Quilting Efforts

We sent out a group email earlier explaining what you can do in the way of quilts and blankets for the people in Japan. If you would like an address for a drop-off for your quilts, please email foodstoragenow@gmail.com and we'll be happy to get it to you (for safety purposes, we prefer not to list it here).

If you missed the email, here it is:
There's so much need...How can we help?

Quilts and Blankets!

We have all watched the heartbreaking footage and heard the stories from the recent disasters in Japan, and have wondered...there's so much need; what can I possibly to do help?

Currently there is a great need for, well, just about everything, but particularly quilts. The weather is cold and snowy there and many are without heat or have limited utilities. If you are inclined to help with quilts, here are some ideas:

Quilt-A-Thon
The Hyrum Stake Center on 600 S. and 200 E. Hyrum is having a mega quilt-a-thon Monday, March 21, 9 AM-5 PM, and Tuesday, March 22, 9 AM-9 PM. All are welcome to help for any amount of time!

Make Your Own
Or if you would like to make your own, we would love to have you drop them off at Joan's home in Nibley and we will make sure they are distributed to Salt Lake and sent to Japan via the LDS Church Charities. Here are their guidelines for quilts:


Quilts

Un-used fabric, preferably cotton blends or flannel. High-loft bonded batting is

preferred. Quilts may be quilted or tied with yarn ties about 4 inches apart.

Please ensure that the ties will not pull out. Do not use fabrics with prints of

religious or military themes or any flags.

Approximate sizes are:

Crib 45x60 inches, Single 72x90 inches, Double 90x90 inches

Receiving blankets of fleece or flannel are also needed. Guidelines for fleece are as follows:

Fleece

· Cut a 36x36 – 45x45 inch

square of medium weight

fleece.

· Serge, hem, or blanket-stitch edges.


You can access more information on guidelines and other humanitarian projects here.

Family in Japan Shares their Story

Email from LDS family in Japan with advice to us all

This was sent to a friend of ours March 13, and I've edited out names, they felt we could learn from this experience about a 'real' emergency. Hope it helps someone here.

Hi Everyone,
We're doing "fine" here. Considering what is going on around us.
When the first big quake hit, around 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday,
I ran to ***** room and grabbed him out of his crib. We've had
plenty of earthquakes in the 2.5 years we've been here, but this one
was huge. ***** started crying and calling for me --I got him too and
we huddled on the stairs away from windows and light fixtures. The
two boys were walking home from school and came in while the
house was still shaking. They thought it was exciting. I yelled at
them to "GET BACK OUTSIDE!" because I'd just been told if you're
outside, you're supposed to stay outside! I sat on the stairs
praying: "Please protect my kids, please protect my kids, please
protect my kids..." It seemed to last forever (around 5 minutes I've
heard) and then the aftershocks just kept coming and coming. They're
still coming.

They evacuated the hospital and **** was able to come home around 4.
[I can't tell you what a relief it was to have my whole entire family
safe and together. And how upsetting it was/is to think of people
all over Japan who have family unaccounted for. It's really hard for
me whenever one of the husbands has to leave.]

Since then, the power has been out and we haven't had any heat or
access to phones (to the states) or Internet (except ***** getting one
e-mail out from the hospital.) Friday evening we moved our friends
in with us (**** and **** and three kids) since they just shipped all
of their stuff to the states in preparation for their move in two
weeks. It's been nice to have them around because everyone is on
edge and extremely stressed.

Yesterday (Saturday) they opened the commissary (No lights, cash
only) and we grabbed some extra food, water and diapers. Since we
have the standard Mormon "food storage" I wasn't too worried about
running out of food or water, but I didn't have any spare diapers so
was happy to buy three big boxes yesterday for *****. (And yes,
I bought two big cans of hot chocolate. Priorities, people!)

We went to church for a shortened meeting to take the sacrament and
get the news today. All members of the branch have been accounted
for and we've heard that all the missionaries in Japan are accounted
for also. (Big relief.)

