For your 2010 pantry-New Years Homestead Resolutions

On the eve of a new year, I want to echo the words of a good teacher, Jon, who warns:

Plan on increased prices in 2010. Corporations who lost a LOT want to make it all back in a hurry.

Sugar will take a big jump in price in 2010 so when you catch it on sale, buy in quantity lots for the long haul. It won't go down, only up up and away. South American is cutting back on bagged sugar production and using it for fuel instead.

Look to growing a few sugar beets for your own supply, or if you have deep fertile soil, grow sugar cane and learn how to process it.

Better yet, get 10 or so honeybee hives and learn how to care for them. You'll have your own homegrown sweetener plus some to sell if you want to. And your own beeswax for salve and ointment making.

Learn how to grow and use beans instead of meats for your dinner table. For your health and for your purse.

Make a list this winter for every single thing you eat. Come spring, plant those things in your garden or in your slat house.

Learn how to preserve your garden bounty by canning, drying, pickling, smoking, freezing for your pantry shelves.

Learn something new to help your family, your homestead, and your friends by doing more your for yourself and buy less commercially.

If you must buy, buy local.

Let us all learn together how to become more self reliant by growing, canning, and baking our own and stay away from the grocery as much as humanly possible.

Wishing us each and every one the best start we've had to open a new year.

Preppers in Newsweek

It looks like we are not alone any more. We "Preppers" are getting noticed. Newsweek has spolighted us in the article listed below. Read and share!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/228428 

Food Storage Frugal - Local Stock Up Items For This Week

Once again, Sav-u-mor, a local store, is having a great sale.  This is a good time to stock up on a few items for your food storage.

Shurfine Chicken Noodle and Tomato Soup 3/.99  (Limit 6)
Martha White Flour .99/5lb  (Limit 1)
Bone in pork sirloin chops  .99/lb
Split chicken breast .99/lb
Bone in country style ribs .99/lb
Bone in loin end pork roast .99/lb
Dole's classic garden or cole slaw 12-14 oz  .99 each
Value Time cheese slices 10 oz  .79 each
Shurfine taco or chili seasoning mix  .39 each

These are some great prices.  Don't miss out on these deals.

2010 Re-skilling/Food and Gardening Calendars For Sale!

I am excited about this.  Sustainableberea.org is featuring a new 2010 re-skilling calendars for sale.
The new 2010 Sustainable Berea Calendars are here!

• Price:  $4/members;  $5/non-members
• Buy 10 or more:  $2/each
• School groups/churches:  $1/each for fund-raising purposes
  (min order of $25)

Sustainable Berea’s new 2010 Re-Skilling Calendars are here! This year the focus is on growing food.
It’s easy to eat better, be healthier, and save money simply by growing and consuming more of your own food. Not everyone is born a natural gardener, but the 2010 “Practical Skills for Growing Food” Calendar will get you started with the skills you need to turn both of your thumbs green, make your garden lush, and fill your plate with fresh, organic garden produce.
Topics on this full 12-month 2010 calendar include:

• Creating your first garden
• Vegetable seeds
• Plant diseases and weeds
• Insect pests and beneficial insects
• Companion planting
• Watering
• Composting
• Saving seed

The calendar grid includes vegetable-specific planting dates as well as reminders for other important gardening tasks.
With the 2010 Re-skilling Calendar on your wall, you will be a gardening champ in no time!


http://sustainableberea.org/featured/2010-re-skilling-calendars-for-sale

BTW, I am not making any money on these calendars, just passing along the information to my prepared household.

Join the discussion. What's your favorite preparedness tip?

After Christmas Sales Stock Up

I always love to hit the after holiday sales, especially the after Christmas sales.  Getting those gift baskets for loved ones for next year, or just to stock up on cheap lotions, colognes, etc.  But since my focus has been on preparedness, those colognes and lotions don't interest me any longer.

The after Christmas (or other holidays) sales are the best time to stock up on a good addition to your storage-candy.  Chocolate the comfort food or peppermint, that helps a tummy ache.  Candy is a good source of sugar and it can be stored long term.

I recently watched a video by Wendy Dewitt.  She showed two mason jars she had vacuum sealed on the same date and filled with chocolate chips.  On one jar the seal had leaked and she had a white powdery mess.  In the other jar the chips looked perfectly normal.  She shook the jar to show that it wasn't a gooey mess either.  This jar of chocolate chips had been sealed for two years!

