http://www.livecrafteat.com/live/activities-games-and-ideas-for-general-conference-with-kids-the-ultimate-guide/
http://beinglds.blogspot.com/2010/04/general-conference-wall.html
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/281756520409786964/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/281756520409786713/
One other thing we do is have a walk between sessions helps wake up everyone and is fun to talk about the talks and what we each liked so far at that point what we liked best.
http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/get_full_recipe.php?search.x=25&search.y=19&File=1270333649
http://www.beckysbacktobasics.com/aboutthehouse.php?search.x=32&search.y=14&File=1270322407
So those are the cinnamon rolls I make, you can frost them as you like.
My chili recipe in case you would like it.......
(I throw it in the crockpot)
Chili
I brown one lb of hamburger, drain it & put in the crockpot with one or two cans of drained and rinsed kidney beans (may be omitted if kids don't like beans)
3-4 cans of tomato soup
1 tbsp dried onion
1 to 2 tbsp chili powder
pinch or two of salt
some pepper to taste
you will need to add a can or two of water just depends on how big your crockpot is
I serve with crackers and slice of cheese and the cinnamon rolls. I have varied this by adding some salsa or sometimes half to one tsp cumin.
So enjoy! I do the work before conference on Saturday and we just reheat it all on Sunday.
http://frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-dishwasher.html?m=1 it is very easy to make your own dishwasher soap.....
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4EjTfXhwMcwak5wY2RqdzVnbm8/edit I like the idea of having preparedness goals
http://foodstorageandpreparedness.blogspot.com/2009/06/conversion-chart-for-dry-pack-canning.html - Sister Challis shared this and I thank her for it. I will remind everyone that we do have a dry pack canner in the building that can be checked out, I think you could ask President Evans or Brother Nat Tognetti who one would go through to do that.
So don't be afraid of gathering in your storage due to containers. Food is important and containers you can order or go to bakeries and get free ones and elbow grease to clean them out. Just remember food grade buckets and if you get from a bakery they are food grade and I like to let mine air dry after I have washed and towel dried for overnight to be sure it is good and dry.
Remember to put two bay leaves in things like pasta, oats, popcorn, flour, wheat... you get the idea. And to answer the question in your head..... no, it does not leave a taste or smell unless you break and lose part of it and cook it into a cookie then it will taste in that cookie.
Keep working on your storage and skills. The next class will be on storing in small spaces.....
