This week's item

This week's item is FREE!  It costs absolutely nothing, but is extremely valuable.  This will require about a half hour of your time, but I promise you that you will be glad you did it!  

This is a valuable set of papers to be kept someplace handy.  It's probably not ever going to leave your house, except in case of emergency.  I keep my pages like this in the back of my binder where I have my ward list.  It's one of the first things I would grab in case I had to evacuate my house at a moment's notice.

On it you'll list important items such as:

-kids' cell phone numbers 

-the phone numbers of close relatives (in and out of state)

-the phone numbers of a couple of neighbors

-doctor's numbers

-your insurance agents number and your policy numbers

-your driver's license number(s)

-credit card numbers (including the 1-800 numbers for cust. service)

-Social Security number (s)

-prescription medication info

I also list my frequent flyer numbers, dentist/ortho numbers, license plates (I can never remember them!) and have a ward list.  

Feel free to customize this as much as you'd like.  It really gives you a lot of peace of mind to know that all this important info is in one place.  Now you'll just have to remember where you put it!  I have mine in the cupboard right next to my fridge.  My kids can't reach it, but I can see it right there, so I know where to find it.

This week's item

Vegetables (canned and frozen).  This is where a lot of your vitamins and minerals will be coming from so stock up as much as you can (at least five cans per person). 

A lot of young children may not care for veggies by themselves, but remember that canned tomatoes make great salsa and pasta sauce, beans are perfect for burritos and chili, and most everyone likes canned/frozen corn.

This week we’ll be canning dried carrots, so you might want to add those to your food storage as well.

This week's item

Paper plates/bowls and plastic utensils

Imagine if our water service were turned off even temporarily.  It’s not uncommon due to summer power overloads, water contamination or broken pipes.  If you couldn’t wash dishes what would you do? 

Having paper plates and bowls on hand is a great idea.  Also keep a supply of plastic utensils.  

This week's item

We already got bandaids a few months ago, but if you're like me your little ones used all yours up!  So this week we'll be working on  Band-Aids, Sunscreen and Bug repellant

I'd recommend a couple of bottles of each of these items, just because they manage to get lost a lot.

We all know how important sunscreen and bug repellant are this time of year so don't be caught without!

Ack, allergies!

This doesn't really have anything to do with preparedness, but since a lot of people here in Austin suffer from allergies I thought it might be good info to have on hand.

This is a very interesting blog featuring pictures and descriptions of all the allergy-causing plants around this part of our fair state.  No wonder everyone is always popping allergy medication!

This week's item

Tampons & Pads

These are definitely products you don't want to be caught without!  Can you imagine how terrible (and messy!) that would be?  Yuck.

If you've gone through menopause, you're off the hook for this one.  Otherwise consider your needs and the needs of your daughters.  Remember your preteens since these girls are growing fast.  Better to be safe than sorry, so you might want to have extras on hand.

Get at least two boxes of whatever you (or your daughters) use per person.

Maybe this would work in Texas

Have you ever wondered what people in hot countries use for refrigeration when electricity is not an option?  Here's a really ingenious system used by the people of the Sudan (one of the sunniest and hottest countries in the world).

Go here to see the article with photos!

This week's item

Toilet Paper

This one is self-explanatory!  It's something every single person needs and nobody wants to run out of.  If you don't feel like buying toilet paper then make sure you've got a lot of leaves in your backyard!

Toilet paper is bulky so it can be a pain to store if you are short on space.  It's such an important item, though, so try to find a way.  

I recommend 1-3 six-packs per person. It's also one of the few things you can store in your garage since it won't be affected by the hot weather, so keep that in mind.

Got seeds?

I found a link to a wonderful site that lists the proper planting times for growing vegetable and fruits here in Austin.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that you're a little too late for the summer growing season.  That gets underway in March.  You still have time to get things ready for the fall growing season which gets underway in the late summer.  So check out this chart and get your seeds all ready!

Go to the chart by clicking here.

I've missed a few updates, but they're there over on the sidebar in case you need to catch up!

This week's item

This week we'll be working on fat!  Namely Shortening and butter.

Shortening--a can or two per family.  

Butter--one pound per person.  You'll be keeping it in your freezer to make it last longer, so buy as much as freezer space allows.

The bad thing about fat is that it goes rancid quickly.  So check the expiration dates on your shortening.  You have about a year to a  year and a half to use it, so try to cycle through it as best as you can.

It's good advice as you consider adding things to your food storage that things with fat won't last as long.  Which means nut products (peanut butter, candy with nuts, etc.) and chocolate don't last well.  By all means store things like peanut butter and chocolate chips, just be aware that you can't buy it and never think about it again like you would with wheat or dried beans.  You'll have to remember to cycle through your storage.  The good news is that fatty things usually taste the best, so it shouldn't be too hard!

