busy bees

The bees are getting a little smoke to calm them down.

Lifting the hive lid to check the progress.

Looking for the queen and eggs

Look at all those worker bees

Starting to draw out comb on this frame

honey and brood chambers

Rick has been stung a couple of times.  Once, he just went to peek on the bees and one bee wasn't happy about that at all.  He chased Rick all over the yard.  Rick was jumping and swatting at the bee.  He almost got away, but the bee was persistent and chased him to the road and finally stung him on the arm.  

This hive is in the back yard.  These bees are lazy and the queen is a dud.

We decided to do 2 hives just for the fun of it.  That turned out to be a good idea.  We were able to compare the 2 hives throughout the summer since we were new to the beekeeping business.  

I have found the bees to be fascinating and I am enjoying learning more about bee keeping.

I had originally let this be Rick's project.  (you know, never learn to milk the cow, Grandma Ethel said)

But, it really is fun to sit on the front porch and watch the bees.  

Sierra even has her own bee suit now (or whatever it's called)

We didn't get an early enough start this year to allow the bees to produce enough honey for us and for them.  So, no honey extraction this year.  

Those cute little bees need to the honey all to themselves to make it through the winter.  

(And we'll be shocked if the lazy hive in the back even survives, poor things.)

Canning Season Wrap Up

Canning Season began this year with grapes from my yard.

And before they were in my yard, they were in Amara's yard.

thanks for the grapevine start.

I had no idea that I had this many grapes.  They filled up my small sink two times.

I read up on juicing grapes and found that you end up with a much sweeter grape juice if you take off the stems, although you can just throw them into the juicer with stems and all.

I had no idea what was going to come out of the juicer.  But, I love the color of this grape juice...

It looks so pretty sitting on the counter and now down on the shelf in the storage room.

Next up was the purple grapes.  The kids are thrilled to have some of this grape juice.

These were from Orem.  Thanks for picking the grapes for me.

Needless to say, I am running low on quart jars.

If anyone has extras, I'd be glad to take them off your hands...

Then, this guy became a regular on feature in the kitchen.

Along with a bunch of canning books.

This is a sample of the pizza sauce and Southwest Tomato soup.

Another shot of the Southwest Tomato Soup.  I hope it's good.

The tomatoes and peppers were from my yard.

You can also see the new lids that I am trying out.

They are called Tattler lids and they are reusable.

Then Rick helped me can 80 pounds of chicken.

Bean soup.  The little green beens are from Amara, if you can see any of them!

The kids didn't really like the beans.  

That's OK.  I'm not a big bean fan.  But, Summer said she would eat the beans if the Zombies ever come.

The list of canned items also includes raspberry jalapeno jelly that I made from my jalapenos and raspberries from my neighbor Laura.  

I managed to make some salsa this year that the family approves of.  

I made tomato vegetable soup that I thought was fantastic because I love tomatoes.

Cole just ate the potatoes and left the rest.  

I had tons of tomatoes this year, so I did a double batch of the vegetable tomato soup.  I hope someone helps me eat it.

And then I canned a bunch of tomatoes by themselves.

I roasted a lot of peppers that Phyllis brought me.  

I am her VT.  She grows a fantastic garden every year.

I also froze a bunch of peaches.  They were from the tree that hangs over my fence from my neighbors back yard.  I figure that when the neighbors just let the fruit fall on the ground and rot, then the fruit that is on my side of the fence is fair game.  But, I didn't have time to bottle it, so it went into the freezer.

And I managed to grow lots and lots of peans, radishes, turnips, one cabbage, and 2 pumpkins.

And one last trick I learned this year:  We have really hard water here.  So, if you add 1/2 c. vinegar to the water bath or pressure canner, it will help the jars to not get the white film on the outside when they come out of the canner and dry.  I tried it with the last batch in the pressure canner and it worker great.  Although the kids thought the house smelled horrible for a couple of days.  too bad.

preparedness stuff & Reverse 911

Here is the sun oven that we got a few weeks ago.

