Got Water?

Since we have a well, we decided to install this rainwater collection system.  This cistern holds 1500 gallons, and we should be able to water our garden with it all summer.  We put chicken wire all over it and planted jasmine bushes around it, and they should grow up and cover it within a couple of years so it won't be so ugly.

Write down phone numbers

I had a dream the other night, I was lost and I did not have my cell phone and couldn't call anyone because I didn't know anyone's phone number.

I woke up and realized this is really a problem in real life, not just in dreams. My brother lost his cell phone and he was in real trouble, he didn't know any of the phone numbers he needed.

 I want to encourage you all to write down all your most important numbers and put a hard copy of them into your glove compartment in your car, in your purse, in your wallet, at your workplace, etc.

 There may come a time when your cell phone is lost or stolen or out of power, and you will be very thankful you have phone numbers so you can make a phone call on someone else's phone.





I loved this story of how the Seattle gun buy-back program became a huge gun show, with people buying guns from the people in line for MORE than the  government was going to pay them.  Free enterprise lives!

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/backfire-seattle-gun-buyback-turns-into-gun-show_01292013

Sandy, Boxes, Tractor, Missionaries

I am worried that Bryce, Marianne, and Gabrielle are going to be without electricity for several days if Hurricane Sandy's effects go through Pittsburgh.  I urged them to get a Coleman stove, and was very thankful to hear they bought one.  I hope their area turns out to be fine.



There are still boxes everywhere in our house, the pantry got completely done on Saturday, but all the food won't fit in there, so I have to go to Plan B and start figuring out other places to put it.



Wayne spent a long time trying to figure out how to work the tractor, he was having trouble controlling his vocabulary because the manual was SO POORLY WRITTEN that he wanted to cuss and scream at whoever wrote it.  John Deere needs to hire a better instruction manual writer.
I can hear the tractor going right now, so I guess he is practicing driving it around.





Here is an article about the huge increase in missionary applications occurring right now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/mormon-missionary-application-increase-471-percent_n_2011973.html

Loved the Relief Society broadcast

 I loved the General Relief Society broadcast tonight.  Each of the 3 woman in the General Relief Society Presidency and President Henry B. Eyring gave such inspiring talks, which interestingly, all seemed to include messages about helping one another through times of trouble, and how the Lord comforts us and blesses us through times of trouble, either through the Holy Spirit or through other people.

I have a testimony that the Lord guides our general authorities and auxiliary leaders as they prepare their talks.  I know He inspires them with what to say.  It is my opinion that they all seem to want to prepare us for troubled times ahead.  Our only safety is to follow the prophet and keep God's commandments.  I know that God will help us as we keep our covenants and as we show Christlike service to each other.

I want to plead with everyone to get their food storage, get out of debt, get your homes and finances in order.

When I see the magazines in the grocery store, I am horrified by all the time and money spent on idolizing immoral people. The people in this nation have their priorities totally screwed up.  Lets spend our time serving others, studying scriptures, being good wives and mothers and friends, and preparing our families.  This country has major problems, and unfortunately, I don't think electing Mitt Romney will necessarily solve them.  

And that brings to mind my other huge fear:  that Romney will be elected, and THEN the economy will collapse (or another terrorist attack will happen, or WWIII will start, etc) and the disgruntled Americans will blame all the Mormons for the catastrophe and the persecutions on our church will start again.  So I am not that excited to have him elected.  (Don't get me wrong, I am voting for Romney.  I definitely believe if Obama is re-elected all that stuff will happen even faster.)

(Here is an example of the gimme mentality which is killing our nation: "Obama gave me a phone".  I am really ashamed of our nation training people to think this way.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tpAOwJvTOio)



Here are several articles pointing to troubled times ahead:

(And I'm not even including any articles about the heightening tensions between China and Japan, and Israel and Iran.  The Israel thing is bothering me the most, Netanyahu has hinted pretty strongly that there is going to be an attack on Iran, but when???  The price of gasoline will go SKY HIGH when that happens.)