The power is now back on off-base which is how I have Internet access
right now. We're at ***** house. Hopefully it stays on.


We were asked at church to see
what extra coats, blankets, food and water we can round up to donate
to the Japanese people nearby. I feel heart sick thinking of those
who've lost homes and loved ones. Although you probably know much
more than me, I hear the devastation is extremely great. We were
lucky to be so safe on base and grateful our off-base friends and
neighbors were okay.

The earthquakes (aftershocks) haven't stopped and I spent all night
last night having nightmares about running from collapsing and
buckling buildings. The kids are on edge and tantrums are at an all
time high. They keep busy playing during the day, but when it gets
dark and we have to ration flashlights and candles it gets extra hard
to keep the peace.

A few things I've been wanting to tell people and note for the
future:

*Get an old school, corded phone. If the power goes out, your
cordless won't work. We were lucky to have a corded phone upstairs
which helped ***** coordinate with the Branch President to get
accountability of church members. (The phones have worked on-base
off and on, but we were never able to get a call through to the
states.)

*Speaking of accountability, in an emergency, if you're going to
leave your house--leave a note on the door saying where you are going
so when guys from church or work coming looking, they'll know where
you are.

*When the power went out, people off base couldn't get their cars out
of their garage. Turns out there is a special crank to use but most
of our friends didn't have it or know what it was. Luckily ***** had
parked outside and was able to get her kids to our house Friday.

*We've been cooking with our camping equipment. Note to self: Buy a
20 pack of small propane tanks. We've also used our outdoor BBQ (in
the cold) and I'm wishing I had a spare tank of Propane for that.
(We still don't have power and don't know when it will come back on
On Base. Estimates have said 24 hours (we're way past that) to 1
week, to indefinite.)

*Do you have an extra refill of your prescriptions in your 72 hour
kit? It's terrifying to imagine running out of the things you take
every day. Also, the thought of my kids getting sick and not having
enough Children's Advil and/or Tylenol made me pretty nervous until I
verified we had some of each.

*For ONCE I was glad to be doing Dave Ramsey yesterday when we had
plenty of cash on hand to shop at the commissary. But we also have a
cash and yen emergency fund hidden in the house for back-up which was
very comforting.

*While I'm making notes to myself: Buy a hand crank wheat grinder
and blender! (We have a freezer full of frozen fruit to make
smoothies but no way to blend anything.)

*Flashlights are a pain in my butt. All of our stupid Rayovac
crappy-**** batteries that I had stored for an emergency, LEAKED! So
the flashlights are all slowly dying, being over used by the
children, and being misplaced. The best source of light the last two
nights has been the pillar candles I've had in the cupboard for fancy
table settings. They seem to burn pretty slow and shed a lot of
light. I've gone through 3 and have 1 left. Wish I had a 20 pack of
those in my 72 hour pack. It would be nice not to worry about
running out. Small, light weight, energy efficient lanterns would be
nice too.

*Also, my next house will have a wood burning fire place. This all
would have been much easier if we could have been warm.

*Also, I'm buying all my kids a down comforter. We have one on our
bed and we've been fine at night, but the kids need 20 blankets piled
up to stay warm. (Actually, the older boys each have a two layer
fleece blanket which is pretty warm, but unfortunately, they're not
very big.)

(Poor little ***** had to spend yesterday in his snow suit to stay
warm. The poor little guy must be sensing the stress because he's
been quite out of sorts. He's always shivering (even when bundled)
and very clingy. The kids are all confused and upset but mostly
hanging in there. Like I said, it's been nice to have friends to
keep us company.)

Sorry, I'm rambling on and on but I've had all this stress for the
last two days and my main way to process is by writing my thoughts
down. So I've been going a little nuts feeling so disconnected.