You may have heard me talk about our friend, Derek from Mapleton who head up the Preparedness Class for the Mapleton Stake...well, he got me this sun oven to try out in the name of preparedness research.  (can you see Hooee's reflection in the top pic?)

I was a skeptic.  However, I am slowly becoming a believer.  It does take some practice.

I have been reading up on the internet for tips and tricks.

This thing heats up.  Hot.  and quick.

Almost immediately upon opening it up towards the sun, you can see the temperature rise--quickly.

Bread doesn't really brown like it does in the oven.  

So, you have to watch to make sure it isn't getting too done which is the same as too dry.

But, the best part is that you can do all sorts of cooking and baking outside and not heat up the entire kitchen/house.

If you can cook it in an oven or a crockpot, you can cook it in the sun oven.

(the container that you use might make a difference.  So will the time of day/amount of direct sun.)

Bread in the sun oven.

 I made 2 batches of this jam--rhubarb orange.  pretty good.  I added some pink food coloring to the second batch because it seemed weird to eat green jam.  It was mighty tasty on the bread from the sun oven.

Back Packs & 72 hour kits...

 Rick has also been doing some research for Derek on backpacks and 72 hour kits.  

It's actually been pretty awesome for us because when we opened up our 72 hour kits to evaluate them we discovered that the last time we updated them we took out the clothes...AND forgot to replace them.  DUH.  There weren't any extra clothes in our 72 hour kits.

Derek and Rick are doing some research and trying to find some options for people to come to one of the preparedness meetings, find out about different first aid kits, and then mix & match to put together their own kit on-site to take hope with them.

Not really sure how it will work, but we're learning a lot along the way.

Pellet Grill

This is Rick's father day gift (to himself).

It's a pellet grill.

That means that it uses wood pellets to burn and create the heat to cook/smoke the food.

The brand is Traeger and Rick has wanted one for a long time.

I'm quite impressed.

Our favorite so far has been the pizza.

and the last preparedness item is Reverse 911.

We learned about this a few months ago at the preparedness class on Communication.

The Mapleton Chief of Police was one of the presenters.

Mapleton City has implemented the Reverse 911 program and has utilized it on a few occasions such as alerting residents of temporary water main shutoffs and other utility concerns.

What this system does is allow the city to be able to call any of the residents through a mass phone call followed by a recorded message.  It is linked through the Mapleton City utility system, so if you are a Mapleton City resident and you pay utilities, you can be on the Reverse 911 system.

Our home phone number is NOT listed so we are not on the reverse 911 system and have never received any of the alerts.  I kept thinking that I should check into it, but I neglected to do so.

well, when Scofield was evacuated 6 weeks ago, I know that the Reverse 911 system was activated there because after we finally were able to get to the house in Scofield after the evac was lifted, there were several messages on the answering machine with recorded updates regarding the fire.

And that was great, except that we were not able to get to the house to answer the phone and get the updates.

So, it reminded me that I should probably make an effort to get my home phone number registered with the Mapleton city reverse 911.

That was easy.  I called Lani at the city offices (489-6253) and she was able to add my home phone number to the system.  And she also added my cell phone and Rick's cell phone.  Because, really, we are NEVER home.  Of course our cell phones should be listed in the system.  

And how nice would that have been to have our cell phones or home phones in the system in Carbon County so that we (extended family) would have first hand information regarding the fire and the Scofield Evacuations???

And then I found out how to register my number with the Utah County Reverse 911.

go to this link to register your phone number (it may already be registered, mine was not because my number is unlisted).

The above picture is Timp.  I love that view, it makes me think of being young and growing up in Orem and looking up at the view every day when I walked to school.  One thing I noticed when I took this picture on July 4 was that it was nearly clear of any visible snow.  That is unheard of on July 4.  Usually the snow doesn't completely melt until late August and some years it doesn't completely melt at all before the snow appears again.

So, we are certainly in a drought.  

And with all of the fires and potential for more fires, I felt that it was more important than ever to be on the Reverse 911 system.  

If you live in Mapleton, will you call Lani and make sure your phone numbers are registered? or add your cell phone(s)?

