Sunday Evening

It's Sunday evening and all is well. The dog is asleep on her pillow, Sharon is reading a book about Emma Smith, and I am relaxing on the couch.

During the last hour of church the ward held a combined PH and RS meeting. The topic was emergency preparedness, specifically food storage. I started me thinking about what Sharon and I have done so far, and I cannot say that I know exactly what we have and how to use it. Humm! Could be a problem if I actually had to use it. Sharon has been the real force behind this preparation. I know that I filled multiple large containers with different types of grain, but don't know where the grain mill is or how to use it. I don't even know if it requires electricity, or manual power, or perhaps either one. I also know that we purchased pre-packaged food storage, but don't know what is in the boxes, if it has an expiration date, or if any of it requires preparation (such as mixing with water) or the need to cook it. Many years ago we borrowed a dry-pack canner and canned powdered milk, pasta, dried beans, etc. We tried to use one of the cans of beans a year or two ago, but no amount of soaking in water softened them up. Had to throw the can out, but did not go so far as to check the rest of what we canned to see if it was any good. Might be a good idea.

Anyway, decided that I had better get up to speed on this issue. Might even try to survive for a week on what we have stored, and that doesn't mean the cans of spaghetti-Os and boxes of Oreo's in the pantry.

The instructor read a funny quote from Pres. Monson. I may not have it word for word, but it goes something like this: "For years we have been told to obtain a year's worth of food, and to get out of debt. Many have done just the opposite...they have a year's worth of debt and have no food storage".