If you have shortening that's about to expire, use it for deep frying.  Make a batch of french fries or try making donuts.

If your fat products have kind of a weird smell, then they have probably begun to go rancid.  Throw it out!  I once made a pie crust without realizing the shortening had gone bad.  I could have kicked myself!  All the work of a homemade berry pie and nobody wanted any after the first bite.

The moral of the story is to use what you have!

This week's item--Medicine

This week we will be buying medicine. You be the judge of what your family needs.

I'd recommend pain killers (don't forget kid's pain killers if needed), cold medicine, any stomach medication such as Tums or Pepto-bismol, bandaids and anything else your family uses.

It would be nice to get some extra prescription meds if possible but I know that insurance can be difficult about that.  

Just imagine what you would need if your family couldn't get to the store for a few weeks.

This week's item

This week we'll be buying canned fruit. Think about it;  If you can't get to a grocery store because of bad weather or there are food shortages or money is very tight, where will you get the five fruits and veg that you're supposed to eat every day?  If you have a garden, that's ideal.  But not everyone has that option.  Your choices become dried and canned goods.  So I can't emphasize how important canned fruit can be (we'll do veggies another week).  Not to mention there's the factor that most kids love it.

Pineapple, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges; my kids can't get enough of this stuff.  I'd recommend a minimum of five cans per person, but get as much as you can. We can easily polish off three cans at one meal!

How does your garden grow?

It's February in Texas which means it's time to start thinking about your garden.  Gardening in Central Texas can be very tricky, but there is lots of advice out there to help make it a success.

Travis County has put out a list of the varieties of vegetables that do best here in Austin.  You can read it here. 

There is also a free gardening class put on by Travis county called Spring Into Action: Staring Your Vegetable Garden right
Friday, March 12, 9-11am
Demo Garden at Texas AgriLife Extension Office of Travis County
1600-B Smith Rd
A free, hands-on demonstration, this seminar will discuss soil amendments, correct way to prepare and handle transplants and how to prepare and plant seeds. It's one of the most popular demos that the county does, so be sure to arrive early to get a seat!

This week's item

We'll be getting peanut butter this week. Peanut butter is such a great item to have on hand.  Not only is it something that most people like (including kids!), it's very filling and just brimming with protein. These kinds of food can be hard to come by in times when food is scarce.

The experts have said that in times of hardship and emergency sweets can be very comforting (I think they're comforting any time!) So peanut butter is the perfect solution.

My kids eat lots of PB&J sanwiches, plus they like it on their waffles and pancakes too (gross!) so we go through a lot of the stuff.  Keep your storage and monetary situation in mind when you decide how much to buy, but I really think it's an important item to have on hand.

If you have peanut allergies you have a couple of choices: you can either buy some to have on hand anyway (maybe if things get really bad you'll be able to barter it.  Not to freak you out, but hey, there's always that possibility.)  Or you can substitute a different item: tuna fish? jelly? syrup?  Or you can just take a week off!

Rice, rice baby

Sorry everyone about dropping the ball for our preparedness item this week! I'm still getting used to this calling but I'll get my act together soon, I promise.

So we're buying rice this week (or last week if you were good and faithful). 3-5 lbs per person is a beginning amount. I recommend putting smaller bags in a larger ziplock bag to keep out the weevils. They love rice! If you ended up getting a giant bag, then that's obviously not a possibility. Just pray for no weevils!

Did you know that the shorter grain of rice you get, the stickier it is? Long grain is nice and fluffy and is great plain or in pilaf. It's the traditional kind of rice that Americans prefer. Medium grain is the kind of sticky rice you find at Chinese restaurants (it's my favorite!). Short grain rice is the stickiest and is perfect for things like sushi.

Get ready for the New Year

I'm excited to kick off the New Year by starting a weekly preparedness item.  Since everyone goes to the grocery store at least once a week, the idea is to buy a few items to slowly build our three-month supply.

Now remember, it's important to take baby steps.  We don't want to burn out and get discouraged.  The important thing here is starting and moving forward.

We are not going to worry so much about prices.  I don't want you to go all over town trying to save yourself a few cents.  It's more important to get your items bought than to get the world's cheapest price.  Buy what you can afford.  If it's just an extra week's worth of food, that's better than nothing.  If you can afford to get three month's worth of each item, that's wonderful!  I'll give you an idea of quantities, but you know your family's tastes better than I do.  

I'll have each week's food storage item listed up at the top right column.