 Spain's economy may be about to collapse, and if it did, it will trigger banking catastrophes around the world.
 http://investmentwatchblog.com/impending-catastrophe-spain-has-entered-a-full-scale-collapse-and-created-a-tremendous-amount-of-instability-which-could-trigger-an-imminent-lehman-like-event-and-a-rerun-of-the-great-panic-of-2008/#1qs1Oryb4Iyt7FPS.99

The possible results of QE3:
http://moneymorning.com/ob/faber-warns-everything-will-collapse/


 The following 2 stories are about the expanded FDIC insurance ending Dec. 31.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/09/21/run-on-the-banks-would-make-fiscal-cliff-look-like-a-speed-bump/

The above story came from Forbes.  The story below is easier for me to understand, on the same subject.
http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-bank-run-imminent-as-fdic-expanded-deposit-insurance-ends-dec-31st/

As Phyllis B. used to say at the end of her Gospel Doctrine lessons, "Therefore, what?"
What do we do?

In my opinion it is time to fast and pray about how to prepare your families, because these bad things are all on the brink, and one of them will set off the next one.

I love these Conservative Blogs, Preparedness Blogs

 Any of you conservatives out there, I urge you to bookmark these on your google readers.

I adore http://www.americanthinker.com/.  Every day they have at least seven excellent articles about government and societal issues, well done and thought provoking.

http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/  is GREAT.

Another of my favorite blogs is http://www.shtfplan.com/.



For preparedness fans like me, look at these:

My two favorite food storage blogs are:
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/  and http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/.  Amazingly, all three of these ladies are sister-in-laws.  What a great family!

This woman makes recipes completely out of food storage and posts step by step photos, http://myfoodstoragecookbook.com/ .

I have a bunch more that I like to read, but I am too lazy to post them today. Maybe I'll post them some other time.

Elder Ballard's talk brings me great comfort

I just read this great commencement speech by Elder Ballard April 6, 2012.  It gives me great comfort to find out that he says we have "a season, possibly a short season" left.  I have been convinced that the big economic collapse and dictatorship was all going to happen this fall or next year, so I am totally thrilled that I am wrong.  Hooray!!  We have some time left!

http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Graduation/2012_04_06_Ballard.htm

Brigham Young University-Idaho Commencement

April 6, 2012

Commencement Remarks

Elder M. Russell Ballard

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

On this day, April 6, the anniversary of the founding of the Church and, as revealed in scripture, of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, and on this day, the day of your graduation, it is a privilege to be with you.

I am honored to be invited to speak to you. I understand from a friend of mine that the longest commencement speech ever given was six hours at Harvard in the early 19^th century. It was delivered in Latin, then Greek, and finally in English. The shortest was delivered by the late Nels Smith, former governor of Wyoming. When it came his turn to speak, he arose slowly from his chair, approached the podium, surveyed the rows and rows of gowned graduating students, and speaking slowly simply said, “You done real good.” Then he turned and sat back down.

Well, I can promise you I will not deliver my speech in Latin or Greek, but it will be a little longer than Governor Smith’s. As I look at you, my heart is overflowing with love for each of you graduates and for you moms and dads who have sacrificed so much to make this day possible. You are all to be congratulated.

I bring the love of our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, the First Presidency, and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We pray for you often asking Heavenly Father to bless you in your preparation for your future.

We have also felt your love and the sustaining power of your prayers. I can tell you, with a heart full of gratitude, it is because of the prayers of the Saints we are able to fulfill the demands of our callings, especially as some of us are not so young any more. Hopefully, in my 83 years of living I have learned a few things that will help you on your way.

This activity this evening is aptly called “Commencement” because you will now be moving on to the next phase of your life, a beginning or commencement, if you will. The conditions in the world you are about to encounter are filled with uncertainty and danger. The economies of the world and of the United States are unstable and unpredictable. The cherished values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are under attack by those who want to restrict agency and make you dependent rather than encouraging your skills and talents to create new and exciting ways of doing things. 

