More Emergency Info

We are so glad that Michael Barr came and showed us lots of great things that will help make our lives much more comfortable and easy in an emergency. Below you'll find the handouts he brought. I believe it contains all of the information about the items he showed us.

I haven't checked yet to see if the papers about canning butter are exactly the same yet but as I scanned over them, they looked the same.

By the way, Michael and his wife are serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the Springville, Utah Cannery. They are also called to speak to groups about emergency preparedness and so they have tried and tested all of these items plus many more to share what works the best. One comment that he kept making was to make sure to have extra of these items because you never know if "it will get lost, stolen, or broken." He also mentioned that the booklet "All Is Safely Gathered In," which can be found at ProvidentLiving.org,

has a list of food and things that we should have on hand and puts it in order of what is most important to get. Look on the left side and click on "Family Home Storage." He also said that what is listed is just the bare minimum. The list is almost exactly like the list the the pioneers in the handcart companies were told to gather as they crossed the plains. As I think of the hardships they went through, it definitely makes me want to store more food.

One thing that is not on the handouts is how to wash clothes in an emergency. He has used a container that either had an accordion-style plunger and one with an "unbaptized" toilet-plunger, and an old-fashioned washboard. He had 3-4 tubs; first one to wash in(he also used a homemade laundry soap like the one that's posted.) Then he put it through an old fashioned ringer and in the first rinse tub then through the ringer again. Again through the ringer and into the 2nd rinse tub that has a little vinegar in the water to totally get rid of all the soap residue that can stay on clothes. Ringer once more. And the 4th tub was just a check if all the soap was completely out, which it was. He had made a clothes rack out of PVC pipe to hang everything on and it only cost about $10.00.