Clean Underwear .. check... What's next?

The Event creeps closer... hour by hour ... day by day...

What will be the tipping point be?

World War III beginning with the invasion of Iran?

The coming economic collapse?

Flu pandemic?

An EMP, a Solar Storm or Dirty Bomb?

 

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

It’s Tuesday so we’re talking about being prepared again. This is the second in our series about how to get you and your family ready or anything unexpected!

Last week in my post, “Mom always told you to put on clean underwear” we talked discussed the evaluation of your budget and what you could eliminate wasteful un-needed expenses.   

Remember the homework I gave you?  How much money did you come up with to set aside?   Did it surprise you how much you waste?

Did you evaluate how you would survive without your stove?

Your computer?  

Your Freezer?

What did you learn?  Scary huh?  

 Did you feel motivated afterwards or frightened?  Did it over whelm you?

Good… now take that fear and let it get you motivated!  Your family needs you, your kids need you, and eventually your friends and neighbors will need you!

Now let’s focus on our new equation that I rolled out to you last week; “Beans, Bullets and Band aids”.

We’re going to specifically focus on “Beans” today.

Food is the first and most important of any plan to become prepared.  Food helps create energy and energy is what keeps you alive.  

 It is what will keep your kids alive.Think of what would happen if you didn't have any!

Imagine if you will, the currency has failed, the grocery stores are closed, the power is out, and the water coming out of the tap has to be boiled before you can drink it.  

It is the dead of winter.

Its dinner time, your kids come to you and ask, “Mom/Dad… what’s for dinner?” 

You panic.  Last night’s dinner finished up the rest of the oatmeal, and what was left of the fruit snacks… and that was the only meal they had all day.

You hope and pray as you head to your pantry… you open the doors… nothing… absolutely nothing. 

You turn around to see their little eyes staring back at you.   

You tell them, “I’m so sorry … we don’t have anything…”

You see their eyes well up with tears… and then the tears come.  You offer them some water… but that only goes so far.   

They cry for a while only to fall asleep in your arms from lack of energy and you cry yourself to sleep wondering,

“God… why is this happening…. What will I do tomorrow morning?" 

When the morning comes you have nothing for them.  Days go by and eventually their hair begins to thin and their teeth begin to fall out.  Their bellies become distended.  You do everything you can to find food.  Water is only going so far.  You beg, you dig in the snow till your hands are bloody.  You had a dog, but it disappeared weeks ago. It was one night ... then later you swore that you smelled cooking meat.

But time continues on an you find nothing... everyone else has had the same idea... there is nothing to be found... anywhere.

Then one night the unthinkable happens.  Your babies simply fall asleep crying from the pain in their tummies  and never wake up.   

You have just killed your children.   

Your selfishness and need for other "stuff" like the boat, the newer car, the bigger TV, the newer more shiny gadget killed your children.  It took away from being prepared. You made your stuff a bigger priority than them!

Can you imagine this?  Terrible huh?

Well, it has happened before.  In 1941 - 44 during the siege of Leningrad.

When Hitler began his siege of the city in 1941 it lasted 900 days. 800,000 people or one third of the population of Leningrad died from starvation. At times people just dropped dead from starvation on their way to work. 

During the time of the siege crime was rampant, civil unrest was very common and people did horrible things for food.  They mixed pine shavings with flour to make bread.  They ate the steel bar bearings out of the equipment to feel "full".  They made "cottonseed" cake, and "meat jelly" from boiling the bones and skin of the cattle they slaughtered.  The worst I read about was "yeast soup".  It was made from fermented sawdust, joiners’ glue boiled and jellied, toothpaste, cough mixture and cold cream - anything that contained calories. 

They even licked the dried paste off the wallpaper of their homes.  

At one point later in the siege some reverted to cannibalism to survive. Horrible stories of people eating amputated limbs from hospital morgues, young children who just "disappeared" when the neighbors were hungry. People even ate the corpses out of the cemeteries. 

If you want to read more I would recommend the book, "Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege, by Anna Reid".  

It is just another great book to read if you want to mentally prepare for "The Event"

Do you want to live in that type of world?  Do you want your kids too? It is happening already.  Read this! 

You have to get ready!

 

Its astounding how much of the American population refuse to acknowledge that, “The Event” will take place.  

I assure you it will.  We made the mess were headed for. God gave us free will, and now we must live with the consequences that are coming our way.  You must protect your family.

There is too much data that points to "The Event".  

People like to think they live in a happy world where we will always have McDonald's, Subways and Domino's and that food with the push of a few buttons can show up on your doorstep and be shoveled down the fat, greedy American  pie hole.

You have to wake up!  It is time to get ready!

"So…Jay ... if this is so incredibly important, where do I start?  How do I start? We have never attempted anything like this!"

I want you to start with the basics my friend.  You’re going to need protein and carbohydrates.  Not steak and lobster. Not hot pockets, not Twinkies. 

Protein and Carbs.  The building blocks of real food. 

Start here! I personally would first recommend going to this resource; http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/3monthfoodsupply-new.xls

This calculator is a great way to find out what you need to begin your food storage.  It is a great list of the breakdown of protein and carbs that your family will need to survive on a daily level.  It allows you to customize your months of food you want to store and then gives you how much you need to have on hand.

Here is an important note... you need to get used to eating these foods!  Eat what you store. Get used to Beans, TVP, Tuna, and canned foods that you normally don't eat.  Practice cooking with it so when the time comes you and your family will not experience "food shock". 

Eat simply. Grow a garden.  In fact you can grow vegetables and fruits out of large bakery buckets (5 gallon) and they work great fine if you don't have the space for a garden.   We did it this year and found we were able to get better seed yield and fruit / Veg when we tended to the plants we grew.  

Bakery buckets are available everywhere.  Most pastry shops, and restaurants will let you buy them for a buck or two.

You can shuffle them around to the different sunlight areas of your yard and you are recycling by using the buckets!

You will need to find alternative ways of getting your vitamins.  Look for natural ways of getting things like vitamin C and D.  God put many, many plants on this earth that our predecessors used to eat / steam / steep to get what they needed. Consult your local book store to find additional books and study materials that are about edible plants in your area!

 

I would also recommend this; make sure that you incorporate foods that you eat every day into what you store ahead. Going from "Captain Crunch" to "plain oatmeal" can have a damaging affect on the mind.  It is good for the body... but in your kids and family it can cause damage moral.  Keep things like brownie mix or cake mix on hand... If you can follow a meal up with a plate of brownies, sometimes it can help the time and the trauma go a bit smoother.

Here is a good rule of thumb, when putting aside things for your family, remember this "3 is 2 and 2 is 1". 

It means if you have three of something its really like having two and if you have two ... well that is like having one of something, and one of something won't get you that far.

Now some of you reading may already be thinking that I missed one of the bigger parts of the food equation.

Water!

I'm going to hold that one off till next week... So much can be said about that!

To wrap up today's post... You need to begin right away! Take that money that you found from last weeks assignment and go out and use it to buy up your food supplies.  

Take a cue from history and from what I have said and get planning for your family.  

I have said it before.  Please don't let your family suffer.  Please don't be foolish and selfish.  

You were not put on this planet by God to care just for yourself.... Be prepared. "The Event" is coming.

Until next time...