Standards of morality are failing. The family is under attack and is crumbling. Love in the hearts of men has waxed cold and is unnatural. There is a continuing breakdown in the integrity, honesty, and righteousness of political, business, and other leaders. Wars and rumors of wars between nations and creeds abound. And even more destructive than any armed conflict is the war raging between good and evil—a war for the very souls of men—between the Savior and His army of light against Satan and his evil minions of darkness.

President Gordon B. Hinckley described the world you are about to enter when he said, “We live in a season when fierce men do terrible and despicable things. We live in a season of war. We live in a season of arrogance. We live in a season of wickedness, pornography, and immorality. All of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah haunt our society. Our young people have never faced a greater challenge. We have never seen more clearly the lecherous face of evil.”

You should not be surprised at all of these circumstances of our time because the scriptures and prophecies of our day testify of what will happen in the world if the people turn their backs toward God. And you know that we will yet experience some unpleasant things for the devil continues his attempts to accomplish his evil designs. At the same time, the prophets of old who saw our day, who saw your generation, knew this time—your time—would be an age of light and wonderment such as the world has never before experienced.

As I prepared for this talk today, I asked for guidance to know what message our Heavenly Father would want me to share with you. The calming and assuring words spoken by the Lord to Joseph Smith came to my mind: “Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours…and the riches of eternity” (D&C 78:1.

What I believe the Lord wants me to tell you is that you should replace fear with faith—faith in God and the power of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember as a young 13-year-old boy coming home from priesthood meeting on Sunday, December 7, 1941, to learn from my parents that Japan had just bombed Pearl Harbor. This propelled the United States into a world war that had already been raging in Europe for two years. It seemed like life as we knew it was going to come to an end. There was much uncertainty as many young men were swept up into military service. However, now just as then, amidst all of the conflicts, struggles, and evil influences in the world, there is still much of good. 

As you think about your future, you should be filled with faith and hope. Always remember that Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, the architect of our salvation, and the head of this Church is in control. He will not permit His work to fail. He will be victorious over all darkness and evil. And He invites us all, members of His Church and others who are the honest in heart, to join in the battle for the souls of men. Along with all else we will do in life, we must also dedicate and consecrate our heart, might, mind, and strength to His cause, walking in faith and working with conviction.

Face the future with optimism. I believe we are standing on the threshold of a new era of growth, prosperity, and abundance. Barring a calamity or unexpected international crisis, I think the next few years will bring a resurgence in the economy as new discoveries are made in communication, medicine, energy, transportation, physics, computer technology, and other fields of endeavor.

Many of these discoveries, as in the past, will be the result of the Spirit whispering insights into and enlightening the minds of truth-seeking individuals. Many of these discoveries will be made for the purpose of helping to bring to pass the purposes and work of God and the quickening of the building of His kingdom on earth today. With these discoveries and advances will come new employment opportunities and prosperity for those who work hard and especially to those who strive to keep the commandments of God. This has been the case in other significant periods of national and international economic growth.

Before the Savior’s second coming—and based on His divine timetable—the gospel must be taken to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people until it fills the whole earth. And as the Prophet Joseph declared, “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (Documentary History of the Church, Vol. 4, 540).

As the gospel is carried to the billions of spiritually hungry souls, miracles will be performed by the hand of the Lord. Missionaries of many nationalities will serve the Lord throughout the earth. New chapels and many more temples will be built to bless the Saints as pre-millennial growth has been prophesied. 

You may ask, “Where will the financial resources come from to fund this growth?” The resources will come from faithful members like you through your tithes and offerings. As you graduates do your part, the Lord will bless you with prosperity and the wisdom to keep your mind focused on what matters most in your life: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:13). 

So, for yet a season, possibly a short season, it will seem as though the windows of heaven will have truly opened so that “there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). I believe you graduates sitting here today will be active participants in temporal blessings if you keep the commandments of the Lord. With prosperity will come a unique challenge—a test that will try many of you to your spiritual core. As you step into this new world of prosperity and engage in converting your education into financial success, you will always have to control wants vs. needs.

