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By now we have all basically recovered from the Christmas feasts and gift giving and we are getting ready to tackle the New Year. This of course means that we are all thinking about our New Year’s resolutions and how we are going to try to improve our lives over the coming year.
After you get past the goals that we all make every year – lose weight, get out of debt, and exercise every day (or at least once a week, or month – or maybe just do away with that one this year), let’s first look at what we wanted, and hopefully did, accomplish this past year.
1. Did you get your water stored? I don’t care if you procured the containers, I want to know if you have the containers filled with water! I have told you this before – water is life, but poor quality water, or no water, can actually contribute to death, and the medical community hasn’t found a cure for that yet. Please put it on your list this year to get your water supply stored. Remember – two gallons, per person, per day for a two-week period. Store it in four different types of containers: a) 50+ gallon drum, b) 5 to 7 gallon containers, c) two liter bottles and in d) old dish soap or hand soap bottles, the large ones (these are used for washing, NOT drinking). Please follow through on this resolution.
2. Have you started to assemble your 72-hour kit? If you already have one, now would be a good time to go through it and rotate anything out that might have become stale (food) or anything that might have become too small (clothes). Check your fuel sources and make sure that they are still intact and try to imagine what more would be helpful. Right now is the perfect time to test your kit because it is VERRRY cold. Take your family and your 72-hour kit out where you don’t have any nice amenities of home life, such as plumbing, electricity, shelter and so forth, and see how well you would fare with what you have packed. Were you able to stay warm? Did you eat? Did you and your kids complain about what you ate? What did you use for restroom facilities? Is it do-able for a long time period? I’m not saying that you should go out for three days, but I do think that one cold afternoon should answer a lot of questions as to what more you need to add to your 72-hour kit and if what you have actually works.
Just a reminder – 72 hours is more of a hope than a reality, so keep in mind that more, in this case, can be better. Also, one positive thing about winter - and only one, you can store chocolate (Dove Dark is good), but make sure that in the spring when you change your winter clothes out for summer wear, that you eat the chocolate and replace it with something responsible, like granola bars.
3. Have you thought about what category of food storer you are or want to become? Are you a Siege, Practical, or Provident storer? Which one would you like to be? Start taking notice of what your family likes to eat and how often they eat it. Then start watching the ads for the items needed to make what your family enjoys eating. Get the kids involved with the food preparation and knowing what you need. How else will they learn how to do it for themselves when you send them out to raise their own families if you don’t teach them? Assign one of your kids to scour the food ads for what you want to buy. Assign another one to keep a running inventory each month of what you have and what you need. Have another one come up with, and try, new recipes that are food storage friendly that your family would like to eat.
I could go on and on, as you know, but you are probably writing down that you are going to exercise this year – good luck with that one and please give thought to including these new ones. After all, what are New Year’s Resolutions for but to try to become better?
Dawn