On being ready...

Thanks to all who participated in my most recent poll about being ready in ten minutes to evacuate. According to the answers given, 25% of those who answered felt that they would be ready and organized, compared to 50% who feel that they would be semi-organized, and 12% each for the answers by those who figure they would manage without preparation and those who also haven't prepared and figure they would have some problems. I don't know if anyone would ever feel completely prepared for a scenario like that, but it would definitely help things to have practiced beforehand. The issues of medication being ready to go, (especially if refrigeration is required) as well as important documents, would be something that just not wanting to be hungry /thirsty/wearing same clothes for three days might not cover, so it is worth thinking about if you need more than a "typical" 72-hour kit.

Ah, the poll. One of the things that I have learned to do here on this blog that apparently would be entirely different if I switched to wordpress, according to what I have seen so far. I did do another post over there, and if I end up switching over, I'll let you know. Decisions, decisions...apparently making the leap entirely to switch when I don't comfortably know how to use wordpress is not a decision I'm ready to make today... :) Thanks for your patience, and thanks if you have visited my new blog! Until if/when I stop blogging here, I'll just put a link to a post on the other blog, if there is one, at the bottom of what I post here. Anyone who is using wordpress, would love to hear comparisons, pros/cons, etc...

The more you know...

...the better your blog address may be. Still trying to decide if I want to switch to wordpress, but I am learning more about it. If you would like to check out my latest post at the new site, it's here.

This blog was my first, hence I didn't know/think about the importance of the blog address, or I guess, the title, which when I look at it now, seems kind of long. :) Oh well. It is mostly about food storage, and it is an adventure, so I guess it's all good. I have gotten some feedback on the wordpress thing, so we'll see how it works out. The new blog's website address is:

http://foodstorageadventure.wordpress.com/

Longtime readers may recall that I sometimes mess around with the background on this blog, and I have already changed it on the new blog from the first post. I'll most likely find something I'll stick with a while pretty soon--until I get bored with it again... If you check it out, I hope you enjoy it!

Thinking it's about time for a drill around here...

Have you ever thought about what your situation would be if you were given ten minutes to evacuate? I recently got this link in an e-mail, and the video shows what happens when two different families are given this evacuation information. The results vary--greatly. So how do you think you would do? There may be some things you hadn't thought about, but having a (up-to-date) 72-hour-kit (aka bug-out bag) is a good start. Just thought that I'd share in case you realize there is something you haven't included yet, but would hate to be without...

Trying something new....

I'm not convinced that I will totally move over to wordpress, but I am considering it. I understand how to use this blog, and I have set up a blog on wordpress, though I don't know how everything works there as of this post. Aaaauuugh, etc. Anyway, I did post a post over there, so if you are interested in reading it, you can check it out here.

Thanks as always for reading! :) 

Have you called yet?

I usually don't talk about anything political on this blog, but I think this issue is so critical that I am now. Perhaps you have heard about the fact that a section of the healthcare legislation requires Catholics to act in ways that are contrary to their beliefs. 

I disagree that they should have to do that. Fortunately, according to an e-mail that I received yesterday, some people in Washington also disagree that they should have to do that (understandably, considering that they have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and religious freedom is part of the Constitution) and the Blunt Conscience Protection Amendment will be voted on soon. Unfortunately, the timing of the vote is unclear, so time is of the essence for the phone calls to your senators. 

I consider this issue to be non-partisan, and want to protect our Constitution. The e-mail I received talked about a movement that Glenn Beck that has organized, and included the information that you can find here. If you go to the link, you will find out what you can do to stand up for religious freedom--in step-by-step detail. There is even a link so that you can find out who your congressmen are, and information in case you want to e-mail your representatives. 

If you already know all the information that you need to know, and just want to call the Capitol Switchboard, the number is (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to your representative, and they will put you through to that representative's office. 

