Here is a VERY cool website for tracking your food storage. You input your inventory and then can print out three forms: A goal sheet, an inventory sheet and a needs list. The needs list is cool. After you've input all your inventory it calculates your target percentage. So for instance I need 3,023# of grains. I have 1,048# I am at 34.67% of what I need. Sobering number, but motivating to see. The grains are broken up into various items. For wheat I need 1,358#. I have 748#, which puts me at 55.10% of my target. Hopefully after I have gone to the cannery several times next week I will be at 100% of my wheat!
I've only input what I have for long term storage. I plan on going through my pantry and inputting items like pasta, canned fruits and vegetables, spaghetti sauce, dried potatoes, etc. After it is all input I will get a real clear picture and might be surprised at how much I really have.
Go get your wheat!!!!
*Update. My husband was able to get 30 bags of wheat from the cannery today...Whoohoo! I have all my wheat now!
“And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:..And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed. … And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: … And I saw in my dream … seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good: And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them: And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: … And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, … God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. … What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; … And God will shortly bring it to pass” (Gen 41:17-20, 22-26, 28-30, 32).
A friend of mine called around a couple of days ago to some places where she has ordered wheat from in the past. They told her they didn’t have any and furthermore they said if she knew of a place to get it then she had better get all she can from there. So yesterday we went to the LDS Cannery to buy some wheat. She wanted 36 bags and I wanted 24. They would only sell us 15 bags each. Other people were there buying wheat as well. They had only one full pallet when we got there and by the time we left it was nearly gone. They didn’t know when they would be getting more in. The cannery, so long as I have known, has never run out of wheat. They run out of it now on a regular basis. They have also not raised their prices in years. A couple of months ago they did.
There is a food crisis in the world. I have been ignorant of the immensity of it until just recently. Watch this interesting video:
Then read this, this, this, & this
In October of 1998 President Hinckley gave this talk in the Priesthood session of General Conference. It was the one where he said there was a portent of stormy weather ahead. He recounts the Pharos dream which Joseph of Egypt interpreted to mean there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He essentially tells the men that the time has come to get their houses in order.
In October of 2005 President Hinckley gave this talk. He talks of the calamities that were happening around the world. Then he says this:
“Now, I do not say, and I repeat emphatically that I do not say or infer, that what has happened is the punishment of the Lord. Many good people, including some of our faithful Latter-day Saints, are among those who have suffered. Having said this, I do not hesitate to say that this old world is no stranger to calamities and catastrophes. Those of us who read and believe the scriptures are aware of the warnings of prophets concerning catastrophes that have come to pass and are yet to come to pass.”
At the end of the talk he again refers to the dream which Joseph interpreted.
It’s interesting to note that these talks are seven years apart.
I don’t wish to be an alarmist (I know, it's too late for that!), but I’m more than a bit worried. President Hinckley ends his 2005 talk thusly:
“May the Lord bless you, my beloved brethren, to set your houses in order. If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and children and peace in your hearts. That’s all I have to say about it, but I wish to say it with all the emphasis of which I am capable" (emphasis added).
The emphasis of a prophet of God is about as strong an emphasis as I wish to hear. I can't quite feel the peace in my heart yet. I've still got a bit to gather in. With my last batch of wheat I have only about two-thirds the amount of wheat I need for my one year supply. I’m calling the cannery every day next week to find out when they have wheat. My husband works near there and if they have it he’s on the alert to rush down there and get whatever they will give him.
Wish I had listened a few years ago, I would have paid much less for my food storage than I am going to now.
Caution: This post contains wild, unsubstantiated rumors and shameless scare tactics. It is not for the faint of heart. Read at your own risk.
This year in our ward they started the "Noah Plan". Every week they hand out a flier with a few things to do that week to be prepared. The idea being that at the end of the year everyone will have their year supply and also be prepared with other emergency items. I can't do it that way. It's just another thing on my to-do list which is already miles long! However, getting one of those little fliers every week does it's job in that it keeps food storage at the forefront of my thoughts and the desire to be prepared begins to set in! Also, to add to that are a couple of rumors that I heard lately that finally pushed me past desire and straight into action. About these rumors--I can't back them up--you know how those things come around in the email and you're never sure if they are true or not. They are wild and unsubstantiated and you may not quote them as truth from me! I, however, don't care if they are true or not, because they did get me moving.
