Week 17 - Provident Living

For the next couple of weeks, let's focus on pasta.  Be it spaghetti, or ramen, or macaroni, or fetticini, let's go for it.

My 3 month plan calls for 3 16 ounce packages of rice spaghetti, so I think that is what I'll buy this week.  What will you buy?

Hasta la pasta,
Marie

Week 17 - 72 Crew

So how is your bedding coming?  Have you identified the sleeping bags you want and have you either purchased them or have you been putting away your $5/wk/every 2 people in your family so that you can purchase them next week?  We will allot this week and next week to getting this very important part of your 72 hour kit in order.

The optional item this week is a whistle.  I think the only two criteria is that it works and it is loud.  It is one of those things you may never use, or it may become very important in locating yourself to others or to finding someone else in a crisis situation.

Or maybe you will just "whistle while you work" ;-) (It is possible that I am spending too much time on the internet watching old Once Upon a Time episodes.)

Week 16 - The Long Haul

To quote one of my favorite poets and philosopher, Shel Silverstein:

If you are a dreamer,come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!”

So to all you wonderful magic-bean-buyers, hail to thee.  And store away another 8+ pounds of beans for every two people in your family this week.

Have a happy week,
Marie

Week 16 - Provident Pantry

Morning,

This week we are still making bread - or more accurately, we are storing the ingredients for the bread we will be needing/making in our 3 month supply. 

I see on your ingredients' lists that some of you have tortillas or frozen roll dough.  If these are ready made and you have freezer space, simply purchase, store, and you are done.  For those of us who have limited freezer space and will need to make bread from scratch, let's make sure we have the ingredients to do so.

So this week let's focus on yeast and sugar and shortening and salt.  

Yeast is probably just for your bread, but the other ingredients may be used in other of your menu items. 

If you have or are also working on your long term storage with us, you already have your sugar and salt, so this week's task is even easier - it is just the yeast and shortening.

Of course, I have not seen your bread recipes, so if you have other items in those recipes, please include those as well this week.

The goal this week is:  We now have our bread requirement for 3 months stored away. 

This is big sisters.  When you complete this, give yourselves a pat on the back.  And you can even serve PB&Js to celebrate with the family:-)!

Blessings,
Marie

Week 16 - 72 Crew

OK...we are on the 4th (of 6) week of working on getting all those sleeping bags in place.  So keep those bags a-comin'.

In addition this week, we are going to put into the 72 kits something you probably all have around the house:  paper and a pencil.  Any kind of blank paper will be fine.  The pencil needs to be sharpened and probably a half size or stubbier pencil is best.  If you have one of those little plastic cased sharpeners around you can throw that in for good measure.  Put it all in a zip lock bag and tuck it in your kit.

Good work team.  See you next week.

Week 15 - The Long Haul

Hi sisters,

Again, this week we are working on storing beans, the dry, long shelf life kind of beans, be they red, or white, or black, or pinto.  Be sure to get another 8+ pounds into storage or tuck the $5/week/every 2 people into a savings envelope until you can go get it.

Beans are such great protein and are so very important in our long term, life sustaining kind of storage, but they also are full of interesting associations and memories.  I am reminded of a funny birthday card I ran across a while back while looking for a card.  On the front it said,

"Some nights I lie next to you and feel like the luckiest woman in the world."

Open it:

"Other nights I feel like a woman who should never serve chili for dinner ever again.  Happy Birthday"

And Happy Bean Hunting.

Love,
Marie

Week 15 - Provident Pantry

Anyone hungry for a PBJ?  Keep at it this week.  Peanut butter, check, Jelly, check ?, bread????  Hit Reply All and let us know how you are tackling your bread needs.  At our house, Mark needs gluten free, so we have to do things a little differently to accomodate that.  Luckily, we have found some products that not only meet the need, but that we both like the taste, so life is good.

I need to say a word about flour storage.  If you have not already read it, be sure to read the section on storage containers in providentliving.org.  And basically, don't store your flour in a metal container.  It picks up the taste.  I love the #10 can storage.  It works great for all the rice we have to have, but it is lousy for flour.  The flour picks up a metallic taste, and I have had to throw out a bunch of flour.  My daughter tells me she has found out a way to rehabilitate flour that has been in metal containers, but it sounds rather labor intensive.  Better to pick a different storage method at the beginning, I'm thinking.

Also, remember, generally speaking, you are only looking at storing enough flour for 3 months, not long term storage.  Flour does not have a long shelf life.  (For long term storage you would have wheat and some kind of grinder - but that's a subject for another group and time.)  With flour you do have to make sure that you can store it in a way that will keep it weevil free, and that may or may not be the original packaging it come in.  Most of us don't want "protein" in our flour;-). 

And, as always, as you get your flour, be sure to put stickers on the storage containers as to date of expiration, and be sure to rotate it properly.

Have fun with your storage!  You are doing a great work!!