If you do not live in Mapleton will you see if your city has Reverse 911 and make sure your numbers are registered? (sorry mom, Highland does not have Reverse 911)

If you are in Utah County will you make sure you are part of the Utah County Reverse 911?

And one more thing...if you are in an emergency situation.  Don't call.  Text.

Your message is much more likely to go through because a text will take significantly less band width than a phone call at a time when a huge number of people are trying to make phone calls.  

Garbanzo Beans/Chick Peas

We are home from St. George.  A few more pictures to come, but for now...

Garbanzo Beans!

I pressure canned these lovely beans (or are they peas?) a few weeks ago.

It was a first for me to rehydrate beans and then pressure can them.

One thing that I was NOT prepared for was that they would expand, a lot!

I had to keep adding water and moving them into more pots.  Adding water.  And adding pots.

And the next thing you know, my kitchen was full of beans.

I was afraid I was going to have to fill the bathtub! jk

I only soaked about half of the 25 pound bag.

(I should have done a quarter of the bag.  Now I know...)

I soaked them over night, then the following day I pressure canned them.

It took 3 rounds of pressure canning.  I ran out of jars.

I did some in quarts and some in pints.

There were some leftover that didn't make it into the pressure canner--I wasn't about to go for 4 rounds of pressure canning.

And there was a jar that didn't seal.  So, we had plenty of extra garbanzo beans.

Rick used them to make hummus.

It was the best hummus I've ever tasted.

Probably because they were the best garbanzo beans I have ever tasted.

I'm so glad to have 38 quarts of garbanzo beans on the shelf.

You know, so that when the zombies come, we can enjoy a nice batch of homemade hummus.

Next up:  Pinto beans.

pressure canning

For the past year or more I have been contemplating the purchase of a pressure canner.

I have mostly gotten the hang of canning things in a water bath.

But, I realized how much more I could grow and can if I could pressure cook.

So, after much price comparison shopping and reading reviews,

I purchased the silver pressure canner pictured below on the left.

I was quite intimidated by its massiveness and its buttons, knobs, and gauges.

But, it came upon conversation a few weeks ago with a friend of mind that we needed to learn how to use a pressure cooker.  

And, wouldn't you know it...chicken was on sale for $1.39/pound at Ream's with the purchase of 40 pounds.

Perfect.

 I'll spare you the disgusting details but this is what it looks like when you get the chicken into the bottles and ready to can.

Still quite intimidated by the knobs, buttons, and gauges, my friend and I called the neighbor across the street to come walk us through the process. 

I was afraid I would do something wrong and blow something up and end up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital like Cliff Bingham who lived next door to me growing up. 

They were pressure cooking beans, as I recall.  And I have been freaked out by the thought of pressure cooking ever since.

Here is the chicken just after coming out of the pressure canner 90 minutes later.

The quart bottles were on the bottom and you can see the white film on them from all of the minerals and whatnot that is in our water.

All but one of the bottles sealed.

It looks quite gross and my house smelled like chicken for a day or two.

But, it felt like a great accomplishment to can my own chicken.

So much so that I decided to make chili a few days later.

I was at Sam's Club and I found a big package of extra lean ground beef that was marked down for quick sale.

I used that along with the 3 bottles of canned tomatoes that were in my fridge.

I had canned tomatoes a few weeks ago and I had 3 bottles that didn't seal, so I used those.

I also used the peppers from my garden.

And chili powder from the pantry.

I thought that turned out to be a pretty cheap project for food storage.

All of the bottles that I canned did seal.  That was good.

I had one bottle worth that I didn't can, I just added more tomatoes and a can of beans from my food storage.  The kids thought it was the best chili they had ever tasted.

It turned out to be more like a chili concentrate where you add more cans of whatever you have to make a meal.  So, even thought it was only 8 pints.  

I'm sure we could count it as at least 8 meals depending on who is eating and how much we add to it.

And then...

we had some potatoes that needed to be used that had come with our vegetable co-op thingy.

I had the carrots, celery, onions, and stew meat on hand, as well, and the next thing you know...we have lots and lots and lots of vegetable beef stew on the storage room shelves.  

