#14

Preparedness #14 -03/15/09

‘Be Prepared... the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.’
Robert Baden-Powell – who is this guy? He is the founder of Scouting.


President Faust said: ‘Obedience leads to true freedom. The more we obey revealed truth, the more we become liberated.’


This is a checklist of most of the suggestions that have been made in the past few months. Now may be a good time to sit down with your family and see how you have done as a family, towards being prepared. Consult www.providentliving.com often.

1. Collect and fill 2 & 3 Litre pop & Juice bottles and fill them with water

2. 6 cans of beans

3. Disaster plan for families and seniors

Determine out of area contacts. Know phone number of neighbors of elderly relatives if you are in different locations. Give contact numbers to family in distant locations. ie. Home/Visiting teachers and neighbors. Give them a copy of your emergency plan as well. Keep it and copies updated. Get to know someone with a short wave radio in case of a communications breakdown. Have meeting places arranged with everyone in case the phones get cut off. Also, have a old type phone that doesn’t require electricity. I got mine at Deseret Industries.

4. Have the things you will need if power or services are cut off

5. Disaster kit- including documents, 72 hour kit and a tools to turn off utilites. Also, have a car kit with esential items.

6. Make sure you have a radio with good batteries and know where to tune to get emergency info. Check batteries often and rotate.

7. Learn to garden if even in pots, and grow things you will use. Learn to preserve by canning or drying the things you use. Become familiar with the Extension Internet site www.dixiegardener.com and other good sources to learn when and how to grow fruit, vegatables & herbs here.

8. Remember Nephi: “I will go and do…for he giveth no commandment save he will prepare a way…” As Pres. Hinkley advised, each time you go shopping, get a few extra of the things you purchase, and put them away…except celery. Potatos can get raunchy too if left too long in the garage but my deter roberies; think about it. You get the idea. Remember the saints in Mexico that put a handfull of rice or beans a week…it adds up. Just do it. What kept the 5 virgins from the feast was a few pennies worth of oil. It’s the little things we do.

9. Include the Kids in the planning. It is vital to their physical and mental health.

10.Home/Visiting Teachers, know the special needs of your families or individuals and have a plan for those in need – Medical or?

11.Figure out a way with your doctor to have a supply of the essential medications you take.

12.Consult with the Internet web site ‘Ready America’ from the Dept. of Homeland Security. It & the church site have information on national threats including pandemic flue information and a kids site for becoming a ‘Certified Preparedness Kid.’ www.ready.gov FEMA has one too: http://www.fema.gov/kids/dizkid1.htm

13.Save and prepare for Dry Pack Canning days last of May, Aug.

14.Know the wild plants weeds that are edible or good for medicine. You’d be surprised how many there are!

15.“Love the Lord thy God with all thy might mind and strength and thy neighbor as thyself.” This puts everything into perspective.

Here is a little more from Wendy Dewitt’s Blog of top ten reasons people do not do their storage:

#6. The boat and the 4 wheelers are taking up all my storage space! (priorities!)
#5. 3 letters....Y2K. Ok, that's 2 letters and a number....but they're always making way too much out of everything! This is never going to happen!” (Every prophecy that has ever been given WILL happen.)
#4. If anything DOES happen, the government will be here within hours! (insert laughter) Did you know the government has been telling us that we need to have food storage? They're actually CALLING it food storage! We now have the government telling us to store food, water, medicines...whatever we will need to be able to stay in our homes for several months.
#3. I can't afford scrap booking AND food storage. The average food storage can cost as little as a dollar a day. We live in the richest society in the history of the world, and while there are cases where money may be a problem, most of the time it is a matter of priorities. We have chosen bigger homes, nicer cars, more tv's, computers, vacations ...everything is more important than our food storage. If I asked, "Who has a cell phone?" most of you would say yes. You pay at least $30 a month to have a cell phone....that's about a dollar a day...the cost of one year's supply of food for your child. Is your cell phone really more important than your child's temporal salvation? You have to make food storage a priority.

The garden is dunged and tilled and soon will have water! Hooray!

gv3grant@gmail.com 435 628-2739