2007 Waverley Welfare

We are coming into the last month of winter, so if you haven’t already taken advantage of the rain, now is the time to do so.

But before you rush out and collect water from your down pipe there are some things you should know.

If you purchase new water storage containers they are generally ready to use straight away, but to be on the safe side treat them like they are used. If you are using used water containers or food grade quality containers then they will need to be cleaned out thoroughly before use. (You must use food quality containers as they are designed to hold and keep foods safely. Empty milk containers are porous and will not keep.)

The inside and outsides will need to be scrubbed clean to eliminate any food particles or other contaminates. Clean them using chlorine based bleach, ensure the insides are well scrubbed to remove any food particles still remaining. Rinse them thoroughly and then fill up completely. Add a sterilising agent and seal shut. Remember the bigger the storage container the heavier it is going to be once it is full, so it might be wise to fill them where you intend to store them.

Before using your stored water you will need to check it to make sure that it hasn’t become contaminated beyond saving. If it develops a layer of slimy black stuff… consider using that water to flush the toilet rather than drink or even wash yourself with.

Once you open your stored water to use it will need to be sterilised again and aerated to improve taste and add oxygen back into the water.

Some serious thought to where you are storing your water supply is also advisable. It needs to be out of the extremes of the elements and the changes in temperature as it will affect the water and the micro organisms in it. Also storing it in the great outdoors leaves the containers susceptible to becoming dry and brittle from exposure, dirt and grit can be blown into the crevices around the lid and your safe water could become unsafe without you knowing it.

Given the rapid change we have seen in weather recently one factor we should also be aware of is flooding. Because the ground has become so dry and hard the large amount of rain we had could not soak into the ground, instead it pooled on top of the ground and then created the devastating floods we have seen. Quite amazing really considering we are still in a drought. But astonishment aside, floods are dangerous in so many ways, the sudden rise in water means that drains and sewers overflow spilling human waste and other nasties into the flood waters, which then flow anywhere they please, making venturing out in it a dangerous and seriously undesirable thing to do.

It also puts our water storage in danger of being contaminated. But we can’t store our water up in the roof; the weight of it, the impracticality of it and the sheer extremes of temperature in the roof would make it just as dangerous as having left it out in the flood.

So what do we do? In the words of Douglas Adams ‘don’t panic’.

Still store your water in the shed or wherever you were going to store it, but you will also need to fill some smaller easier to manage containers with water and store them in the back of the cupboard, on that top shelf that most of us who are height challenged can’t reach without a step ladder. Keeping it up there will do several things… it is safe and will remain so, it is extra storage for any small emergency, like a burst pipe (use the smaller containers rather than opening a big one and not using or needing it all) Smaller handy size means you can cart them around with you if you need too, they are also out of the way enough that they will not be problematic or underfoot. Before we moved down here to Melbourne I gathered together all our storage and wondered if I had imagined storing extra water, then as I emptied cupboards packing to move I found them, nearly thirty 2 litre bottles of water all labelled and stacked neatly in the back of the cupboard under the sink. I had quite forgotten they were there. So perhaps a list tacked to the inside of the pantry of where your water is stored would be helpful.

Now briefly onto another topic, introducing food storage items such as whole wheat into our diets NOW. For those of us who already do this, you have my admiration and respect, as a child I spent a few torturous days and nights in a cyclone shelter, existing on these sorts of food staples and I hated it, my body hated it, my tastebuds hated it and my eyes hated it (well I did have to look at it before eating it). I swore I would not do it again. But here I am trying to include it in our diets on a regular basis. Thankfully my children can’t see the faces I pull as I prepare such foods, but I have learnt now they don’t need to be bland and down right boring.

For those of us who have not begun or are not sure how to begin including the staples of life into our diets here are a few simple ideas to get you started.

Try using wheat instead of rice as an accompaniment to your next meal. Eat it hot as cold it gets mighty hard to chew and swallow. Add some kibbled grains to your meals; make sure they are well cooked. Though you won’t get loads of nutrients out of kibbled grains, you do get some, but what you do get which is most important is your body has the chance to start accepting and processing grains. If it only means a bit of roughage to your body well that is better than nothing.

