Tackle It Tuesday

I'm grateful to have plenty of food to eat. I'm not so grateful our food storage room looks like this!

Today's goal is to get the food storage room organized again! The kids haul the food I buy downstairs but they just put it in the food storage room on the floor and I eventually put it away on the shelves. Since I can't even get in the food storage room it's past time to put it on the shelves!

Menu Plan Monday

This weeks meals are mainly from food storage. Brian is really busy at work but people aren't buying very many high priced homes. There is a big difference between the commission check from a 400,000 home and a 68,000 condo. We're doing our best to cinch up our belt and live within our means. Thankfully we do have a lot of food storage so the only things we really need to buy are perishables like fruits, vegetables and eggs.

Monday
B - Green eggs & Ham - It is Dr. Seuss day!
D - Chicken drumsticks and fettuccine

Tuesday
B - Oatmeal
D - Baked Tin Foil Dinners

Wednesday
B - Whole wheat blueberry pancakes
D - Vegetable spaghetti over whole wheat noodles

Thursday
B - Egg McMuffins
D - Tacos/Burritos/Quesadillas

Friday
B - Mush
D - Chicken Nuggets - Ward Temple Night

Saturday
B - Aebleskievers
L - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
D - Ham & Potato Soup

Sunday
B - Oatmeal
L - Hawaiian Haystacks
D - Homemade bread & peaches

Food Storage Friday

This week we refilled out propane tanks. We have 4 small tanks and 3 of them were empty so yesterday Brian & I went down to the Flying J to fill them up. Today our power went out... for about an hour for no reason. Well I'm sure there was a reason but I don't know what it was. Made me grateful we'd filled our propane tanks up because if the power hadn't come back on at least we could have BBQed.

Maybe this was a bad idea....

I've learned how to make delicious 100% whole wheat bread. You'd think it would be a good thing but boy is it addicting. I can eat half a loaf before feeling satisfied. Between whole wheat bread and whole wheat pancakes, waffles & cookies I'm finally using up some of the wheat I've been storing for almost 10 years! I've finally finished off the 50 lb. bag I've used for years and have gone through a 5 gallon bucket of wheat in a very short time! It's a good thing none of us have Celiac Disease!

Food Storage Friday - Emergency Bucket

Other than getting my food storage rooms organized the only other things I did towards food storage/emergency preparedness this past week was to purchase one of these emergency buckets that are on sale at costco.com this week. It's something I hope I never have to open and that it will just sit on a shelf in the basement for 20 years.

The After Pictures!

The closet under the stairs is now home to all our #10 can storage from the cannery and emergency essentials along with 30 gallons of water & some miscellaneous items that fit nicely in the left over space.

Our main food storage area is now neatly organized.

Our storage area is also clean once again. The door at the bottom of the stairs opens once again and the floor is clean. I even left a shelf for our 72 hour kits... which have been disassembled and never reassembled... a project for another week!

I now have 150 gallons of water stored and a filter for long term emergencies so I can check water off my list, (until next year when I need to rotate it all). I got some great ideas from my sister in law Kristen of things I'd be surely missing if we had to live on our food storage for very long especially eggs, butter & cheese. There stake president recently challenged them to go a week with only what was in the house. So I'm going to have to break down and buy a few cans of powdered stuff to store long term just in case. I try hard to store only foods we eat but in a real emergency it would be nice to have some of the canned stuff to replace things we wouldn't be able to get fresh.

Tackle It Tuesday - The Storage Rooms

There is one area of my house that needs to still be tackled....the storage rooms!
The back of my suburban is still full of Friday's purchases from Costco & the grocery store. I didn't want to bring them in because there was no where to put them.

The closet under the stairs is being converted to a food storage/emergency preparedness spot because we need more room.

This room isn't too bad but there is stuff on the floor that needs to be taken care of.

This is what a storage room looks like after an earthquake hits. What we haven't had an earthquake? OK this is what it looks like at my house. The kids carry everything downstairs and put it where ever they can find a spot.

This is as far as the door at the bottom of the stairs will open. It's blocked by the mess of groceries shown in the picture above!

The goal is to have it all organized today!

I Finally Got Our Water Storage Refilled!

I finally got our water storage rotated. It took me a while to get smart about it. The first 4 containers I filled up by the house and then carried them to the garage. The last 10 containers I moved into the garage and then used the hose to fill them up so I didn't have to carry them so far! We have 84 gallons of water stored in the garage & downstairs I have 8 cases of water from Costco which is about 32 gallons. When I last checked the minimum amount of water to be stored is 2 gallons per person per day. My goal is to have a weeks worth of water on hand so that would be 112 gallons needed for the 8 of us and I've got 116 gallons so I barely meet the minimum. My plan is to increase our water storage to at least 150 gallons so we'll have enough to share with others if needed.

One of the hazards of emptying and refilling water storage is the run off makes great mud puddles. Yes it is the middle of November but it a beautiful sunny fall day here with temperatures around 70 degrees! So what better thing for Kylie to do then change into her swimsuit and play in the mud.

Fix It Friday....

So I'm not really handy and can't think of anything that needs fixing that I can fix. Brian is the handy man and can fix about anything. So I've opted to fix something I've been procrastinating for too long. I just went and pulled our water storage containers out of the shed. I know why I've been dreading this job. They are almost too heavy for me to lift. I'm going to empy them all out, fill them up again and put them back. 3 of them are already empty, why they didn't have water in them I have no idea but it means less work for me because I don't have to empty those ones!

