Storage Item for October~~emergency supplies

the original of this article is being featured on Latter-day Homeschooling, 10-4-10

We are striving to be a wise, and prepared, virgin.

How is your food storage coming?  Have you checked your pantry yet to see what can be tossed in your closet for this month, anything left over?  What have you purchased?  Do you see your food storage building? 

This month we are talking about emergency supplies.  We are touching on a few aspects about acquiring emergency supplies, what we need, what stores will run out of in a national emergency, recipes for emergency baby formula, cleaners, wipes, link for my favorite storage and emergency recipe book, and links for Pinto Bean Pie recipes. Happy browsing!

Do you have a 72 hour emergency kit (a printable file) for each member of your family? People store different things in their kits.  I came across this one first. If you google “72 hour emergency kits”, several links will come up.  Store what works for your family.

When I was a new member, I was counseled to rotate items in my 72-hour emergency kit every General Conference weekend.  Rotate food items, i.e. crackers, oatmeal packets, etc.  Check expiration dates on medicines, first aid supplies.  Check what more you might need. Have you considered Dental supplies, such as Dentex for lost fillings and loose caps?  Talk with your doctor and pharmacist about having an extra bottle of prescription meds in your emergency kit in case of , well, emergencies where you won’t be able to get to the pharmacy.  Rotate monthly.

I found this to be an interesting site:

Top 100 Items to Disappear in a National Emergency

In the above link, you will find products stores may run out of immediately.  Best to have it on hand already.  One item that was not listed on the link was a Hand Crank Wheat Grinder.

I found an interesting article in “Mother Earth News” magazine, Feb/March 2010, about the Cam Mathers family that lives off the grid completely now, growing their own food, solar power, wind turbine, wood stove, etc.  Cam has written a book , “Thriving During Challenging Times: The Energy, Food and Financial Independence Handbook”, detailing how they’ve achieved their lifestyle.  I am interested in reading this.

I have listed recipes, below the storage item block, for Emergency Baby formula, home made baby wipes, anti-bacterial cleaning wipes, homemade laundry soap and newspaper logs.

Food Storage Item of the Month for October

Fuel and Light,

Alternate Energy, Cooking,

Candles, Flashlights,

Clothing and Warmth

72-hour emergency kit expiration date check and rotation

FUEL: What do you use to heat your home?

A wood pile is a good source of emergency energy for warmth, light and cooking, but only if you have a fireplace or a wood stove. 3-4 cord of wood will last a typical winter, if burned only during the day, and just enough to keep the house warm. More is needed for an open fireplace. Newspapers can also be turned into clean-burning logs. (Directions will follow)

Kerosene heaters are available at your hardware stores. (Sorry I do not have information on kerosene storage. Your dealer may know what you need. If I get the information, I will get it to you.)

When using dry heat, consider keeping a pan of water steaming to add moisture to the air.

COOKING: Meals can be prepared over an open fire, as our scouts have been practicing. Roasting hotdogs using the newspaper logs might be a fun FHE activity either with your woodstove, fireplace or outdoor campfire, and you can see what it takes to control the mess if done indoors.

An emergency tin can stove is simply a #10 can with a heating unit. (The #10 can is the really big one we get from the Cannery or from the institutional canned food aisle at the grocery store. Can you eat that much Fruit Cocktail?) Corrugated paper can be rolled tightly around a candle stub and put into a tuna can, then soaked with wax. Place it on a heatproof surface, light, and set the tin can stove over it. Cook on the stove “top” which was formerly the bottom of the # 10 can.

Of course, camp stoves work well also.  Store butane canisters.

LIGHT: A typical ½ inch taper candle will burn for 3-4 hours and if placed in front of a mirror or pie tin, gives off twice the light. Put a small plate under the candlestick to catch the wax if the candle holder doesn’t have a cup to catch the wax. (Do you know how to make candles?) Votive candles burn less brightly, but longer. Votive holders get very hot when the candle burns continuously, and can burn wood surfaces, so it might be a good idea to protect the surface with a hot plate or pot holder.

A two battery flashlight will provide light for 3-4 hours continuously with old batteries and 5-6 hours with new. An additional 1-2 hours of use can be gained by using the flashlights only intermittently.

Consider adding light bulbs to your storage.

Coleman lanterns are readily available along with butane canisters.

Oil lamps are readily available,  Store Lamp oil and wicks.

WARMTH: Do you keep a blanket in your vehicle? What about those silver thermal blankets you find in the camping section at the store? They take up very little room. What do you need that makes sense for your family? Do you need anything extra for warm clothing?

Solar Power is an alternative to electricity.

Wind Turbine Power is also becoming more popular.

NEWSPAPER LOGS

Divide the day’s paper into sections and fold them to one-half size (about 12”x15” and ½” thick or less.) Place them n a tub of water and either soak overnight or add 1 TBSP detergent to a large tub of water and soak an hour or two. Then, while wet, roll the sections individually on a 1” rod and squeeze out the excess water while smoothing the surface edges. Slide the rolls off the rod and stand them on end to dry, tipping the rolls slightly to allow air to circulate. The “logs” should be about 12” long and 2” to 4” in diameter. They are ready to use when completely dry. The average week-day newspaper will make 2-3 logs, and the Sunday edition will make up to seven logs. Newspaper logs provide, pound-for-pound, about the same heat as wood and is an efficient energy source. 4 logs last approximately one hour.

