September 2014

A new school year is underway, and the temperatures seem to be dropping! September brings new friends and teachers, as well as a harvest in the garden and orchard. September is also “National Preparedness Month” - so it is a great time to take stock of where you stand with preparedness! How did your summer canning go? What do you need to fill your shelves? There are always case-lot sales at the local grocery stores in September that will help fill in what you still need.  Local sales usually include great buys on other preparedness items like buckets or water barrels and containers. Let us spend some time evaluating where we are, and then go and “Do IT”! Take advantage of this preparedness month and give your family peace of mind. Then when the “Storms” appear, we will be ready! Remember – there is no time like the present!

Click here to download a complete copy of September 2014 Back to Basics Newsletter.

Included in this month's newsletter:

Food Storage: Easy and 1, 2, 3: start with a 3 month supply - add a long term basic storage, and fill it in with the expanded items that will add nutrients and prevent food fatigue.
Do's and Don't of food storage: Twelve ideas to help you know what to DO and what to NOT DO as you add to your food storage.
Spiritual Preparedness: Dallin H. Oaks quote on making both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events at the second coming.
Thought for the day: President Thomas S. Monson on a supply of food and being debt-free.
Disaster Prep: Prepare BEFORE the earthquake: twelve ideas to do before a disaster to make it easier when something happens.
In The Southern Utah Garden: finish the harvest - keep the weeds down - fall planting of veggies and trees - and making a mini greenhouse.
Provident Living - The Law of the Parachute: how you use a parachute works for provident living.
Cooking with Food Storage: substitutions from your food storage to make condensed, evaporated and buttermilk, brown sugar, baking chocolate, baking powder, allspice and pumpkin pie spice.

Click here to download a complete copy of September 2014 Back to Basics Newsletter.

August 2014

It seems like the world around us is becoming more wicked and confused almost daily. The evening news is full of “signs of the times”. We can wring our hands with fret and worry, or we can be proactive and make sure our families are prepared! We have been admonished “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” There is a story of a man who was hired by a farmer as a farm hand and he told his employer that his best qualification was that he could “sleep when the wind blows”. One night the farmer found out what was meant by that. A big winter storm arrived and the farmer ran to rouse his sleeping farm hand. He hollered for him - then ran out into the howling wind and rain – worried about the farm. But once outside he found the barn doors shut, the animals put away, and things were tarped and tied down. The farm was ready for the storm. The farm hand could sleep when the wind blows because he was prepared. Can each of us also rest easy as the storms of life arrive? It is not a matter of “If” the wind will blow, but “when”. Will you be able to sleep when the wind blows? Make sure you can – and do it TODAY!

Included in this newsletter:

Grow Your Own - Words from modern day prophets on why we need to plant a garden and some fruit trees. When we need it we will not have time to plant it!
Provident Living -  Waste Not Want Not: tips to save the way our grandmothers did.
In the Southern Utah Garden: August planting list, spray apples, weeds, diseased plants, squash bugs, scarab beetle, preserve produce.
Spiritual Preparedness - Thomas S Monson on faith helping us in the storms of life.
Power Outage: Saving freezer food storage: Ground Beef Jerky, taking care of fruits and vegetables, meats, casseroles and other.
Disaster Prep: Sheltering In: 8 steps to take if you have to stay in your home in a disaster of chemical or hazardous air quality.

Click here to download a complete copy of the August 2014 Back to Basics Newsletter.