Preparing Deseret, one blogger at a time
The seasons are changing (again). Now is a good time to take a look at your 72 hour kits. Do you have good warm clothing? Is your food fresh?
What about your water supplies?
It is also a good time to take a look at your smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Change the batteries and make sure the levels are up on your extinguishers.
For those looking for a deal, food for health is having an amazing sale today only. They are located at 800 east and 800 North in Orem, and have quite a lot of supplies at a great discount.
I stopped by and went through their stuff. They are doing some inventory switching, and most of the food is manufactured between end of 2011 and 2012, so it’s recent enough to be worth getting.
The foods are your common freeze dried, and dried soup type foods. They seem to have put good thought into staying vegetarian, with smart oils so they have a long shelf life.
They have the nice smaller Mylar bagged items in 6 packs, or in the large bulk sealed buckets at pretty amazing prices. Worth checking out.
It’s that time of year again. And just saying ‘Conference Time’ in Utah doesn’t count, because there is more that one event matching that description next month. The one in question for this post is this years “Utah Prepare Conference & Expo“.
Last year this event was a great success, an informative chance to meet with many of the best preparedness resources in Utah in one place, with a wide selection of classes to attend. This year the event will be held at the South Towne Expo center making it a bit easier for everybody from the southern area to attend.
This event is put on by the USU Extension office and will be on Saturday, April 13, 2013 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Hope to see folks there (look for the people wearing Utah Preppers shirts!)
As an added bonus, use the promo code “prepper” when registering for $2 off each ticket!
Another excellent quote, from and LDS source, but applicable to all. Specifically aimed at fathers and our responsibility to taking care of our families.
Fathers, another vital aspect of providing for the material needs of your family is the provision you should be making for your family in case of an emergency. Family preparedness has been a long-established welfare principle. It is even more urgent today.
I ask you earnestly, have you provided for your family a year’s supply of food, clothing, and, where possible, fuel? The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah.
Also, are you living within your income and saving a little?
Are you honest with the Lord in the payment of your tithes? Living this divine law will bring both spiritual and material blessings.
Yes, brethren, as fathers in Israel you have a great responsibility to provide for the material needs of your family and to have the necessary provisions in case of emergency.
– Ezra Taft Benson, Oct. 1987 (Full Text /video /audio)
“I know of no other way to prepare for these times of adjustment than to be certain that during times of employment, preparations are made for less prosperous times, should they occur. Start now to create a plan if you don’t already have one, or update your present plan. Watch for best buys that will fit into your year’s supply. We are not in a situation that requires panic buying, but we do need to be careful in purchasing and rotating the storage that we’re putting away. The instability in the world today makes it imperative that we take heed of the counsel and prepare for the future”
L. Tom Perry
“Wives are instrumental in this work, but they need husbands who lead out in family preparedness. Children need parents who instill in them this righteous tradition. They will then do likewise with their children, and their stores will not fail.”
Keith B. McMullin, ‘Lay Up in Store,’ Ensign May 2007
Today’s guest post comes to you courtesy of Becky W. who is a freelance writer that loves to write on a number of things such as safety, food, and health. In her spare she loves to try new dishes in the kitchen and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
While nobody anticipates that an emergency is actually going to befall them, these things happen before anybody can begin to plan. There are a few items you can keep around the house that will be of great use to you and your family if you ever experience a wide-scale emergency.
A first aid kit should be at the top of your list of essentials. It is inevitable that somebody will be hurt by a cut, burn or scrape. Your kits should include latex gloves, bandages, gauze pads and antibiotic moist towlettes. You should also have tweezers, saline solution and scissors on hand. If anybody in the family takes prescription medications, have a bottle on hand. Do not forget to include any inhalers, pain medications and antihistamines.
