Prepare Every Needful Thing-- Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yef_jcnqSD0&feature=player_embedded

As found in Meridian Magazine...

Food storage includes more than just food

Author: Connor Boyack See all from this author
20 October 2010 9:00am

Imagine a future disaster where the grocery store shelves are quickly emptied, and your access to any new food supply is immediately cut off. You'll no doubt be proud of your basement full of canned goods, right? But what if you don't have a can opener?

Food storage is about more than just food. For instance, it's not uncommon to find families who have several months (or years) of food stocked up but little to no water storage. Unless they have access to a water source they can collect and purify, these people would have an extremely difficult time preparing their food, cleaning their cooking supplies, keeping up their hygiene and hydrating themselves during a disaster.

Kenneth Moravec, a Community Emergency Response Team instructor from American Fork, Utah, emphasizes this point in his seminars. He says, "We need to seriously look and think through many different scenarios and how they might affect us. When teaching on any emergency preparedness subject, I normally ask people to think of preparing for an earthquake of the worst magnitude and prepare accordingly. This will usually cover most bases for any emergency."

Eating food you've stored usually requires first cooking it, which in turn requires cooking supplies and fuel. The extra supplies needed will largely depend on what you've decided to store. Of course, the best way to plan for using your food storage is to actually use it. Consider conducting a week-long experiment where the only food your family eats must come from your food storage. Along the way, make a list of the non-food items you use — water, propane, matches, napkins, plastic cutlery — so you can readily identify what you would need should you be living off of your food supply long term.

While food storage is an important aspect of preparing for emergencies, Crystal Godfrey of EveryDayFoodStorage.net notes that it's "also for times of unemployment, extreme price increases and for convenience." For these types of more common occurrences, Godfrey says it's important to "store things like toilet paper, deodorant, toothpaste, napkins, etc. You can only fold your paper towels into napkins for so long!"

Godfrey also suggests acquiring paper goods such as bowls, plates and cups, so doing the dishes is as easy as throwing away (or burning) the trash.

"In a natural disaster, or any scenario where there's a lack of water, you don't really want to be wasting your water to clean your dishes. Plus, there are some nights you just plain don't want to do dishes."

Whether for natural disasters or the rough and tumble of daily life, being prepared is more than buying and storing things. Jason Hall, founder of UtahPreppers.com, stresses the importance of a good plan, whether for food storage specifically or emergency preparedness in general.

"If you have your food storage, medical supplies, camping gear, tools and anything else organized ahead of time, you are ahead of most everybody else."

Why is this so important? Hall says, "If you have a plan of action on what food you'll eat, how to cook it, how long it will take, etc., you will be less stressed and more able to spend your time and energy focusing on other pressing concerns that will come up. Being organized allows you to be proactive and not reactive to the turmoil during an emergency."

When working on that plan, Moravec proposes five main topics for consideration: water, food, medical, sanitation and fuel. Each of these are interrelated under the umbrella of "food storage and should be broken down into specific items to acquire, practice with and store for that proverbial 'rainy day.'"

Most people are familiar enough with the food aspect of food storage, but what about water? Storing a large amount of water requires food-grade plastic containers, a thorough purification process and optimal storage conditions of cool temperatures and darkness. While it requires a good deal of homework, it can and should be done in order to have a well-rounded storage of food that can be cooked and eaten.

Food storage-related medicine is also important, whether it's for pain relief, indigestion or dental problems. For sanitation, it's a good idea to store dish and hand soap, toothbrushes and paste, toilet paper, paper towels, and if you're adventurous, your own portable toilet. Lastly, storing the right kind of fuel depends specifically on your cooking methods and supplies. Whatever your circumstances, you'll likely want to store either propane, wood, charcoal briquettes or any combination of the three.

Simply start with the basics, and remember food storage is not just about food. Even in the worst of disasters, you'll find yourself stressed out and starving if you're surrounded by canned goods and nothing else.

Preparedness Website

Visit www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net for practical food storage tips and challenges.

They have a fun challenge in September that you may want to be a part of.

Solar Oven Cooking

Now is the time to pull out your Solar Oven and start cooking with it again.

Visit http://www.sunoven.com/ to learn more about Sun Ovens.

Two new preparedness websites

www.blog.totallyready.com

www.iwillprepare.com

Christmas Gift Idea: Stand for the Family

Recommended reading: STAND FOR THE FAMILY by Sharon Slater (President of Family Watch International)

You can buy it here.