I'm pretty happy about that because these are things that Cole will eat and he is definitely the picky eater at this house.

I was worried that my investment in a pressure canner might have been pretty steep. 

But, I can see now how easy (relatively speaking) it is to use a pressure canner.

And I love to grow things in my garden all summer and see them lined up on my shelves all winter long.

As this growing season is winding down (and I failed miserably as a gardener this year), I find myself already planning all of the things I want to grow...and can...for next year.

Tsunami Experience

Here is a map of the Big Island.  On the left hand side you can see the little airplane, representing the Kona airport.  We are staying in the area of the 11 that is on the Highway,  heading north from the airport.  (Kohala Coast)

This is how the whole entire weekend played out (some duplicate information from earlier, some new information & pictures)...

We dropped my mom off at the airport at about 5:30 pm.
Here is Nan getting ready to go through security and me taking a photos of the event just in case my mom didn't get off the plane in SLC I would have proof that I did my part and made sure she got on the plane in Hawaii.

Kelli & Nan (looking for her ID & boarding pass, hoping Security would not notice the pineapple in her carryon bag.

We left the airport and headed to Costco to get gas.  It was at Costco that my phone beeped to alert me of the 8.9 earthquake.  I looked at my phone and said that it must be an error--there couldn't possibly be an earthquake that big.  We went into Costco and picked up some more lettuce, cottage cheese & fruit (my mom claims that is the only thing I would let her eat while she was with us).  

We drove back to our Condo where Sierra, Cole and Kristine were swimming and lounging.  (Summer was with me and Rick when we dropped off my mom).

We took the kiddos to the Island Gourmet to get Cole an Icee and a few other items.  That is when I got an alert on my phone that there was a Pacific Wide Tsunami Warning.

I purchased a T-shirt.  The clerks at the store were in panic mode.  The young girl helping me could not stop shaking.  I thought she was going to burst into tears.  I asked her if I could skip the plastic bag and just put the shirt in my purse (you know how I am about those plastic bags).  The poor girl could not even register what I was saying.  

The girls were both saying things like, "I didn't drive to work, how will I get home?", and "What will happen to my family?"  It was about 8:30 pm.  I asked them when the store closed and they said 11 pm, but they usually don't get done until 1:00 am.  The girl who was helping me lived in Kona, about 30 minutes away.

So, we quickly left the store and went back to our condo to watch the news.

We watched the news for a while.  At about 10 I decided that regardless of what the night would bring, Cole needed to sleep.  So, I got him into bed.  The rest of us got comfy on the couch for a long night.  Rick and I were trying to evaluate the situation and determine if/when we would evacuate.

We went out to the rental car and shuffled things around.  One of the full time residents of the complex was outside and asked us if we were going to evacuate.  We said that we were going to prepare to evacuate.  He told us exactly where we were supposed to go.  He said that last time there was an evacuation, they stayed but their guests chose to evacuate.  Interesting.  He said that once we left the evacuation zone, we absolutely would not be allowed back until the threat of tsunami had passed and the evacuation was cancelled.  He said to take food and water.  Makes sense.  They also wanted to have a record of who was planning on leaving and who was planning on staying.  This was incase there was a serious situation and they would know how many people to search for or account for if something terrible did happen.  I appreciated that.

(A side note here is that when my Aunt Shirley, Uncle Don & family were in Oahu last year when the Chilean earthquake hit and they were evacuated.  They did move to higher ground, but they didn't have food, water, or a restroom.  Apparently they found a kind soul who took pity and invited them to use her bathroom.  There was no real danger, the warning was cancelled and they returned to their vacation)

We went back inside and started packing our bags and eating treats (didn't want them to get washed away).  It was about 11 pm by this time and they predicted that the waves would hit at 3 am.  But, they were waiting for the waves to pass Midway Island to get a better indication of the speed of the waves.  

They sounded the emergency sirens every hour on the hour.  2 times we had a security vehicle come through the community and warn of the emergency and tell us to evacuate.

