As many of you know we began warning you in March of last year of the concern we had for runaway inflation. This warning came long before the media was discussing this topic. We understood the seriousness of the situation because as exporters we deal with the ports on a daily basis. Because we export food we also recognized crop shortages and again, the inability to economically import foods. We feel that the time has come to issue another warning.
If you have been listening to the news you know the following:
• Russia is threatening to invade the Ukraine. They currently have 60 battlegroups on the Ukrainian border and 30 train carloads of troops positioned in Belarus on the Ukrainian border.
• This weekend the Chinese government sent 38 military aircraft to do a fly over of Taiwan. The Chinese have created several artificial islands between China and Taiwan all of which are military bases. Taiwan is planning for an invasion.
• President Biden just approved an $18 million payout to Iran to pay their United Nations dues.
• Iranian rebels working within the country of Iran have attacked facilities in Dubai.
• Due to the cancellation of pipelines and leases in the United States gas prices worldwide have been affected. The United States is now dependent on foreign nations for fuel, much of it coming from Russia.
• The Federal Reserve is meeting this week to discuss raising interest rates.
• The stock market is down around 2000 points from its high at the close of 2021.
• The drought continues in many areas of the United States, especially California.
Any of these would be cause for concern but with so many threats right now we feel it is our responsibility to continue to help you prepare and we believe the best way to do that is building a general store within your home. We spent 2021 challenging you each week to add food and non-food items to your personal store. Because of our concern we have determined we will, in addition to building our emergency binder on Mondays, post challenges each Wednesday to help you stock up. We encourage you to make food storage a priority NOW. We continue to see empty store shelves and believe this will continue and may greatly increase as we reflect on those things listed above.
There are three possible ways for you to approach filling your general store shelves.
#1 You can follow along each Wednesday and stock the items we recommend. Following this approach will give you a three-month supply of the foods you normally eat plus the ingredients needed to make your favorite dishes in one year.
#2 You can go to totallyready.com/blog and scroll through that 2021 weekly challenges. This approach will allow you to work more quickly and do more than one week at a time.
#3 You may choose to purchase the general store bundle at totallyready.com/shop. This will allow you to not only work faster but also allow you to take advantage of sales. With the general store bundle in hand, you can watch for sales, purchase sale items, and check off several weeks at a time getting closer to your goal in the least expensive way. For example, if it is a week to store vegetables and green beans, tomatoes, and corn are on sale- you can purchase cases of vegetables at reduced rates and check off two or three of the weeks we would normally store vegetables. You will easily save the cost of the bundle in a very short time as you learn to shop the sales.
We have not often expressed this level and type of concern. Please understand we have watched scenarios play out in the past and only desire to help you avoid frustration in the future. As always please let us know if there is any way we can help you on your journey to prepare. Don't hesitate to ask questions or ask for suggestions. Together we can do this.
Wednesday's Weekly Challenge:
This week store protein. Now, protein is many things but for our purposes we are talking meat, fish, nuts, and beans. This week store 5 pounds of protein per family member in the form of meat or fish. If you are storing beans as your protein you will need 2 cans to replace 1 pound of meat. You will need 3 cups of nuts to replace one pound of meat. These replacements are not based on serving size but rather protein equivalents. I recommend you store a variety of protein sources. We will be adding more protein later so decide what your protein goals are and this week shop the sales to begin your protein storage.