Here's how you do it.  Add the candy to jars.  I like to use wide mouth pint size jars. 

 

Put on the lid...

then vacuum seal with the Foodsaver wide mouth jar attachment.

And it's sealed!  Easy as that.

This could last for as long as I can manage to stay out of it! 

Merry♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas

We Wish You a Merry♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪ Christmas♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪We Wish You a Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♥ ♥ ♥We Wish You A Merry ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪Christmas ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪...And A Happy New Year!♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪... ♥♥

Merry Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas Storage

Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
The storage was low,
Not a crumb for a mouse.

The shelves were almost empty,
Oh, what a plight!
The wolf's at the door,
And no money in sight.

All the children were nestled,
To keep warm in their beds,
Hoping that before long,
Their tummies would be fed.

The prophet had counseled,
"Each one be prepared!"
We had procrastinated the day,
Why hadn't we cared?

Thankfully, twas just a dream.
But that didn't matter,
I jumped from my bed,
Making a terrible clatter.

Away to the pantry,
I flew like a flash,
Stumbling in the darkness,
Over the trash.

As I surveyed my storage,
With eyes all aglow,
The neat cans and bottles,
All in a row.

Filled my heart with contentment,
My eyes with a tear,
To think that we had food,
To last us all year.

This feeling of contentment,
And security too,
Is what we your friends,
Wish for you.

So put gifts of storage,
Under each Christmas tree,
Of those that you love,
Is our warmest plea.

Give honey, give sugar,
Give flour or wheat,
Give milk, give salt,
Give something to eat.

And you'll hear them exclaim,
Long after Christmas is here,
Thank you so much,
It will be a good year.

Author unknown

Be safe, be warm, but most of all "Be Prepared!"

Merry Christmas to all my Prepared Household!

Another Life Lesson...Don't Wait to Prepare

We don't have cable or satellite TV. We usually go to the library to check out movies or watch them online, so we are pretty much disconnected from the world around us. Of course, we have our emergency NOAA SAME radio, internet and phones.

Around noon Friday a relative told me about "getting ready to be snowbound". So I checked www.weather.com and discovered that we were under a winter storm warning and a snow storm would begin in our area at 4 pm. We are fairly well stocked and won't go hungry for a while anyway, but we usually restock our perishables, milk and bread on Fridays. I told my husband we needed to get to the store before it the rush hit.

It was around 1 or 2 pm before we got out and the rain already had ice in it. We had a few errands to run; we had to restock our movies, etc. By the time we got to the grocery, it was already a madhouse. It may have been a combination of the threat of the storm, rush hour traffic (laugh...we live in a small town) and the beginning of Friday night traffic, but the roads were packed and the lines in the grocery were backed up.

To make matters worse, I have a slight case of enochlophobia or fear of crowds. I try to avoid places where there will be lots of people. I start to hyperventilate if I get stuck in 4th of July traffic. (In this small town...another laugh). So I try to avoid the "milk and bread" rush on snow forecast days and here I was in the middle of it.

I had just read "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen, a story of one man's struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war based upon an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon that will send America back to the Dark Ages. The scene at the store made me think. If people are so unprepared that they would panic over an impending snow storm, what would they do if life stopped like in the book? How different this crowd would be if there were no more trucks coming to bring break and milk...if there were no more shipments of food of any kind or medicines. I realized how vitally important it is to be prepared for life's storms so we aren't stuck in the middle of a panic stricken crowd.

Back to reality, I manage to struggle through the crowds and leave with my milk and bread in tow. By this time, it was icing in earnest and snowflakes the size of half dollars had begun to fall. I reflected that in a lot of ways, I am prepared and working on getting prepared in all things, but there are a lot of people who are not prepared and not close to being prepared. It was evident in all the people rushing in the store carrying babies, all the carts gone and people waiting for one as I left the store. All the carts filled with groceries hurriedly being shuffled to cars.

The snow fell all that night and into the day on Saturday in some areas. A beautiful snow a terrible snow. The newspaper reported that there were flakes as large as your hand falling in some areas. Eastern Kentucky was declared a state of emergency with 16 inches of snow and 107,000 homes left without power.

