Today is the big Making the Plan day. I've researched quite a bit and everything is in my head, scratched on notes and in a Word document on my computer. Today is the day to get the plan made. A firm outline of what I'm doing will be put together and I'll share it on this blog. My biggest reference point is a great website that I have found. FoodStorageMadeEasy is a fabulous site with all kinds of ideas, lists, binder etc. to help you get it going. It's really all there. However...there are things I need to do a bit different for my situation, my family and our needs. This will be my version of Making Food Storage Easy.
In trying to figure out this entire Food Storage process in my head...I've come up with 3 categories that I'm focusing on.
FIRST - Short Term Food Storage
SECOND - Emergency Preparedness
and THIRD - Long Term Food Storage
My class on Thursday will focus on how I break down these 3 categories and then focus on my journey this week to get a good handle on the Short Term Food Storage.
Short Term Food storage will consist of what our family needs to eat comfortably for 3 months. I will start by making sure we have 15 days of food in our home and then we will multiply it by 6 over the next couple of weeks so that we have a total of 90 days or 3 months. I'm gathering this amount of food for 2 reasons. First, So that I have food in my house when it comes time to prepare dinner. And Second, So that if cash gets tight, there are no closings in our real estate business for a few weeks, groceries aren't an issue.
In the past when these cash flow crisis arise...we tend to do a lot of eating out...which is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. We are working harder, stressed and eating on the go which is a budget buster as well as a physical buster. We tend to feel horrible!! My pantry is always full...but we have nothing to eat!! - Drives my kids crazy!!
We'll be putting together a complete Short Term Food Storage Plan which will include menu's, shopping lists, shelf set up, rotation and Grocery shopping to replenish the food.
More on this to come as the week rolls on!!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Getting Started
This coming Thursday I have to teach a mini class on Food Storage for Beginners...How to Get Started. Hmmm ... probably time to get started!! I was raised by a mother who was a avid "food storager" In fact her food storage habit has been the topic of many a family fight. When I was young the fights were usually about who had to unload the car and carry everything downstairs. When I was older and when my father passed away and Mom decided to scale back, it was fighting over who was going to take the food storage to their house. No, we weren't fighting over it. We were fighting against it.
Back in the 80's when we were asked by our church to plan and implement a 2 year food storage system, my Mom got to work. I remember as a young girl my dad blasting a door in a cement wall next to our furnace room and building a 20 X 30 foot room underground to store her wares. She proceeded to stalk that room like nothing I've ever seen. Wall to wall, Ceiling to floor shelves housing everything from bottled peaches (my personal favorite) to Emergency candles, paper towels and heat sources. It was amazing. I remember as a young girl spending countless hours in any food storage, bulk food warehouse from Provo to Salt Lake. My mom was hooked. And boy was she proud! She had it all. And worked so hard to get it. Mom was always the type that when she got into something...she went over board.
As a young mom I remember thinking that I didn't need to worry about food storage. If I could just make it to Mom's house our entire family could benefit from her room. We'd all be fine. She had the the means not only to feed us but probably half the neighborhood. As life changed and my father passed away in the late 90's, Mom decided to scale down. She was headed South to a retirement community where she wouldn't have the space for Food Storage but we would all be blessed to take it off her hands. What a disaster lay before us. As we cleaned out her food storage room and moved her out of her home of 50 plus years we dumped more food out that you can believe. Bad flour, brown fruit, stale cereal, expired cans of vegetables. We salvaged what we could and split it up amongst the 3 of us. I'm still using some things. In my move to a new home just this last month I moved again rolls of saran wrap, paper plates, emergency candles and even a few cans of potatoes that may still be ok from her later years of canning. This entire process left a very sour memory of food storage and I haven't had the will to desire to carry on her passion.
In the last few years I've listened countless times to leaders telling me to get prepared. Many times I've started in on the process but to no avail. I make a plan, I start in and I get either interrupted or I run out of money. When the opportunity came up to share my knowledge about food storage, I signed up. I have a TON of knowledge! of what not to do. Now honestly...I have an idea of what TO DO as well. I just need to focus, organize and make it happen. In the last month or so I've been doing my research. I've been pondering my action plan, and I'm ready to roll!
Thursday night?? Well I'll pull something together! I have a feeling this will be a work in progress. But stay tuned. Here's the journey. Food for the Gatchell's!!
Back in the 80's when we were asked by our church to plan and implement a 2 year food storage system, my Mom got to work. I remember as a young girl my dad blasting a door in a cement wall next to our furnace room and building a 20 X 30 foot room underground to store her wares. She proceeded to stalk that room like nothing I've ever seen. Wall to wall, Ceiling to floor shelves housing everything from bottled peaches (my personal favorite) to Emergency candles, paper towels and heat sources. It was amazing. I remember as a young girl spending countless hours in any food storage, bulk food warehouse from Provo to Salt Lake. My mom was hooked. And boy was she proud! She had it all. And worked so hard to get it. Mom was always the type that when she got into something...she went over board.
As a young mom I remember thinking that I didn't need to worry about food storage. If I could just make it to Mom's house our entire family could benefit from her room. We'd all be fine. She had the the means not only to feed us but probably half the neighborhood. As life changed and my father passed away in the late 90's, Mom decided to scale down. She was headed South to a retirement community where she wouldn't have the space for Food Storage but we would all be blessed to take it off her hands. What a disaster lay before us. As we cleaned out her food storage room and moved her out of her home of 50 plus years we dumped more food out that you can believe. Bad flour, brown fruit, stale cereal, expired cans of vegetables. We salvaged what we could and split it up amongst the 3 of us. I'm still using some things. In my move to a new home just this last month I moved again rolls of saran wrap, paper plates, emergency candles and even a few cans of potatoes that may still be ok from her later years of canning. This entire process left a very sour memory of food storage and I haven't had the will to desire to carry on her passion.In the last few years I've listened countless times to leaders telling me to get prepared. Many times I've started in on the process but to no avail. I make a plan, I start in and I get either interrupted or I run out of money. When the opportunity came up to share my knowledge about food storage, I signed up. I have a TON of knowledge! of what not to do. Now honestly...I have an idea of what TO DO as well. I just need to focus, organize and make it happen. In the last month or so I've been doing my research. I've been pondering my action plan, and I'm ready to roll!
Thursday night?? Well I'll pull something together! I have a feeling this will be a work in progress. But stay tuned. Here's the journey. Food for the Gatchell's!!
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