Sunday, June 23, 2013

Scout Fundraiser Sweet Pork Recipes

Thanks to everybody who supported the scouts Troop 607 this weekend.  They held a dinner and auction fundraiser in effort to earn money for scout camps and equipment. 

Being the Scoutmaster's wife I got to cook a bunch of the food and wanted to share the recipes I used here on the Preparedness Blog.  :)

Sweet Pork Sauce (this is the recipe for about 2 lbs.)
14 oz can of green enchilada sauce
1/4 T cumin
1 cup brown sugar
Mix it all together and pour it over the meat.

The meat cooks about 10 hours on 250 so it shreds pretty easily.  I like to use pork loin or pork roast but this time we used pork butt.

Cilantro Dressing - makes approx. 2 cups
1 1/3 cup sour cream
3/4 cup mayo
4 T green salsa
juice of 1 lime (approx. 2 T if you just have lime juice)
bunch of cilantro
dry ranch dressing mix
2 cloves garlic (I usually do 2 T minced)
1/8 tsp tobacco - optional

We bought the fresh produce from Grasmick Produce.  They are a local company that sells bulk produce for a discounted price to grocery stores and restaurants.  Anybody can buy from them and go pick up. 

The scouts and their families cooked all the rice and beans.  To make the rice sweet they added 1 T of sugar to the water per 1 cup of rice. 

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

72 Hour Kit Assembly & Fire Drill Practice

Monday night was the big night!  We unloaded our box of supplies and organized them in backpacks again for a new start to our 72 hour kits.  This time we are excited that we won't have to rotate them for at least 5 years.  However, we will be changing out the kids clothes next year.

Once again everybody felt a little concerned but mostly excited to have
 such a fun backpack full of goodies.  Hooray for being prepared!

 
After we finished our kits (because it didn't take much more than half hour) we decided to do a quick fire drill without telling the kids.  We have done this in the past, but it has been at least a year.  Dustin snuck in the basement and set the alarm off and it made me happy to see the 2 old girls ask no questions, just take off running out the door to the mailbox.  We have designated that as our meeting place in case of a fire.
 
 
We even practiced removing the screen and jumping out the window in case the fire was in the living room.   We explained that we didn't care if the screen got broke, just that they get out!  So Ella decided to give it a try and without hesitation kicked that screen right through. :)
 
They did a great job helping each other out of the window.

 
 
If you haven't practiced fire drills at your house this year I encourage you to do so this summer while it is nice and warm outside.  It is a great family home evening activity!
 
Here is a good guide.
 

At-Home Fire Drill

  • come up with two different escape routes
  • stress that we need to get out and then stay out!
  • Learning why we need to crawl low under smoke, and then practicing our crawling
  • Checking doors for heat before opening them
  • Assigning a meeting place once outside
  • Calling 9-1-1 after we are out of the house
  • Checking the batteries in your smoke detectors
  • Practicing the fire drill – not just talking about it, but actually doing it
 

 

FIRE!

Thanks to all of you who came out to our fire starting night.  We had a great time and sure did learn some good things from Bro. Braithwaite's expertise.
 
Wanted to share a few things we learned.  
 
We practiced using flint & steel to catch a flame on kindling, toilet paper, char cloth and some jute (similar to hemp).  Out of all of these the jute by far was the easiest to catch flame and start the fire.

 
When you use flint and steel make sure you are holding the steel correctly with the UP side facing up.  You need to do firm quick motion downward to spark a flame.  Pretty easy but takes some practice.
 
 


We made our own char cloth by putting some square pieces of cloth fabric in a aluminum container and puncturing a hole in the top of the lid.  We put it on the fire and let it smoke until it stopped smoking.  It was super stinky!
 
I personally think it was one of the most difficult ways because you have to really blow on that little tiny ember you get on the cloth to get a flame.  Probably a simple solution for an experienced fire started though.

 
We also did the steel wool and 9 V battery trick.  You need a small piece of steel wool and touch a 9 volt battery to it and you have fire.  You quickly add your kindling and start to blow on it until you get a flame.

 
Sister Lasenby did a great job starting her fire this way.

 
We learned a fire needs:  oxygen, heat and fuel in order to burn.
 
You need tiny pieces of dry things such as pine needles, sage brush twigs, small sticks to use as kindling.  This goes at the very bottom of the fire.  See in the picture above.
 
Then you need some tinder which are a little bit bigger than the twigs.  You can see them sitting up against the log in the picture below. 
 