We filled all of our water bottles and put them in the freezer.  Rick adjusted the temp of the fridge and freezer to its lowest setting in case we lost power.  This would keep the food cold/frozen for just a little bit longer if necessary.  We pulled a portable cooler out of the closet and had it on the counter, ready to fill, if necessary.  I threw in a load of laundry so that all of our clothes would be clean--who wants to pack dirty clothes?  (I did the same thing when we were warned of Hurricane Katrina.  Good thing.  We were w/o power for 7 days.  I'm glad I had clean clothes to wear.)

Above, Kris is monitoring the news on the TV.  Behind her, Summer is at the fridge filling water bottles.  And you can see the blue cooler on the floor, ready to be filled.

Above, Rick is filling his suitcase with the things he is not willing to risk leaving behind/losing.  You can see the variety of batteries on the bed.  Rick had several flashlights for SCUBA diving, but I was glad to have them and the batteries to power them.  (I mean seriously, who takes flashlights and 3 sizes of batteries on vacation?)  Luckily the power did not go out.

One thing that they kept saying on the news is how the tsunami waves encircle the entire island(s).  So, even though the earthquake was to the West, the impact of the waves could hit anywhere on any island.  They said that there would be significant waves and damage, it was just impossible to predict exactly where.

I took a 30 minute power nap.  Summer was frantic--upset and crying,  Sierra was resting peacefully.

Once we got everything ready to go, we got the big things into the vehicle (suitcases & SCUBA gear).  Then we waited.  It was about 1 am.  I was nervous.  (that's when I blogged)  I also checked FACEBOOK.  One of my friends from high school had a son at BYU--Hawaii and had not heard from him.  She was a nervous wreck.  I was "talking" with her, keeping her up to date with the local news reports.  (she later learned that the Church is pretty strict in situations such as this.  They have a specific location that the students go to in a tsunami and keep close tabs on each of them until the threat is lifted and they can be released to return to campus)

Rick got on the internet to determine if we were in the inundation zone (meaning, mandatory evacuation zones).   It wasn't really clear exactly where we were located on the map, but we were really close either way.  Rick continued to research the maps on the internet while we watched and waited.  We decided to see what happened when the waves hit Kauai.  We would still have 30 to 60 minutes to get to higher ground once we saw what happened on the Eastern end of the island chain.  Nothing to report.  The local news station couldn't get any reports from Kauai.  So, either they were washed off the map, or they heeded the warnings and moved to higher ground.

We knew that we were located about 1 mile from the coast.  And we were at an elevation of about 59 feet (there's an APP for that).  Rick continued to monitor our situation from the internet.

So, we waited to see what happened when the waves approached Oahu.  They had a webcam that showed part of the beach on Diamond Head.  The problem was, it was still 4 am and totally dark.  But, suddenly the water did start to recede.  You cold no longer see any water--just the shadows of the exposed coral.  Then after a long pause, the water came back.  Not quickly, but much higher than normal.  It did this several times.  It almost seemed anticlimactic.

By about 4:30 I could not keep my eyes open.  Nothing seemed to happen to Kauai, Oahu, or Maui at this point.  So, we decided to go to bed.  If there was serious danger, we thought that we would hear the warning sirens and we could jump up to the upstairs balcony if necessary.

Next thing I knew, it was 8 am.

I got up and counted my children.  All were accounted for.

Rick got dressed, armed himself with a water bottle, phone, and camera.  And headed to the entrance to the beach area.  Security officers were still patroling and wouldn't let anyone past the gates--the beaches were all closed throughout the state until the Tsunami Alert was lifted.  (the alert stayed for almost 24 hours, until all coastal areas were deemed safe.)  So, we watched the news from Japan for a while.
After a few hours, we were able to make our way down to the Waikoloa Beach Resort area where the shops, golf course, and the majority of the vacationers stay.  We got some lunch.  Our server told us that A Bay (short for Anaehoomalu Beach) received some damage.  The sand was washed away as were the beach chairs.

It appears as though the waves hit the Big Island at about 5 am, just as I was falling asleep.  The worst damage took place in Maui and the Kona area of the Big Island.  So far, there have been no reports of injury or death.  These people take the threat of Tsunami quite seriously.