Try experimenting with the different grains; most of us would have grown up with barley in our winter vegetable soups, so try adding rye and wheat. Add a mix of wheat, rye, barley and linseed to your stews and even into sauces like Bolognese. In the supermarket cereal aisle is a cereal called Amaranth, it is little white puffed grains. Pretty tasteless but added to your normal cereal, and even into your cooking it is very nutritious and contains most of the essential amino acids our bodies need.

There are recipes available using wheat to make a porridge like meal and many other interesting and inventive ways to incorporate these basic life sustaining items into your daily life.

No matter how you look at it, at some point it will be in our best interests to begin to include the basics of food storage into our diets, might as well begin now and not only be prepared against the day we need it, but our bodies could handle processing unrefined and uncomplicated wholesome foods for a change.

Until next week remember it is good to be an out of the flood keeping, water container cleaning, safe water storing, basic food group including, recipe experimenting, prepared and not panicking Latter Day Saint.

Yours in Preparedness

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As some of you will know I am close to publishing my first book. In searching out the photos I wanted to use in the book. I found a series of photos that I had long forgotten existed. Do you remember the gas shortage from about 9 years ago?

It was a trying time for many, in our house the heating and hot water service were both gas so we were without hot water for the three weeks the gas was cut.

The photos I found were of the ingenious way my father used his old wood heater to turn it into a hot water service.

This is one of the photos. As you can see he has run a hose into the top of the heater where he had inserted a large pot. The second tap coming out of the top of the heater is to turn on the hot water. From there it ran up into a bush shower we had rigged in the back yard and surrounded it in heavy duty water proof tarps so that we could have privacy whilst we showered. It worked by way of the water running slowly into the pot being heated by the fire lit in the bottom of the heater, then as it was gravity fed up into the bush shower where we would add a half a bucket of cold water to keep it at a nice temperature for washing. It allowed a shower of about 4 minutes. Plenty of time really. With about a 10 minute reheating time in between showers.

The photo’s reminded me of how much we rely on modern conveniences and how fragile they are. Hot water services can and do die from time to time as do heaters of all varieties including wood heaters. The fridge seals can become loose and perish, the fridge itself can succumb to old age and over use and need replacing. Washing machines, dryers, freezers and if you are lucky enough… dish washers, even our cars. All of these things can suffer silently for ages then suddenly stop working. Money may not always be on hand to fix them immediately so we would need to find a way to make do in the mean time. Some solutions can be easy… do the dishes by hand… wash the clothes by hand, wring them out and hang them out to dry. If the heater stops working you can always see just how many clothes you can wear at once, or better still move around more to warm yourself up. But others, like getting around if the car has coughed its last can be a bit harder.

One aspect of self reliance is learning a little bit of maintenance know how, just enough to be able to assess the problem and perhaps fix it as well as keep it in good working order if you can. Some of the modern cars with their computer systems and warranties that mean the car only be serviced by qualified tradesmen of the car company, make it harder to do this. But we can make sure all the fluids and tire pressures and everything else are in good working order.

We can check the integrity of the fridge seals and keep them clean; we can make sure we keep within the users guide for loading the washing machine and dryer. As for the hot water service, if it is gas we can at least know how to light the pilot light and set the temperature. We can check it from time to time to ensure no critters have taken up residence inside.

Take a look around the home and see what items there are that could be in need of repair at some point and assess whether you can learn how to fix it or maintain it yourself.

Keep all appliance manuals in the one spot, familiarise yourself with the manuals so you know where the keep points of the appliances are. Obviously it is not possible to have a back up of every appliance in your home but you can make a workable list of how to make do.

What appliances are vital in your house? What can you use instead or do instead? Is there a way you can learn to maintain or repair the appliance? Keep the answers to these questions with your manuals so that in the event of a break down you don’t have to think what to do as it is already written down.

For instance a powered wheat grinder is brilliant but do you have a hand powered back up grinder? Do you know someone that does and would allow you to borrow it?

If you have to wash clothes by hand for a few days will the washing powder or liquid you normally use be o.k. for hand washing? Do you know what you will use for hand washing? The laundry sink? The bathtub? Or will you feed the washing machines at the Laundromat?

In some sense we have become slaves to our modern conveniences, now that may not be such a bad thing, but it isn’t all good either. We need to remember and practise the way our parents, grandparents and even great grandparents did things. Hold a pioneer weekend with your family, or maybe with a group of families. You don’t have to go completely Amish but close enough to learn two things. One: how blessed we are to have such modern conveniences, and two: how we can still function without them if need be.