Rumor #1: Have you noticed that in the past few General Conferences they haven't talked much about food storage or emergency preparedness? Last Conference there was only one talk. A few days ago a friend sent an email to another friend (you know, a friend of a friend of a friend...) (I didn't even get the email myself, so this is just second hand information) that one of the apostles (and I won't say which one, remember, this is a rumor) was having a family meeting and his daughter (she was the one who allegedly sent the email) asked why the brethren weren't speaking about food storage any more. He replied that the prophet has asked them not to because it has been preached by them for 100 years and now it's the Lord's turn to do the preaching. Even if this were not true that one of the apostles said this, the idea presented itself into my brain that I don't want to suffer the consequences of the Lord's preaching! That kind might hurt!
Rumor #2: (From this same friend) She had been talking to a man who was in charge of the food prep program in a ward. He has studied the disasters that have happened of late and has also spoken to some of the "experts". First of all the big freeze in the east has wiped out the peach and blueberry crop as well as other food items. Also, apparently we get a lot of our wheat from Russia which apparently has had some crop failures lately. He said it is estimated that by 2008 the wheat imported to the U.S. will be half of what it is today.
Ok, these may be true, they may not. But in thinking about being prepared I was reminded of a story I read in I Walked to Zion (so this is a true story, but I am paraphrasing it). A family was crossing the plains and the father had a hunk of meat in the handcart near the back where his young son was pushing the cart. The poor boy was so hungry and the meat was right there in front of his face. He finally gave in to the hunger and cut a little piece of meat which he chewed for as long as he could before swallowing it. He did this a couple of times during the course of the day. When the family stopped for the night the dad saw that the meat had been eaten from and asked who had done it. The boy confessed that he had been so hungry that he just couldn't help himself. The man, instead of berating the boy, sat down and cried because he felt so badly that he couldn't provide proper nourishment for his children.
Shameless Scare Tactic: I think there are few things in life worse than not being able to care and provide for your children. As I considered that story I thought how awful it must have been for those pioneers caught in dire circumstances to have to see their children going hungry and even starving to death. Some of them had no control over the situation. Yet what I think would be more awful than that is to watch my child starve knowing that I could have prevented it!
Getting a food storage isn't as hard as it used to be. The guidelines have changed a bit from what I remember and it's very do-able. The criteria is as follows:
- A three month supply of the food you regularly consume
- Drinking water
- A financial reserve
- A longterm supply
The long term supply consists of wheat, white rice and beans. That's it! Those are the staples. You could survive on that if you had to! However, after getting that it is recommended to get sugar, nonfat dry milk, salt, baking soda, and cooking oil and also foods with Vitamin C and other essential nutrients (a few canned goods)...or even a year's supply of multivitamins. Something to offset the blandness! I'm going to can some M&M's next time around!
Now some people have the idea that you have to know how to cook with all the stuff. Really, you don't unless you want to learn how to live more frugally. Here's my take on it. Buy a couple of cookbooks, including the one the church puts out, and store them with all your stuff. If you can read a recipe great, then when/if the time comes that you need to make food from it, you'll be set. If you are able to use a little of it, then you can replace it as needed. I use my wheat when I bake, but I don't bake every day. I buy bread from the store. However, I do know how to make bread and also muffins and pancakes, so if I had to make my bread everyday I could. I can rotate sugar, milk, salt, oil and baking soda because they are things I use regularly anyway, but wheat and other grains can last up to 30 years. I look at it as insurance. If, in 30 years, the stuff I haven't used has gone bad, then I will throw it out and buy more. At that time I won't have any kids around and so will have to buy a lot less! But meanwhile, if some impending disaster comes, I have that insurance. We may be eating wheat grass and sprouted beans after the first 3 months, but hey, we'll be alive!
Sweet Dreams!
M.
My oldest daughter has been bugging me for the last few months to please get the food storage done "so that I won't die when the next disaster happens!" So I told her to make it a Personal Progress project and get it done! She's busy taking inventory and making lists for our 72 hour kits, and today we went to the cannery and canned 400# of wheat, 150# beans, 75# sugar, 75# dry milk, and 2 cans of dried onions. So we're about 1/3 of the way there on our food storage (yes, we need 1200# of wheat for our bunch as well as 400# of other various grains...whew!). We also helped a friend do 800# of wheat. It took us about 4 hours so we went to Leatherby's Ice Cream Parlor afterward for a well deserved icecream sundae!
We'll make a couple of more trips and we should be stocked for a year.
We're gonna get it or die tryin'!
M.