Preparedness on People’s Minds

• 07 Jun 2010
• Connor
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Today’s edition of the Deseret News carries a story about the subject of preparedness being on people’s minds in increased fashion.

A recent poll of New York City residents found that about half are now thinking about preparedness, compared with 18 percent who were considering it in 2004. And increasingly there are associations of and websites for so-called “preppers.”

Earthquakes and economic meltdowns have made the need more “believable,” said Emergency Essentials co-owner Don Pectol, who has seen an uptick in interest in emergency preparedness.

The problem, Pectol notes, is that money and time are both tight. While desire is higher, it might not be as easy to accomplish in this economy. And those who are not at all prepared for an emergency feel like “they’re being asked to eat an elephant.”

It’s our hope at Utah Preppers that we can make the subject of preparedness easier, more affordable, and more realistic for those who understand its importance. It’s been a slow Spring around here since we’ve all been busy, but expect things to pick up over the next few weeks and months as we share some important information on how you and your family can better be prepared for the future.

2 Food Storage Classes in Spanish Fork, April 15th

• 13 Apr 2010
• ekim
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There will be two classes on Food Storage taught in Spanish Fork on Thursday evening.

Debbie Kent lives in the Southern California. She has been married for 30 years. She and her husband are the proud parents of 6 beautiful children, and grandparents of 3. She has been an advocate of food storage and emergency preparedness since her early teen age years. She enjoys giving emergency preparedness lessons each month at her church. Much of the resources found on this website are the culmination of hours of preparation for these lessons. She sincerely hopes that in sharing this information, other’s may benefit from her efforts. http://peaceofpreparedness.com/

Spanish Fork, April 15th, 2 classes by Debbie Kent
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Beginning Bee Kepping Class in Utah County April 17th

• 29 Mar 2010
• ekim
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Beginning Beekeeper’s Class

Bee Keeping is fun and relatively inexpensive.

I took this class last year and obtained my equipment through Maple Mountain bees. It has proven to be a fun and rewarding experience for my family and I. The 60lbs. of honey we got our first year wasn’t bad either!

Bryan Esquivel of Maple Mountain Bees authored a guest post for us in May of last year about how he got started in bee keeping. You can find the article here.

When:

April 17th (2pm-4pm).

Where:

1475 North 900 West Mapleton, Utah.
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Great Powdered Milk Taste Test and Review

• 04 Mar 2010
• angela
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This post is cross posted from my blog.

Ever wanted to find a powdered milk that tastes good?  You’re not alone.  So just in case you don’t want to go through the expense and hassle of trying out every kind of powdered milk you can find, read on.  I did it for you.

After a comment about the flavor of powdered milk on another post, I hatched a plan to have folks try a bunch of different kinds of powdered milks to maybe find one that tasted good so this reader and anyone else who wants to know (including me) will know which brands would be best to buy because you know powdered milk is not cheap.  I had some super help with this milk experiment from Emergency Essentials, Grandma’s Country Foods, Walton Feed, Blue Chip Group (now Augason Farms), and Honeyville Grain who all donated some of their milk for the review.  Thank you to all of you–we couldn’t have done it without you! (more…)

Humor: Mormon Hoarder Friends

• 19 Feb 2010
• Jayce
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Ok, Here in Utah we like to poke fun at our own dominant religion (of which I am a member).  One blogger had a great post today that I had to share with the Prepper community.  For those who are LDS, it’s great to laugh at ourselves a little.  For those not LDS but preppers too, well you’ll realize that your ‘oddities’ fit in pretty well with us.  Head on over and read ‘The Jet Set’ take on Why You Should Have a Mormon Friend: Hoarder Edition

For anybody who does have questions, come on back and read more.  And yes, the LDS Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) does actually teach to have at least a 3 month storage of regular use items, and has consistently taught that you should have 1-2 years of more long-term storage.

Do We Learn from Others’ Mistakes?

• 11 Feb 2010
• Connor
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History and hindsight allow us the opportunity of learning and improving. But we must decide whether or not we will learn from the past — from our mistakes and those of others — to plan for a better future.

We saw disaster strike in Katrina, and saw the hordes of people suffering, starving, and sleeping in the stadium. Looters went after such unsustainable items as beer and potato chips, rushing in a frenzy to find whatever they could to “survive” until things blew over.

As one example of many, consider the following news report of the massive looting that took place after the hurricane had hit:

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Losing your storage to disaster

• 04 Feb 2010
• Jayce
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Photo Via Flickr User un_photo

Recently we had a reader ‘Lonnie’ write in with the following excellent question, that I’ve heard asked in other forms too;

Was thinking about the earthquake in Haiti, and if that happened along the wasatch front. I live in Utah county in a 2 story home with a basement. My food storage is in my basement. What if the earthquake totally destroys my house and my food storage is buried under the rubble of what was my house? It won’t do me any good when I can’t GET TO IT! Any suggestions on mitigating that problem?

Well Lonnie, it looks like I’m finally going to get around to addressing your question, and hopefully in a helpful manner. (more…)

Got Old Oil in Your Food Storage in Utah or Southern Idaho?

• 22 Jan 2010
• angela
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Want to donate some to a study on food storage oils at BYU?  I love food storage experiments, so you know I’m letting them have some of my old stuff.  If you’d like to help out the oil study, see the details here.  They are looking for vegetable oils that have been in food storage 6 months to 5 years.  Right now my oldest oil in storage is only 2 1/2 years old.  Bummer.  I’ve had older stuff before I would have loved to donate.  Anyway, contact Ann Saunders at BYU if you’ve got some old oil they can experiment on. :)

Making Canned Milk Products from Powdered Milk

• 05 Jan 2010
• angela
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When I started storing food, I thought it would be a good idea to store forms of canned milk like evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.  I bought quite a few cans and have used most of them over the years.  However, I only have two recipes I regularly make that call for evaporated milk, and one that calls for sweetened condensed milk, so I did not use every can I purchased before they expired.  (more…)

LDS Home Storage Center prices changing in January

• 18 Dec 2009
• wade
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The LDS Home Storage Centers will be changing their prices 16 January 2010. They will also be closed from noon on 19 December through 4 January. Prices will be going both up and down, depending on the product; so, depending on what you need, you might want to buy now, or wait until just after the new year.  Click through to see the summary, and to get a copy of the new pricing. (more…)

Magazine Review: Big Buy

• 19 Nov 2009
• Joseph
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Magazine Review: Big Buy

I’m going to be honest with you: this isn’t what you’d call a glowing review. Think of it as more of a warning, not just against this magazine, but other books and magazines like it.
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Country Living Mill Group Buy

• 16 Nov 2009
• angela
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You all know why you need a wheat grinder.  There’s only so much you can do with all the wheat in your long term storage if you can’t grind it into flour.  So just in time for the holidays we’ve got a special buy on the Country Living Grain Mill.  This is a hand crank grain mill that is built in the USA of industrial grade components and has a lifetime warranty.  It is relatively easy to crank as far as hand grain mills go.  My small kids can grind flour with it.  You can check out my full review, and see videos of the mill in action on my blog post here. (more…)