By making a fun family activity of it the chances of total shock and an inability to function in the face of a loss of modern conveniences is greatly reduced. The lessons will be remembered with a sense of fun and confidence to get by should the need arise.

But don’t just do it once and then all flop onto the couch and give thanks that ‘that’ is over with. Do it once a year, challenge each other to use the time in between to learn a new “old” skill to teach everybody else.

In becoming self reliant we need to learn to be confident and appreciative. Confident to repair or make do and appreciative of what we have and what people did before we had such modern marvels.

We are a peculiar people, not strange peculiar but striving to not live ‘of’ the world and all its trappings peculiar. We are the Lord’s peculiar people and should always remember Him and His edict to us to be self reliant.

Until next week remember it is good to be a self reliant striving, lesson learning, make do or do without living, skill sharing, confident and appreciative, peculiar Latter Day Saint.

Yours in Preparedness

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In keeping with the week before lasts make do or do without ideology, I thought we would look at the food we eat. But first, a history lesson. Long ago foods were simple, filling and nutritious. People ate whole grain foods and plenty of raw fruits and vegetables.

Then the noble and rich upper classes decided they didn’t want to eat the same foods as the commoners and peasants and so began the process of refining foods such as flour and sugar. It was a status symbol to have white bread, white sugar and to use butter instead of dripping or oil on your bread. Foods became more and more elaborate as the upper classes tried to out do each other with displays of how wealthy they were. The health and vitality of the upper classes decreased while the hard working lower classes died of poverty related illnesses such as consumption or lack of decent hygiene, rather than the heart and organ diseases that began to sweep through the upper classes.

The same applies to us in today’s society. We have all these marvellous foods and drinks at our fingertips.

We no longer need to be true hunter/ gathers. Our food comes to us, neatly packaged and conveniently served ready to heat and eat, or just open and eat.

But at what cost to our bodies? As you can all see I am far from being in top physical condition and am enslaved to modern marvels of the morsel variety. My mortal body has long dictated my tastes and appetites. But what of my spiritual self? Where is it? Cowering and beaten by a chocolate bar? Hidden under the mountain of packaging and advertising ploys? Longing to be set free to enjoy all things in moderation and to be cleansed of the junk that clogs the connection between body and spirit? YES YES YES and YES.

It really set me to thinking. In the last issue I talked of how we are in a sense slaves to modern technology and what we need to consider in the event of one of our modern marvels going toes up or in that case wiring up. We are no less slaves to our modern foods and conveniences. Fast food, microwavable popcorn, meals in minutes, highly refined and processed foods, comfort foods by the dozens and choices beyond imagination. In addition to becoming slaves to our taste buds and time limits we suffer the added bombardment of advertising, promoting the ease in which we can dial a pizza, microwave ourselves a Sunday roast in one serving sizes, the joys of chocolate in handy snack sizes and every other type of food guaranteed to make our lives happier and more convenient.

As a chef I have been guilty of taking fresh wholesome ingredients and turning them into something rich and decadent and not particularly good for you. I am a bit of a sugar junkie so I am the last to jump on the finger pointing, health food toting band wagon. But I do believe all things in moderation to be true. I do believe we need to treat our bodies like a Temple and keep them clean and free from illness caused in part by overly processed foods. And until they can decide for themselves we are responsible for the bodily temple of our children.

So what do we do? What do I do? Do we just shrug and say it is too hard or do we remember the counsel to prepare ye every needful thing? Prepare ye every needful thing is a marvellous statement, it rings true for so many aspects of our lives. But for my purpose today I use it highlight our need to prepare every needful thing for our health.

Again I am not saying we should become completely Amish, I for one don’t fancy their shoes, but they do have many marvellous traits. They believe in living in the world not of it, as we do, they however have taken it to the extreme in some cases. But we too have embraced life to the extreme the other way. Surely we can find some middle ground. Some way of enjoying today’s advances in everything and incorporating some of the simple pleasures of life that reunite us with our true selves.

I am sensible to the fact that we have work and other commitments that take us both men and women from the home for a vast majority of the day and that we don’t particularly feel like tying ourselves to the kitchen for hours on end when we get home. But that does not mean we can’t adopt and adapt some good old fashioned foods and recipes into our lives.