This picture is from last year, but A Bay has this big berm of sand all along the beach and apparently it is now gone.

This is as close as we could get to the beach since they are all closed.  This was at about 1 pm.  This is A Bay in the back ground.  You can kind of see what it is left of the Big Wall of sand.

This is a view towards the ocean from the same spot.  Lots of "stuff" floating around in the ocean.   Coconuts were bobbing up and down.

When we went to the beach today, the kids had a ball finding all kinds of shells and ocean stuff that had washed up onto the beach.

These 2 photos kind of show the sandy path behind the edge where the waves wash up onto the lava rock.  Normally it is sandy and smooth, but now (about 8 hours after the tsunami) you can see how the lava rocks and coral and leaves and branches have washed back and forth across the path.

While we were walking along the beach, I saw a girl talking on her cell phone.  I was eavesdropping (which really wasn't hard to do, the way some people talk on the phone like they are the only one around for miles).  She sounded like she was talking to her mom and she looked like she had all her worldly possessions in her backpack.  She was talking about the tsunami and saying how she realized how important it was for everyone to always have an emergency kit with them at all times.  Makes me think about how often I do not have an emergency kit with me.  A disaster could happen at any time.  And my emergency kit would still be at home, in the basement, waiting to be assembled...

We learned that the Four Seasons Hotel was hit quite hard.  We think that it is about half way between where we are located (A Bay) and the Kona airport.  It's the area that pokes out just a bit. (near the 19 on that part of the map at the top).   The vacationers at that resort were all relocated along with all of their soaking wet belongings to the resort where we are staying.

Ali'i Drive also received a lot of damage.  This picture was taken last year, but you can see the rock wall behind Barry, the surf coach.  That wall runs all along Ali'i Drive and was knocked completely down in some areas, allowing water to run up and into homes, restaurants, and shops.

***

It was interesting to see at Church on Sunday how the local members reacted to the situation.  In Relief Society, the lesson was on the Word of Wisdom which easily turned into a tangent on Food Storage.
When asked if the sisters felt any sense of panic when the tsunami warning was issued, no one raised their hands.  They all said that they felt adequately prepared.  It sounded like there had been a lot of information shared and preparations made since a year ago when the last tsunami warning took place.  Rick said that the lesson in Elders Quorum was given by the ward emergency preparedness specialist.  (not sure if that was planned, or last minute)  He said that the instructor lives in a lower elevation community where there in a main grocery store for the coastal area.  Shortly after the warning was issued, the store was packed.  Not a parking stall in site.  chaos.  But, not among the members.
Rick said that the Church will ship food from Distribution to Oahu for free (not free food, free shipping).  Then from Oahu to the other islands is $40 per pallet of food.  That's a lot of food to ship for $40.  Seriously, considering the cost of groceries, no wonder the Mormons on the big Island eat oats and bake their own bread.  At Costco today I noticed that the 2-pack bread is $7.89.  So, even though the Islanders typically eat rice, oats, and wheat are becoming popular among the members.  No wonder these people have food storage.  Even in this poor economy that has hit Hawaii very heavily.

***

What I learned...
always.  always.  always have enough gas to drive 50 miles.  never let the tank get below half.

always have a 72 hour kit handy.  that might mean having more than one.

always heed the warnings.  it may not be a tsunami in Utah.  But, it could be a storm warning, flood warning, power outage, or other disaster.  The experts may be wrong.  You can hope they will be wrong.  But, if they are not, their warnings will be in vain, if we don't listen.

***
My heart is heavy for the people in Japan.  That is all I can say about that.

8.9 / Tsunami Evacuation

Yes, it's true.  I put my mom on the plane and within a few minutes I got my nerdy little alert on my phone that there was an 8.9 earthquake in Japan.  We were filling up with gas at Costco at the time.

Seriously, my mother does this every time.  She was on the last flight off the Big Island before they started closing airports.  She arrived in Honolulu and boarded the last flight out of Hawaii.  She had no idea until some folks sitting next to her started talking about the tsunami.  She broke the flight rules and called me to check on me.  I was hoping that she would fly home in oblivion, but I guess not.

