Emergency Preparedness, Food Storage and Monthly Assignment (November 2018)

PROCRASTINATION . . . Not a Good Thing!

Last Sunday, at our Stake Conference (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), one of our Ward Bishops came up to me and made an interesting statement. He said, "I can count on one hand the number of people in his Ward who are prepared". WOW!!! That is scary! Why are we procrastinating? Some say I have no time, some say it cost to much, some say I have plenty of time to prepare.

We are continually admonished and warned by our local and federal governments, our various churches leaders and throughout the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine Covenants to prepare both temporally and spiritually. Why are we not following their warnings and council?

To those who say I have lots of time: As we know by the news media, natural and man made disasters can happen in an instant. Sometimes we receive warnings ahead of time, sometimes there is no warning. Even when people live in areas where they have annual hurricanes and tornadoes they still wait until the last minute.

To those who say it takes to much time: How much time does it take to pick up extra cans or packages, especially when on sale, while grocery shopping? None at all. Find a cupboard, closet or under the bed to store your food storage. Get a notebook and keep track of how much have you. Keep the notebook with your food stage. Before you know it you will have 1-3 months of canned and packaged food storage. 

To those who say it cost to much money: You may need to re-prioritize your needs and wants until you have at 3-months food storage. Give up going to the movie theater and rent a movie. Stop eating at fast food places (healthier and cheaper), cook at home, cut out purchasing drinks and deserts when you eat out, try less expensive places to eat, hold off on wants, find others ways to save and use that money towards your food storage. Purchase items when on sale. There are so many ways we can afford to build up our food storage.

Many various churches warn us of being in the last days as the scriptures forewarn us. President Russell M. Nelson said, "The Lord is hastening the work. If we are not close to the Spirit we will not survive the last days."

My old saying is so true, "I would rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it".

Procrastination is not a good thing! Preparing is a great thing and brings peace of mind!  It also allows us to help others in need.

November Monthly Assignments

3-Month Food Storage 

  

       Now are you doing on your 3-Month Food Storage? 

Since January of this year we have been working towards a 3-Month Food Storage supply. Each families is be unique in that not one family eats the same things. You will tailor your food storage according to what your family will eat. Do not purchase items just because they are sale, your family will not eat foods they do not like, and you have just wasted valuable money that could be put towards foods they will eat.

A 3-Month Food Storage supply consists of commercially canned and packaged food and home canning foods. You can also include frozen foods.

• January we worked on keeping track of what your family eats in a month. Go back to January 2018 posting to see the details and a printable chart to keep track. Now that you have figured out what your family eats in a month you can set up an inventory notebook.

• February I showed you how to set up your Food Storage and Emergency Supply Inventory Notebook. Go back to the February 2018 positing to see how to do this.

• March through November we continued to add commercially canned and packaged foods, frozen foods, and home canned foods to your 3-Month Food Storage. Watch sales, allowing to purchase more. Keep track in your inventory notebook. Rotate as needed.

This month continue to add to your 3-Month Food Storage.  

This might be a good time to inventory what you have so far and what you still need.

If you have completed your 3-Month Food Storage Supply start adding Long Term Food Storage items, dehydrated and freeze-dried foods in #10 cans or buckets.

  Emergency Preparedness--
                           Water Filtration

Each house hold, besides storing water, should have 

different ways to filter water.

Several years ago I learned about a great company, Seychelle Water Filtration, whose products filter out 99.9999% of all bacteria and contamination, some even radio-active materials, 100 gallons per filter. We own several of their products and love them. Purchasing directly from the company can be expensive. You can also purchase some of their products from amazon.com, store.lds.org (scroll to bottom), The Jim Bakker Show (online) and other stores. There are other companies that offer  filtration systems, but I find Seychelle is the best company. Click here to go to their website.

Seychelle Water Filtration Pump: This pump comes in section and can be put together for the size of water barrel you have. All together it will fit the 55 gallon water barrel. It filters out 99.9999% of bacteria and contaminants. It filters 100 gallons of water. The filter can be replaced as needed. I suggest you have several extra filters on hand.  We have used our pump many times.

The Seychelle water bottle is great:  We have them in our 72 Hour Emergency Preparedness Backpacks, plus extra filters. The best place, and inexpensive, is to purchase them from store.lds.org (linked above). Our church purchases them for all our foreign missionaries.

Christmas is almost upon us!

This is the time of year when we start thinking about Christmas gift ideas. A great idea is to think about giving emergency preparedness products as gifts. Emergency Essentials
(emergencyessentials.com) has great products at great prices. They have many small items  that would make great stocking stuffers.