72 hour kits

I've been slowly building up my food storage lately and want to make 72 hour kits also. I think it was Robyn who mentioned in another post about rotating your 72 hour kits during conference weekend and I'm so going to start doing that. It's a perfect time of year to change out winter clothes for warm weather clothes, or a bigger sized diaper or whatever. I'm going to get some backpacks to store everything in and keep them downstairs. I was thinking of making a duplicate set and keeping it in the car in case emergency strikes while we're not at home. Or if someone is stranded I'd be able to offer help in some way. I found a site that's got lots of great ideas and information and thought I'd post it on here in case anyone else was interested.

http://www-suares.stanford.edu/72hour-kit.html

Food Storage Help

There have been a few posts about food storage lately and it has been making me think that maybe I need to switch things up a bit. How do you stock up on yours? What do you get? And where do you get it? Does the Church have any guidelines other than a year supply?

I will be at Costco and see those 5 gallon bins of freeze-dried (or I don't even know) meals. They seem like they would be nasty to me so I figure I will save my hundred dollars and buy some real food.

So since we have been married I have been doing this...Every 3-6 months I go to Costco and get items that have at least a year shelf life and that we eat on a regular basis--canned chicken, tuna, soups, mac and cheese, canned veggies and fruits etc. I get enough and have enough on the shelf at home that at any given time we have roughly a years worth of a variety of things. I also get a box of water bottles every time I go.

But I don't have wheat or some of the other things that people talk about--I don't know what I would do with a ton of wheat. I am not much of a cook. I rarely make breads and that sort from scratch--so I don't have any other the other necessities that seem to go along with wheat. So it seems like a waste for me to buy it. It will go bad with out me using it.

So how should I switch things? Do you get your items from the--what is it called the--church cannery place? Can you even get things from there, or do you have to be eligible to buy things from there. I know they hand out cannery opportunities during relief society, but I have never been. From what it sounds like you go to can for others, not yourself.

I probably sound really stupid, but I need some new ideas and help. Maybe I just need to hone my domestic skills in the kitchen. Let me know.

Food Storage

Yesterday I went to a ladies house in my ward to drop off my check for some items from the cannery. I have never participated yet, and if you can't go to the cannery in my ward and they have enough help, they will just go and fill your order for you. So, I thought okay, I will get a couple things that I know I will use (ie: apple slices, rice) and then see what I think and do more next month. Well I don't know this woman really well...she is in the nursery and so she knows my daughter Callie and we have her two girls babysit on a pretty regular basis. Anyway so as I was talking with her she was telling me how wonderful food storage is and how she hadn't really done any until a couple years ago. She said that she was called as second counselor in the RS pres. and she was responsible for food storage. So she started to dabble in it then and just about a year ago was called as the food storage specialist in our ward. She said she grinds her own wheat(which I have always wanted to try) and makes her own bread. Well last November her husband lost his job and here it is March and he still hasn't found another job. She kind of bore her testimony to me and told me that her family since that time has been living off their food storage and how she was so grateful for that. She even had stocked up on such items as...shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.

I think that it is so great to know that our Heavenly Father is always 2 steps ahead of us. He knew that this would happen to her family and so prepared her years before to get her ready for this. I have always known that food storage is important, especially in recent years as you can't go through a conference without a mention of it. I want to be the family who has plenty to help my family as well as other...not the family that is in need of the help because they didn't listen to the counsel given.

As I was thinking about her and her family yesterday I realized that I need to stop making excuses and get going on my food storage. So, I was wondering what you girls thoughts were on this topic and for those of you that have already begun this...do you have any tips for the beginners?