Week 13 - The Long Haul

Let's start a chant:

MORE BEANS, MORE BEANS, MORE BEANS.

Maybe we can get arms waving in the air.

We're off to buy beans  (and sugar and other items) tomorrow at the Home Storage Center.  Anyone else want to come?

See you soon,
Marie

Week 13 - Provident Living

Hi sisters,

This is our third week to put away fruit - canned, dried, frozen.  Feel free to branch out to juices. 

I think this week I am going to put away our requirement for Tang.  How about you?

If you are a canner and do your own canning more in the fall, feel free to look down your list of ingredients for another item.  The important thing is to take the money you have allotted each week to build your 3 month supply and keep building until you have it complete.

Here's to the fruit of your labors!!
Marie

Week 13 - 72 Crew

Good morning,

OK, today we start on another item that may be a bigger cash item, so we will be doing it for a few weeks.  I will need responses back from you to help determine how long we will work on it.

Today we add....a little drumroll please.......

SLEEPING BAGS

Each person in your family will need bedding.  The bedding will hopefully be lightweight, but give you the warmth and protection you will need.  If we are simply evacuating to a shelter here in TX we probably won't need a sleeping bag that is rated for -40 degrees, but again, it is worth a family discussion to decide on what kind of bedding you need/want.  Be sure it is easily transportable, that it fits easily into the container you are using for your kit or straps (be sure you have the straps) easily onto your backpacks. 

As you probably know, there is great variety in the cost of sleeping bags.  As a benchmark, I see that one of the major discount stores has some workable bags for about $16 apiece.

For those of you who already have sleeping bags, the optional item this week is an emergency blanket.  If you are not familiar with what these are, simply type in "emergency blanket" in a large store's search engine and you will see a selection.  They are usually made of something like an aluminized polyester and will reflect body heat back to you.  They can be folded up to the size of a deck of cards.  You can usually get them for under $5 apiece.

Sweet dreams,

Marie

Week 12 - The Long Haul

This is easy:

MORE BEANS!

Week 12 - Provident Pantry

Good morning,

Ahhh...the joys of fruit!!!  This week we will continue on putting away the fruit we need for our 3 month plan.  Again, consult your ingredients lists.  As much as we would like fresh fruit, most of us don't have the cold cellars some of our ancestors had, that could keep the apples good for a number of months.  So make any adjustments you need in your plan to get the 3 months supply of fruit, be it canned, or dried (or if you have a large freezer - frozen).

I'm putting in canned peaches this week.  What is your choice?

Keep remembering to put your stickers with expiration dates on them on your products when you get them home from the grocers, and when you are organizing them in your storage spot be sure to put the ones that need to used first up front.

And I imagine you are all in the rotating business now for the items we have added earlier.  Keep training your family to help you with this.  I only have one to train, so I realize my task may be a little easier, but here is an example from our family.

When Mark takes a box of cold cereal out of the storage place under the bed, he goes and writes on the grocery list they we need cold cereal with and "S" behind it, to remind us both that this goes into storage.  Then when we get back from the grocery store, he is really good about getting our stickers out, putting it on the top of the cereal box right by the expiration date and circling the expiration date, and then taking it into the bedroom, pulling out the box we keep the cereal in, checking the expiration date with the others, and putting it in the order it belongs.

Remember to keep it fun.  Families like fun!

May your efforts bring forth delicious fruit this week!
Marie

Week 12 - 72 Crew

Hi,

How's it going?  This week we are going to finish putting toiletries in our 72 hour kits.

The first thing is to make sure each person in your family has a wash cloth and a towel.  I am not recommending the big fluffy kind, because of space, nor anything new, necessarily, but simply something that does the job.  If we had to evacuate to a shelter of some kind in an emergency, we probably would not get the luxury of a shower/bath for a few days, but we certainly could clean up much like they did in the days where there were no indoors bathrooms.

Hopefully, you can simply take an older wash cloth and towel for each person from your existing supply.  For some of you, putting a towel into your 72 hour kit for each person may rather exhaust your regular supply of towels.  I would encourage you to check out discount places and dollar store types of places.  Again, hopefully you can get your cloths and towels into your kits for under $5 this week.  Anyone that finds a good deal, please alert the rest of us.

Of course, if you do not need to spend money on these items, tuck the $5 away in your savings envelope for other items you will be needing.

In finishing up the toiletries, the other items I will list here, are optional, or not, depending on your family's needs/outlook.  Please feel free to add them now, or to add them during another week when perhaps you already have the item of the week.

