Week 26 Food: Canned Fruit
We are half way to our goal of a three month supply in a year. How are you doing? Most weeks we ask you to store foods per family member. Now, we encourage you to think about others who may end up living at your home when disaster strikes. Will you need to take in your parents, adult children, elderly neighbor? If you may need to house others or if you have friends who will be knocking at the door looking for help now is the time to consider what you are storing. Should you be adding a few more people when you count how much you are purchasing? You may need to redefine “family member” and store for a few more people.
This week we are adding more fruit to our General Store. Add 6 cans of fruit per family member. There should be fruit available (in your yard, a friend's, or U-pick places) to can or freeze now so consider that as well.
Week 26 General Store: Laundry Detergent
This week we go from washing dishes and cars to washing clothing. It’s time to store laundry detergent. You should have a good idea of how much you use and therefore this should be a fairly simple task. However, there are a few things you should consider.
1. I store liquid detergent since during a natural disaster water may be limited and hot water may not exist without considerable effort. Under these circumstances liquid will be a much better choice.
2. If there is no power you may be washing clothing in a five gallon bucket “washing machine”. Again liquid detergent will be easier to rinse out of clothing and bedding than partially dissolved powdered detergents.
3. A three-month supply may not break the bank but you should be storing extra just in case you are cleaning up after a flood or wildfire and every cloth item you own including towels and sheets needs to be washed. You may need twice or three times as much to get the job
done. Of course you may also have others who have evacuated to your home who you are caring for, including their laundry.
4. Make your own. This is the least expensive way to store an adequate supply to meet all demands. I have two boxes of borax, two boxes of washing soda and 12 bars of Fels Naphtha soap stored. This will make enough laundry detergent to get me through an entire year of laundry.
The total cost, $70.00. How much do you spend now for a year’s supply? If you have a family of four, you are probably spending at least $140 a year.