You will have two choices. Will your motivation to build and acquire the blessings of the Lord be for personal gratification, the recognition of men, for power, influence and self-aggrandizement? Or will your motive be to glorify God, working to help usher in the growth and expansion of His Church?

Those who seek riches to build up their own egos will find their treasure to be slippery and easily lost in unwise ways. The welfare of their souls will be in great jeopardy. Jacob, the obedient younger brother of Nephi warned us concerning this wealth:

“And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches…yet you are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel…do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you…let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls! (Jacob 2:13-14,16).

Jacob then put our motivation to acquire wealth in the proper perspective with a promise:

“But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

“And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted” (Jacob 2: 18-19).

The Lord is not telling us that we should not be prosperous or that prosperity is a sin or is evil. On the contrary, He has always blessed the obedience of His people with prosperity. He is telling us that we should seek prosperity only after we seek, find, and serve Him. Then, because our hearts are right, because we love Him first and foremost, we will choose to invest the riches we obtain in building His kingdom.

If you choose to seek riches for the sake of riches, you will fall short. You will never be satisfied. You will be empty, never finding true happiness and lasting joy. The trial of your faith, my dear brothers and sisters, in the next few years to come will likely not be that you lack the material things of this world. Rather it will be in choosing what to do with the temporal blessings you may receive.

Of you and your generation, President Ezra Taft Benson said: “For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming…God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly…You are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God” (“Stalwart and Brave We Stand,” quoted by Marvin J. Ashton, Ensign, November 1989, 36).

Brothers and sisters, to be a vital part of the marvelous work and wonder in these last days, you must submit your will to God, letting it be swallowed up in His will. As you press forward “with a steadfastness in Christ,” with a “brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men...feasting upon the word of Christ,” (2 Nephi 31:20) searching diligently, praying always, and believing, then, as the Lord promises, “all things will work together for your good” (see D&C 90:24).

So, I urge you to make a commitment to yourself and to Heavenly Father to dedicate your life and consecrate your time and talents to the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ in anticipation of the Savior’s second coming. Let the motive of your thoughts and actions be to glorify God and to bless your fellowman. Let this desire inspire you to greet each new morning with enthusiasm, let it fuel your thoughts and actions throughout each day. If you do this, you will be blessed in the midst of a world that is fast losing its way, and you and your loved ones will be secure and happy. This does not mean that you will not face trials and tests, but it does mean you will have the spiritual power to handle them with faith and trust in the Lord.

My dear graduates, the purpose of my message is to help you envision your future. Have faith and hope for the bright future you face as you leave BYU-Idaho and move on to your next great adventure. You young men are the future fathers, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). You young women are the future mothers and nurturers of God’s own spirit sons and daughters.

For both men and women, one of your top priorities is to find your eternal companion, if you have not already done so. Marriage in the temple will provide you with a companion to help you stay on the right path that leads back to the presence of our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You are the generation that will continue the preparation for the Second Coming.

Copyright© 2012 BYU–Idaho

All Rights Reserved.

Electric plant employee gives some bad news

This doesn't make me have confidence in the electrical grid.

http://preparednesspro.com/why-i-prep/

"I worked with equipment that was 70 years old or more, some that no longer had instructions, or any information on how it worked or was installed.  Missing drawings, blueprints, schematics.  No parts available.  Work done and changed and never noted or drawn up, so no one really knows what’s out there.  


Training for new engineers and techs, that lacked any quality control, so new construction was always faulty, and needed to be reworked, hopefully before we blew anything up!  Sometimes, it came awful close….And I am pretty sure it isn’t the only power company like that.  


New equipment purchased with out any manuals, or training, so no one knew how to install or use these protection devices.  The line crew thought we did, we thought they did…and the purchasers were not within our reach…and protocol doesn’t allow us to speak to them…it is a nightmare.  Security is lame, that is why so many are stealing the copper wire we used.  