(This was the VERY.  SAME.  THING.  that happened in Mississippi the day before Hurricane Katrina.  Seriously.  She missed out on the action by a matter of hours.)

So, we drove back to the condo, and started packing our bags.  That's not true.  We went to the Queens' Market to get a shave ice.  Then we drove to the condo.

We turned on the news.  A neighbor checked on us.  He lives here permanently.  He told us where to evacuate to.

We are prepared to...1.  drive out of here  2.  walk out of here   3.  climb/break into the upstairs condo that is currently vacant.

What we are currently doing...1.  laundry  2.  charging all electronic devices  3.  blogging.  4.  finishing off all of the tasty food in the condo  5.  watching the news  6.  scouring the internet for details on mandatory evacuations in our area.

It's 1 am.  We are still on Utah time which is 4 am.  The tsunami will arrive in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

I have photos of the evening so far, however the USB cord is packed into my 72 hour backpack.  So no photos for now.

I think it's time for a game of PHASE 10.

Cole is buried in the sand.  yesterday.  before the tsunami.

oats

My new favorite food, again. when we went to Maui last year, we stopped at Costco and picked up a few groceries. I found these great oats and grabbed myself a bag. Loved 'em. So, I threw the half eaten bag in my suitcase and brought them home with me. I was a bit stingy with them for the rest of the year because I was unable to find them anywhere here at home.

Then, lo and behold when we went to Costco on the Big Island, I found my long lost favorite brand of oatmeal. I wanted to buy 2 bags--one to eat there and one to bring home, but then I remembered that I had only brought 1 carry-on and I didn't have room for extra oats. So, I only bought 1 bag. Oh they are yummy. I looked at Costco's website and they are not listed as one of their products so I assumed it must just be a local product.

But, I looked online and found out that they are located in California and I can order them online. And even better...I can order by the case.

1 case, 12 bags (48 oz. each) (Each bag contains about 34 servings) is $45.25. So, one of these days, I think I might be ordering myself a year's supply of oats.

**remember that purse I bought in Hawaii? well, there was just enough extra room to slip in the half eaten bag of oats, so I did get to bring some home after all.

**BTW, if you see these oats anywhere around town, let me know or just buy me a bag for my birthday.

storage room overhaul

I didn't think I had that much food storage until we emptied out the entire storage room.  We had the shelves torn out.  They were inefficient.  Too tall and not strong enough to hold my "stuff".  They were already starting to sag--big time.  We had tried to reinforce them, but it was clearly just a band-aid type fix.  They weren't working for us.  We had them rebuilt--closer together and much stronger.  Now I just need to get the food back on the shelves so that I can take an inventory and get busy working on my food storage again.

Preparedness

I've been AWOL for a few days.  I have been working on a huge project:  I have been working on a big, huge master inventory list of food storage items.  It's six pages long.  

The other thing that I have been working on is this:

 

(I got this from an email from a local emergency preparedness business.  It sounds like good advice.)
Now that temperatures are getting colder it’s a good idea to plan for the winter season. Put extra insulation around the windows and doors. Make sure your emergency fuel supplies, the wood pile, kerosene, etc., are full and sufficient for an extended period of time. Have a supply of extra blankets and warm clothing. Keep the gas tank at least half full at all times.

This month our focus is on Important Papers and Financial Preparedness.
1. Take photos of your home, inside and out; furniture; cars and other personal property for insurance records. Keep copies in emergency kits.
2. Make a list and copy of all bank & savings accounts, mortgages, credit cards, birth & marriage certificates, SSN, insurance policies, car title & registration, current family photos for identification, prescriptions and all other important papers.
3. Keep copies of paper work in a fire/water proof safe in your home. Keep a second copy in a safety deposit box or in another safe place outside the home. Keep a third copy in your 72 Hour Evacuation Kit
4. Add money to your emergency kits – small bills and coins.

preparedness

I had a request from a fellow blogger who wanted me to add a little more insight on Hurricanes and preparedness.  Well, here are some thoughts from watching the news about hurricane Ike last night. 

