Water

In any emergency, none of us would last very long without water. It's obvious that water is needed for just about everything we do. We need it to drink, clean up, prepare food, bath, etc. Can you imagine going even a day or two without enough water?

Here is some good information on water filters if you needed to use water in lakes, streams and rivers to drink.

This is from the LDS church website:
Water Storage Guidelines

Commercially bottled water in PETE (or PET) plastic containers may be purchased. Follow the container’s “best if used by” dates as a rotation guideline. Avoid plastic containers that are not PETE plastic.

If you choose to package water yourself, consider the following guidelines:

Containers

• Use only food-grade containers. Smaller containers made of PETE plastic or heavier plastic buckets or drums work well.
• Clean, sanitize, and thoroughly rinse all containers prior to use. A sanitizing solution can be prepared by adding 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of liquid household chlorine bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) to one quart (1 liter) of water. Only household bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.
• Do not use plastic milk jugs, because they do not seal well and tend to become brittle over time.
• Do not use containers previously used to store non-food products.

Water Pretreatment

• Water from a chlorinated municipal water supply does not need further treatment when stored in clean, food-grade containers.
• Non-chlorinated water should be treated with bleach. Add 1/8 of a teaspoon (8 drops) of liquid household chlorine bleach (5 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) for every gallon (4 liters) of water. Only household bleach without thickeners, scents, or additives should be used.

Storage

• Containers should be emptied and refilled regularly.
• Store water only where potential leakage would not damage your home or apartment.
• Protect stored water from light and heat. Some containers may also require protection from freezing.
• The taste of stored water can be improved by pouring it back and forth between two containers before use.

As far as quantity of water stored - I only have this one thought......can you have too much water??? I think the limit will come when you have no more space to store it. We have large water barrells in our garage and small drinking water bottles here and there. Note to self: buy more individual water bottles when they are on sale and change the water in our large water containers this fall.

This information from the FEMA web site:

How Much Water Do I Need?

You should have at least a three-day supply of water and you should store at least one gallon of water per person per day. A normally active person needs at least one-half gallon of water daily just for drinking.

Additionally, in determining adequate quantities, take the following into account:

• Individual needs vary, depending on age, physical condition, activity, diet, and climate.
• Children, nursing mothers, and ill people need more water.
• Very hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed.
• A medical emergency might require additional water.

Three month supply

Imagine what it would be like if you couldn't go to the store for three months. What would you eat? What would you feed your family? Maybe the inability to go to the store is caused by something like unemployment, or maybe there is a food shortage caused by a trucking strike or a natural disaster, or a pandemic that keeps you inside your home for a period of time.
How would you get along? Are you prepared?
I think it is very interesting that without any fanfare or big announcement, the LDS church quietly updated the information contained on their web site. In addition to the long standing advice to get a year's supply of food, now there is a specific statement about getting a three month supply of food. It states:

Three-Month Supply

Build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage. So, what would you need to eat for three months? Last week when we were in AZ, I went with Jordan one morning to help at a ward activity where several people were dry packing food at the home of one of the members. We canned about 70 cans of long term food for Jord's storage program for her family. She is making excellent progress in building her year's supply, with three months of it being foods they eat all the time. We brought the dry pack cans back to her home and boxed them up in boxes that each held six cans. She labeled the boxes and taped them closed so they would slide easily. Then we put about 15-18 boxes under Lauren's bed and the rest she put in a food storage closet. The closet is just a place in her home that she designated as a food storage place where she keeps her three month supply and some of her extended supply. While we were talking about food storage, she had some excellent ideas. The food storage specialist in her ward encouraged her to write out her menus for a week and see what she needed of everything she cooks and uses on a regular basis. Then she told her to multiply it out for twelve weeks to get a calculation of how much to buy for three months. We talked about adapting recipes or coming up with recipes that use canned food or packaged food, cereal, etc. Canned meats could be used instead of fresh meat. Tuna, chicken and even freeze dried meats are available. So, that is my challenge today. Make out a week's worth of menus that your family eats all the time, then times it by 12. Come up with a list of what you would need to by for three months and make up a shopping list on an index card. Put the index card in your purse. The next time you go to the grocery store, buy something extra off your list. Decide on a place in your home where you can put your storage, and when you get home with your groceries, go put the extra items you bought into your three months storage area. Set aside $20 extra a week, then build gradually. If you have more, build quickly, but BUY WHAT YOU USE AND USE WHAT YOU BUY!!! Work on your three month plan first, before working on the longer term storage or other non-food storage items. Here are some items I have on my three month list: peanut butter, jelly, pineapple, mandarin oranges, cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, pinto beans, refried beans, kidney beans, corn, green beans, applesauce, chicken, tuna, pancake mix, cooked cream of wheat, cracked wheat, oatmeal, pancake syrup, chili, dry soap mix, oil, honey, cake mix, frosting, canned pumpkin, powdered sugar, brown sugar, regular sugar, flour, pasta, spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, ketchup, mayo, mustard, soy, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, yeast, pudding mixes, powdered milk, baking powder, soda, salt, wheat germ, shortening, tomato juice, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, condensed milk, peaches, pears, olives, mac and cheese mixes, rice, pasta noodles, potato pearls, hot cocoa, corn meal, drink mixes, stove top, spaghettios , egg noodles, coconut, nuts, chocolate chips, corn syrup, molasses, cold cereal, canned soup, salad dressing, salsa, chips, granola bars, sweetened condensed milk, cocoa, Pam spray, instant flavored oatmeal, crackers.....on and on.... Get started this week. Get a notebook or a clip board or binder. Make it your three month food storage planning guide. Calculate out what you need for the number of people in your family. Make a list on your computer and save it so that you can update it periodically. Make a list of what you need to buy and the next time you go to the store, buy something to add to your storage!!! Record it in your binder. Watch the ads and buy things when they are on sale. I built my storage very quickly this way, by buying a whole case of whatever was on special that week. Happy shopping!