We could look through our favourite recipes and see how much of it is pre made or overly processed? How much of it can we actually make ourselves, such as salsa and jams, bread, pastry, stock, biscuits… you name it.

What could you use instead if something ran out? Have you tried using good quality oil instead of butter or have you tried just doing without it on your sandwiches? Here’s a radical thought…What would happen to your chocolate chip cookies if you used whole wheat flour instead of white flour?

Do you know how to turn that bottle of cream into sour cream on a Sunday afternoon? And I don’t mean by leaving it in the sun all day! Do you know how to whip up a quick batch of biscuits for when friends drop by or extend dinner out to feed a few more on a moments notice?

Home made products do taste different from mass produced products simply because commercial products have many added flavour enhancers and additives that we can’t buy. It does take a little while to get used to the taste of a home made product over a store bought one, but the health benefits far outweigh the convenience of using them all the time.

There are added benefits of homemade products that store bought ones just cannot give. There is a satisfaction of making it yourself. It is giving of yourself, sharing your time and love to produce something everyone can enjoy. There is a bond in serving something you have made entirely from scratch, a love that stores just cannot give. Homemade products are a labour of love not convenience. Their very packaging and hand written label shouts ‘love here abides’.

For me I intend to keep store bought products on hand, their convenience really is marvellous, but I can make what I can when it is fresh and in season. We planted raspberry and blackberry vines because our Christmas tradition is berry picking as a family then turning those berries into a feast for Christmas breakfast, fresh berries, sauces, jams and cordial are a heavy feature of our Christmas time. A time we spend together labouring together for our own good.

I do not believe in going cold turkey on anything, but if we make a conscious decision to cut back on some of our overly refined foods and begin to get in touch with the commoner in all of us and choose less processed foods we are already treating our bodies better, giving our spiritual selves a chance to clamber out from under the weight of our excesses and take a long cleansing breath of fresh air.

So what else can we do? Make biscuits instead of buying them. Choose healthier menu choices that include less processed foods and more raw or unprocessed foods. Make or buy whole wheat breads and cereals (or whatever it is you can eat if you have allergies) choose hard and fresh cheeses over long life processed cheese slices and spreads. Go low fat if you feel you need too, choose to ration your chocolate intake to one row of a family block a day rather than the ‘oh it is open now I had best eat it all mentality’. Grow your own food where possible, at least that way you know what has been sprayed on it. Choose organic or unrefined foods if you can.

I shake my head though… refined and highly processed foods that need more work to get them that way are less expensive than the healthier unprocessed foods we should eat. Quite reversing the commoner and the upper class distinction of 100 plus years ago.

If the thought of spending hours alone in the kitchen reverting back to a simpler time does not fill you with joy, make it a joy. We are Latter Day Saints, we call each other Brother and Sister, it is because we are each others brother and sister, so get some of your ward family together to have a cooking day. If one brother wants to make tomato sauce and you want to make jam or preserve some fruit, then do it together, spending time in the company of someone we profess to love and doing something for all our good cannot help but invite the spirit of the Lord to dwell with us and further converting ourselves to the principles of the welfare and self reliance programs.

I love the Lord and this His Church and so saying I love each of you and I invite you to come cook with me… I guarantee you won’t be bored.

Until next week, remember it is good to be a homemade producing, healthier eating, spirit soaring, bond making, my body’s a Temple believing, taking nothing for granted Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness

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Spring is upon us, a time that was used of old for rethatching roofs, cleaning out and restuffing mattresses with new straw, airing out the rooms and getting rid of the debris that had accumulated through the cold, cold months of winter, hence the now common phrase of spring cleaning.

For us in more modern times spring cleaning is the chance to go through ones wardrobe and drawers and repair, recycle or chuck out anything that fits with the term spring is busting out all over. It is a chance to sort through the house and give everything the once over and a tidy up. Out in the garden it is a time for spring planting, turning through the last of the winter crops and preparing for the warmer months ahead. Pruning, weeding and planning out and planting the spring/summer fruit and veg patch are top most on the outside must do list.

Time once again to go through our 72 hour packs, check use by dates, check for leakages and dead batteries. Ensure clothing fits each of the intended wearers and first aid kits are up to date.

Also time to go through the emergency evacuation plans for our households and ensure everyone knows how to safely evacuate the house and where to gather. Does everyone old enough to be responsible know how to turn off the utilities?