I could go on and on..but suffice it to say…when I worked there, I suggested everyone I met stock up on wood and candles.  And get used to not using power…because there is no way it can continue at the rate we are using it, something is going to fail."

My other blog

My bishop asked me to put together a year's worth of emergency preparedness challenges for our ward.  I have been busily doing them for a couple of months, but I don't know if I have mentioned them very much on this (my personal) blog.  So go to my other blog
http://gottawannaneedagettaprepared.blogspot.com/
if you want to read about those.

I am offering Food Storage Classes at the MV ward building in April

Our April Ward Challenge is: 

“Learn about Food Storage, and Plan Menus using your Family's Favorite Foods.  Begin buying food from your plan.”

Goals:  

Each family will plan a three month's supply of food.

Each family will begin obtaining a three month's supply of food.

Each family will learn the importance of obtaining their one year's supply.

Read “Family Home Storage: A New Message”,  Ensign March 2009. http://www.lds.org/ensign/2009/03/family-home-storage-a-new-message?lang=eng

Family home evening:  Make a list with your family of all their favorite meals and snacks.  These will become the basis for your three months supply of food.  

Figure out a way to buy all the ingredients for a  few of these meals, to make that meal 13 times (equals once a week for three months.)  Make these purchases over the next few weeks.

Food Storage Classes this month

To help you achieve the April goal, I will be offering small group presentations about Food Storage the entire month of April.  I have the following five dates reserved at our MV ward building. 

Mornings:  Tuesdays April 3 or April 24.  Tentatively 10am-11am unless the attendees want a different time.

Evenings:  Wednesdays, April 4, 18, 25.  Tentatively 7pm-8pm unless the attendees want a different time.

What will I teach?  I will be giving a powerpoint presentation which I originally gave at the March 2011 Stake Women’s Day, called “One Thousand Pages of Food Storage Information in 30 minutes”.  I will be going through the contents of the CD which I will give to the attendees.  The CD contains all the documents you might need to help you plan your food storage.

I am also eager to answer any questions you might have.  Please email me with items you want me to cover in the class, and I will try to bring information geared to your interests.  (If you have already attended this powerpoint presentation, but still want to learn more about food storage, we can arrange something different.)

 If I can get at least three people to attend, I will hold the class.  Couples may attend, or one adult from a family is also welcome.  MV Ward members: Please email me if you want to attend.  (This invitation is also open to surrounding wards.)

If I cancel the class because of no one signing up, I will announce that on the MV ward  RS google group.  Please phone me if you want to attend at the last minute, to see if the class is happening.

Signs of the times from Jan-March 2012

This 24 minute video shows SO MANY natural disasters and natural phenomena which have happened in the first 3 months of this year, including dead birds, dead fish, earthquakes, wildfires, and strange noises coming from the sky.  Most are taken from TV news stories from around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgGWrX3jxJo&feature=player_embedded

New HVAC unit, new water heater, other news

HVAC AND WATER HEATER

I have workmen all over my house today.  We have had a leaky water heater for a few months, but it is in our garage so I just put a bucket under the overflow pipe.

Then yesterday we found out our furnace/air conditioner unit needed repair, and I wanted to just let it limp along all summer and get it fixed next year.  I did NOT want to buy a new one.

The guy that came to give the estimate could see that I wasn't that interested in replacing it, so he kept phoning back and forth to his company to see if he could give me a better deal.  When it finally came down to it, he had lowered the price on both of them so much that we basically got the water heater for free.

That just goes to show that if you truly don't care if you get the deal or not, they keep going lower and lower until sometimes it is worth it.


POWDERED MILK AND EGGS
Also, today I finally got to the bottom of my #10 can of powdered eggs.  I use them all the time for baking, I only use fresh eggs for doing scrambled eggs, etc.  It is interesting to keep track of how long a food storage item lasts.  I have started writing when I opened the can on the outside of each can.  This one took 9 months to use up.