A few more random thoughts:
*The last two days this thought kept running through my head "All are
safely gathered in.". I can't express enough how glad I was/am to
have my family around me. Please say a prayer for our many many
friends with deployed spouses. This is a very stressful time here
and it's really sucky for them to be apart. Also, please pray for
all the Japanese people who are missing or displaced. So sad.

*We were very blessed on base to have running (freezing cold) water.
Off base, sewer lines broke and contaminated the water supply they
weren't even supposed to touch it.

*Today we sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" at church. Has a lot of
meaning right now.

Okay, there are other people who need to use this computer. Everyone
on base is coming off base to try to contact family.

***** husband (Pilot) is at work trying to coordinate rescue efforts
so I should go down and help her take care of the multitude of
children and get everyone some lunch.

Please pray for us (us being everyone in Japan) and if you feel so
inclined, find a way to send some warm blankets to people who've lost
their homes. Don't know when I'll be back on-line again, but
hopefully soon.

Thanks to everyone for your concern. I knew (figured) there were
people praying for us back in the states and it helped to think about

100 Items to Disappear First

This is an interesting list that may give you some ideas you hadn't thought of:

http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/items_disappearfirst.htm

Thanks to All About Preparedness for the tip!

LESSONS LEARNED FROM JAPAN EARTHQUAKE

I have been horrified by the extent of damage that has resulted from the multiple events going on in Japan. It has spurred a lot of thought on what I should be doing better, and a lot of prayer on their behalf.

I found an excellent article on the potential earthquake risks here in the USA, and some great ideas on what we can do to prepare ourselves from Crystal over at www.everdayfoodstorage.net. Take a look:

http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2011/03/12/lessons-to-learn-from-japans-earthquake/food-storage-recipes

MARCH PREPAREDNESS GOAL-or, how to use your tax return!

With world events being what they are, I have been really thinking about what I need to work on with my preparedness. As I have sought for answers, I have found I have much yet to do! I have heard some great ideas on how to use your tax return (or a portion of it) for preparedness purposes, and I plan to do some of these:

1. Set aside some money for your emergency savings fund. (Recommended by LDS church leaders and Dave Ramsey: 6 month to a years' supply of savings)

2. Buy the basics; bulk up on your years' supply (wheat, sugar, milk, salt, legumes, oil, etc.) These are the items that are projected to skyrocket with pricing in the next several months. Good sources: LDS dry pack canneries and case-lot sales, which should be happening in the next few weeks at Associated Food Stores. Macey's always has a ready supply of these goods also.

3. Work on your 3 mo. supply of foods, foods you would like to have in an emergency, not just "survival" foods. Focus especially on proteins like peanut butter, meats i.e. tuna, etc. I also love canned soups for an easy and filling back-up.

4. Buy a first aid kit. This is one of my goals this month! I have been doing some research on this and there are TONS of resources on the internet. One reliable source would be the American Red Cross. They have kits for home, car, pets, business, etc. In the event of an emergency, I can see a first aid kit being invaluable.

5. Buy a fire extinguisher. Again, look on the internet for zillions of options. They are not terribly expensive, and it's a good idea to have one on each floor. If you could stop a small fire in your home, you could save yourself a lot of problems with smoke and water damage at the least. With this, it's a good idea to test your smoke detectors to be sure they are operating. And have I mentioned...batteries!

6. Another of my goals is to get another filled propane tank for back up cooking fuel. Around $40, these are a little pricey, but I know if I don't use the fuel in an emergency situation, I can always use it for summer barbeques!

7. And, last but not least, I've been putting off the secondary heating monster long enough; time to pony up the cash for a small woodburning stove to have as a back up (which of course means I need to have some wood put aside somewhere). We have way too cold of winters to be without heat. If anyone has a good contact for me in this area please leave a comment!

Don't get overwhelmed; pick one or two of these items that you really need to work on and just do it! You will find peace knowing that you are preparing for that "rainy day," even just a little at a time.