Are you really prepared?

I read this very well written post about being prepared today.  Read through it and ask yourself, are you really prepared?

There is a whole market and industry established to help you prepare for hard times, whether it is from natural disasters or man made problems. A lot of people have caught on and have taken actions in order to be ready for trouble that may come. The problem I see with a lot of people's plans is that they don't really reflect reality. A lot of it is based on "fiction."

Today there are a lot of books and movies that tell the story of survival. They cover scenarios such as the collapse of government, EMP strikes and the loss of power and of course even the zombie apocalypse. These make good reading with interesting stories how individuals or small groups work together to in order to survive and rebuild. One of the first of these I read was "Lucifer's Hammer," back in 1985, which tells the story of what happens after a comet strikes earth. The trouble is that this is fiction, and fiction rarely tells the whole story. True down and dirty survival is ugly and brutal.

The best way to get a real understanding of how bad it can get, and what it takes to live to tell your story is history. And you don't even have to go very far back in time to see this.

You want real life with no power end of the world type stories here in the U.S.? Read about what Southerners were forced to do to survive the "War Between The States," especially once the official war was over. One of my instructor's great grandmothers had to list her possessions after the war to receive benefits. He has the paperwork; she owned two forks, a chair and some clothing.

The twentieth century has plenty of stories about the "end of the world as we know it." Read non-fiction, the true stories of what WWI looked like on the other side of the pond for those who lived in the battle torn areas and what they did to survive. The same goes for WWII, where the German army had to issue orders and strict discipline measures for their soldiers in Stalingrad to stop them from cutting off the soles of their feet to cook and eat.

Want more recent examples of civilian life during hard times? During the Great Depression things were hardcore. The only food my mother's family ate was what my grandfather could kill, grow or trade for, and the same goes for clothing they had to make or any other commodities required to live. Read about how civilians survived during the recent conflicts fought in Europe and the Middle East over ethnic cleansing and religious differences.

Today, in the U.S., most of us have become soft. Life is extremely easy compared to what it has been in the past. We complain bitterly when the 'net goes down or we lose power. Our visions of survival are often based on movies and books, and even if they are modeled on "true" events they usually have "story-book" endings where the good guys win. To learn about real survival you have to study history, the unedited truth.

History shows us how ugly it can get and the horrible things people will do to others in the name of "right." History shows us what you do in order to live without power and all the nice modern things we take for granted. Then, once you get an idea of what this is like try it for a few days. It will be hard, but you'll learn a lot about how well you're prepared.

Today we have instant access to almost anything we want or need. This is great, but it also means you can go from having all that to nothing in a heartbeat - especially considering how fragile our support systems like power, the economy and society are today. It's a fine act of balancing, and it doesn't take much for things to tip over and go sideways. To be ready you have to study and know what it's truly going to look like, and then prepare accordingly.

Tiger McKee is director of Shootrite Firearms Academy, located in northern Alabama. He is the author of "The Book of Two Guns" - http://shootrite.org/book/book.html writes for several firearms/tactical publications, and is featured on GunTalk's DVD, "Fighting With The 1911 - http://shootrite.org/dvd/dvd.html Website: www.shootrite.org

Canning some fruit

It's been awhile since I posted here but haven't done much.  We did sell our other house in Missouri and purchased 2.5 acres in Taylor Az and am building our house there slowly.  We were up there this last week.  Our friends there were picking apples and had two small boxes left over so we took them and then went over to our daughters house in Eagar to visit them for a couple of days.  We found them picking apples off of some trees that her husband Rob's cousin owns.  We pulled the truck in and picked a plastic bin full of red and green apples.  Now, what to do eith them.  Our friend and our daughter and her husband were making apple butter, apple sauce and pie apples so we decided to do the same.

I thought I remembered that we had a "squeezo" so I went out to our storage shed at my sisters and looked.  Sure enough, there it was, laying on the floor in a box.  After taking it home and washing it up, I built a small wood shelf to mount it on on top of our fold up plastic table outside on the porch.  We have a apple peeler but with the squeezo, all you need to do is wash them, cut them in half, cook them and then put them thru the squeezo.  So in we jumped.  We washed up a sink full of apples, cut them in half and then put them in our 14 quart All American steamer caner.  I put 3 quarts of water into the caner and then secured the top on it.  Using a turkey cooker propane burner, I lit the fire and waited for the steam to start coming out of the port.  Once that happened, I put the weight on the port on the 5 pound side and watched while the pressure gauge came up to 5 pounds.  When it did, I shut the gas off and waited for the pressure to go back down to 0.

