In selecting what types of items to store, we were concerned about covering the basic needs of our family first. Then we went on to items that are unnecessary, but familiar, like cocoa. After packaging all that we purchased, we were satisfied that our basic needs were taken care of. We then tested our preps. What we found was astonishing. First and foremost, time was in short supply. The amount of time it takes to cook everything from scratch and supply our family with water and the use of the water was underestimated. Every family will be different, but until you try, you won't know. There is still time to purchase items that have been neglected or underestimated. Biscuits for breakfast every morning means one can of baking powder every ten days, for our family. Test recipes and foods you plan to eat, and become familiar with a possible routine. This makes for a less stressful transition.

-- Lynda Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), December 10, 1999

Answers

Good morning Mrs. Paul, and welcome. (I suspect you hate that as much as the Lurker in Chief hates being Mrs. Driver. LOL) thank you for the point. WELL taken. Some of us have stored with favorite recipes in mind and we may now have to go back and re-estimate QUANTITIES of ingreedients.

JUST what I needed to have to look at at this time! (Working on gifts for D(W)GI family and finishing things up. OY VEY)

Chuck a Night Driver

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 10, 1999.

Lynda! Welcome to TB2K :-)

Thanks for this important reminder. Testing & drilling is vital. The recommendation of 1 or 2 gallons of water per day per person is NOT ENOUGH! Ppl use enormous amounts of water for cleaning.

And those who bought a lot of dehydrated / powdered foodstuffs need even more water.

The best of luck to your family for Rollover and beyond. The Milnes have been an outrageous Warning Light for a long time and surely have saved thousands of lives.

We have always appreciated the practical hard-hitting no-nonsense posts coming from your addy :-)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), December 10, 1999.

A hearty welcome, thanks, and best wishes for rollover.

So much time.. so little to do... wait.. scratch that.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 10, 1999.

Welcome, Lynda! We (at least the RGIs, the only people whose opinion I care about anymore) know your husband well. He has contributed rhetorically to the Y2K community discussion to a degree I only wish I could match. From what he has told us about you, anything that you find time to share with us will no doubt be useful and welcome. Again, glad to have you aboard.

my site: www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), December 10, 1999.

I couldn't agree with you more. When we had our first dry run last spring (turned off power for the weekend), we were amazed at (1) how much longer everything took and (2) how much wood we went through. I had underestimated by half on both these things.

We had set out a game to play for Saturday night. But by the time Saturday night arrived, all we wanted to do was sleep.

Among the other things our dry run taught us:

Liquid parafin (brands Ultra Pure, et al.) are best for inside oil lamps. Yes, it's the most expensive but the cheap stuff smells bad and becomes choking if you've got more than one lamp burning in a confined area.

Conservation of the resources you do have is vital.

You can't live a 'normal' life style without a public utility.

Soybeans are wonderful.

Mrs. Rimmer makes a great bath soup.

Cats and oil lamps don't mix well.

Safety is an ongoing attitude, not a one-time thought.

Regards,

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), December 10, 1999.

When making biscuits or muffins, double the recipe. Muffins and biscuits will keep at least 2-3 days and can be quickly warmed up on a woodstove or in a solar oven. It will save time and energy. I agree Lynda about the water situation, it's the most important item of all to store. Empty containers to catch rain water is a must, I'm purchase 5 extra garbage cans today.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), December 10, 1999.

Being good little prep'ers we have been cooking with the storage food.

Only to discover that we have yet to find a recipe that the beef TVP is edible in. They love sausage, taco, bbq etc. but not beef (and we have so much of it)

I now wish we had tried this sooner as I wouldn't have ordered as much of the beef.

Any good recipe would be appreciated (off forum please, the email address is real) Or maybe on forum if others have found the same problem.

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), December 10, 1999.

Mrs. Rimmer makes a great bath soup.

???

Too early to quite wrap my brain around this one. More details please.

Beef TVP? Not even in spaghetti sauce? Glad now I didn't get any... have been dehydrating hamburger instead.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 10, 1999.

Point well taken, Lynda...I'm heading down to Costco NOW for more Minute Rice...

-- No Polly (nopolly@hotmail.com), December 10, 1999.

Mrs. Rimmer's bath soup was one hilarious story. I laughed 'till I cried. That post was a true eye opener for my household.

It really deserves a re-read. Maybe someone can link?

Blessings....Mary

-- Mary (DivinMercy@aol.com), December 10, 1999.

Lynda,

Wow, that is a lot of baking powder ! Maybe we're just a bunch of flat biscuit Yankees, but we use about a tablespoon for a double batch. Even at the heigth of 4-H or Christmas baking madness a can of Clabber Girl lasted about a month.

Sounds like you need the big restaurant size cans of baking powder-- probably a good thing to pick up anyways.

urth

-- urth (urthmomma@aol.com), December 10, 1999.

The recipes we like are the ones we followed during our "no food shopping" week. These are the same recipes I used to decide quantities we would need. However,although we most assuredly eat more yeast breads now than biscuits, I found I could not keep up with the yeast breads....my recipe makes 6 loaves at at time....so I went to the baking powder quick breads. Making biscuits every morning used one can in 10 days, ALOT more than I had anticipated. This is why testing is so important.It is not unusual for one teenager to eat 5 or 6 biscuits though and your family may not eat as much.

We also found (to my dismay) that the whole family prefers white bread to wheat and whole wheat pie crusts are edible, but,...we are still taking advantage of bread flour and other goodies while we can.

I bought the baking powder in small cans, because in a normal situation, I would use one every six months.

Practice makes perfect, and with a little practice and fine tuning, daily life, the art of living, can actually be pleasant.

-- Lynda Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), December 10, 1999.

Lynda,

Season's greetings to you, Paul and the family. About the baking powder: we just returned from our local grocery wholesale with a spare can. It's the handy, ten-pound, resealable, metal can of Fleischmann's (sp?).

We'd like to deliver it like the maple syrup, but we can't get south before the end of the year. As far as after the turn of the calendar, who knows?

Lori can't find your address, but if you'll drop us an email with an address for UPS and she'll get it onto the truck Monday.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Vern & Lori

-- vern&lori (vtmldm@epix.net), December 11, 1999.