I can see on my can of powdered milk (that I use for all my baking, but I never use it for drinking) that it only takes us about 3 months to use it all.

Why aren't the prophets talking about the last days?

I read this article a year or so ago, and it completely changed my outlook on what the prophets are saying (or not saying) in General Conference.

http://ldsfreedom.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/are-we-there-yet-insight-from-david-kat/

I gave my presentation today for 5th Sunday

I have been working for many hours a day on my presentation, and Hurray!  Now its over!

Our bishop asked me to make a whole year of challenges for my ward members to do, and I presented the plan in a joint Relief Society/Priesthood meeting today.

The lesson was called "2012: A Year of Preparedness".  I got a lot of good comments on it, and the class members seemed to have a positive reaction to what we are going to be asking them to do.

The bishop gave a great introduction, about why he was inspired to do this program in our ward.  I am so thankful for him.

I loaded the whole lesson on my other blog http://gottawannaneedagettaprepared.blogspot.com/ .  There are about 6 different posts, just start at the first one so it will be in order.

Amy went camping in the rain Part 3

That night I tested out sleeping in a 0 degree mummy bag, and woke up saying I want to buy a 0 degree rectangular bag, I hated that mummy bag.

The Kelty tent worked well, it poured rain all night, but we had unfortunately forgotten to stake out the side of the rainfly so there was one place that dripped.  I had been worried about being cold, so I had slept in my sleeping bag with a folded polar fleece blanket on top of it. In the night I felt the polar fleece, and it was sopping wet on top and dry on the underneath layers.  So that totally convinced me of the insulative usefulness of polar fleece, and how it can still be warm when it is wet.

In the morning I learned to build a one-match fire.  We built up the fire inside the Stovetec rocket stove using the tinder and kindling we had made the night before.  Everything else in the vicinity was drenched, so we couldn't have gathered twigs.

My husband made scrambled eggs with chopped up Spam and onions, and fried some of the bread in the skillet with a little oil and some season all.  It was a pretty good breakfast.

We packed up and came home, and I have to say that it was a very positive experience.  Too bad I didn't learn this stuff earlier in my life.

Browning the onions and Spam before adding the eggs.
We're cooking on the Stovetec rocket stove.

Amy went camping in the rain Part 2

We had spent a lot of time that evening, sitting under the shelter and splitting wood.  My husband had found a small fallen tree which was laying sideways against another tree, so it wasn't on the wet ground.  He had used his saw to cut it off from the root ball, then hauled the tree to our campsite and sawed it into firewood lengths.

He has been reading a lot on the internet about how to split firewood.  He learned about a new way to use an axe.  He has always swung it up over his head.  Now he learned to tie the logs together with a chain and bungee cords, then hold the axe straight in front of you. and let it drop at the same time you squat down.  This allows the axe to go straight downwards, instead of coming back toward your legs.

Splitting small logs while they are tied together.  Using the "squat and drop the axe" method.

He also read about "battoning" logs, that is splitting them using a hunting knife as a wedge and hammering the knife down through the log with a sturdy piece of wood (a baton.)  He taught me to do that, and we split a lot of kindling and tinder as well as just splitting the logs.

Sorry, I don't know how to turn this photo.  Here I am, whacking away at the end of this hunting knife, making the knife go down through the log. 

My husband was amazed I was doing all these things, but with what I believe about the future, I've got to become knowledgeable about all this in order to survive and help my family to survive.

(I told him I wanted a hunting knife for my birthday, so I can split wood too.)

My batton, and the kindling and tinder we split using a hunting knife.

Politics:
I agree with Quin Hillyer in the title of this article:  Newt Gingrich is the Bill Clinton of the right, with half the charm and twice the abrasiveness.
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/20/bill-clinton-of-the-right-minu

Amy went camping in the rain Part 1

I have always hated camping, (I made excuses and never even attended Girls Camp) but since learning of the trials which will come in the latter days, it was time to learn some camping skills.