After the pressure came back down to 0 making it safe to open the lid, we had the squeezo set up, jars  and lids sterilized and were ready to start.

We took turns turning the auger handle and pushing the cooked apple halves down into the squeezo.  You can see the applesauce coming down the chute and the peels, core, seeds and other "stuff" coming out of the end into the ice cream bucket.  After doing that load of apples, we put the applesauce into a large stainless steel pot, added two heaping tablespoons of cinnamon and one heaping teaspoon of powdered cloves into it and stirred it in.  We cooked it on the stove for about two hours so that it would thicken up and then put it in the food processor to make it smooth.  We then put it back into the stainless steel pot and cooked it for another hour.  After it was thick enough, we put it into pint large mouth Ball jars, put the lids on and put them in the pressure caner.  Putting enough water to cover the tops of the jars by one inch, I brought the water to a rolling boil with the lid off and then cooked it for 15 minutes.  The book called for 10 minutes while adding 5 extra minutes for the altitude.  After the timer went off, I turned off the fire and carefully lifted the bottles out of the caner and put them on the table on top of a towel.  I then put a towel over the top of them because there was a slight breeze and they needed to be protected from it.

While the apple butter was cooking, we started working on a second load of apples.  Went through all the steps as for the apple butter except we didn't add any cinnamon and didn't cook it after putting it into the stainless steel pot.  We transferred it from there into the 1 1/2 pint Ball jars and water bath cooked them.

After putting them onto the table, we covered them and left them overnight like the book said.  When canning, the best sound in the world is when you hear the lids click meaning they are sealed.  After they have sit for 24 hours, we put them back in the box that the jars came in.  One secrete I have about that is I cut the plastic off at the top of the box so it acts as an extra support for the box when the bottles are in.  So far, we have made nine 1 1/2 pints of applesauce and 12 pints of apple butter.  We still have about 20 pounds of apples to do.  We may make some pie apples but will see.

Take advantage of any opportunities you get to learn new skills and especially in preserving food for home storage.  And by the way, we have a friend who benefited from our efforts.  She has some pigs that really enjoyed the peels and apples that were excessively bruise or had worms.  Try caning.  It is fun and you can really see the benefits of your efforts and they taste very good.

Bob and LouAnn

Pressure canning time.

It's about time to write something again so here I go.  With the holidays coming, we are watching the food store ads for some good buys so that we can make use of the Stake pressure caner and add to our food storage.  The first week of November, Bashas had bone in chicken breasts for 77 cents per pound.  That also matched up with their first Wednesday of the month senior 10% discount.  We went down to Bashas and LouAnn bought two packages and I bought two packages.  Went back later that evening and we each bought two more packages each.  That worked out to be 69 cents per pound.  Through out the week, we went back and shopped and bought several more packages at the 77 cents a pound price and ended up with 14 packages.  They were mostly frozen so we would separate the breasts, wrap them separately in plastic wrap and freeze them in freezer style zip lock bags.  We went and got the Stake All American pressure caner and started canning chicken.  We thawed them, removed the meat from the bones and then cubed the meat and boiled the bones.  After packing the breast meat into the wide mouth quart Ball brand jars, we poured in the broth from the boiled bones and put the jars, seven quarts at a time into the pressure caner.  You have to let the caner vent steam for 10 minutes before adding the weight to the steam port and then once it comes up to pressure (10 pounds) we set the timer for 95 minutes (adjusting the time +5 minutes for our altitude) and waited.  When the timer went off, we turned off the gas to the cooker and waited for the pressure gauge to read zero.  I took off the weight and then loosened the clamps on the pressure caner lifting the lid up away from me so the steam would go away from me and not at me.  I then removed the jars from the caner and placed them on a cooling rack.  All the lids were sealed so all was good.  After taking them out, the next batch went in.  With the steam venting time, cooking time and then cooling down to be able to open the caner, it takes about two and a half hours to do one batch.  

