Storing Your Supplies 

Know the right storing conditions for your food supply:

Store in a cool, dry place, away from sunlight.

Keep a constant temperature between 40-70 degrees F.

Find the coolest place in your house (basements are great).

Keep food storage away from heat sources (furnace, freezer, water heater, refrigerator).

Keep food storage away from clothes dryer (too much humidity )

Keep food storage dry at all time.

Room should have good ventilation.

Store foods off the floors.

The Utah State University Cooperative Extension has a great site with fact sheets about food storage. If you want to read more on Storage Conditions, click here 

So Where Do I Store All This Food?

Take some time to look around your house to see where you can find storage spaces for your food supply. 

These pictures show how a toy chest is being used to store #10 cans at the bottom. Cover the cans with cardboard or a blanket and store the toys on top. This idea works for long-term supplies that wouldn’t need to be rotated often.

Underneath tables are great places to store various items. In the picture, a three months supply of toilet paper (the 1000 sheet per roll brand) is kept in a container. When spaces are tight, you have to examine your house carefully to discover all the possibilities. 

One year long-term food storage for one person can be stored under a twin size bed. A bed with a space under the frame of 10” in height with a depth of 36” and a length of 76” will accomodate 12 boxes with 6 #10 cans in each. If you want to store more, remove the bed frame and use 24 boxes instead (1 year long-term food storage for two people), cover them with a bed skirt, and place the mattress on top of your “food storage bed frame”.

You can purchase a starter kit (one month kit for one person) and pre-packaged long-term food storage cases at the Home Storage Center, click on the pictures for more information.

In the upcoming months, more storage ideas will be shared. Share yours too! Send your pictures, or write your ideas in the comment box. 

Brigitte S.

 

 

Can I Keep My Food Storage in the Garage?

By David S.

In most instances the garage is not a good location for food storage. Most garages are not insulated and thus the temperature can fluctuate a lot.  Large fluctuations in temperature are worse for the food storage than a high constant temperature. Even if the garage is insulated you still have a number of other issues to deal with.  The garage door is usually not insulated and can let heat in or out more than the walls themselves.  If there is no living space above the garage, then the garage attic must be insulated as well.  You would also need to properly seal any other areas where air can come in or go out such as around windows, below the garage door and where wires and pipes enter or exit the garage.  Your best bet is to monitor temperature and humidity for a while and see if they are okay. 

Dry food storage is affected by four things, temperature, moisture, light and pests. 

The temperature should stay below room temperature (75 degrees or less).  The warmer the temperature above freezing level, the shorter the shelf-life for keeping it’s nutritional value.  The Church’s website points out that the staple dry goods, such as wheat, rice, etc. will last at least 30 years if kept below 75 degrees. 

The humidity should be as low as possible.  Anything above 50 or 60% is a poor location.  It is better to aim for about 15% if possible.  This can also be helped by using oxygen absorbers in with the food and sealing the storage containers properly. 

We’ve already seen how the garage is a poor location for the first two conditions.  The garage is also a great home for pests.  That means that three of the four conditions make the garage a poor choice unless you can guarantee the conditions listed can be met. 

 

Friend

View the magazines, printable activities, and sharing time lessons. Find children’s music from the Friend and the Children’s Songbook, download music, play games and more…Take the time to visit this wonderful site with your children.

Click here to visit the Friend, a magazine from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

Family Life

Meals Together-So Much More Than Food Alone!

By Laraine T.

In recent years, numerous studies have indicated the overriding importance of family meal time.  A 2004 University of Minnesota study published in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine states that “frequent family meals are related to better nutritional intake, and a decreased risk for unhealthy weight control practices and substance abuse.” Another benefit, of course, is reduced cost of feeding one’s family. Going out for dinner is very expensive!

While nobody would quibble with the notion that family meals contribute to eating more healthfully or less expensively, it is the component related to less substance abuse that is of utmost importance.  We constantly ask ourselves, “What one thing can we do as a family that will most contribute to our success?”  We supply numerous answers—study the scriptures together, hold family home evening, attend church together, hold family prayer—the list goes one and on. The single, simplest, of all changes to implement is an ironclad establishment of family mealtime! 

In yet another study the multiple benefits of a family mealtime are outlined:

• Families eat more healthy foods, fewer junk food, less soda
• Children have stronger connections with their parents/siblings
• Family members build stronger vocabularies
• Children achieve better grades in school
• Children develop few eating disorders
• Teenagers engage in far fewer risky behaviors

Christine Mann, “Research Shows Lasting Benefits of Family Dinners”

One added, but huge, benefit is that children are more apt to discuss/ask questions that they otherwise would keep to themselves. Communication improves dramatically. The liveliest and most beneficial discussions by far held in our family were around the breakfast and dinner tables.  Notice the inclusion of breakfast to the mix.  Eating breakfast together has even more far reaching benefits. Early morning seminary throws a real monkey wrench into this mix; however, experience demonstrates that children will always remember that you were willing to sacrifice your precious time and energy to see that they had a proper, meaningful beginning and end to their days!