Emergency Baby Formula

(from Cookin’ with Home Storage by Peggy Layton.  I love this book!!)

1/3 cup plus 2 tsp. instant powdered milk
or
1/4 cup non-instant powdered milk
1/3 cup boiled water
Mix together and stir thoroughly.
Add:
1 Tbl oil
2 tsp sugar
If baby bottles are not available, milk can be spoon-fed to an infant.

Home made Laundry Soap
5.5 oz -ish bar Ivory Soap ( I used 2-3 oz bars)
1 1/2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (or other available brand)
1 1/2 cups Borax
1 -5 gallon bucket with lid

With a vegetable peeler, shave soap into a 2-qt pot. Add 4 cups hot water and melt the soap at a medium heat, stirring frequently. When the soap flakes melt, pour soap and water mixture into the 5-gallon bucket and fill it 1/2 full with hot tap water. Add the 1 1/2 cups each of washing soda and borax. Stir until powders dissolve. Fill bucket with hot tap water, cover with the lid and let sit over night.

Next day, you will find a layer of glop at the top of the mixture. Stir until glop breaks up. This is now your laundry soap concentrate and ready to use (this mixture will continue to thicken to the consistency of hair conditioner).
Select a container with a lid for your working mixture--empty vinegar bottle, drink pitcher...whatever works for you-- and fill 1/2 full with hot water and 1/2 with concentrate, leaving enough room for shaking expansion.
Shake before each use. The original recipe calls for using 1/2 cup laundry soap for a large load of laundry. A friend of mine was able to get away with 1/4 cup per large load. (she washed very dirty nasty towels, smelly rags and they came out looking and smelling fresh and clean. ) See what works for you.

Make Your Own Cleaning Wipes 
Here's what you'll need:
(

1) roll Bounty paper towels (these seem to hold up the best; I've also heard that Viva towels do pretty well)
(1) Rubbermaid #6 square container & lid, or other similar size (10-cup) container with tight-fitting lid
(2) cups water
(1) ounce Lysol all-purpose cleaner (according to the bottle, this 1:16 dilution will give you hospital-grade disinfecting)
You'll also need a long serrated knife (like a bread knife), an electric knife, or a small hacksaw. (I use a long serrated bread knife.)

2) Begin by cutting the roll of paper towels in half, so that you end up with two shorter rolls. (It may help if you cut down through the paper all the way around until you hit the cardboard tube in the middle, and then cut through the cardboard tube.) Brush any loose "fuzzies" off the cut ends, and trim any large clumps with scissors if desired. You'll only need one half of the roll right now; save the other half.
Add the water and Lysol in your container, and swirl to mix (do not shake - you'll make suds).
Next, turn your half roll with the cut side down and gently fold in the sides of the cardboard tube in the middle of the paper towel roll until you can pull it out of the center. It will pull up the inside end of the towel roll with it, and that's just what you want.
Place your roll cut side down in the container with your cleaner and water mixture, and close the lid. Allow the paper towel roll to soak up all the liquid (about 30-60 minutes). Then turn your container upside down for 1-2 hours so that the cleaning mixture can saturate all of the roll. Once it's done, turn it right-side up and you're ready to go - just grab the towels from the inside of the roll, tear off as many as needed, and replace the lid.

3) Depending on how quickly you go through these, you may need to add just a little water periodically to keep the towels moist.
You can, of course, substitute other brands of cleaners if you'd like. Just be careful that you don't mix different cleaners together. Or if you would rather stay away from the chemicals in the Lysol, you can try this recipe for the cleaning mixture:
1 tsp baking soda
2-5 drops dish soap
3 Tbsp. white vinegar
2-3 cups water
Be sure to label all containers and keep out of reach of small children.

Make Your Own Baby Wipes

You can use the same method for making your own cleaning wipes (see previous post) in order to make your own baby wipes as well (with different ingredients, of course).
Here's what you'll need:

(1) roll Bounty* paper towels (or a half roll left over from making cleaning wipes)
(1) Rubbermaid #6 square container or similar
(2) cups water (distilled or tap, depending on your preference)
(2) Tbsp. baby wash or baby shampoo
Optional: (1) Tbsp. baby oil or baby lotion
Prepare the same way as you would the cleaning wipes.
I usually just used tap water, and I left out the baby oil/lotion. But you can use distilled water or boiled tap water (which has cooled to room temp before using the wipes) if you want. Adjust the amount of water based on how relatively wet or dry you prefer your wipes.
As before, you may need to add a few drops of water periodically if your wipes start to dry out.
If you also make your own cleaning wipes, make ABSOLUTE SURE to label each container so that you (or anyone else in your household) don't accidently mix them up!
*I've found that Bounty works really well. You'll want to use a paper towel that is quite thick and is not prone to giving off a lot of lint.

Happy prepping, my friends.  Do you have any ideas, recipes and favorite books to share?

Teresa watches the “Jericho” series often enough to keep considering the importance of food storage and emergency supplies.  She is not ready for everything that could happen, but is working toward it. She intends to try Pinto Bean Pie and Pinto Bean Fudge someday when she is brave enough.