The week before Thanksgiving, Frys and Bashas both had a sale on ten pound bags of Russet potatoes at 69 cents per bag.  We bought four bags.  The book says you can cut them length wise or cube them.  We decided to cube cut them.  After washing, peeling, rewashing them and cutting them up into about 1" square cubes, we boiled them for six minutes.  The Ball jars had been put through the dish washer and were lined up ready.  We loaded the potatoes into the jars to with in one inch of the top and then poured boiling water into the jar up to one inch below the top of the jar.  Next we used a knife to remove any air bubbles in the jar and then put the lid and screw ring on finger tight.  The jars were loaded into the pressure caner, fire turned up until the steam vented for 10 minutes and then put the 10 pound weight on.  When it got up to pressure, we started the timer for 45 minutes.  The rest was just like doing the chicken. Turn the fire off after 45 minutes, let the pressure go back to zero and then take the bottles out.  Easy Peasy.  I did the math and it came out to $1.35 per quart including the cost of the jars. That doesn't include the amount of personal satisfaction of knowing we did it ourselves. 

So, look for good deals and do it your selves.  If you need help, we have the best book titled Home Preserving that we can tell you all the recipes for anything you want to can.  

The Lord will bless you in your efforts to follow the council of his Prophets.

Bob and LouAnn

Bottling some Tomatoes

It has been a very busy last six months.  We have already been to Missouri and back and now, I am getting ready to go on the Stake Boy Scout Encampment as the camp medic.  As soon as I get back from that, literally within two hours, we leave to go back to Michigan for the 175th anniversary of the farm where my mother was born. 

We had an opportunity to get about 20 pounds of tomatoes that the food bank needed to get rid of.  We decided to bottle them for food storage so I took pictures of the steps.
  
These were vine ripened tomatoes so we needed to remove the vines.

We washed them very well.

We got out our large stainless steel pot and filled it about 2/3rds to the top and put it on the stove to boil.  When the water started to boil, we put six tomatoes at a time in the boiling water for about one minute.

After they boil for about one minute, you will see that the skin has split open.

Take them out and peel the skin off.  It comes off very easily.  It they have any black spots, they will pull right off with the skin.  We then used an apple corer and cored them.

After they were cored, we sliced them in half thru the removed core, laid them cut side down, slice them into three pieces and them turned them one half turn and cubed them.

Now is the time to get your jars and lids ready.  We put the one quart Ball jars in hot simmering water and the lids in another sauce pan with hot simmering water.  I use Ball jars because I have seen other brand lids rust but have never seen that with Ball lids.  I also got out our turkey fryer aluminum pot and put enough water in it to cover the jars with about three inches of water.  I then put the pot on the gas fryer. 

Take the jars out of the simmering water one at a time and pore out the hot water in it.  I used a pair of tongs.  Put your funnel into the jar and then start ladling in the tomatoes until it is within 1/2 inch of the top.  Use a plastic or metal rod and stick it into the tomatoes, pack them down and get all the air bubbles out.  Refill if you have to to leave 1/2 inch head space. 

Use a magnetic wand to get the lids out of the simmering water, put it on the jar and then put the ring on finger tight.  I put a wire wrack in the bottom of the pot to keep the jars off of the bottom of the pot.  The tomatoes filled almost six quarts.  I put hot water in the last quart to fill it up so it is about one half tomatoes and one half juice.  When all the jars are in the water, I turned the gas on high and once it started boiling, I set the timer for 45 minutes and turned the heat to medium.  I didn't get any pictures of that.

After 45 minutes, take the jars out of the boiling water.  We put them on a towel to let them cool.  Within a couple of minutes, the lids started making the sounds that you like to hear, popping.  Let them sit and cool before moving. 

Use a permanent marker and put the date on top of the lid and then keep to enjoy later.  We have done this before and have used them several years later.  They were always great.

With harvest time coming, now is the time to start stocking up on bottles while you can get them.

Have fun
Bob and LouAnn

Dreams and other people's dreams

I'm sorry that I haven't written much lately but since we were released from the calling of Stake Welfare Specialists, I have been pretty busy with my new calling.  I do want to share something that I have discovered, through my daughter Cyndi that I have probably have felt but didn't know it until now.  There have been several "firesides" in the Mesa area lately that have been attended by members in our Stake that have come to my attention.  They sound really interesting and most have been by members of the Church.  That always makes it more "REAL", right?  I have been made aware of these types of meetings or books before but there has almost always been something inside me saying "be careful".  We read the introduction of this particular one on Amazon.com as the author/speaker has two books out on her experience now.  The first one sounded interesting enough that we even downloaded it.  I stopped reading it about in the middle after having that feeling again.  It is about a real life story of a woman who had a near death experience and was "just now allowed to reveal it".  We told our daughter Cyndi about it and she downloaded it and read it.  She called me two weeks ago and said the author was coming to speak near her and she wanted to go but her husband was against it.  I told her that she needed to support her husband and if the author was coming back here in the future to speak, I would not go.  She agreed and that was that.  Today, she made two posts on Facebook.  Both were from President Joseph Fielding Smith.  I will share them here.

