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
 

Water

How safe is your water supply?  Most of us just assume whats coming out of the tap is safe clean water.  But the fact remains we never really know what we are drinking.  We assume its safe until something happens.

Most don't store water or just a little bit.  Most of us have no way to get more when the taps run dry.  We can't survive more than 3 to 5 days without water.  It's much more important than food. 

What if something happens that you no longer have good safe clean water coming out of your faucets?  What are your plans after your case or two of water is gone?

 Are you aware that they only test for at most 100 different contaminants?  Are you aware that our government keeps changing allowable levels of pesticides & herbicides?  They have to keep raising it because more and more of it is getting into our water supply.  That doesn't mean they think the new higher levels is safe, they just have to make it higher or none of us would have a clean water supply.  

I hear on the radio all the time about such and such community  has a boil order for various reasons, usually because a water pipe has broken.  This happens a lot in communities that have older water lines.  The summer heat, changing seasons, freezing and thawing of the ground and they just give out over time. 

So how safe is your water after you boil it?  Most of us assume its safe because our government and Red Cross says it is.  But I've always wondered what happens to the bacteria after it's killed?  When you boil water it becomes more condensed.  The bacteria might be dead but we are still drinking it and many times the dead bacteria break down into other endotoxins.  So is the boiled water really safe?  Will those dead bacteria really just pass through me harmlessly or what? 

Can I filter them out?  Can I bleach them out?

Chlorination is also very effective at killing biological contaminants, but again it kills them but it doesn't remove them or any endotoxins and it also adds in another poison-chlorine.

Filters:  All filters fail at some point.  You usually are clueless on when they fail.  Filters normally do not kill or remove bacteria.  They  "trap" stuff in the filter where they can grow and multiply.

If you are going to boil or chlorinate your water I would suggest running the water through a bag type filter (even a sock or t-shirt would work) before you treat the water.  Running the water through a bag filter will remove at least 75% of the contaminants so you would have a better chance of getting cleaner water by filtering first. 

So is there a method to get clean water?  Yes

Distillation.  Distilled water completely removes all particulates, bacteria and endotoxins.  It removes toxic metals and even removes radioactive metals from the water.  It removes petrochemicals and even removes salt.

Ok, I know distilled water doesn't taste the greatest  but at least it's very drinkable and you know it is clean.  And I personally think it tastes much better than boiled water.

About a year ago I ran across a nonelectric water distiller that excited me.  Glenn Meder invented his "Survivalstill".  Every once and awhile he offers it at a great price and he also offers paypal payment system so you can get it on the paypal credit plan at 0% for 6 months.   I also ran across a site that compares 3 different water stills: http://www.survivalstills.com/survival-stills/

I love getting emergency prep equipment at great prices and having a painless way to finance it is great too!

Glenn also puts out a E-Book "Water Prepper Safe water is everything"  that explains water in detail.  He also explains how to make a water distiller using a pot with an inverted lid with a cup or bowl tied to it.   I tried this but it took a couple batches to get enough to drink.  But it did work.

Anyway, I wanted to update the blog on water with the new changes and make sure you all had it.  Water is the most important thing we can store.  You can't store a year's supply but you sure better make sure you know how to get more safely to replace your drinking water after what you stored is gone. 

I hope this helps you & your family be better prepared.

Blessings,
Cherlynn

Growing your own animal feed

If you have livestock,  animal feeds are getting very expensive and is full of GMO stuff.  We have been feeding our free ranging chickens our food scraps to supplement their free range diet.  They do an awesome job of keeping the bug count down.  I used to see ticks climbing every where but now with our free range chickens at work we hardly ever see one near the house/barn areas.

Our first home we lived near a farmer that used to grow Milo to feed his cattle.  Milo starts out looking like corn but grows an open head full of the seeds.  He used to use a combine to harvest it and stored it in bags to feed his cattle during the winter months.  Milo is also excellent feed for chickens, goats and hogs too.   It doesn't have to be combined with a tractor.  You can go through your field and cut the heads off by hand and store them in containers to use as feed.  The chickens love this.  Ours don't go out most of the winter due to snow so giving them light during the day and Milo to scratch and play with keeps them happy.  And the bonus is they are not eating GMO garbage.  You will need to add in some form of protein with this but it works very well as an all round animal feed.

