Preparedness Challenge #32

I know this may have sneaked up on some of you since February is a relatively short month, but it's already time for the monthly Preparedness Challenge and the give-away sponsored by USA Emergency Supply! But before I tell you about the give-away this month, I want to remind everyone that I have written many posts on what I believe "being prepared" means.

Because "Prepping" or being a "Prepper" can have lots of connotations and definitions (from being a survivalist to someone who cans and puts up a larder), I think it's important that I periodically point new readers to my posts explaining my stand on this topic. And as a Christian, we must be careful that we don't begin to think that it's our "works" that will save us in a pinch! The Lord determines the number of our days, not our oh-so-smart plans!

So why prep at all? It's way to complicated to put in one paragraph or to repost each time, so I encourage you to read these posts. I've provided a Prepping Basics Index so you don't have to scroll down through every post, but you can jump to each one directly. And hopefully soon I'll have it up on the side bar!

So, back to our wonderful sponsor, USA Emergency Supply, and their awesome prize this month, which includes...


• 2 food storage buckets
• a bag of oxygen absorbers
• 20 5-gallon mylar bags 

All three of these items are excellent for storing dry foods for extended periods of time. If you would like additional information on this topic, visit USA Emergency Supplies site for their article Storage Life of Dried Foods for some great information! 

How I Met The Challenge!

Here's what I did this month in each category (see category definitions near bottom of the post)...

• Food Storage: I added extra oats and wheat to my pantry this month. I want to make sure I don't get too low. I'm now at the point that I can rotate a bag from the co-op, to my freezer, then my freezer to the pantry (in a pail with a gamma seal), and my pantry to actually using it. This is at least a 3 month supply by my estimation. Next would be to go to a year long supply, but I want to shore up some other food areas first!

• Emergency Preparedness: I bought that fire extinguisher that I mentioned last month. And today, I'm off to the store to buy more matches and fire starters for the wood stove and an outdoor fire pit if we need to make one. I do make some of my own starters, but I want to have a lot more - just in case! I plan to make some more homemade ones as well, but I need to find some soy wax.

• Sustainable Living: Before February is out, I'll be attending another beekeeping meeting, but I also ordered my bees for April (two 3# packages with a queen each). However, I'm working on a source for some nucs instead. I bought a honey crisp apple tree, a new Nigerian Dwarf goat already in milk, bred my Kinder goat, and ordered my seeds and potatoes for spring. I also got on two lists for wood chips and spent two afternoons putting leaves through the shredder for mulching in my garden.

Now it's your turn to join the Preparedness Challenge.

Join the Challenge & Enter The Give Away

To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment on something you did this week to be more prepared in terms of food storage, emergencies, or sustainable living (or all three areas!) OR link up your Preparedness Challenge blog post (you only need to comment or post, not both). Posts not related to at least one of the three areas of preparedness will not be counted toward the give-away. Please be sure to clearly state in your comment or post what you did this month to be more prepared (see my example above as one easy way to do this). Again, the three areas we are focusing on include: 


• food storage for life's unexpected events whether related to long term effects from a disaster or a job loss and everything in between

• emergencies for times of power outages, natural disasters, and such

• sustainable living in order to be more independent, both physically and financially, and to live as close to the land as possible given each individual's situation 

Please be respectful of our challenge and only add a post on one of these three preparedness topics ONLY in order to retain the integrity of the link up event. If your post is just a general homesteading post, please save it for the Monday Homestead Barn Hop.

NOTE: This challenge and give-away ends Friday, March 2, at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Be sure to take the Preparedness Challenge picture and add it to your blog so others know you're participating and hopefully they'll join up, too! THANK YOU!!