Joseph Fielding Smith noted that it was inappropriate to either publicize or seek out such dreams and revelations from rank-and-file members of the Church:
It seems that periodically it becomes necessary to call attention to the true order the Lord has given us in regard to revelation. During the past three or four months I have received a number of communications, coming from various parts of the Church, asking if certain purported revelations or dreams or purported visions are reliable and have the endorsement of the Authorities of the Church….

Now, the Lord will give revelations to this Church, and he will give commandments to this Church from time to time…but always in accordance with his own law; and we do not have to run around and invite individuals who are without authority to relate to us purported visions, or revelations or commandments, for the guidance of this people…."

"If a man comes among the Latter-day Saints, professing to have received a vision or a revelation or a remarkable dream, and the Lord has given him such, he should keep it to himself. It is all out of order, in this Church, for somebody to invite him into a sacrament service to relate that to the Church, because the Lord will give his revelations in the proper way, to the one who is appointed to receive and dispense the word of God to the members of the Church….
Now, these stories of revelation, that are being circulated around, are of no consequence, except for rumor and silly talk by persons who have no authority….When you know God’s truth, when you enter into God’s rest, you will not be hunting after revelations from Tom, Dick and Harry all over the world. You will not be following the will-o’-the-wisp of the vagaries of men and women who advance nonsense and their own ideas."-Joseph Fielding Smith-

I thank my Father in Heaven every day for the inspiration and blessings he gives to me and my family and in particular, today, for our daughter sharing that on Facebook.  We have a Prophet that leads us in the way we should go.  He will NEVER lead us astray.

Bob and LouAnn

Merry Christmas

Sorry I haven't put anything on here for awhile.  We were out of the State during the last two weeks of October visiting family in Oklahoma and Missouri and then I had my left hip replacement surgery on November 3rd.  I've been recovering from that and trying to get back to a "normal" mode of operation with exercising my leg and hip to get it up to strength.  Now my wife says I'm bionic what with having two new hips.  haha. 

More and more, I see, hear and read about Santa Clause and gifts being the main focus on Christmas.  It's time we got back to and teach the true meaning of Christmas which is the Gift Heavenly Father gave us of his Son, Jesus Christ.  I hope that is the message we can give to everyone we meet.

I have been thinking about what I can write about preparedness this month and thought what a great time it would be to give gifts of something we can use to be more prepared and follow the council of the Prophet.  We have been thinking about what would we do if our Bishop told us we had to leave the area and gather in a more secure place because of the increasing wickedness of this area and the world.  What would we do for shelter, sanitation, food and other necessities?  I know what Maslow's hierarchy of needs says but by now, we generally have the top three covered.  The last two areas of the triangle are Safety and Physiological.  What would we need if we were told to leave or "get out of
Dodge"?  These are my thoughts; yours may be different. but here we go.

1.  Shelter:  What would we use for shelter?  We are working on two different types of shelter.  We purchased a same as new 7'X16' V nosed cargo trailer off of Craig's list at a hugh discount and are in the process of converting it into a "stealth camper".  By most all outward appearances, it looks like a cargo trailer......well except for the windows on each side, but in the interior, it will be all set up with everything we need to live in.  It will have a kitchen area with refrigerator, sink, stove top, oven, microwave and cupboards.  It will also have a shower stall, toilet and a queen size bed.  It will have A/C and heating, storage areas along with a fresh water tank, hot water heater and possibly a black water tank.  There will be a shore hookup for outside electricity and water hookups with a generator and DC batteries with an inverter when no commercial power is available.  I am also going to put a solar panel on the roof so the internal batteries can be recharged without using any outside external source that requires fuel or commercial power. Of course, I will have a small area for my Ham radio to mount with a couple of different antenna mounts on the exterior so I can talk to the world and Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City.

While working on the trailer, we have been watching for a deal on a good tent.  After doing a lot of research, we settled on an outfitters style walled tent.  In our case, it is a Cabela's Alaknak 12'X20' tent.  Your needs may be different but get the biggest one you can afford and move around in easily with equipment inside it besides your beds.  We called around to several Calela's with a Bargin Cave and found one for $600 off the regular price.  They said they would ship it free to the Glendale store and it would be there in 4-5 weeks.  9 weeks later it wasn't there and they didn't know what happened to it.  I just happened to be looking on Craig's list and found a brand new one that a disabled VET had won and not used.  He sold it to me for half the new price.  You might think that the size is overkill but our thoughts are that the space will get used.  I want to be able to do everything inside that I could do outside like sleep and cook if the need arose.