The Monday Lexington Herald headline read "Power Outages to Last Past Christmas...Storm's Wake Leaves 87,000 in the Dark in Eastern Kentucky; Water also off for some." My husband's family lives in Eastern Kentucky and my husband's sister in law's power was off until today. Fortunately, Deb was somewhat prepared. She has a kerosene heater, fireplace and a generator so she was warm. But she didn't have water because the well pump is electric. Fortunately, she's not one of those poor souls who won't have power at Christmas.

I am glad that Deb was prepared, but other members of my husband's family may not be. We have tried to tell them for years to put up extra food, store water and have an alternative source of heat, but they won't listen. The last time we visited, I looked in my mother in law's cabinet and she barely had a dozen cans of food. Her fridge is bare and her freezer has mostly ice. She depends on her daughter, Jo, to bring her meals from next door, but I shudder to think of what might happen in a real emergency. She barely has enough blankets to go around when we visit.  I am sure they don't have a kerosene heater.

Jo has a fireplace that just needs uncovered. We have tried to convince them to get it ready to use in an emergency, but they have the TV in front of it. I know they are not prepared and there is nothing I can do to change it.  Jo told me that she was spending $500 on each of her three children at Christmas. She could take at least $1,000 of that to be better prepared and her kids would still have a great Christmas. Priorities, I guess. I just wish we could help them understand the need to be prepared.

I hope that this little life lesson will help them understand the need to be prepared. They are too far away for us to be able to help them in any real emergency. I will just continue to prepare for the worst and pray for the best.

Discretion in Preparedness via The Preparedness Pro

My favorite preparedness blog once again reminded me of a vitally important preparedness measure.  Discretion.  I have copied her post below, along with the link so you can follow her as well.

http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog/discretion-in-preparedness/comment-page-1/#comment-11331
Discretion in Preparedness

Don’t you hate it in the movies when you have some intense scene and the person who is told to “keep quiet” or to “stay put” always disobeys that counsel and ends up getting the hero or heroine nearly killed? I think I hate it so much because it’s so accurate in its portrayal of real life.

Recently our area had a shocking murder of a professor of Brigham Young University. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9053434 Thieves meticulously broke into his home, slit his throat, and stole his guns that were specifically in his safe. They committed the crime while two other people were in the home—individuals who were not killed, but rather tied up. Police are just now confessing that the guns were the target of this violent home invasion. This brings many questions to mind (as well as much fodder for future articles) but the primary question is how did the thieves know that this professor had so many guns and how did they know where to obtain them? (Sorry, I just have to add, what is the use of having firearms in your home, if you’re not adept at using them to protect yourself too?)

First of all, you should consider that the use of a knife in a crime is typically one of familiarity. Strangers rarely use a knife on their victims. The FBI frequently calls the use of a knife in a crime as a crime of “intimacy.” It’s safe to say that these criminals knew the professor.

Secondly, it’s apparent that the professor, or perhaps his family members, was a bit too verbal in broadcasting his possessions. As a result, they painted a target on themselves. Think about this for a moment folks. The target was painted in a time of plenty. Imagine what it would have been like if this broadcasting of information was done during a time of chaos? The other two may have easily met the same fate as the professor as desperation is heightened in a crisis scenario. This is why I caution those who attend my classes as well as you, my dear readers, from doing anything prior to or during a crisis which will announce to the world that you’re prepared.
How To Survive the End of the World as We Know It

How To Survive the End of the World as We Know It

In James Wesley Rawles’ latest book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” he specifically addresses the issue of discretion when discussing your own supplies of preparedness. Now think about that. This man is a renowned author and a regularly faithful blogger with thousands and thousands of readers. I assure you that though he shares valuable information with all of these individuals, there are probably only a dozen folks in the world who know what he’s truly made of in his preparedness efforts. I’ll be blunt with you. Such dissemination of this kind of information should not go out even to friends, family members, and especially to government officials. Keep it under your hat, folks. If you get asked by your local church what you have available, understand that it’s so that they know how best to help you and are prepared accordingly. But if you’re like me, you may just want to respond “No need to worry about us. We’ll be ok regardless” or something like that.