It is also vital to have a well-stocked pantry and emergency supply of food available. Water is essential. It never hurts to have a few cases of water in plastic bottles around the house. You should also keep some drinks with electrolytes in them for their minerals. Canned fruits and vegetables that are ready to eat and have a long shelf life are great. You may even keep some canned meat, like tuna or chicken. Don’t forget to pack some granola, protein bars, peanut butter, dried fruit, nuts, crackers and cereal. If you have an infant, you want to keep some jarred baby food as well. Check expiration dates regularly and be sure to pack a can opener along with paper cups, utensils and plates.
There are a few personal items to keep in a safe place. It is good to have an area stocked with old prescription glasses, a pair of sturdy shoes and sleeping supplies. A sleeping bag that can be used outside is a must. You also want to pack warm clothing and a few books to read. Keep a stock of personal hygiene items, such as menstrual pads and toothpaste, on hand.
Other practical items, such as a sump pump, are great to have on hand in case a pipe bursts. You should also have a self-powered flashlight. There are flashlights you can turn a lever to power, and they are easy to maintain. You can also find a self-powered radio. You should also have a car charger for your phone and other important electronic items. Of course you also need to have a sturdy container to hold all these items.
I work near a Sam’s Club and sometime head over for a lunchtime visit. It is hard to beat a Polish Dog and soda at $1.50 for lunchtime frugality. While I am there I often browse through the store to see what seasonal items are on display. Over the last couple months I’ve noticed a few preparedness items at local Sam’s Clubs.
We love it when local stores have good deals for preppers, even better when it’s the stuff we want the most. Emergency Essentials let us know that this month they are featuring a 20-25% discount on Mountain House cans and we wanted to make sure to pass the word along. Most people involved in preparedness or camping will have some familiarity with the Mountain House products. They are the original commercial freeze-dry products, and have an incredible choice of entrees available.
The big #10 cans of freeze dried food are something we don’t say you should solely base your food storage on, by any means. But they are an amazing part of your overall plan. The large cans allow you to get more food, in a longer-life container. Just remember two key factors when using freeze-dried food from a can. First, contents have settled, so some of the flavor is on the bottom, you’ll want to mix it up. Second, once that can is open, there is no more long-term storage. So entrees you like you need to use within a few days. In a real emergency, that’s not a problem as long as you are aware.
If you do any scouting, or larger group events. Can’s make it so it is a more economical choice vs other options. So if you need to augment your storage, looking to expand the menu, or are even just starting it’s worth checking out their sale.
My brother passed along a video today that fits right in here on the blog. As many people know, I have a long love of cured foods. Bacon, of course, ranks at the top of my list. Bacon, and country hams were an important staple for survival to people in the Appalachians for hundreds of years before refrigeration was introduced. While I don’t have a setup for curing my own bacon (yet), this video sure encourages me to get that setup sooner than later. This 10 minute documentary is about a man who run’s a business curing bacon and ham the old fashioned way.
As I told a friend, the subjects Appalachian accent is like a Barry White with the sequences of frying bacon and country ham.
Once you’ve watched, you’ll probably want to go buy bacon or ham from their site and then once you’ve tasted the difference, try to cure bacon on your own.
As a consultant for Shelf Reliance, I had the opportunity to attend their annual convention in Salt Lake this past weekend. It was exciting, educational, and exhausting (especially with my 10 month old in tow). There were quite a few new product announcements that I’d like to let you know about, so before they even get the new products launched on the site, I’m letting you in on them right here.
Interested in a day of workshops focused on preparedness? Who wouldn’t? Utah State University, BYU, and BeReady Utah have combined to host a day of classes and booths called the Utah Prepare Conference and Expo. Now, the title is rather similar to our name, but hey, it involves many groups that we rely on for well-researched information.
I’m really excited about this conference, in that it is *not* a sales machine. BeReady is the state organization charged with getting citizens ready for known disasters in the state, and it has teamed up with some of the best resources for preparedness around. Anybody who has done real research into local agriculture, animal husbandry, or food preservation has come upon materials published by the USU extension. They are the standard for food preservation testing in the country, and we love having them locally.
Of course, there are vendors there as well, so don’t fret about missing out on the “toys” and fun there as well, but the conference itself is not “consumer-first”, and that should mean a lot to real preppers.