For my whole life I remember my parents being very concerned about having food storage. We had a whole room in the basement full of food, the 72 hour backpacks in the upstairs closet, and the obligatory giant blue barrels of water. (The big treat come conference time was eating the MRE's from the 72 hr kits and replacing them with different ones...)

Once we started moving out of the house, my mom sent us with this little box of survival things that she said was to "get us through" until we could hike back home to the big room of food. Now that my husband and I have finally bought a house, she called me up to ask if he would be ok with them giving us some buckets of wheat and rice to store in our basement so she would feel better. I told her sure, figuring we'd stack the 2 or 3 buckets in the corner of the little storage room and then forget about them. (We are trying very hard not to end up with the basement full of junk that both our parents have accumulated)

Last night she pulls her SUV up to our garage and opens the back. It is completely full of buckets, so I ask her who else they're for. She cheerfully says, "Oh, they're all for you guys," then a little downtrodden adds "but you can choose how much to take."

I tell her we'll take 2 buckets of wheat and 2 oats. She then pulls out a couple cases of water bottles and proceeds to tell me that they are going to the cannery next week and she has already ordered us a couple boxes of rice and pasta and a few other things. (Luckily my husband just shook his head and laughed a little when I relayed this)

I'm not sure if she is just more concerned now that all her children are out of her house and protection, or if she's heard something at church that makes her feel more strongly that something wicked this way comes. When I asked a few TBM co-workers, one of them said "Oh, she must have had a revelation" and they all nodded in agreement (CREEPY!)

A few comments from my aunt make me think she's convinced that the mormons are going to be 'called upon' to leave Salt Lake. That also fits with the fact that they bought a trailer and the SUV and have also recently been trying to resurrect the ancient motorhome that's been sitting on the side of their house for ages.

Does anyone know if there was some conference talk that made her think this? Or some RS lesson or something?

of dried beans, rice, and wheat as Christmas gifts. The shipping costs more than the food. She's had several "promptings" that this is an important mission for her right now.

She used to send chocolate, socks, and Christmas candles. I liked that. I can't help but be a little disappointed every time I open a box of ziploc bags of various types of beans. However, I also received an allotment from the family weapons stockpile-- that was pretty cool. My band nickname is "Annie Oakley"-- I'll take it.

Oh man, I didn't even think of that.

Since we've been married, any gifts tend to be preparedness-related; warm sleeping bags, outdoor cooking supplies, a sun oven, etc. Mostly we laugh them off and figure they'll be good for camping.

"I can't help but be a little disappointed every time I open a box of ziploc bags of various types of beans."

I'd be very, very disappointed . . .

pressing me to make and finish her root cellar as quick as I can because she has had "feelings" of looming economic castrophe, which will be the fulfillment of prophecy in these "the last days." So this weekend, I'll be heading to the family farm (purchased for such times) to set the rebarb, make the forms, and prep for the cement truck. I made the footings earlier. Such is the life of mormons...fearing and preparing for some future event that some old fart has said will happen, while he soaks it up on a Hawian vacation retreat somewhere laughing his arse off.

Mostly I just want to grow food that tastes good and I know what's in it. But I'd love to have a place to feed my family just in case. I think the world is majorly overpopulated and that SOMETHING is bound to happen -- but I don't claim to know what or when and I certainly don't think it has anything to do with the return of a guy killed 2000 years ago. ;)

Then again, my family always says I worry too much. lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2010 05:52PM by Rebeckah.

I had an emergency kit with food, water and other things which would last me about a week when I lived in California. I lived through the Northridge quake and used some of the supplies I had, but I never had a year's worth!

Yeah, my Mom and my Bro's and Sisters, have enough wheat and such to feed a small army. They are loathe to throw anything that could one day be useful away. As I watch their houses fill with stuff, I wonder how many "hoarding" problems have started because of the MORG?

This is a repost: it was 2 years ago when BKP got up during sacrament meeting and gave "it's the end of the world" talk. My BIL sent an email to the family and THAT DAY we were at COSTCO shopping like crazy.

I remember when I saw all the shoppers I thought to myself, "OMG people! It's the end of the world and you're buying all this crap at COSTCO. You should be like me and buy 1000 pounds of flour! It's going to suck to be you in a few months when you're eating your dogs. heh heh."

Imagine my disappointment when the church essentially said he was talking as a man. BUT HELL ... I HAVE A 10 year's supply of flour!

So the church admitted he was talking as a man? Straight out to everyone? This fellow has always been causing trouble, hasn't he?

I think the standard ritual is you buy all this food or can it yourself. You stick it in a secluded spot in the basement. Then you forget about it and in 20 or 30 years, you have to throw it out. I'm guilty of it. I remember digging a big trench in the garden and dumping about 20 gallons of 20 years old apple sauce and peaches into it to get rid of them. I remember carrying out hundreds of pounds of mouse shit and weevle infested grain from underneath my inlaws stairs.

If the Mormons are going to the only survivors, I'm going to shoot myself in the head.

I mean, after all, you have the gun, right?

:-)

As a former Light Infantryman I say, Yes you are!

I ate those damn things for three months during the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia. Of course the Saudi National Guard didn't eat the pork ones so we got all the pork one while they got the others. I never want to see a pork MRE again and if it goes back to doing so, I'm blowing my head off with a rifle.

Yes, yes you are the only one.