As I don’t make a secret of the fact that I’m a Utah Concealed Firearm Instructor, I am frequently asked by naïve individuals “Are you carrying right now?” “What are you carrying?” Etc. I realize that for the most part these questions are simply the result of a genuine curiosity. But there have been very rare circumstances in which I have actually shown anyone my “real” firearm and where I carry it. It’s just as rare that I will actually answer an inquiry as to whether or not I’m carrying a firearm at that moment. It’s called a “concealed” permit because it’s supposed to be concealed—visually as well as mentally, in my opinion. It’s very much for these same reasons that I haven’t been forthcoming in photos for you all of my preparedness supplies. I simply don’t want those, whether great or small, advertised all over the internet. It’s no one’s business what we have or don’t have. They need to be concerned with their own preparedness efforts, not those of a neighbor. In fact, when asked to view my supplies, the cautious side of me automatically thinks, “who does this person know that I don’t want to share this information with?” I can easily count the number of highly TRUSTED individuals who have even a partial knowledge of my personal preparedness efforts, whether it be water, ammo, or cheese.

Part of the danger in sharing with folks what you have on hand is the rampant sense of entitlement that is so prevalent in our society today. We cause the rich to pay the majority of taxes, we are taught that since the wealthy have they should give it to those who aren’t wealthy, etc. This is simply wrong. Generally speaking the “haves” are not villains. They are workers and planners. I’ve generally lived as a pauper several times in my life but that hasn’t stopped me from prioritizing and taking care of my own preparedness. Unfortunately, in a time of crisis, most folks won’t view your provisions as your own. That mean little entitlement gnat will get under their skin and they will thrust a false sense of charity and compassion upon you and take what they want. Sorry to have to state it so plainly, folks, but charity and compassion cannot be mandated. And when they are, they are of evil, not Christian in nature whatsoever. Anyway, my point being that the sense of entitlement is a screwy tool. It makes people believe the way they are behaving instead of behaving the way they believe. So be aware of this and defend yourself now from it by being discrete in your assertions of preparedness.

I frequently have folks telling me that when all heck breaks loose they will be coming to my house. Just as sincere as they are in their assertion, I retort with a reminder that I do have a firearm and am perfectly knowledgeable in how to defend myself. While that may sound a bit crass to some of you, I find it no more so than someone telling me (jokingly or not) that they are willing to absolve themselves of any of their own responsibility in being prepared and that they will be helping themselves to my efforts. Tit for tat, if you ask me.

If you are planning on sharing with others this otherwise confidential information, may I suggest that you back it up with a thorough system of tools and skills to be able to protect yourself and your home? As awful as that thought may be to some, you are not truly prepared until you have taken such preparation into consideration as well.

Self-Reliant Sisters

I have subscribed to and been following a blog called Self-Reliant Sisters.  http://selfreliantsisters.blogspot.com/

I have found them to have some great articles and I would like to re-post a recent article from their site:

Are You Prepared?

These are all articles from the Ensign's "Random Sampler" section. You may need to scroll down a bit to see the article mentioned.

"At one time or another, nearly every family will face accidents, illness, unemployment, or other emergencies that will require them to depend on the resources they have stored."

Past Random Sampler

• “Home Storage—How to Begin,”Ensign, Apr. 1986, 64–65.

• “Emergency Water Storage,”Ensign, Aug. 2006, 71.

• “Storing Fats and Oils,”Ensign, June 1999, 71–73.

• “Food Storage: Where and How,”Ensign, Aug. 1981, 54–55.

• “Food Storage for One Year,”Ensign, Mar. 2006, 70.

• “Protecting Your Food Storage,”Ensign, Jan. 2006, 70.

• “Spicing Up Your Food Storage,”Ensign, June 1990, 72.

• “Mmmmm! This Couldn’t Be Food Storage!”Ensign, Mar. 1990, 71.

• “Prepared for Today: Medical Supplies,”Ensign, July 1981, 54–55.

• “How Will Your Garden Grow?”Ensign, Mar. 1979, 66.

• “When Disaster Strikes,”Ensign, Aug. 1994, 71.

• “What’s in the Safe?”Ensign, Aug. 1988, 72–73.

• “Tips for Becoming Self-Reliant,”Ensign, Mar. 2000, 68–69.

• “Out of a Job?”Ensign, Feb. 2004, 73.

• “Emergency Savings the ‘Centsible’ Way,”Ensign, Feb. 1992, 65.