Glenn Beck's campaign is called "We are all Catholics now". You may be familiar with the poem talked about here, where the basic idea is that when someone doesn't stand up for other people there are fewer and fewer people to stand up at all.  We have to stand up for each other when it starts, so that we can stop it before it goes any farther.

I'm not a Catholic, but I will stand up for their right to have religious freedom. I called my senators this morning asking them to support the Blunt Conscience Amendment. Sometimes we don't know what we can do when things that are obviously unconstitutional are paraded before us, but we can do something now, and quickly, before religious freedom is taken away. When enough people are willing to speak out, things happen.

United we stand.

Those seasonings--- gluten-free

I posted previously about this taco soup recipe, and was thinking how great it would be if it were gluten-free, since that issue has come up in my comment section before.Then I checked my taco and ranch seasoning packets, and found out that if I used at least one of them, (if memory serves, at least one had wheat flour in it) the soup wouldn't be gluten-free. Then, thanks to a friend, I found out about this post on do-it-yourself seasonings--taco and ranch, with a bonus of dry onion soup mix--over at Self-Reliance by Jamie. (I originally had (hopefully)  in the post title to indicate that I didn't see any ingredients that I associate with gluten, but if someone else who knows more than I do sees something that would be a problem, please let me know--otherwise, it's all good.) Love that I can use these recipes for much more than just taco soup... :)

Thanks to my friend for the heads-up, and to Jamie over at Self-Reliance by Jamie for sharing the recipes!

Price-wise, things are harder to replace..

Yeah, it's no big surprise that prices tend to go up. And up. And up. But I recently had a very specific experience with price/availability that shows that it can go up reallly quickly...

I've written in the past about the price of ground turkey--we like to buy it in "bulk" (if you can call 3 lb. packages "bulk") brown it, and freeze it in meal-size packages. Having done so, we went for a while without doing what we call "big-time shopping"--quite a while, in fact, and just picked up milk and the like occasionally instead of planning out weeks' worth of menus, and making do with what we had without adding to our storage.  (This applies to food and non-food items.) Not surprisingly, our storage went down, down, down while some prices were going up, up, up. Here's what happened with the ground turkey during this time:

I noticed as I was picking up milk or whatever that the ground turkey wasn't there. So I decided to keep an eye on it, because in the past it seemed to be a first-come, first served basis for the turkey, and you just had to be there at the right time. But this time, there didn't even appear to be a place marked for the packages of  turkey that I usually bought.

Fast forward to when I really needed to get some more turkey. We found that there were 2 pound packages available at our other preferred place for grocery shopping, and if memory serves, when we first started buying ground turkey there, it was $3.98/2 lbs. Since then, it has gone up to $4.98/2lbs.

Bad enough, right? Well, at our used-to-buy turkey place, ground turkey made a reappearance, perhaps a different brand, and perhaps a different fat content or something, but the bottom line is that there is only one kind of package of ground turkey available last time I looked, and it was $3.98/1.25 lbs. Ouch. Hopefully it does not soon become our buy-again-turkey place because it becomes the best buy in town again. Might have to swear off turkey if that happens...

Anyway, my point is that having some food on hand for price hikes alone is a good idea because they most likely will continue to go up. At least if you have something in storage, it gives you a little time to save up for/look around for your next purchase without going hungry in the meantime. It doesn't have to be an emergency per se  for a person to be glad they've put something aside for a rainy day...

And speaking of rainy days, it sounded like a rainy day outside the window today, but it was because of the melting snow, which was not melted enough after falling today to not require some shoveling when it came to the driveway. :) And thanks to all who participated in the poll about snow. I have mislaid the results, but if memory serves, 85% said they were getting less snow than normal, and everyone else who answered doesn't usually get snow where they live. The roads have been easier to drive on, but the really uncharacteristic lack of snow makes me wonder about the water supply.

Oh, I just found the post on my other blog where I wrote about the price of turkey. It used to be $6.22/ 3lb. package. Hope it comes back--it's happened before... :)