My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Food Storage

With our economic crisis in this country I thought I'd bring up something very important. Food storage. Yes, it never hurts to be prepared. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have been told for decades to get a year's supply of food and other essentials such as you would need if hubby lost his job or in the event of a catastrophe. It's an excellent idea. I started doing this when I joined the church 15 years ago. Our food storage was destroyed in a flood in our house in the basement. It took me only a couple of months to replace it. I cannot tell you how we have been blessed for having this food. It is a promise from the Lord that if we are prepared we need not fear. It is a foundation of our church to be prepared spiritually and temporally. I am prepared temporally and working on the spiritual side.

This is a shelving system we recently purchased to help us rotate our canned foods better. It is called Shelf Reliance and they have these and dried foods and such for emergencies. Hubs and I have a 72 hour kit in our house for each of us in case we would need to evacuate our home in an emergency. If you doubt there can be an emergency in your area I'd remind you of the people in New Orleans for that devastating hurricane, Iowa for floods and the northeast and east with snow and ice storms. You just never know. Be prepared!

This is a new water storage tank that will hold 200 gallons of water. A man displayed the prototype at a Preparedness Fair our stake had last september. We ordered one and got it a couple of weeks ago. With all the snow we couldn't bring it in and fill it but we will soon. Cost: $180.00. Great deal. It's about 36" round and 6' tall. Easily stored and easy to fill, shows how much water is left and can get it out of the spout on the bottom.

These are two 50 gallon food grade drums we've used for several years for water storage. We'll sell these on Craigslist since we won't need them any more.

Okay, this was our food storage in our old house about 50 miles away from us now.

My "storage" included toilet tissue, toothpaste, shampoo, plastic wrap, laundry soap, bath soap, motor oil, fabric softener, oil for lamps, hard candy for times of stress, tuna in cans, rice-a-roni, vinegar, salt, pepper, olives, just about anything and everything you'd use in a year. Any and all the food we would normally eat. Those buckets have dried carrots, onions, flour, sugar and dried potatoes in them. We had 3 freezers with meat and frozen items in it but sold 1 freezer as we didn't need it any more. Our freezer is stocked with frozen food also.

Yeah, yeah, I overdid the canned tomatoes one year and have to give some to some needy families but I had it to give and was glad to help others.

Ooooh, and this picture??? I was practicing with my digital zoom and looked down at the grass. I zoomed in 15x and got this great pix of the new blades starting to shoot up. I'm jazzed, chicks!!

15 comments:

  1. Well that is certainly being prepared Connie. I thought having a toiletries bag pre-packed was good but compared to you I feel severely inadequate...LOL
    Hugs ~ Kerryanne

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  2. Hey Connie, We are getting our food storage as well..just did our ward canning night on march 31st..had a blast... will be doing it again in may...been telling everyone to get theres..I have my neighbors started on theres and trying to get my best friend in getting theirs...Hey how much do you want for those drums? also can you give me some info on that big one you bought...Thanks again...this is an important thing to be doing...and we still have alot to get but we have a huge start...now we just need to get better organized..we are pushing out the wall under the stairs to store our stuff...right now its in the garage and in the house but I need to better organize so I know what i have....:)

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  3. wowee, now that is what I call prepared. I thought having a few cans of food was good lol. You have put a whole new meaning to the word for me. Thank you sweety, you are very creative and thrifty too I might add. Love your blog. ox Ali

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  4. Girl, you've got it going on!!!

    As a Jesus Christ follower, I, too see need for this to be part of our daily living....when I shop I buy an "extra" whether I need it or not.

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  5. I find this just fascinating and would love to get myself organized enough to do something like this on a little smaller scale to start. Is your food storage area heated. I have a place I could do this but it is not heated. Thank you for this timely post.

    Have A Marvelous Monday
    from Roberta Anne
    "The Raggedy Girl"

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  6. Food Storage; always a work in progress. Love the shelves in your last house, talk about organized! Saw the water tanks at the EP-Fair, though we haven't bought one yet. Like I said, a work in progress.

    ~Stacey

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  7. I have this in my blood, I was just out in our pantry area and I thought how I always like to have PLENTY of food on hand, always have been that way. I'm not the same religious persuasion as you are, however I think it's smart to be prepared, and it's more economical. Thanks for the info on sources for water storage, food storage, etc.

    AND...I must know, are there any updates on your son? I'd love to know, I've been mentioning him in prayer...

    XOXO
    Joni

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  8. Hi Connie... Just finished reading 'n catching up on your blog... This was an excellent post, and it reminded me that it's time for us to up-date 'n rotate our emergency supplies. Thank you! Please know that I've had your son and your entire family in prayer, and will continue to do so. You're in my thoughts...
    God bless...

    ~hugs 'n prayers~

    Pearl

    April ~ AUTISM Awareness Month~

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  9. I have heard that it is a good idea to store foods to be ready in case of some type of disaster. I did that for awhile and nothing happened. Then we moved and had to deal with moving all the food (or the movers did) They told us not to buy anymore food until we moved because of the cost of moving it. HAHAHA. I haven't replenished anything yet.

    Kris

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  10. very interesting. i had stockpiled food in prep for Y2K (remember all that? ugh)

    nice zoom!

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  11. Hey Connie~~Thanks for the visit on the blogsite...great post for today...I can soooo relate. This is such an important thing to have...we had a little problem at the beginning when we started (you know, how much to have of what and what to buy). My husband and I decided to start with a 2 week supply and work our way up. The leaders of the church suggested it in our area. Our ward was so stressed out trying to figure out how much to get for the year's supply. Still a good idea, though. Be prepared! Focus should always be on the practical first, like this! Thanks for the reminder...Hope you are having a good visit with your son and family. Where in Calif???

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  12. Wow! I don't think that I have ever seen such organization. I am truly impressed. I also enjoyed your friend's house tour.
    Sweetie

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  13. Hey Connie;; Nothing like being prepared. And you are so prepared, but what a great idea. I will have to do some of that.. I never thought about that before,,, how silly of me...

    Hugs;
    Alaura

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  14. My goodness! I guess that is a good idea, but cannot imagine having that much food stock-piled like that. I do not have room for anything close to that, but I can certainly see the value.

    You are amazing, Connie!

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  15. You are a girl after my own heart, Connie! I'm a big preparedness buff, too -- your storage is very reminiscent of mine with all the toilet paper in reserve! Just happened upon your blog and look forward to reading more. Mine is http://preparednesspro.wordpress.com. Enjoy!

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Comments are so nice and I thank all of you that leave one for me.