As a child I grew up in the Northern Territory, we were there during Cyclone Max and spent a few days in a cyclone shelter having (as only children can) a wow of a time whilst around us adults talk quietly of what was happening outside. But it was not until much later that I looked back on the experience and remembered all the little details I had pushed aside for the excitement of watching satellite images of the cyclone sweep over us. I know I have mentioned this before when talking about other aspects of welfare but my main aim for today’s welfare spot is to talk about pets and welfare.

Do you have a pet? What plans do you have in mind should there be some form of emergency? Do you know how your pet will react to stress? Do you have food, medications and other supplies set aside for your pet, just as you have supplies set aside for every other member of the household?

We had a dog and a resident giant green tree frog of whom we named. In the week before the cyclone formed the clouds had begun to gather, it was always dark and cloudy and the weather seemed to grow more and more oppressive. One morning as I left for school I noticed the frog was not where it usually was, I was surprised but thought he might have been out getting something particularly juicy to eat. When I got home from school the frog was still missing. I mentioned it to my parents who exchanged significant looks and told me not to worry about it.

We lived on a RAAF base so I had a huge area to roam. I noticed on my explorations that many of the animals were acting strange. There were next to no birds around, the kangaroos that we usually had to shoo away from under our house were also gone, we had no goanna’s trying to get inside, I did not even see I single crocodile in the mangrove swamp that boarded our school. Again I commented to my parents about the lack of animals, I had noticed also that our dog, Shandy, was acting very strange, she whimpered and hid a lot. Eventually my parents told me that the weather man had said there was a cyclone forming off the coast and the animals had already known this and were getting as far from it as they could. Our dog could not get away but was distressed by the gathering cyclone. I missed our frog and hoped he was o.k. and that he would come back. But then my mind turned to our dog, what would happen to her during the cyclone. My Dad told us that before leaving for the cyclone shelter we would put her in the laundry (which was under the house and was surrounded by the four main supports of the house, so the safest part of the house) along with warm blankets to sleep on, plenty of dry food and water and a papered area where she could relieve herself as needed. I was worried about her, I wished I could smuggle her into my bag to take into the cyclone shelter.

But the day the cyclone warning sounded and we had to make our way to the shelter arrived and giving her a last hug goodbye we closed her up in the laundry.

When we are allowed home the first thing I saw was Shandy running around happy to see us. My Dad, being the chief fire officer had been out checking making sure it was safe for everyone to be let home, had let her out during his tour. I thought nothing of that until just the other day when I realised his love for us meant he wanted to check she had not died of fright during the cyclone, as well as his love for her in wanting to let her out as soon as possible.

The point of my long winded story is this… animals know when nature is going to get ugly and they will react to it. During an emergency you will have a pet that may be as frantic and panicky as young children are. You will need to know how to calm your pet, have a travel box on hand in case of an evacuation, in it keep a bag with a lead, food, bowls for water, water as well as bags for collecting waste. A good all purpose antiseptic powder is handy to keep in your pack for yourself and your pets in case of a cut.

In your everyday storage keep food and other pet needs like flea powder, extra collars, fish food, bird seed etc. Building up to a years supply also. In practising first aid skills during HFE practise them on the family pet too, should you ever need to bandage a foot or clean a wound you will know how and your pet is more likely to sit still as it will recall that you have done this before.

Once we were out fishing and our dog was dozing behind us and happened to open her eyes as one of us was casting, she thought it was a fly and jumped at it and swallowed the hook. She sat still and allowed my Dad to stick practically his whole hand down her throat to release the hook. I was amazed at both their calmness.

Make a list of what you need for your pet and add it to your welfare list and as you fill your own storage cupboard fill the pet’s welfare cupboard too. A pet is not just a pet it is a member of your family and should be treated as such.

Until next week remember it is good to be a pet preparing, welfare storing, emergency organised, evacuation planning, first aid practising Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness

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I had quite a few people ask me in the past week or so about water storage: how to store it and storing tap water in particular.

First of all you can buy bottled water and simply store it as is, out of direct sunlight and out of the extremes of the elements, in other words in a dry dark place.