They said that there were at least 500,000 people in the Houston area without power.  The mayor of Houston suggested that the residents consider and prepare for the fact of living without power for at least 5 days.  He said a lot of other things, but that is the one thing that stuck in my mind.  I remember from Hurricane Katrina that we were without power for 5 days--127 hours and believe me, I was counting!  After just a few hours, the food in the fridge becomes questionable as to whether or not it is safe to eat.  The food in the freezer will last for a couple of days IF you do not keep opening the door.  So, think about this...do you know exactly what is in the freezer.  A list of the freezer contents on the outside of the freezer door is a good idea, because every time you open the door, you lose precious cold air.  I also like to keep the freezer full because it will hold the cold longer, too. So, fill a few milk jugs with water to fill in some of those spaces if there are gaps on some of the shelves.  Those will act as giant ice cubes if the power goes out.  They will come in handy if you find yourself without power.   

Another thing that we faced in Hurricane Katrina was that after 2 to 3 days, people started to have food spoil so they took it out to the curb with the trash.  WELL, because of downed trees and power lines, lack of fuel for garbage trucks, and general inability to get the garbage pickup back on schedule, there were  piles of rotting food lining our streets.  Gross.

So, just do what the mayor of Houston has asked of his residents and think about what you would do without power for 5 days...

thoughts and prayers to the folks in Houston    

Hurricanes

If you know me at all you know that I "survived" Hurricane Katrina.  (and remember I was 17 months pregnant during the whole thing.)  I marked the 3 year anniversary of that event this weekend by keeping an eye on the weather channel, tracking Huricane Gustav and thinking about what I experienced 3 years ago.  I read back over my journal and remembered some of the things that we experienced.  I remembered writing lists and stories for a few reasons.  One, because there was nothing else to do but to write.  We had no power as the storm approached.   It was raining terribly and we couldn't go outside during the storm.  And after the storm there was no fuel for the vehicles and most roads were so covered with trees and debris that it was impossible to travel.  So, we stayed home for days and days in the dark and the hot humid heat of the house.  So, I wrote.  I wrote also to try to capture the feelings that I had in my heart as I experienced first hand the things that we had been told would happen by our leaders and prophets of God.  I now knew why I had stored water, food, and other supplies and I wanted to remember that feeling of being prepared and obeying the wise counsel of our leaders.  I also wanted to record the ideas I had of being better prepared for future storms and hardships.  I knew I wouldn't remember everything I wanted to do if I didn't write it down as I was experiencing it.   Our home was still in tact after Hurricane Katrina and we had been spared so much that others had not been so lucky so be blessed with.  Rick and I both agreed that what we experienced through Hurricane Katrina and all of the people we met and stories we heard changed our lives.  It changed who we were and what we valued.  It changed us.  But what about 3 years later?    Our lives were back to normal within a few weeks to a few months even though there are still people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast who are still without homes, power, and comforts that they once enjoyed.  

My heart goes out to those people I saw on the Weather Channel this morning who were evacuating New Orleans.  Will their lives ever be the same?  What will they go home to next week when the storm is over.  Will they lose loved ones and all of their possessions as the storm rolls through?

Sorry for the Mormon insights here, but the only thing I can relate it to is being a missionary.  Being a missionary is life changing.  Giving up 2 years of your life to serve God 24 hours a day.  It changes a person.  It makes them better.  They come home a different person.  They still want to serve 24 hours a day.  They want to change everyone else--make them better, too.  But gradually reality sets in, work happens, school happens, and missionaries turn in to every day people, too.  They forget the stories, the lessons learned, and how they wanted to change the world.  Until they are reminded of what they experienced and what they felt and what they did about it.  

So, this little 3 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina I will watch the news.  I will think of my Mississippi friends and even my New Orleans friends.  I will pray for them.  And I will remember.  I will remember what I learned from Hurrican Katrina and the people who died and the people who still suffer.  I will pray for them.  And I will remember the people effected by Hurricane Gustav and I will pray for them.  I will remember and I will do better.