1.  Dental floss
2.  Travel container of mouthwash
3.  Razor
4.  Shaving cream
5.  Deodorant
6.  Lotion
7.  Cotton swabs

And, of course, if you have a baby, diapers and wipes are important.

Anyone think of anything else that falls under the general heading of hygiene/toiletries that we might need in our 72 hour kits?

Hygenically yours,
Marie

Week 11 - The Long Haul

Sisters,

This morning I have two words for you:

MORE BEANS!!!

(as in the kind that have a shelf live of 30+ years). 

Using the current price figures for beans out at the Home Storage Center, I am estimating that $5 will probably get us a little over 8 lbs this week. So purchase, or save to purchase. We'll keep plugging away on our bean supply.

Anyone else want to go with us out to the HSC on March 27?

Beanfully yours,

Marie

Week 11 - Provident Pantry

A is for apple!

Morning Sisters,

This week, let's focus on our fruit, whether it is canned, or frozen, or dried.  In fact, let's take 3 weeks and see how far we get, in storing away our 3 months supply of fruit.

I think I'll work on applesauce this week.  What about you?

Fruitfully yours,
Marie

Week 11 - 72 Crew

Morning Sisters,

This week we are still working on the toiletries.

So...get out another of those gallon size ziploc style baggies. Today, or tonight for FHE, put in it the following:

• a small hairbrush
• a travel size container of shampoo
• a small bar of soap (the size you get at hotels works great)
• a soap dish (this is optional - you might just want a small baggie, but a small soap dish usually lets the soap air out better)
• a travel size container of hand sanitizer

That's it!! Easy, eh?

Again, some of these things you may have around already. In that case, put the $5 this week in your 72 hour savings envelope. If you have to buy all this, it may take more than the $5. Again, just let me know, and we can extend it a week or so.


Preparedly yours,

Marie

Week 10 - The Long Haul

Haloooooo, oh ye sisters of the long haul, It's time to switch gears. I know, you were about sugared out. So here we go. Shift to: BEANS! We will be working on beans for the next 8 weeks, not that we all will probably have all the beans in that we need by then, but we can always come back to it. And for point of clarification, these are not canned beans. These are your dry beans that have a shelf live of 30+ years. If you go to (and I really encourage you all to do so) the Church's website at providentliving.org, you will see that the Church recommends 5 lbs. of beans/person/month. So your first task (or tell your kid's that it is their first task) is to do the math. 5 (pounds) x (# of people in your family) x 12 (months in a year). So what did you get? That is your goal!!!! The following is optional: The next math problem is to figure out how much that is going to cost you (the average price per 25 pounds of beans out at the Home Storage Center is about $17.25), and the 3rd problem is to figure out how many weeks (at $5/week/every 2 people in the family) you are going to need to hit your goal. Of course, for those of you that have partial supplies of beans, you'll have to factor that in as well. I noticed my 3rd grade grandson is working on just these kind of 3/4 step math problems, so maybe I'll go get him to help me. If anyone needs a loaner grandson calculator, let me know - he might hire out. So this week either spend your $5/every 2 people in your family on beans or tuck away that $5 in an envelope marked "Beans" and keep it in a safe place until you are ready to buy beans. I will be going to the HSC on Tuesday March 27 to purchase some beans for Mark and me, You are invited to come along. It's always a fun trip. Just let me know who is interested and we can car pool! (We could even stop at Sonic for a treat afterwards. Maybe I'll take my grandson. He likes the mini banana splits, if they still have them.) It's "bean" real, Marie

Week 10 - Provident Pantry

Hi sisters,

To complete the song from last week:

....the more you toot, the better you feel, so let's have beans for every meal. What can I say, it was one of my kids' favorite tunes.

So I am seeing still more beans on the ingredients lists that have been sent in, so let's keep adding to the beans, whether it is black beans, pinto beans, refried beans, garbonzo beans, etc., spend the money you have allotted for building up your 3 month storage on beans, either canned or dry (whatever your ingredient list calls for) this week. If you have all your beans of this kind, the optional choice this week could be green beans (which we will visit again as a choice when we add canned vegetables).

And as always, if you run across a good deal on beans, please let us know.

And, if your beans are doubling as part of your year's supply, remember the Home Storage Center in Round Rock sells black, pinto, refried, and white beans in bulk and they have a 5.2 lbs prepackaged pinto beans.

Take care...toot, toot,

Marie

Week 10 - 72 Crew

Morning Sisters,

Ah...this week you may find kind of fun, as the items may simply be already in your house, and it may simply be a matter of taking FHE tonight have your family help you go around and gather them up.