O be wise

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Jacob 6:12 - Oh be wise; what can I say more?

In October conference of 2006, Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a talk on this topic. He said:
Brothers and sisters, while I was studying the Book of Mormon recently, one of the teachings of the prophet Jacob caught my attention. As you remember, Jacob was one of Father Lehi’s two sons born in the wilderness after the family left Jerusalem. He was an eyewitness to miracles, and he also watched as his family was torn apart by disobedience and rebellion. Jacob knew and loved Laman and Lemuel as he knew and loved Nephi, and the dissension between them was intimate and personal. As far as Jacob was concerned, it wasn’t about ideology, philosophy, or even theology. It was about family.
The tender anguish of Jacob’s soul is evident as he expresses grave concern that his people will “reject the words of the prophets” concerning Christ and “deny … the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, … and make a mock of the great plan of redemption” (Jacob 6:8).
And then, just before he bids farewell, he speaks eight simple words that are the basic text of my message this morning. Jacob’s plea was “O be wise; what can I say more?” (Jacob 6:12).
Those of you who are parents and grandparents have a sense of what Jacob must have been feeling at the time. He loved his people, partly because they were also his family. He had taught them as clearly as he could and with all the energy of his soul. He warned them in no uncertain terms what would happen if they chose not to “enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow” (Jacob 6:11). He couldn’t think of anything else to say to warn, to urge, to inspire, to motivate. And so he, simply and profoundly, said, “O be wise; what can I say more?”

This counsel is profound and touching in many ways, but today I want to use that admonition to remind us all to be wise. I think it has particular significance to us who live in the latter-days. We've all been taught, warned, encouraged, reminded and admonished to do what we need to do to prepare ourselves for the future. And the future is here, right now.

Ten years ago, in October conference of 1998, President Gordon B. Hinckley gave a talk at the priesthood session and here are a few quotes from that talk:
"...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.
We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome swings in the markets of the world. The economy is a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world. It can eventually reach down to each of us as individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.
I hope with all my heart that we shall never slip into a depression. I am a child of the Great Depression of the thirties. I finished the university in 1932, when unemployment in this area exceeded 33 percent.
I repeat, I hope we will never again see such a depression. But I am troubled by the huge consumer installment debt which hangs over the people of the nation, including our own people. In March 1997 that debt totaled $1.2 trillion, which represented a 7 percent increase over the previous year.
Everyone knows that every dollar borrowed carries with it the penalty of paying interest. When money cannot be repaid, then bankruptcy follows. We are beguiled by seductive advertising. President J. Reuben Clark Jr., in the April 1938 general conference, said from this pulpit: “Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1938, 103).
No one knows when emergencies will strike...We are carrying a message of self-reliance throughout the Church. Self-reliance cannot obtain when there is serious debt hanging over a household. One has neither independence nor freedom from bondage when he is obligated to others.
What a wonderful feeling it is to be free of debt, to have a little money against a day of emergency put away where it can be retrieved when necessary.
I urge you, 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.
This is a part of the temporal gospel in which we believe. May the Lord bless you, my beloved brethren, to set your houses in order. 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."

What good is it to have a living prophet of God if we don't listen to and follow what he says? Just think about the major events that have transpired over the last ten years. Here are a few I can think of immediately:
9-11-2001
war declared in Iraq which is still ongoing
AIDS spreading across the world leaving thousands of children without parents
major tsunami in Asia in 2004
category 5 hurricane Katrina and Rita off the golf coast
too many natural disasters and hurricanes to name across the world
the avian flu pandemic that edges closer every day

And this year already:
highest gas prices of all time
stock market crash
housing crisis and rising unemployment

Doctrine and Covenants 38:30 - ...but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear and check out this talk by President Hinckley on the same topic

I don't mean to be an alarmist or to over react. But please consider...are you and your family prepared? If so, then there is no need to fear. But if not, than we should be afraid! Really, really nervous because we won't be able to take care of our families and protect them and provide for them and we will be miserable needlessly.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing some of my best preparedness practices and ideas. I know many of you have great ideas and resources too and I invite you to share those. I know this much - I want to be able to sleep when the wind blows and I don't want to fear because I will be prepared. It's a topic that has weighed heavily on me for these past 10 years since President Hinckley spoke. I have tried to help others catch the vision and be better prepared, and I sincerely hope that something I share can be of benefit.

Sleeping while the wind blows

Many years ago, my dad EHG told this story in one of his talks at our LDS stake conference. I've never forgotten it. I believe that the lessons taught in this story are more applicable today than ever before.

When The Wind Blows
Author unknown

Years ago a farmer who owned land along the Atlantic seacoast constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic because of the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him."Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer was well satisfied with the man's work.Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!"The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.."Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, the doors were barred, the shutters were tightly secured, everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away.The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

MORAL: When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear.Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.We, as believers in Christ, secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God.. We don't need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the midst of the storms.

By preparing yourself and your family for an emergency, you can feel confident that you are better able to handle the unexpected. Just like this young farmhand, you too can sleep when the wind blows.

Dancing with the Stars

No explanation necessary....now that's what I call,
dancing with the stars!
Hahahahaha! Can you imagine?











Now, from the ridiculous to the sublime......