Last you need some bigger wood for burning.  Once your fire is started it needs to have logs or bigger chunks of wood to keep it going.

 
Nice work ladies!!  We had a fire started and then we had a triangle made out of long sticks and lashed together with some twine.  We dangled a steel pot from our mess kit from some twin in order to boil 2 cups of water for our Mountain House meals.

 
We tasted Chili Mac with Beef - yummy and a bit spicy for kids.

 
And Turkey Tetrazzini which was tasty!  We were impressed they tasted so good for packaged meals like this.  A terrific option for 72 hour kits!

 
To make one of these meals you just add 2 cups boiling water to the package and seal it up.  It sits for about 9 minutes and then you can just eat it right out of the package or pour into bowls.  They have 2.5 and 5 serving packages.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Survival Mom

I like to read different emergency preparedness blogs to stay focused and get different ideas.  Recently Survival Mom published a post called: 

Moms, your kids need these 3 things from you in a crisis


The 3 things she lists are:
            *Confidence
            *Courage
            *Comfort

If you have a minute, stop by and read it.  I thought it was really good.

Changes to Home Storage Centers

http://www.lds.org/church/news/changes-to-home-storage-centers?lang=eng

The Church has announced changes to home storage centers.

“Over time, we will be reducing the number of facilities where the packaging of dry goods occurs,” spokeswoman Ruth Todd said May 6. However, she added, the Church’s “home storage centers will offer the same or additional commodities in prepackaged form at no additional cost.”

Sister Todd said, “The change from self-service canning to prepackaged commodities occurs over time and depends on what goods are available at each individual facility.”

She said once the change occurs, people will be able to get the same variety of supplies and goods and at the same price.

“The Church is not closing canneries and is not limiting the variety of goods available to Church members,” she said. The only thing being reduced over time is the number of locations at which members can purchase bulk food and can it themselves onsite.

There are currently more than 100 LDS home storage centers across the United States and Canada at which Church members can obtain food items for personal and family use.

The home storage centers are part of the Church’s massive welfare program that includes canneries, meat-packing facilities, thrift stores, farms, ranches, and storage facilities for food. Latter-day Saints are encouraged by Church leaders to keep a three-month supply of food on hand in case of physical, natural, and economic emergencies as part of the practice of self-reliance.

“Self-reliance is a product of our work and undergirds all other welfare practices,” President Thomas S. Monson said. “It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being.”

Monday, June 3, 2013

Orange Candle

We recently put a little fire ring in our back yard so we can practice our fire starting skills (mine are lacking huge!).  In the midst of this Dustin has been trying to find different ways to start fire.
 
He came across this orange candle that was pretty cool.  He cut the orange in half and pulled the fruit out leaving the center as a wick. 
 
Put some olive oil in the bottom of the orange and started a flame on the top.  It took about 5 seconds to start the first time, but started right up the 2nd time.  It gave off enough heat to warm your hands and actually smelled pretty good.   Pretty cool little trick!


Week #11 First Aid

If you have made it to week #11 you deserve a huge high five!  You are almost done and that is worth celebrating!  You will be so grateful for the peace of mind you can feel from knowing that your kits are complete for at least 5 years.

This week we need to gather our First Aid supplies.  It's funny that we are doing first aid this week because last weekend we went on a little ride in the mountains and Dustin was carving us some willow branches to roast hot dogs on.  I was tending to the kids when I heard him say he cut himself and needed a band aid.  As he became a little more anxious and then a little impatient I felt such stress that I couldn't find where the stinking band aids or gauze was in this foreign first aid kit.

I realized how important it is that we not only have a first aid kit, but we know what is inside and where to find it quickly.  Thankfully it was a minor situation that taught me this lesson and thankfully we were prepared with what we needed to have.

Some of the supplies that are listed on our 72 hour kits checklists are:

small first aid kit including: band aids, butterfly bandages, gauze, first aid ointment, antiseptic, cold pack, alcohol pads, tweezers, small scissors, Benadryl, ibuprofen, medical adhesive tape, safety pins

moleskin
Vaseline
syringe
thermometer
latex gloves
snake bite kit
insect repellent
sunscreen

Whatever else you may feel you need would be wise to add to your kits.  Each of my kids carry a little $.99 Johnson & Johnson kit from the travel section at Target and other stores.  It includes 2 alcohol pads, 8 bandaids and 2 gauze pads.  Dustin has a larger kit that was purchased at Walmart in the hiking section for $16.   I have been pretty impressed with that little kit.  So far it's had all we have needed.  We have added a few things like the snake bite kit & sunscreen.