Additional Helps

The LDS Church has produced many helpful materials to assist with understanding and teaching important welfare principles. They include videos, pamphlets, books, and handbooks. A sample of available materials follows:

• All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances (04007), pamphlet (4 pages)

• All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage (04008), pamphlet (4 pages)

• Basic Self-Reliance (32293), handbook (152 pages)

• Essentials of Welfare (53045), video (six segments, 93 minutes)

• One for the Money (33293), pamphlet (12 pages)

• Providing in the Lord’s Way (32296), pamphlet in 16 languages (27 pages)

A complete list of available materials is posted on the Internet at www.providentliving.org. On the home page, bottom left, select “Helps for Church Leaders,” then “Find a Tool or Resource,” and then “Books, Videos, Pamphlets, and Forms” to access the listing of available materials. Copies of most of these materials can be ordered through the Church’s online distribution center at http://www.ldscatalog.com/.

Food Storage Frugal - Local Stock Up Items For This Week

For those of you who follow me locally, Sav-U-Mor has the stock-up item of the week.  White Lily Flour is $1.39 for a 5lb bag (limit 2).  If you use white flour, this is a good time to stock the pantry.  This is the cheapest I have seen it here in a while.  You can purchase it in bulk from the Home Food Storage Center or Cannery for $10 a 25 lb bag.  ($2.00/5 lb).  So this is a good deal.

NOTE:  ANOTHER GOOD DEAL ALERT:

CVS has this deal:

All Small & Mighty 3x or 2x laundry detergent $3.99.  Use the $2/1 coupon from the 12/6 Sunday paper (or delivered via mail locally in some areas here).  Final price $1.99.  If CVS has low stock, you may can comp this at Wal-Mart and stock up on your laundry detergent at a great price!

This is Only a Test....Another Life Lesson

Tuesday, the announcement came across the scanner that within thirty hours, all emergency personnel should expect high winds, up to sixty miles per hour, in the area.  Since we had had a couple of days of rain, dispatcher said to expect downed trees and power lines due to the saturated ground.

The day dawned with ominous clouds in the sky giving way to sunshine.  It was odd.  The weather couldn't decide if it wanted to sunshine or cloud up.  However, true to predictions, the day was blustery.  It was hard to keep my laundry off the ground.  

Of course, my firefighter husband was called out to a fire.  A blue spruce pine had taken out the two top high tension lines and caught the tree on fire.  He was gone for a couple of hours dealing with that.

Around 12:00 noon, the power went out at home, and according to reports, there were over 1,000 homes without power in our area.  It wasn't a terribly cold day, and the warmth of the sun penetrated the back of the house, so we were okay as far as heat during the day.  But we knew that once daylight was gone, temperatures would drop and we might be in for a cold night.   Sure, we have our 0 degree sleeping bags, but I prefer a warm house.

To make matters worse, a cell tower went down in our area and our cell phones were useless.  No electricity, no heat, no house phone, no cellphone.  I knew somewhere in the house was a phone that you plug into the wall, but I couldn't find it.

We have a backup kerosene heater, but no fuel.  However, we have a camper, that we actually lived in for a while when we were working temporarily away from home.  The furnace is LP, but does require electricity for the blower.  So, we loaded up all the spare gas jugs to get fuel for the generator we had just purchased this summer.

When we got to the pumps, all the regular gas was out.  I don't know if there was a run on gas or what, but the only thing available was super unleaded and they were selling it at the regular unleaded price.  I guess we got a deal on that.  We filled our jugs and topped off the tank, grabbed some lunch meat and bread and headed back to "camp out" for the night.

Just prior to our leaving our neighborhood, we had seen a lot of electric company trucks, so we felt like when we got back, there would be electricity.  Sure enough, houses and businesses that had been dark before, were now lit and open for business.  But when we got to our subdivision, it was still dark.  The houses around were lit up, so we were still hopeful.  We would prepare for the worst and hope for the best. 

When we got home, we could hear the hum of a generator in our neighborhood.  It was comforting to know that at least one of my neighbors was prepared for such an emergency.  His house was dark, so we assumed that he had already moved his family into his fifth wheel camper.  My daughter was there at the house and she had our three oil lamps going full blast and a couple of candles.  My husband began the preparations to set up the camper.  He hooked up the generator, turned on the heat and left it going to warm the camper up a bit.  Meanwhile, I stayed in the house and actually washed the dishes from earlier in the day by lamp light. 

Just as my husband got everything ready, but before we could move out to the camper, the electricity came back on.  My son was very disappointed, because he wanted to camp out.  However, with school the next day, I talked him into staying inside and watching a video we had rented. 

