I want a wheat grinder really bad. I have the one I want all picked out. And I want to buy buckets of wheat from the Lehi Roller Mills when we go to Utah this summer. And I want to get the optional hand-crank for my wheat grinder (because I can think of so many disaster scenarios in which I will be at my house hand-grinding wheat to make flatbread that I will fry over an open flame). Actually, I'll feel like a bad mormon if I can't run the wheat grinder without electricity. Because don't we all secretly wait for the day when the national power grid goes down and we have to use the special wheat grinder attachment that lets you run it with your bicycle? (Seriously, my mom has the bicycle attachment - mormons are into disaster preparedness, in case you didn't know.)
But I'm afraid that my enthusiasm about grinding wheat and making bread will dwindle like my enthusiasm for my many short-lived projects of the past (modern dance lessons, learning italian, building my own telescope by grinding a pyrex dish into a lens, etc.)
Luckily, wheat lasts for several millenia without going bad, so if I buy it and never use it, at least it won't spoil and have to be thrown away like the revolving supply of rotten vegetables in my refrigerator. On the other hand, an unused wheat grinder is just a piece of crap taking up space in my house. On the other hand, I want it really bad and that counts for something. (Although it didn't count for anything when EVERY SINGLE YEAR I begged my mom for the 64-pack of Crayola crayons with the built-in crayon sharpener and she would only buy us the 48-pack. Oh, how I wanted that crayon sharpener.)
P.S. Everyone should get a two month supply of food and stuff so that you can stay home during the bird flu pandemic. Seriously.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
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4 comments:
You know, Nikki, my non-LDS friends in high school were always told that "The Mormons owned Safeway", and in the event of the apocalypse, we were going to utilize the food at the supermarket chain for our own needs, to the exclusion of all the sinners.
An old e-mail from me to one of these friends in 2000 said, "Well... the Mormons did own Safeway at one point! Apparently the co-founder (a Mr. Skaggs) was LDS, although the church never owned it, and there were no post-Apocalyptic leanings of the grocery chain."
Curiously enough, in Chico, where we attended high school, the stake center was just across the road from a Safeway - which had to be a coincidence... right?
I think you should skip the wheat-grinder and buy yourself the crayons. :)
And on another note: I actually think that now that I live in a place with a basement - aka SPACE - I should get some food and water and other disaster-related supplies to keep at home. (Of course the basement's not the best place to keep it due to the possibility of flooding, but I figure we can retrieve it in the early stages of any storm-related disaster.)
Now, here's the problem: I have a husband. He already thinks I'm slightly crazy. He also thinks I'm some sort of honorary mormon. What will he think when I start talking about stockpiling food?! Maybe I should do it next week while he's out of town and hope he doesn't notice... Hmm...
Now I need detailed instructions and advice on what to buy, how to store it, etc. Help anyone?
(Wow, this was a long comment...)
There are lots of sources of good information about disaster preparedness on the internet. I found the Red Cross's website particularly helpful. I also found lots of information produced by local authorities with specific information pertaining to threats in this area (particularly earthquakes). In addition, the federal government has a lot of information (www.ready.gov or www.fema.gov/areyouready/).
A good place to buy supplies online is www.emergencyessentials.com.
If you are just starting out, you should probably focus on the following (in this order):
1. Put together a 3-day disaster kit - this should have everything you would need, including food and water, to last for three days if you had to evacuate your home. It should be in a backpack or some other portable container. Make sure to include any medicine you take and a battery-powered radio. If you live in a cold area, you should include some warm clothes. All of the sites above have checklists for this kind of kit.
2. The standard guideline for water storage is to store 1 gallon/day for each adult for 2 weeks. (i.e. 14 gallons per person). Don't store it in glass bottles or permeable plastic (milk cartons - bad, 2-liter soda bottles - good.)
3. Food storage - You should have enough to last for a couple weeks. The interesting threat in regard to food storage is the avian flu. If a pandemic breaks out (and there's a non-trivial chance that it will) health officials will close schools and non-essentials businesses and ask people to stay home. In 1918 (when a flu pandemic killed 50 million people), the flu hit in 3 waves over the course of a year. Each wave lasted for about 8 weeks. The only specific recommendations I have seen in regard to the flu are from a public briefing by the San Jose Health Department that recommended that people have enough food/supplies to stay home without going out for 2 months.
Since the flu virus can live for 2-4 days outside the human body, and people can shed the virus before they know they are infected, you really don't want to have to run to the store during the pandemic.
Finally, you should think about how you would cook if you have an extended power outage (probably more likely where you live than most places due to winter storms.) Most campstoves can't be used indoors - but you can use sterno stoves indoors. Check out Emergency Essentials ECO Fuel and Stove.
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