Food Storage Friday - Food for Thought

"Acquire and store a reserve of food and supplies that will sustain life. . . . 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 would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness." Elder L. Tom Perry

"Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church--and the need for that cleansing seems to be increasing--a famine in this land of one year's duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers. Yet we cannot say we have not been warned." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.265)

"Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.265)

Roger K. Young said, "The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel? It is hard for me to understand why or how so many good and wonderful people can discount what the prophets have said, again, and again, and concerning what will suddenly happen to the world in the future. President Benson said: "The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah." (CR October 1980, Ensign 10 [November 1980]: 33.) Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.266)

I canned 42 cans of long term storage at the dry pack cannery last Friday and bought 100 more pounds of oats so that has to take care of a couple of weeks worth of food storage. Smith's had hot cocoa packets on sale for 50 cents a box so I bought 20 boxes, the also had condensed milk for 50 cents so I bought 20 cans. I did add to our food storage this week!
I'm still determined to get the water rotated... soon, really soon.....I'm such a procrastinator because it's not a fun job and I hate doing it!

Food Storage Friday

Food Storage Report -
Water - Our water filter arrived and is safely stored downstairs. I also ordered a package of water purification tablets for an emergency and bought 8 cases of water from Costco. Still on the list is to empty out and refill all the water containers in the shed... I'm procrastinating that one.

I bought several bags of clearance Halloween candy to store with our food storage. Why candy you ask? Brian found a great article HERE. about the 7 mistakes of food storage:

Quick and easy foods help you through times when you are psychologically or physically unable to prepare your basic storage items. “No cook” foods such as freeze-dried are wonderful since they require little preparation, MREs (Meal Ready to Eat), such as many preparedness outlets carry, canned goods, etc. are also very good. “Psychological foods” are the goodies—Jello, pudding, candy, etc.—you should add to your storage. These may sound frivolous, but through the years I've talked with many people who have lived entirely on their storage for extended periods of time. Nearly all of them say these were the most helpful items in their storage to “normalize” their situations and make it more bearable. These are especially important if you have children.

Wal-Mart had sugar on sale for $10 for a 25 lb bag so I bought 3 bags. Smith's has evaporated milk for .50 cents a can so I bought 10 cans. The other thing we stocked up on this week is jelly. I bought 8 jars of jelly. Again it was one of those comfort foods. If we are going to be living on food storage Brian thought it would sure help to have jelly for our bread or pancakes.

I'm headed to the cannery with the ward today. I'm not planning on canning much. I put most of our food in 5 gallon buckets but I like to have a few things in #10 cans. The last time I did a lot of #10 canning was in 1999. I did a little while we lived in Cedar City in 2003 so it's now past time to update dry milk and a few other items.

I'm trying to remember: Slow & Steady Wins the Race!

If Ye Are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear

On a daily basis we witness widely fluctuating inflation; wars; interpersonal conflicts; national disasters; variances in weather conditions; innumerable forces of immorality, crime, and violence; attacks and pressures on the family and individuals; technological advances that make occupations obsolete; and so on. The need for preparation is abundantly clear. The great blessing of being prepared gives us freedom from fear, as guaranteed to us by the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants: “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30).
Elder L. Tom Perry


After a review of our food storage last night we came to the conclusion that the best place to start would be with water. We have a good half year supply of food but would be in bad shape without water to cook and clean with. So this month we are working to get our water storage taken care of. Brian spent a long time last night researching water storage and water filters and we decided the best option for us would be to get a Katadyn TRK Drip Ceradyn Water Filter.

We'll store it away up on a shelf and will hopefully never need to use it. But if we do need drinkable water at some future time we will have a resource to filter water from anywhere.

Next we'll work on replacing all the water that has been stored in our shed for far too long without being rotated.

Food Storage - Emergency Prepardness

Seeing the new shelves Shaun & Callie had built inspired us to take a look at our food storage. Brian has spent the evening researching on the internet and we've made a list of what we need to get our storage where it needs to be. I organized the food we do have downstairs and we figure we've got at least a 6 month supply. Time to get it back up to a years supply!

Thought for the Day

"We live in a most exciting and challenging period in human history. As technology sweeps through every facet of our lives, changes are occurring so rapidly that it can be difficult for us to keep our lives in balance. To maintain some semblance of stability in our lives, it is essential that we plan for our future. I believe it is time, and perhaps with some urgency, to review the counsel we have received in dealing with our personal and family preparedness. We want to be found with oil in our lamps sufficient to endure to the end."
Elder L. Tom Perry

The Time Has Come to Get Our Houses in Order

I got a chuckle out of this cartoon but then it got me thinking...Obviously with Brian being a realtor the country's financial crisis could very directly effect our future. If people aren't buying and selling homes we don't have anything to pay our bills with. We have been very blessed this year. In fact we have had the best year we have ever had. But the future is completely uncertain. Brian could go months without closing a deal and has in the past so we don't know what lies ahead for us.
I got to thinking of the talk President Hinckley gave 10 years ago in the Priesthood Session of conference.

Now, brethren, I want to make it very clear that I am not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of famine in the future. But I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order....
So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings....
I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage....
If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and children and peace in your hearts. That’s all I have to say about it, but I wish to say it with all the emphasis of which I am capable.

President Hinckley was a such a great man and none of us can claim that we didn't know what was coming. We know times are going to get even worse than they are right now! Unfortunately we still aren't completely debt free however; we've been very blessed by the Lord, always pay our tithing and we're trying to live within our means so I'm optimistic about our future.