This life lesson helped us run a test on our preparedness measures.  My husband and I discussed things through the day and realized what was lacking in our plans.

Sure, we can run the generator and go out in the camper and be toasty warm should the electricity go off again; but our food storage, which includes items in glass jars and water in jugs, may freeze and burst in the cold.  Our house is well insulated, so it may be okay, but we need to perfect a plan that will allow us to stay in the house.  We do have a wood stove, but we don't have it hooked up yet (finances) and we don't have wood.  With a wood stove installed and wood to burn, we could stay warm in the house and keep our food from getting damaged. 

If this had happened in the middle of the a cold night, it might have been a bad situation.  What if it had happened in the middle of a bad snow storm?  Sure, we have a truck with four-wheel drive, but why get out on bad roads.  Be prepared.  Be prepared.  Be prepared.

We should have already had a plan in place that was workable.  Our plan was not because we didn't have gas for the generator.  Now, our generator is full and we have a small reserve of gas that we can use in our vehicles or in the generator, should another storm come and shut down our power.  Getting power to our camper will allow us to cook food, stay warm and should we need to move it somewhere else, it is mobile.

Lessons learned:  Have a workable winter emergency plan.  Test it out to make sure it works.  Have contingencies.  Prepare every needful thing before you need it.

Life Lessons in Preparedness

If we are not prepared for every situation, life tends to teach us those lessons.  Saturday night, my husband, who is a volunteer firefighter, was called out to a house fire at 2:30 a.m.  The dispatcher announced that there was possibly two people trapped and they had lost contact with the caller.  As my husband rushed to help, he was hindered by the fact that the windshield on the truck was heavily frosted.  He frantically dug around for something to clean the frost off with, but ultimately had to use his fingernails to scratch it off enough so he could see enough to safely drive.

This was a bad situation, and one of the most dire my husband has been called to so far.  Luckily, the fire was put out before it got too bad and no one was harmed, but it taught me and my sweet husband a lesson.  A lesson in being prepared.  Since that night, he gathered the tools he needs to help him get out quick.  The ice scrapers have been located and a piece of black plastic now covers his windshield.  The next time he needs to get out to a fire quickly, he will be able to simply take off the black plastic and be on his way.

What can we learn from this lesson?  If an emergency should occur in the middle of the night, are you prepared?  Is your gas tank sufficiently filled?  Would you have enough gas to take you where you need to go in an emergency?  To the hospital?  To safety?  Do you have an ice scraper or something draped over your windshield so you can leave in a hurry if you need to?  Do you have an emergency kit for your car?  Emergency Essentials has a good article on emergency car kits.  http://beprepared.com/article.asp?ai=28&bhcd2=1260249019 .  Kentucky Preppers Network has a great article too.  http://www.kentuckypreppersnetwork.com/2009/05/car-emergency-kit.html .  A kit doesn't have to be expensive, it can be easily assembled from discount type stores and stashed in a back pack.

You never know when an emergency will happen.  Keep your car ready to go at a moment's notice.  Make sure the tank is filled with gas and keep an emergency kit in it.  Keep your keys, wallet/purse, medicine and 72 hour kit close, so you can grab them in an emergency.

Be prepared in all things so you can sleep through life's storms.

~MJ

Food Storage Frugal - Stock Up Items

Wherever you live, I hope you search your local sales ads to get more bang for your buck.  Sales gurus are saying that this is going to be a good time to get groceries.  I guess people are more focused on spending their money for Christmas gifts, therefore grocery sales may dwindle.  So check your sales ads and find items you can add to your food storage.

Locally, Aldi is a great store and they have their navel oranges for $1.49 for a 4lb bag.  Granted, this isn't something you can stock up on, but you can always make preserves and oranges are a good source of healthy food for your everyday diet.  Grapefruits are .25 each.  This is a welcome relief from the high prices we've seen.

Kroger has their peanut butter $1 a jar.  Peanut butter is a good item to place in your storage, but remember to rotate as peanut butter tends to get a bad taste after the expiration date.  The stock up item for this week would have to be the Kroger sugar.  A 5 lb bag is $1.99.  Around here, that is a good price.  It is even lower than the home food storage center who has it at $2.64 a bag.  Today is senior citizen's day at Kroger, so if seniors make purchases today, they will receive an addition 10% off their ticket.

