72 hours

I have not been the best at being prepared, until now. At church we are often reminded that we should be prepared for emergencies and bad times. Something sparked in me these past few weeks, and I have been working on my long-term food storage. One day at costco I bought 50 lbs of flour, 50 lbs of rice, a bunch of olive oil, and some other stuff. I felt pretty good about it.
Then on Sunday, I looked at an ordering list for the cannery. I felt inclined to order some more food storage. This time dried milk, oats, and spagetti. Unfortunately some of those things are not available, as so many stakes are currently pushing preparedness. Anyways, that got me thinking about our 72-hour kit. Back in 2001, Joe parents gave us a 72-hour kit for Christmas. I really didn't have any idea what was in it, so today I pulled it from the shop. Besides the fact that all the food was 7 years old !!!, it was also very incomplete. Back in 2001, we only had 1 child. Now we have 3. Also, there were no clothes, and some other essentials were missing too. The nice thing was that I didn't have to buy any of the tools, or other accessories that belong in a kit.
I ordered some MRE (meals ready to eat) and then went to Wal-mart. I replaced all the food, and bought enough for our family of 5. The only thing I still need/want to get is some backpacks to put all the supplies in. I think this will be easier to grab in an emergency situation.
As I was thinking about food storage and preparedness, I also realized I really should have a grain mill. They sell a mill that you can use either by hand, or attach it to my Bosch mixer. I had looked at this mill like 4 years ago, but didn't want to fork over the money. But today.... well, I guess I realize that I would really like to be able to feed my family.
So I am feeling pretty good about our preparedness. If something were to happen we have
- meat ; we can slaughter our animals
-fresh eggs
-water from our lake
-bulk grains (although I still need to order the wheat and get more sugar)
-things like baking soda, baking powder, shortening, salt, powdered milk
-fresh veggies from our garden (hopefully)
By no means do I think I have it set. There are still some vital things missing, like a water filter, and buckets to store my wheat, flour, rice and other bulk foods in. More foods, and more money in the bank.