Week Nine

This week I want to talk a little about individual 72 hour kits. There are many ways to put one of these together. Our family has used 5 gallon buckets in the past and that was good and easy to store in their closets. I have been saving older backpacks that the kids don't use for school anymore and that is what I am using now. I think it is a little easier for little ones to carry and they seem to store pretty good. They are not air tight so your food needs to be in zip lock baggies. Generally speaking what you put into a kit you probably already have around the house. This is an activity that we do at a FHE. I make a game out of gathering the items and we have prizes for who finds things the fastest. Here is a basic list that I use:
1. One outfit, generally a pair of sweats and t-shirt and sweat shirt. (I have them get things that are play clothes out of their drawers. I never buy anything new for this, also I try to do this around September when they have all their new school clothes and shoes so it is easier for them to find something they don't want to wear for a while.)
2. 3 pairs of underwear, (diapers & wipes if you have a baby) 2 pairs of socks, and a pair of tennis shoes.
3. 3 bottles of water
4. A small first aid kit
5. Color book, crayons, a pad of paper, and pen. (kids will get bored while in a shelter if we have to be evacuated, so some type of thing to keep them entertained works good) If you have a baby a couple of baby toys and maybe some kind of blanket for them to snuggle with.
6. Food: this usually is granola bars, fruit snacks, instant oatmeal, individual cracker or cookie pkgs. This part of the 72 hour kit is more for snack type foods. We put together a larger kit that includes more dehydrated type things that can be put together for meals like when we go camping. Remember this is the individual kit and your kids have to carry them.
7. A small mess kit.
8. If you are on a certain kind of medication it is possible to be able to store some of that as well. Talk to your doctor and let them know what you are doing. My step dad has done this with his medication and sealed it with one of those food sealing machines.

This is a real basic kit. Next week I will go into more detail as to what to put into the larger kit. This is one that generally can be carried by mom and dad along with the individual one.

If you have any suggestions or ideas to share please do, we all could benefit from other's experiences. I have never had to use our kits for anything so if you have had to use yours and thought "I should have had this or that" please share. We do rotate the food every year during a family home evening. We eat what is in the kits for dinner and add new food. This has been interesting as we have found out what the kids absolutely did not like to eat and what they did like. This is also the time that we rotate the clothing - children grow and sometimes what I had for one child could be passed down to the next.

Week Nine: 5 lbs. of honey, 1 lb. of yeast (by the way store your yeast in the freezer - and keep in the refrigerate after it is open - you can store it quite a while this way!)