Hope this helps some of you!

Blessings,
Cherlynn

GMO's and Round up

I am always wondering why I have food allergies when most in my family don't and it has never been a problem before now.  Round up.  We live in a very rural high farming area where lots of GMO grains are grown.  GMO grains are created so that Round up can be sprayed on them and not kill the grain just the weeds.  But the grain does absorb the round up and takes it into the actual grain.  Thats right, if we eat the GMO grains, we end up eating Round Up.   There has never been any studies of GMO's being eaten by people.  Our government has continued to raise the levels of what they feel is safe levels of round up in our diets.  The reason they continue to raise the "safe"  level  is because we are being exposed to higher levels.  When it rains or snows it's raining down more Round up on us.  The Round up settles in our gut and reproduces itself there and thrives but gives us all kinds of trouble.  Leaky gut, liver and kidney disease and of course food allergies.  When you develop food allergies, every time you eat an allergen you will be tearing your gut each and every time.  Tearing the gut will cause an auto immune disease.  If those don't kill you off eventually the tears in your gut will reach a point that you will bleed to death.  It won't happen fast, but very slowly.  

So if you have food allergies you really need to avoid those GMO grains/foods.   I don't know the answer to this problem.  Being farmers ourselves that use Round Up.  It is our livelihood.   We do try to avoid row crops in areas where it would drain into our ponds.  I have no clue how to get out of our current practices but until the powers that be decide we need to change I guess it will continue.  So if you don't have food allergies yet you can count on it coming to many more folks.  If you do get food allergies please be careful as so many are jumping in with gluten free products and I have discovered that many have hidden gluten or soy or corn also in them. 

Blessings,
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

Using cucumbers up

I found an amazing way to preserve extra cucumbers!   We use tons of cucumbers all year round and at 72 cents a piece it can get quite pricey over time.  We drink 2 kinds of drinks to help us lose weight and makes us feel much better.  The first one:

1 small or half of a large cucumber sliced up and put in a gallon container.  Slice up one lemon and add that and then add some fresh or dried mint.  Fill with water and refrigerate.  Drink 2 to 3 glasses daily.  It is a very refreshing drink!

The second one was from Anitra at http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/      Anitra has so many amazing things to share and I highly recommend her site.  It was so worth paying to get everything she has for a year.  Anyway here is her drink recipe she shared with a few adjustments:

Frozen Blueberries
1 peeled lemon
1 to 2 T. fresh ginger root
1 peeled and chunked cucumber
some fresh or dried mint
1 or 2 T. chia seeds
1/4 tsp. red pepper (I added this and it cured my stomach ulcers and DH's reflux disease)

Run all through the blender with some water until smooth.  Drink 2 glasses each day.  I put mine into glasses covered with plastic wrap and stored in the fridge.

My big find was running my extra cucumbers through my juicer for another project which I will share in a moment.  I wondered if I could freeze cucumber juice to use during the winter.  I tried it and it worked great!  So I now run one cucumber and 1 lemon through the blender and freeze it in quart freezer bags.  The one for the water blend I just freeze the juice but the blender one I add in the pulp from the juicer and freeze it all together. 

Now the project that started my mind thinking about this was making up frozen cucumber pads.  I Hair dresser daughter showed me this trick and in May used these pads on her sister.  Her sister's eyes were swollen shut with her allergic reaction to the grass pollen.  We tried all the allergy pills we had on hand but her eyes remained swollen red and itchy.  We put some of the frozen cucumber pads on her eyes and left her laying there for about 20 minutes and returned to discover that they took the swelling and red puffy eyes away.  I was so amazed so with my cucumber surplus this last week I juiced them and got several packages of the cotton pads like you use to remove makeup and soaked each one int he cucumber juice and froze them .  I put them on wax paper on large trays and now have more than 500 bagged up to use this year.  Any way my thoughts were if I could freeze cucumber juice int he cotton pads could I just freeze the cucumber juice?  So now I know I can!  

I am also making pickles but this year everyone seems to have an abundance of cucumbers and now I can probably take some along with what I am growing.  I just figured up how much we spend this last winter on cucumbers  and it was $224.64 before taxes.  That's like a months worth of groceries for us!  We are in process of redoing our food storage and I will look forward to not buying cucumbers all winter long!  I'll have an extra $20 each month to spend on food storage instead of cucumbers.  I will be bagging up 300 bogs of the cucumber juice with lemon added in to see us through until this time next year. 