2.  Security.  I don't know how you feel about defending yourself and family or friends but I am all in favor of it and so is the Lord.  There are plenty of scriptures to back it up.  If you don't have any firearms experience, get some training.  There are qualified people who can teach you.  Besides my training in the Highway Patrol, I am a NRA certified instructor in basic handgun and personal protection in the home.  After you get some training, purchase a firearm that is right for you and then practice with it.  Teach your children about it and be a responsible firearms owner.

3. Physical needs.  Do you have at a minimum a 72 hour kit for each person in your family?  Have you been stocking up on "no flame" food, you know, the kind you eat every day and don't need to cook?  Have you been stocking up on your long term food storage?  Another reason for us for getting the trailer was so that we could pack our food storage in it and take it along also. 

Here are some pictures of things to think about that you would need.  Think not having any fuel, like what would the pioneers have when they traveled.  It's great to have generators, coleman stoves and lanterns and heaters but what if there was no fuel available?  Cast iron dutch ovens and frying pans and knowing how to cook with them would be invaluable.  Here are some pictures to help give you some ideas.

When it comes to staying warm, my thinking is that you purchase the warmest sleeping bags you can get.  It is a lot easier to unzip it during warm weather or sleep on top of the sleeping bag and throw a sheet over you than it is to have to light of a bag and not be warm enough when it is cold.  For that reason, we bought military surplus extreme cold mummy sleeping bags several years ago on a deal through Ebay.  I always had two of them with me when I was delivering new RV's to dealers around the country and Canada.  They came in handy when I got struck for several hours in Canada and it was -40 degrees outside and the engine would not start because the diesel fuel had gelled.  I put one under me and the other one unzipped on top of me with my feet in the partially zipped end of the bag in the back seat of my crew cab truck and waited for help.  I would have frozen with out them.  We will have a down comforter in our trailer with extra blankets but we are also going to get a sleeping bag for two rated at zero degrees and remember, two people put off twice the body heat as one. 

Use your imagination.  What would you need to survive with out electricity or fuel?  Here is a You Tube link to a documentary that was made in 2013 by National Geographic.

The American Blackout, a National Geographic Documentary

 I think it is very realistic.  If you don't think it will happen, go ask people up and down the east coast, especially New Jersey after the hurricane went through or ask every one in Joplin Missouri after the tornado two years ago, the people in Japan after the tsunami or the people in the path of the lava flow in Hawaii.  Have a family home evening after watching it and council together what you can do as a family to become more prepared.  It is far better to be able to say, "I am ready" than to say, "Oh how I wished I would have been ready".  I know as you plan and start to become more prepared, Heavenly Father will bless you with inspiration and ways to accomplish the things you do to follow the council of the Prophets.  He did for us.

Preparedness, not just food and clothing.

I want to share a You Tube video that has come to my attention lately.  I have seen Al Foxs' video before but this time, I really listened to it.  She hits the nail squarely on it's head. 

It's great that you have made up a 72 hour pack and are ready to go in a moments notice by not letting your fuel tank get below half empty.  It's great that you have acquired your years supply of food storage.  It's even greater because you are being obedient to the Prophet, but, is your testimony of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel on solid ground?  Are you prepared enough on your own to stand when the times get tough, others ridicule you for your beliefs or those strong friends you have been leaning on move or are not in your circle of influence any more.  Lehi's dream recounts what happens.

26  And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27  And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit.
28  And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
(Book of Mormon | 1 Nephi 8:26 - 28)

Al Fox

If you are going to pick which part of her interview to listen to, turn on your spiritual ears starting at 4:41.  " What it comes down to is prayer, really; honest prayer.  Choose who you want to follow, choose to trust, choose to have faith, choose to keep going.  If you have a question, don't turn to the internet, don't turn to other people.  If you want to know if God's there, ask him."

How profound and how easy. 
5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
(New Testament | James 1:5 - 6)


A young boy of 15 years of age did exactly that.  We don't have to see our Father in Heaven or his Son Jesus Christ to get a sure foundation of them or the restored Gospel, all we have to do is ask Him with faith, nothing wavering and He will answer you.  He will not lead you astray.  I know, he answered me.

Bob and LouAnn Singer