If you are going to bottle and store tap water I would recommend you write on the bottles that it is tap water and when you filled them. Use only bottles or storage containers that are food grade. Juice bottles and the like have a number on the bottom. Number 1 is food grade and safe to reuse. Number 2 and 3 even though you buy food or liquid in them they are not safe to reuse as they are either slightly porous like the opaque milk bottles are or they can become carcinogenic if reused for too long, which means they can break down releasing a toxic gas or substance into your water. Not good.

So use either purpose bought water storage containers or use the number 1 labelled containers.

Once you have stored your water for a time and want to use it, you need to re oxygenate the water by pouring it into another container, back a forth a few times, then let it sit for 30 minutes, after which it should be fine to drink. If you see little floaties in water resembling opaque seaweed, it is the beginnings of bacteria and you will need to strain your water through a cloth or paper towel to filter it and then add a tablet purifier following the makers directions on the box or a few drops of bleach and allow it to sit for 30 minutes before drinking.

Or you can strain it, and then boil it. Bacteria grow and flourish between 4 degrees and 80 degrees, water boils at 100 degrees so boiling your water for a few minutes at a rapid boil which means the water is bubbling and rolling a lot rather than simmering which is when small bubbles rise to the surface and the water is barely moving. Once you have boiled your water then allow it to cool and use it for drinking.

With big barrels of water if you are going to use them for drinking you will need to use a clean container to take out the amount you need and treat it as you use it, don’t treat the whole barrel as you may not use it all and it will sit there until the next time you have a water emergency, then you will have to treat it again when you do want to use it, or if you refill the barrel then the non purified water will contaminate the rest and it will also need to be purified before you use it.

Big barrels of water are great because they hold a great deal of water, but they are hard to move and once you get down below half a barrel getting the water out becomes a fun activity or a painful chore. Think about storing with your barrels a small bucket with a length of string attached to the handle to use for getting to the bottom of the barrel.

You can buy water purifier tablets from either the chemist or from an outdoor store like Ray’s outdoors, most camping stores or even the disposals in the Glen have them.

Use them as per the instructions on the pack. At a pinch you can use household bleach (original rather than lemon or lavender scented) to purify water at a ratio of: 2 drops bleach per litre of water, 4 drops per 2 litre bottle, 8 drops per 4 litre bottle,

1/2 tablespoon per 20 litre bucket, 1/4 cup of bleach to a 120 litre barrel, etc.
This is based on clear water. If the water is cloudy or muddy you will need to increase the amount of bleach used by half for medium cloudy to double for very cloudy, try and filter the water or let the mud and sediment settle first and carefully drain off the useable water on top into another container.

But rather than find yourself in a position where you have to do this it is prudent to be prepared, keep some water on hand at home, a couple of 2 litre bottles don’t take up much room in the boot of your car either. A bottle of water in your locker or desk drawer at work won’t be commented on by anyone either, but it will give you a head start in the survival stakes.

While I am up here on my soapbox here is another thought.

Like the word Welfare, the words Survival and Emergency seem to have stupor effect on people. They hear the words and instantly their eyes glaze over and they stop listening.

Survival does not have to mean being stranded on a mountain side in the elements or lost at sea adrift in a slowly sinking dinghy. Survival can be as simple as stuck by the side of the road waiting for the RACV to turn up, there you sit getting hungrier and thirstier by the minute and yet you dare not leave the car in case they come by and leave coz’ your not there. If you have a bottle of water or two in the car at least you can have a drink while you wait. And if you had packed a small emergency bag into the boot you would have something to munch on too while you wait and maybe even a book to read.

Likewise an emergency does not have to mean a flood has arrived on your doorstep and you are stranded inside your house scrabbling for higher ground wishing you had learnt how to erect a tent on the roof.

An emergency can be getting something in your eye and rather than try and stick your head under the tap to wash it out you use one of your bottles of water to flush it out, or a nasty burn, instead of running the tap to take the sting out using one of your stored bottles of water would be handy, that way you can pour it over your hand or wherever and let it collect in another container and keep re using it until the sting has gone, saves water.

Welfare, Survival and Emergency are not words to be used in hushed tones so no one can hear you and being prepared is not a sin that needs to be kept from the world.

Say it loud and say it proud it is good to be a water storing, welfare organising, emergency preparing, survival skills knowing, non panicking, prepared for anything Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness

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Time has come to put aside the ramblings of the past few additions and get back to business.

Welfare: personal, family or community, welfare is important for and to all of us.