The two year food supply seemed very much to come from the paranioa about being invaded by the "Reds" or fallout from a nuclear war with the same "Reds."
With the fall of communism, this has died down somewhat. However, I noticed a cyclical pattern that occassionally this same hysteria would creep up and Mormons would get their panties in a wad over food storage. The new patterns would usually emerge whenever the Democrats held majority in Washington, or a new company that did food storage items came into business and would "remind" everyone about previous prophets' claims, or something else would happen.
Yes, a little food storage is good if you aren't in a small apartment, and can come in handy. But two years is ridiculous for so many reasons.
I also knew some non mo's who only stocked up on guns and ammo and said, "if bad stuff goes down, I'll just hold up the Mormons for their food."
And I knew some Mo's who caught wind of this, and then also stocked up on guns and ammo. If something bad were to happen in Utah, you can expect things to turn Mad Max quite fast.

raptorjesus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The two year food supply seemed very much to come
> from the paranioa about being invaded by the
> "Reds" or fallout from a nuclear war with the same
> "Reds."
> With the fall of communism, this has died down
> somewhat. However, I noticed a cyclical pattern
> that occassionally this same hysteria would creep
> up and Mormons would get their panties in a wad
> over food storage. The new patterns would usually
> emerge whenever the Democrats held majority in
> Washington, or a new company that did food storage
> items came into business and would "remind"
> everyone about previous prophets' claims, or
> something else would happen.
> Yes, a little food storage is good if you aren't
> in a small apartment, and can come in handy. But
> two years is ridiculous for so many reasons.
> I also knew some non mo's who only stocked up on
> guns and ammo and said, "if bad stuff goes down,
> I'll just hold up the Mormons for their food."
> And I knew some Mo's who caught wind of this, and
> then also stocked up on guns and ammo. If
> something bad were to happen in Utah, you can
> expect things to turn Mad Max quite fast.


If the Mad Max Utah happens I'm going to pop some popcorn and drink beer and watch the excitement on TV here in my secluded Wyoming paradise. The only worry I have is Yellowstone exploding and if it happens I will be vaporized and so will the house and food storage.

If you go in her house, the cupboards have baby locks so stuff doesn't fly out of them if there is an earthquake and everything, literally everything is velcroed down. She also has a years food and made sure we have a year of wheat and honey, w/ misc. other things. We have a nice long closet under our front porch where we stuff everything she brings us. In her defense though, we do buy things by the case ourselves - partly to prepare for an emergency but mostly because I'm cheap and when stuff goes on sale, I stock up. But if we survived 2 months without having to resort to an all wheat and honey diet, I'd be surprised.

Where we live though, we should have our camping stuff better organized and 72-hour kits completed. Plus a couple of cases of water. An earthquake is a pretty good possibility/probability and it's not just the Mormons who are prepared. But obsession - as in end of the world - no, that's just mom.

My parents have wasted thousands of dollars on food storage with stuff that has expired over the years. But they keep adding to it. My siblings are the same.

We have 3 day emergency backpack kits for my family, so if a natural emergency happens or anything else we will be set with tents, matches, first aid, food, water, light, radios, and other survival basics.

We also have TONS of guns and ammo in case the zombies ever attack...

Nalicea Wrote:

> We also have TONS of guns and ammo in case the
> zombies ever attack...

Remember to go for the head.

Like CA girl, I'm also cheap and stock up on things we use a lot when they're on sale/clearance. I've never been Mo for even a second, but I think Mr. BestBBQ and I could survive for a good six months with what we have stocked up in food and personal hygiene. Our water would be gone in a week, though, easily.

Food storage is one of my Mormon interests, subsequently I love these threads.

My non-Mormon parents used to do it. Just so long as you rotate out. And six months is absolute max. Life wouldn't be worthwhile if extreme hard times lasted that long. Besides, by then, you should be established enough to survive on gardening and trading for wild-caught game and feral cows. Food pantries sometimes get oodles of spoiled food and ten-year-old canned goods. That is simple waste.

It really is a practical thing.

I store some ahead,,just for me. I had a neighbor who worked at the city dump. It seemed every day someone came and dumped the wheat and flour in large containers. He took it home and fed his chickens. Best fed chickens in Utah. And they were good fried.

We live a block from the Pacific Ocean. So we're concentrating on water production. Solar stills, salt water filters, etc.

I want to reach the point where people will bring me cheeseburgers for a gallon of my water.

lol!

Well that makes it easy. I won't have to carry buckets from the beach!

I lived in the San Francisco Bay area when the big earthquake hit that took down freeways and such. After that my kids and I were watching a public service TV show about earthquake preparedness. The host guy said "... and don't forget about an emergency food supply for your pets."

I said "I think the pets ARE an emergency food supply." Kids thought it was funny, wife didn't.

Bob T Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I lived in the San Francisco Bay area when the big
> earthquake hit that took down freeways and such.
> After that my kids and I were watching a public
> service TV show about earthquake preparedness. The
> host guy said "... and don't forget about an
> emergency food supply for your pets."
>
> I said "I think the pets ARE an emergency food
> supply." Kids thought it was funny, wife didn't.


I have two woks, lot's of rice and you know where the dog is going.

Rebeckah, I have a farm for sale . . .

I was raised "on" a farm (we lived in town). I refuse to can. I refuse to do food storage. I refuse to grow a garden. If I starve, so be it.

I do have a farm for sale--but I was kidding. I can't imagine wanting a farm.

cl2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rebeckah, I have a farm for sale . . .
>
> I was raised "on" a farm (we lived in town). I
> refuse to can. I refuse to do food storage. I
> refuse to grow a garden. If I starve, so be it.


Just store a gun and ammo. Starving to death is a slow miserable death and if you change your mind you can hold up and steal food from others.