Sav-u-mor, a local store, has spiral hams, chicken breast and pork chops at .99 lb.  Good time to do some bulk meat purchasing and canning.  Bleach is $1.19. 

For those of you not local, just check your local ads.  Find those few gems that are good stock up items and buy a few extra.  We can build our food storage a little at time.

Bluegrass Moms - Lexington Herald Leader

I just found a new blog today called Bluegrass Moms - http://www.kentucky.com/moms/.  The Fru-Gal Deb Morris had a wealth of coupons and freebies.  The best was a free photobook from American Greetings.  It did take about 30 minutes to finish the book, but it was absolutely free.  Not even shipping and handling.    I expect to have it in about a week.  This is a today only deal, so hurry, don't miss out.

Another great thing about Bluegrass Moms is Liz Ross Brook's Buzybee blog.  She has delicious recipes and lots of giveaways.  I admit, I think I'm addicted to the contests.  She currently has a giveaway from a digital crockpot and a rotating waffle baker from Ginny's.  I love my crockpot and I think a digital one would be great to have.  So hurry on over to Bluegrass Moms today and enter Buzybee's contests.  Good luck.

Presentation Delay

I am still in the process of transferring the presentation from PowerPoint to a format that Facebook and blogger will accept.  Hope you can bear with me and I will try to get it posted tomorrow.

Merry Christmas Giveaway Challenge - Let's have a Freecycle Christmas

Let's all have a Freecycle Christmas.  Are you familiar with Freecycle.org?  I want to encourage everyone to join their local Freecycle.  It is a group where you can re-home your castoffs.  Join Freecycle.org and give away some things you don't need to help others have a better Christmas.  Challenge all your friends to do the same.  Tis the season for miracles...let's make one happen.

www.freecycle.org

Basic Beginning List for Preparedness

I found this list at a website called Preparedness Nuggets.  There is a lot of useful information there.  http://www.justpeace.org/nuggetsindex.htm

What I like most about her list is the advice to pray is no. 1.  That is spiritual preparedness.

STARTERS' LIST FOR PREPAREDNESS 
Maybe this little list will help put things in order. I realize this is very simplistic but to start maybe that's best.
Think in large categories.
1) Pray about everything before, during and after you do it.
2) Water - a source. Possibly storage. May be necessary to invest is a filter.
3) Warmth - depends on your location. Wood, propane, solar.
4) Food - simple, sound nutrition, multi vitamins. Wheat, rice, beans, pasta, bullion, dried milk, powdered drink mix, powdered tomato, powdered cheese, dehydrated veggies, oil, honey, sugar, molasses, salt and other spices etc.
5) equipment - grain grinder, Dutch oven, wind up short wave radio, oil lamps,flash lights and batteries, big tubs for washing bodies and clothes.
6) fuel - your choice - wood, propane, coal, solar, oil for lamps
7) proper clothes
8) spend time learning some basic living skills -- baking bread, gardening, cooking with fire, etc.
9) build a little library of info books.

Financial Preparedness - Saving Money on Groceries

Using coupons and promotions will stretch our money farther and enable us to be better prepared.  Here is a list of promotions  and coupons Kelloggs currently has.  I hope you will search it and take from it what you can use.

http://www2.kelloggs.com/Promotion/AllPromotions.aspx
http://www2.kelloggs.com/Product/KelloggCoupon.aspx?id=1992

Youtube Videos on Preparedness

I have been given permission to use these videos in my joint preparedness lesson on Sunday.  I hope you will watch them.  They remind us of the warnings of the prophets and the importance of being prepared.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTVECvTYpN0
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidkat99#p/a/u/2/RplBQGogYEk

Things I am Thankful For

I love to read Kellene Bishop's blog, http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog/.  I won some mylar bags and an oxygen absorber from Kellene's blog site today.  Her blogs are insightful and she seems to have her fingers on the pulse of what is going on in the world today.  Preparedness Pro is a great site and one of my permanent reads.

Her post for today is about being thankful.  It reminded me of the things I am thankful for.  If I listed all the things I am thankful for, today's blog could turn into a long one.  Let me just list a few of the things I am thankful for.  I am thankful for my family.

For my husband, Jamie, who shares my passion for being prepared.  Who loves me and cares for me despite myself.  For my children who have always brought me as much joy as they have pain.  LOL.  For my father who gives me strength and has always been there for me.  For my mother, my best friend, who passed away in March.  I miss you and love you mom.  I will see you again some day.  For my brother and sister and their families and my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and sisters-in-law.  You guys keep me on my toes.  For my mother's huge family who is a constant fount of love and support.  Love to you all.