 

Health Watch

There are similarities betwen the symptoms of seasonal flu and H1N1, but can you tell the difference between cold and flu symptoms? The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has a guide comparing the symptoms of both illnesses, Click here to find out…

 

 Family Activity for Thanksgiving Celebration

A Thankful Activity for All

An idea to connect with family members who live too far to join you during Thanksgiving celebration. 

Supplies

• Colored card stock paper or construction paper
• Leaf templates (large enough for a picture to be glued on), autumn leaves (go for a walk  with the kids to collect the leaves), or draw your own 
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Markers
• Glue
• Magnets – some come in a roll and can be cut to desired sizes (optional)
• Tape (optional)

 

Project 

Ask your relatives to send you a picture, and share with you one thing they were thankful for this year. 

  

Cut out all the leaves in different color paper and leaf shapes (they all should be close to the same size).

Glue the pictures on the leaves.

Write your family member’s thankful thought under or above the picture.  

Display Ideas 

1. Glue a magnet behind each leaf and display on the refrigerator.
2. On Thanksgiving Day, have the family members take turn reading the thankful thoughts and then display the leaves on a wall (you can group the leaves by family). You could play a game by placing the leaves with the parents’ pictures on the wall and have family members match the kids’ leaves to their parents.
3. Display all the leaves around the dining room table’s center piece, and read them during Thanksgiving dinner. 

You can easily find free printable pictures of leaves on the internet to use as template for this project. Some children would prefer coloring/painting the leaves and that’s great too. 

Don’t forget to take a picture of the display on Thanksgiving day to send to your relatives.  

Brigitte S.  

 

Education Quote

By Henry B. Eyring

The Lord clearly values what you will find in that history book and in a text on political theory. Remember His words. He wants you to know “things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations” (D&C 88:79). And He favors not only Spanish verbs but the study of geography and demography. You remember that His educational charter requires that we have “a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms” (D&C 88:79). There is also an endorsement for questions we study in the sciences. It is clear that putting spiritual learning first does not relieve us from learning secular things. On the contrary, it gives our secular learning purpose and motivates us to work harder at it.

Henry B. Eyring, “Education for Real Life,” Ensign, October 2002, 14

To read the entire article, click here… 

Education Brightens a Darkened World

 

Preparedness Tip

Never let the gas tank in your car get below half a tank.  If you do this, you won’t have to worry about running out of gas, AND if you had to evacuate, you would be ready.

 

Storing Important Documents

• Apartment or condo leases
• Home or other property deeds (mortgage, etc.)
• Estate documents
• Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance documents
• Wills
• Life insurance policies
• Inventory of possessions and their value
• Photos or video of your home and possessions
• List of important phone numbers
• Flood insurance documents
• Vehicle titles, leases, loan documents, etc.
• Financial statements (accounts, tax returns)
• Stocks and bonds
• Copies of recent bills (power, water, etc.)
• Government financial assistance award letters
• Birth certificates or proof of citizenship
• Social security cards
• Employment contracts or other legal documents
• Military service records
• Medical records, x-rays, benefits documents, etc.
• Education records (report cards, etc.)
• Passports/citizenship papers
• Duplicate prescription from doctor
• Computer backup (on a CD, DVD, etc.)

From the NDSU Extension Service, here are several publications by Debra Pankow, Family Economist Specialist:

 “Family Records: What to keep Where and For How Long” and printable inventory sheets:  “Inventory of important papers” and “Household Inventory” 

Another good article  from the University of Illinois Extension talks about the three places for your home files: current, permanent and inactive.

From the Iowa State University Extension: Money Mechanics: Record Keeping, a thorough guide about record keeping and organizing important documents.

Shopping Tip

November Sales

Plan Purchases During Seasonal Sales for Best Deals 

Holidays in November: Veterans Day - Thanksgiving

Post Halloween candies, Halloween costumes and accessories.

Shop the pre-Thanksgiving and post Thanksgiving sales to find bargains for Christmas.

Thanksgiving food: sweet potatoes, broth, turkey, yams, canned cranberry, stuffing, canned pumpkin, whipping cream, cool whip, fresh cranberries (great to have throughout the year, buy them at their lowest price and keep in the freezer),  ham.

Other Food: Soup, hot cocoa, herbal tea, condensed milk, vegetables, fruits, spaghetti sauce, canned goods, olives, frozen vegetables, cream cheese, condensed milk, frosting, cake mix, brownie mix, cooking spray, pie filling.

Major purchases: New cars, used cars, water heaters, heating device, appliances, and travel shoulder season (great bargains to be found).

Others: Men’s/boy’s suits, shoes, boots, winter coats, and gloves (winter apparel and accessories),  furnace services, car tuning.