I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My Review: I don’t know what your New Year’s Resolutions are, but I know a lot of people are including emergency preparedness this year. There is no cause for panic, of course (or is there!?), but there’s nothing wrong with being prepared, right? It seems like there are more and more natural disasters—or at least we hear more about them—and so having a little extra food or toilet paper and other vital supplies is super important. I’ve embraced this as I’ve gotten older. It was one thing for me to suffer and die if there was some kind of horrific disaster, but willfully ignoring that my kids would suffer as well? Not okay. So although I can’t do all of the prep all at once, I can do little parts here and there and for that, this book was super helpful.
I
don’t know if you know this, but Latter-day Saints (i.e. Mormons) were told
many years ago by their church leaders that they should have a year’s supply of
food and supplies—including water—and so ever since then, Mormons have made an
art form of food storage. Don’t believe me? Google it. Seriously. When I
purchased my house, one of the things I loved the best is that there is a cold
storage and a huge storage room just for
my food storage! Peeps, this is exciting. You can laugh if you want, but
although I haven’t undergone an actual natural disaster (knock on wood) I have
gone down to my storage many a time to get stuff for dinner, and I have loved
that when we’re buried under snow or not able to go to the store for whatever
reason we still have food in the house. Anyway, my personal experience aside,
Mormons have meetings about food storage and emergency preparedness, websites
devoted to it, stores that specialize in it, etc., etc., etc. I know Mormons
aren’t alone in this—there are many people who understand the importance of
food storage and emergency preparedness. I bring up the dedication of
Latter-day Saints, though, because the women who wrote this book are LDS women
who have been living this food storage obsession for years and years and years,
and have the fire of being told to gather food storage given to them by a
living prophet. So, ya know, they take it seriously.
Friends,
this book is awesome. I don’t know if you’ve tried to purchase food storage stuff,
or even started with a 72-hour kit, but it can be overwhelming. There are so
many questions to address—what should you put in a kit? How much should you
have? What does everyone need? What about cost? What about storage? How long
can it last? Even just a little thinking about it can be overwhelming. This book
takes all the guesswork out of it. There is A LOT of information in it. It
doesn’t waste any space—these women know that there is serious food storage and
emergency preparedness to discuss and they aren’t afraid to just get to it.
Each chapter is jam-packed with as much info as you can handle. I was so impressed
with their chapter on 72-hour kits that I went right to Amazon (and they tell
you where to buy this stuff, which is also awesome) and started bookmarking
stuff that I’m going to buy incrementally, cause let’s be honest, outfitting a family
of my size for an entire year is no cheap task.
I
learned so much from this book. I was so impressed with it that I had my mom
read it and she loved it so much that she wants to buy one for each member of
my family and their families (she’s subtle like that). There are things you
just don’t know about until someone who is obsessed and very knowledgeable
about food storage and emergency preparedness tells you. For instance, did you
know that MRE’s are not great to put into a72 hour kit? First of all, they take
a ton of water to make, and when you’re pressed for water, that’s no good.
Also, they’re designed to, er, stop you up, cause those military guys can’t be
going to the bathroom every five seconds out on the field. Plus they’re gross. So
consider this—it’s an emergency, you have limited water and resources and maybe
can’t cook, and you’re feeding your family something that takes extra water and
stops them up? With a possible makeshift bathroom? And maybe you’re on the move
to get out of the disaster area? And you don’t have extra water to help all
that work itself out? A disaster. I didn’t know this. Instead, there are some
[slightly expensive] but very nutritious and healthy food bars (they give several
brand options) that you can take with you. They’re good, they’re easy, your
family can carry them, and the list goes on. Seriously, I think that when you
put together a 72 hour kit this kind of information is golden. It’s not
information you want to have to learn while actually living in the disaster.
There is tons of information like this throughout the book. It would be foolish
to overlook the institutional knowledge of someone who has already done the
guesswork for you. No need to worry about researching brands or even prices—they
tell you all of it. It saves you literally years of research and gives you the
know-how of people seasoned in their craft.
I
highly recommend this book. I think it’s amazing. It really has taken the
guesswork and drama out of my emergency preparedness. Now, mind you, I haven’t
gotten super far, but I am working on it and I love that I now know the
specifics—the brands, the amounts, everything—of what I need to do. I don’t
need to do the research, they’ve done it. Now I can spend my time and resources
just accumulating what I need. Now that, my friends, is peace of mind.
My Rating: 5 Stars
For the sensitive
reader: This is an informational book and is clean.
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