I am thankful for the many blessing that my Father in Heaven has given me and I hope He blesses you all during this Thanksgiving season.

Frugality and Blog Posts

I could spend hours entering contests on blogs.  Since I have never done it before, I don't know if it is a total waste of my time or not.  Perhaps not the best spent time.  But entering a contest is always fun.  I once won a year's supply of Dr. Pepper from their website.  I don't even remember what I did to win it.

So, in the spirit of fun, let me tell you about a new blog I found that I like, Frugal Living and Having Fun.  They are currently sponsoring a contest to win $25 in Marcal Tissue products.

Part of the contest is to tell everyone why I like Marcal Tissue, but I can't.  A couple of months ago, I received a coupon for a free pack of Marcal Tissue.  I searched my local stores and was unable to find any.  :(

So, have a little fun today and visit Frugal Living and Having Fun.  The button is on the right of my blog.

Joy in the journey~MJ

Rising Cost of Food

I have lived in my town since 1992.  An Aldi grocery store was built just across the street from us and I remember when canned veggies were .25 each.  After that, the price went up .04 to .29 a can.

Back in the fall of last year, I woke up early one Saturday morning and my Yahoo homepage was screaming about food shortages.  My husband and I were working and living temporarily out of state and my Aldi grocery was 5-6 hours away.  We were living in a camper with no means of extra storage, so I demanded to take a trip home to visit family and Aldi.

Back home, we went to Aldi and loaded the back of my truck with canned veggies.  Carrots, corn, peas, green beans, and mixed veggies, not to mention some canned pinto beans.  It was a little over $300, but my mind was put to ease knowing we had this stockpile of canned foods.  All purchased at Aldi for low price of .39 a can and safely stored in my home.  I left my food storage and my home and traveled back to work.

Fast forward to June 2009, when I was laid off from work, my husband having been laid off the month before.  We came back home and begin happily living off our food storage.  Today, we noted that we had run out of corn and we wanted to restock a flat or two of some other veggies, so we loaded up and headed to our trusty cheap Aldi grocery.

To my dismay, Aldi has raised the price of their basic canned veggies to .49 a can.  No longer will we be able to get cheap veggies!  Now that I was noticing, I checked at Sav-A-Lot and there it was-veggies .49 a can.  At Wal-Mart (the low price leader you know) the cheapest was .88 a can.  They did have the name brand on sale for .50 a can.  Certainly not the low price leader in all things!  Don't be fooled!

Anyway, the point in all this rambling is that it is past time to get prepared.  Food prices are beginning to soar.  Have you googled photos of famine lately.  It is horrifying!  Get prepared now!  Buy a flat of veggies extra each time you go to the store.  Pick up an extra peanut butter.  Don't wait any longer.

My prayers are with you and our country.

Adventures in Self Reliance

I guess tonight is my night for finding the food stuff.   Adventures in Self Reliance is giving away a fabulous Foodsaver, just in time for Christmas. 

Adventures in Self Reliance is also giving away a water bladder that you use in your bathtub for emergency water.  It is called the WaterBOB.

Just follow this link and join in the fun.  http://selfrelianceadventures.blogspot.com/

Food Storage Analyzer on Emergency Essentials

Emergency Essentials or www.beprepared.com, has an new food storage analyzer that is relatively simple to use.  You add the ages and sexes of the members of your family.  It calculates the calories you need each day.  Then a spreadsheet comes up where you record the amount of various basic foods, such as oats, wheat, etc.  You can also add items from the grocery store.

I was pleased to find out that just in oats, pasta, wheat and flour, I have enough food on hand for 123 days for my family of four.  It also explained the nutritional content, including carbs, of the food on hand and what percentage of the daily allowance.  It was simple to use and gave me a general working knowledge of how much food storage I actually have.  It's a great tool.

Best yet, Emergency Essentials is allowing you to use the analyzer absolutely free and they give you a $10 gift certificate for blogging about it.  For an additional $10 gift certificate, all you need to do is add their button to your blog.

Be sure to visit them and check out their black Friday sales.  www.beprepared.com

Welcome to the Prepared Household

This blog is for those who want to become better prepared...for almost anything.