I don't like to store stuff in our freezer but am very excited to have this in the freezer to use all winter long.

If you come up with ways to preserve your bounty please share with me so we can all find ways to use it all up.

Blessings!
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

Remembering the Lord in all things

The most important thing to do to prepare for any disaster is to be spiritually prepared.  So many think they don't have time to give the Lord.  Think about your cell phone.  How many of us drop everything to answer a call or text. 

We bend over backwards to keep our cell phones fully charged.  Think of being spiritually prepared as keeping your phones charged.  Plug into Spiritual power and get recharged by reading scriptures and praying.

  Be as faithful to these recharges as you deal with your phone and you will be prepared to face any disaster coming your way. 

Spiritual prepping is the most important thing you can do.  Major disasters  has proven that those who are spiritually prepared and spiritually strong survive when the weak give up.  So stay Spiritually strong so you can survive what ever comes your way.

Blessings,
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

A Few Gluten Free Meals

Several have asked me for my favorite GF recipes.  So today I will bless you with a few I have tried and my family loves.

Mexaroni and Cheese 1 package about 2 cups  Gluten Free Pasta 1/2 cup Sour Cream 1 cup Milk 1 Tablespoon Corn Starch 4 ounces Green Chili, Chopped 9 to 12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated 2 Tablespoons Butter 1/4 cup Sliced Black Olives 1 small jar Pimentos, Optional Salt to taste Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water for 6-9 minutes or until done. Drain and set aside. Melt butter in saucepan. In small bowl, mix cornstarch with milk. Add cornstarch mixture to butter and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cheddar cheese to sauce and cook slowly until melted, again stirring constantly. Add sour cream, green chilies, olives and pimentos and salt to taste. Combine sauce with pasta. Dot with butter. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Serves 4 Maui Luau Salad 1~8 oz box (2 cups  1 Tablespoon 2 Tablespoons 2/3 cup 2/3 cup 2/3 cup 1/3 cup 2 Tablespoons 2 Tablespoons Ancient Harvest GF Pasta              Butter or margarine Brown sugar Ham, cubed 1/4" Pineapple chunks, undrained Cheddar cheese, cubed 1/4" Seedless Grapes, halved Mayonnaise Sour cream   In medium saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar. Add diced ham and sauté until ham is lightly browned. Drain and quarter pineapple chunks, reserving 3 tablespoons liquid. In large bowl, combine ham, cheese, grapes and pineapple. Cook pasta and add to bowl. Toss lightly. Combine mayonnaise, sour cream and reserved pineapple juice, blend well and pour over pasta mixture. Toss lightly. Serves 5. You can use many of your own recipes by making a few adaptions to them.  Like in a recipe that has a flour based thickening.  Using Corn starch to thicken instead of flour works well.  Like my family loves Beef Stroganoff so at the end I use cornstarch mixed int the beef broth I add at the end instead of using the flour it calls for.  A rule of thumb is to use half the amount called for in flour to replace with corn starch.  Like if it calls for 1/2 cup of flour, then you would use 1/4 cup of corn starch.  You can not add corn starch to a pan with butter to thicken.  It must be dissolved into a cold liquid then added.    Mexican Night in the Bell home: If you want to go vegetarian like we mostly do, then you need to learn to use beans more.  When we have taco night, I use a 3 bean blend of red beans , pintos and black beans.  I mash them lightly and add the taco seasoning and heat.  We all love this blend for our taco filling instead of beef or other meats.  I mash pinto beans and blend with some cheese and heat for refried beans.   I make Mexican Rice using 1 Tbls. oil, 1 Tbls. butter, 1/4 cup finely chopped onions or onion powder if you don't have fresh onions and 3 to 4 minced garlic cloves.  Saute until soft and then add 1 1/2 cups rice and 1 chopped tomato, 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth, 1 tsp. salt.  Simmer for 20 minutes.   Hope this helps some of you!  Remember those who are allergic to gluten are almost always allergic to soy also.  If you are making a GF meal for a friend, DO NOT use margarine or vegetable oil as these are soy products as is shortening. Blessings! Cherlynn brchbell@yahoo.com