My husband is a complete camping maniac, has always been in scouting, and owns all the equipment REI and Campmore sells.

He asked if I wanted to go camping on Friday night, and with a huge frown on my face, I said "Yes."  I figured it would be a useful experience, like getting a tooth filled, but I didn't expect to enjoy it.

It was about 40 degrees and rained the ENTIRE time.  We went to a nearby state park, and W. showed me every camping trick he knows.  We put up two shelters, put all the gear under them, then put up the tent, and filled it with the bedding during lulls in the rain.

The fire pit became a huge puddle.  We were thankful we had brought our Stovetec rocket stove so we didn't need to use the fire pit.  We set the Stovetec on the ground under the big shelter.  We used the firestarter I had made (I made a bunch of firestarters last week out of cardboard egg cartons, dryer lint, and melted wax) and the charcoal started really easily.  We ate really easy food for supper, just a can of soup with an added can of green beans, heated in a pot, with some bread.

He taught me how to regulate the fire by opening and closing the air vent door at the bottom of the rocket stove.

We roasted marshmallows and ate mint chocolate Hershey bars with the graham crackers---Yum!

We sat there enjoying the fire, and as we fed it, sparks would fly around.  I had on my wonderful L.L. Bean ski pants that I purchased from Goodwill for $10, and I was fearful that a spark would melt a hole in them.  W. also had on some expensive Boy Scout pants, and I didn't want them melted either. I remembered that I had brought a wool blanket that I bought at a yard sale, so we threw that over both of us, and I didn't worry about the sparks anymore.  (I'm going to try to bring wool blankets every time, for that purpose.  It would be a good idea to make the outer covering of the grandkids' winter pants out of wool, so they would be protected around fires too.)

This is our Stovetac rocket stove, when we used wood for the fire the next morning.

Words of our Prophets: Preparedness video

10 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWGCEocKwQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Remembering the Ice Storm of December 2002

It is such beautiful weather outside today, that I am sure that most of you are not thinking about winter weather.  But you should know that one of the banes of our existence here in North Carolina are ICE STORMS.  

I just found an old family letter I had written shortly after the big ice storm that hit North Carolina in December 2002.  One of these could happen to us this winter, and I wanted you to read my first hand account.  Maybe it will help you gather some supplies for the future.

Here are some excerpts:

I spent lots of time the first few days of the week (December 2002) getting ready for the big nativity scene event which was to happen Friday night at the Cary church building. On Monday the news started saying there was a chance of an ice storm coming on Wednesday, so I moved up my preparations.  I hoped the ice storm would be melted off by Friday morning. 

Wednesday afternoon the kids were let out of school one hour early, and the sleet and snow and freezing rain started and went on all evening. It wasn't bad at all, because the streets were warm enough that the snow didn't stick. The streets were wet all night. But the problem was with the air temperature. Trees got coated with ice and were breaking everywhere. All night it sounded like gunshots and big explosions as trees hit the ground. About midnight our power went off. 

(NOTE:  This was a very strange ice storm, in that no one was trapped at home by icy roads.  The roads were fine and we could all drive around.  But there was NO POWER because all the trees had fallen onto the power lines all over the state.)

(2.2 million people were without power.)

Thursday morning we woke up, and the sidewalks and streets were still passable. But we had no phone and no power. All my radios in the house ran on electricity, so I sat in the car a couple of times a day to listen to the radio news, and they said over 1 million people were without power from CP&L in North Carolina, and 1.2 million people were without power with Duke Power. It was worse than Hurricane Fran, because with Fran, it took them 9 days to get all the power back on, but with this ice storm, they knew people could freeze to death if they didn't get the power on quickly. 

