Rambling today

I woke up to fog and its still quite foggy out there.  This has been a strange autumn.   We had lots of rain so the leaves don't have that brilliant Fall color.  But the Fall colors are a deep dark hue that changes with the days light.  Fog brings another thing to the autumn viewing.  It was lovely to walk outside and hear all the birds this morning.  Their sounds are magnified and scattered about.  It sounded wonderful and all I could see was the fog.

God created a beautiful world for us.  I love to go explore in all kinds of weather.  There is so many things to experience that gives me greater appreciation of all we have been given.

What have you found to explore this week?

Cherlynn

What do you really need if everything crashes?

We've been warned for years that things might happen and we need to have supplies set aside just in case. Not just our church authorities but the Red Cross and our government have warned us and told us to set aside supplies. Most have heard but see no reason to do so. Its one of those items you think about and then set aside because you are to busy with other things to deal with something that might happen.

You have no problems buying insurance for your car, house and even yourself “Just in case” but most don't realize that setting aside supplies is just like having insurance. How can the Lord bless you in a crisis if you never heeded the warnings to put things aside? Can he provide a miracle of letting your oil extend much longer if you never bothered to get the oil to start with?

I have personally seen miracles happen in crisis. A friend in Japan heeded my warning to lay in rice and water just in case. He was able to feed over 2000 each day for weeks with the little bit he set aside just in case. 2 cases of bottled water and 200 lbs of rice never stopped being there until they were able to get regular supplies again. He told me that was almost 2 months after the earthquake and tsunami struck before they had regular supplies again.

If you will prepare, the Lord will bless you if you ever do have to face a crisis. That doesn't mean you have to have everything you ever would need set aside but just do your best to set aside what you can.

I suggest you keep a daily list of everything you use. This will help you over time to realize what all you are really using. You might set a side food but forget to set aside toilet paper or medications you use regularly. So keeping tabs daily for a couple of weeks will help you know exactly what you are using and what you should set aside.

Each family is different and has different likes and needs. So store what you need and like so that you can eat and have what you want in a crisis. In a crisis, you are already stressed and not having the comfort foods you are use to is very important.

Store for 1 week and then extend it as you are able. Working toward having a 1 or 2 year supply is good but having what you need in 1 week supplies can help you do this in small amounts at a time. We built up to a 1 year supply and then started living on it and everything we bought at that point was replacing what we were using. This helped us rotate our supplies.

Also make sure your storage is spread out in several forms. You don't want to have everything in the freezer. The power fails and then you get the added stress of dealing with a full freezer worth of food on top of dealing with the crisis. Don't get all freeze dried meals. You will be stuck with what you got and will need way more water to use it. Having a variety and making sure it's stuff my family wants and will use is so very important. Having some easy meals for the start of the crisis is important so that you can deal with what you need to deal with and not worry about cooking.

I make up huge pots of soup and than can it into pint jars. It's already cooked and if we had to we could eat it cold. Same thing with canning up meats or fruits and vegetables. Having some freeze dried meals can make it easy for you also. I try to dehydrate some meals but I never have more that a few weeks worth in our storage.

I like to do dehydrated soup meals up into canning jars that can be vacuum sealed to use later. Also make sure you keep a wide variety of grains stored. So many are becoming allergic to soy, gluten and corn so having a variety of other grains can help you in case someone becomes allergic.

As we have been living on our food storage we discovered several of us were allergic to these grains. We've been able to use up those grains and store the ones we have learned to use in their place.

Storing what you eat is so very important! You will already be use to eating the food and you will not have the added strain of getting use to strange foods.

If you use a lot of plastic wrap you will know to store that. As you keep track of everything, you will learn over time what you should store. Not just food but everything else you use also. Don't be in a big hurry, do it right. But start today!

Blessings,
Cherlynn