If this assignment does not need spending from you, remember to put that $5/week/every 2 people in your family into the savings envelope for either your carrier for your 72 hr kit or for upcoming sleeping bags.

So here goes. First, you will need a gallon zip lock bag/every two people. In it, place a roll of toilet paper. If you need to conserve space, you can take the cardboard out of the middle and flatten it. Then place two toothbrushes and a travel size tube of your favorite toothpaste. If there are girls/women in your household who are having periods, put a 3 day supply of tampons/sanitary napkins (whatever they prefer to use) in their zip lock bag as well.

Then put the baggie in your 72 hour kit or box. Tada!!

Ah...the joys of feeling that much more prepared.

Take care,

Marie

P.S. I am obviously making an assumption that you will already have some if not all of these things already in your household and they just need to be transferred. However, I realize if you have to buy toothbrushes or baggies or an extra tube of toothpaste, this could easily go over the $5/week/every 2 people limit. So just let me know if we need to give this assignment another week to complete.

Week 9 - The Long Haul

Morning Sisters,

I did not hear from many of you, but the ones I did hear from seemed to indicate they had either finished gathering in their 1 year supply of sugar/honey or had gathered about all they were going to gather at this time. So this will be the last week, for now at least, that we will work on sugar/honey. (If I hear that any of you still want to work on it, we will come back to it in December.) 

So, gather in that last 8+ pounds of honey or sugar this week. And next week we will move on to another item.

Have a good day, sweet sisters,

Marie

Week 9 - 72 Crew

Hi sisters,

Well, last week you got those flashlights and added them to you 72 hour kits. They probably had batteries in them. If the $5/person/week budget didn't allow the batteries, this is the week to get the batteries. If they had batteries, this is the week to get back up batteries. If these batteries could be your only source of light for 3 days to a week, it will be good to have back up batteries.

You light up my life,

Marie

Week 8 - Long Haul

How sweet it is!

Keeping adding that sugar. How close are you to your goal? Please drop me a quick response to this email this week and let me know. Also, this Saturday I will be reserving the canner. So far only 3 of us seem to need the canner right now, so I will probably set it up to use in one of our homes on a Tuesday evening or Saturday afternoon. So in the email, also include if you want to be part of this canning party and your availibility.

So, if I were you responding to this email, it would probably look like this:

Hi Marie,

I am not going to be completing the total year's compliment of sugar this year as my storage is limited, but in a couple of weeks I will have purchased all I feel I will have room for right now, so whenever you are ready to move on to the next phase of this is good for me. I will have 50 lbs of sugar that I need to get into #10 sealed cans, so please count me in on the canning party. And I can do this either on a Tuesday night or a Saturday afternoon after 3 p.m.

Thanks,

Marie

I am looking forward to your email responses, and to the canning party (details to follow).

Sweetly yours,

Marie

Week 8 - Provident Pantry

Hi,

As promised, this week we are still working at getting our 3 months of meat/fish in place. How are you doing? Please drop me a note to let me know what you purchased this past week, what you are planning on purchasing this week, and how many more weeks you think we need to focus on meat acquisition.

Here is the response I would probably send to me if I were you: This past week, I chose to work on getting my tuna fish in place. This week I plan on getting my canned chicken in place. I am still working through how to address the beef/hamburger needs and how I want to set that up, so let's do meat at least another week.

And again, if you are finding "deals" out there, let the rest of us know.

And again, be sure to use your stickers and keep track of expiration dates. I will be forwarding a great email I received from Jill this week about organization. Please contact her for details.

A hunting we will go,

Marie

Week 8 - 72 Crew

Morning, team,

Let there be light.

So now you have your food all in place either in your boxes that are serving as your temporary 72 hour kit carriers or in your 72 hour kit itself.

This week, use your $5 per every two people to get a good flashlight (equipped with working batteries) for your kit. Obviously, you may have an extra flashlight you can use or extra batteries in storage that you can pull out.

If you already have a working flashlight that you are putting or already keeping in your 72 hour kit and haven't purchased the carrier yet, put the money with the other that you are saving for this purchase.

You may have to have a family discussion as to if you want every individual to have a flashlight, every two people to have a flashlight, or simply that the family's kit have the one flashlight.

When we had kids at home with backpacks as part of our plan, the goal we aimed for was that every one would have a smaller flashlight for their backpack, and we would have a larger one for our family kit. We were never in a situation to put it to the test, so that might have been overkill. Those of you that are campers may be able to let the rest of us know what is reasonable for light needs.

De"light"edly,

Marie