The high on Thursday was 34 degrees. We still had no phone or power. We had our fireplace on, and our kerosene heater. We cooked frozen dinners from the freezer on top of the kerosene heater, and then my husband cooked supper in the garage on the campstove (he left the garage door open for ventilation). I drove over to Tiffin’s, and her phone worked, so I called Marta A. (who was the chairman over the whole big nativity event) and she said she had so many trees down she couldn't get out of her long driveway. She was going to have to wait for her husband to get home on a plane, and he would drive home, and park by the road and walk to their house. She planned to walk out and use that car in the morning. She and I didn't know if the church building had power or if it would get power. 

Thursday night we turned off the kerosene heater and let the fire in the fireplace die down, and went to bed with massive amounts of blankets and sleeping bags, and slept just fine. 

Friday morning, I had set the kitchen timer to wake me up at 6 am, and checked to see if the phone worked. It didn't. So I checked it again at 7 am, and the phone was still dead. I had no idea if the church had power, but since I was in charge of the nativities I had to know. My husband drove to church and found that it had no power. When I heard that, I knew we wouldn't have the nativity event, but I couldn't phone anyone, I had to let them figure it out on their own. Later in the day I found out that Marta had driven to the church later, found out there was no power, and had put up signs on the doors saying the nativity was cancelled. 

It is too bad that the weather ruined our event, because we had articles in the Apex News, The Cary News, and the News and Observer, inviting the public to attend. But I'm glad it was cancelled, because if we had gone ahead with it, no one would have come anyway, people were so busy trying to get the trees out of their yards and figuring out how to survive without power. Most people, (me included) forgot all about it after Friday morning, and just went on with survival. 

We spent all day Friday trying to stay warm and cook food in unfamiliar ways. My husband had to go to work and was gone all day. The kids were bored without any TV or computer. Thankfully, our gas water heater worked great and I took a shower in the frigid bathroom. The roads were fine, so I took my kids to a few stores just for a break. The heater in the van decided to break, so we couldn't even get warm in there. 

There were whole sections of town that had power, so lots of people were out shopping, but as it started to get dark I decided to go home because I didn't want to be in that cold van. 

We had lots of different foods to choose from, but just for fun Friday evening I decided to try out a cooking method I had read about in Civil War books, where the soldiers would wrap bread dough around their ramrods and cook the dough over the fire. We tried it with biscuit dough wrapped on a stick we used for marshmallows, but it kept falling off. So I covered the fireplace shovel with foil and put a thin biscuit on it and held it in the fire to bake. That was a very slow way to get some supper, so when my husband came home he cooked a big pot of hamburger helper on the campstove with the hamburger that was thawing in the freezer. 

I went out to the car Friday 9 pm, and heard on the radio that 292,000 in the Triangle were still without power. It was 26 degrees. I came back in the house, and at 10 minutes after 9, the power came back on. We were so happy! 

I learned a few things in those 45 hours. 1) I was thankful to have a fireplace, firewood, a kerosene heater, and two cans of kerosene. 2) I wish I had a working radio inside the house. 3) I will buy a cell phone charger for the car. My electric charger did me no good. 4) I will buy an inverter, which can power your fridge or other electric appliance or gadget from the car battery. 5) And most important, always keep my husband around to help out in a power outage.

Amy

Food donations from the Nativity Celebration

Our stake had their annual Nativity Celebration last weekend, and food donations were taken at the door.  At the end, we offered our 15-passenger van to transport the food to the Western Wake Crisis Ministry.  On Monday night the Despain family and our family unloaded food from their minivan, our big van, and the scout trailer into the tiny facilities of the WWCM.

Our van and scout trailer.

Here is the main pile of food.

That pile of food extended down the hallway a little bit.

And we also stacked the food on the floor in between these shelves of food.

Congratulations, Apex Stake and visitors to the Nativity Celebration!  That was a lot of food you donated!


Change of subject:

A story on the Blaze talking about the alleged LDS Food storage facility raid:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-federal-agents-really-raid-a-mormon-food-storage-facility/

Why to Prepare

Here is a great pdf document to read, on "Why to Prepare"

http://peaceofpreparedness.com/LDS%20Resources/17%20Why%20Prepare-FINAL.pdf