Here’s what you’ll find inside:

1. Riveting, firsthand experiences that give you an up close and personal view of the various hidden assaults on the family at the UN and at the national, state and local levels.
   
   
2. Documentation, research, and commentary exposing how key institutions are being manipulated to undermine the mother/father family.
   
   
3. Concrete steps that you can take to protect your own family and the institution of the family.

I loved the book so much I bought several for Christmas gifts.

Join the fight!

Sign the petition, become informed, and encourage others to do the same.

www.parentalrights.org


THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
United Nations' threat: No more parental rights
Expert: Pact would ban spankings, homeschooling if children object

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Posted: February 05, 2009
12:00 am Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

A United Nations human rights treaty that could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion is on America's doorstep, a legal expert warns.

Michael Farris of Purcellville, Va., is president of ParentalRights.org, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association and chancellor of Patrick Henry College. He told WND that under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC, every decision a parent makes can be reviewed by the government to determine whether it is in the child's best interest.

"It's definitely on our doorstep," he said. "The left wants to make the Obama-Clinton era permanent. Treaties are a way to make it as permanent as stuff gets. It is very difficult to extract yourself from a treaty once you begin it. If they can put all of their left-wing socialist policies into treaty form, we're stuck with it even if they lose the next election."

The 1990s-era document was ratified quickly by 193 nations worldwide, but not the United States or Somalia. In Somalia, there was then no recognized government to do the formal recognition, and in the United States there's been opposition to its power. Countries that ratify the treaty are bound to it by international law.

Although signed by Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., on Feb. 16, 1995, the U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty, largely because of conservatives' efforts to point out it would create that list of rights which primarily would be enforced against parents.

The international treaty creates specific civil, economic, social, cultural and even economic rights for every child and states that "the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." While the treaty states that parents or legal guardians "have primary responsibility for the upbringing and development

of the child," Farris said government will ultimately determine whether parents' decisions are in their children's best interest. The treaty is monitored by the CRC, which conceivably has enforcement powers.

According to the Parental Rights website, the substance of the CRC dictates the following:

• Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.

• A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.

• Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.

• The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent's decision.

• A child's "right to be heard" would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.

• According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children's welfare.

• Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.

• Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

• Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.

• Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

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"Where the child has a right fulfilled by the government, the responsibilities shift from parents to the government," Farris said. "The implications of all this shifting of responsibilities is that parents no longer have the traditional roles of either being responsible for their children or having the right to direct their children."

Michael Farris

The government would decide what is in the best interest of a children in every case, and the CRC would be considered superior to state laws, Farris said. Parents could be treated like criminals for making every-day decisions about their children's lives.

"If you think your child shouldn't go to the prom because their grades were low, the U.N. Convention gives that power to the government to review your decision and decide if it thinks that's what's best for your child," he said. "If you think that your children are too young to have a Facebook account, which interferes with the right of communication, the U.N. gets to determine whether or not your decision is in the best interest of the child."

He continued, "If you think your child should go to church three times a week, but the child wants to go to church once a week, the government gets to decide what it thinks is in the best interest of the children on the frequency of church attendance."

He said American social workers would be the ones responsible for implementation of the policies.

Farris said it could be easier for President Obama to push for ratification of the treaty than it was for the Clinton administration because "the political world has changed."

At a Walden University presidential debate last October, Obama indicated he may take action.

"It's embarrassing to find ourselves in the company of Somalia, a lawless land," Obama said. "I will review this and other treaties to ensure the United States resumes its global leadership in human rights."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been a strong supporter of the CRC, and she now has direct control over the treaty's submission to the Senate for ratification. The process requires a two-thirds vote.

Farris said Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., claimed in a private meeting just before Christmas that the treaty would be ratified within two years.

In November, a group of three dozen senior foreign policy figures urged Obama to strengthen U.S. relations with the U.N. Among other things, they asked the president to push for Senate approval of treaties that have been signed by the U.S. but not ratified.

Partnership for a Secure America Director Matthew Rojansky helped draft the statement. He said the treaty commands strong support and is likely to be acted on quickly, according to an Inter Press Service report.

While he said ratification is certain to come up, Farris said advocates of the treaty will face fierce opposition.

"I think it is going to be the battle of their lifetime," he said. "There's not enough political capital in Washington, D.C., to pass this treaty. We will defeat it."