I’d like to recap the eight designated aspects of the Church’s welfare program. And I would like each of us to ask ourselves some hard hitting questions, I would also like each of us to answer ourselves with unashamed honesty. It is by being unashamedly honest with ourselves and with the Lord that we can progress. And we should be looking to progress even in our Welfare program.

Provident Living: is living within our means, making do or making up. It is being able to repair, reuse and recycle, being modest in our purchases. In Michael McLean’s song ‘homeless’ one of the most poignant lines is ‘He showed it’s how we live not where’ It touches me and reminds me that we don’t have to have the newest and best of everything to be happy and if we do then our focus is not on the Savoir and His gospel, it is fixed on the world. Being provident can help us to be humble, to humble ourselves before the Lord. Having a luxurious house is not a sin, but desiring it to the exclusion of all else is. As much as I would love a new car or a new this or a bigger that, at the end of the day when my children tell me that I am their best friend and hug me and say I love you Mum for no reason other than they want me to know it, I don’t need anything else because right there I have it all.

Education and Literacy: Getting an education and being literate is vital. Today’s society moves at such a high level of communication it is imperative to be educated so that we may provide for ourselves and for our families. Sure there are hundreds of jobs that require little or no higher education and I am grateful for those who work in these jobs, think of everything that would cease without it, but to continue our spiritual progression our job prospects must be elevated. It is a sad fact that the lower your education and employment prospects the lower the standard of living becomes and in turn the lower the social expectations and standards become. We are the Lord’s elect and we need to remember that and rise up to meet that glorious privilege.

Employment: Follows on from education. We need to be employed to the highest of our abilities and then we need to continue to improve our skills and chances for further advancement so that we may provide for the needs of our family. Employment not only gives us a financial income but it gives us an emotional income as well. It balances out our self esteem, fulfils our desire to be useful. Those of us who choose to stay home should not feel left out of this part of the Welfare program, we can help our spouse, our children, other family members and friends to meet their goals. We can support and encourage them and be a safe haven to come home to after work.

Family Home Storage: for more than sixty years now we have been counselled to have food and other resources set aside to sustain us in times of need. Even if you cannot store a year’s worth of food, store what you can. Make prudent choices to establish and maintain some storage and add to it as you can. Teaching children the importance of food storage and allowing them to help is helping them to build a testimony of it, putting them in greater stead for the day when they set up house and must begin their own storage program. Miss Elizabeth helped me make salsa yesterday and she knew it was for ‘storwidge’, even if all she could do was stir in the ingredients she still helped provide for our family.

Social and Emotional Health: This is so important, as we watch the values of the world sink lower and lower and the demands and pressures increase, we need each other now more than ever to support, sustain and uplift each other. Socially, and I have discussed this before, we need to hold firm to our values as Latter Day Saints and not allow them to drop. Poor social standards lead to an increase in crime, violence and other anti social behaviours and habits. We need to develop strong bonds of friendship with each other and strengthen ourselves in the gospel and in Jesus Christ so that we may withstand the degradation of society. Emotional health is also vital to our welfare, both spiritual and temporal. It is easy to become hardened and emotionally cut off, but in doing so it only drives us away from the Lord as well as those we love. We need to strive to live the act of service in that we need to be open and honest with our feelings, to ourselves and to other people. We need to be able to express ourselves, clearly and be prepared to listen with heart felt sincerity to each other, supporting each other in good times and in bad. Sally Deford wrote and amazing song called ‘My Sister’s hands’. To me it really sums up our capacity to be emotionally strong for each other when she wrote… ‘My sisters hands are lined and worn with burdens of their own, yet I know that should I mourn I need not weep alone. For often as I seek His grace to lighten life’s demands, the Father sends me solace borne in my sister’s hands”. Oh that we may each remember that we are sent by the Father to lighten each others burdens.

Physical Health: Whether you are in peak physical condition or a veritable couch potato our physical health goes hand in hand with our spiritual and emotional/social health. We need to strive to be healthy, and to be active as much as circumstances allow (for those of us suffering illnesses or other disabilities or feeling the effects of advancing years). We need to consider what we put into our bodies and also what we ask our bodies to do. It is in essence a machine and can breakdown if overworked or seize up if under worked. Being physically active in some form releases happy hormones, lifting our mood and helping us to combat any disruptive influence in our lives, overcoming depression etc. Being sedentary leads to growing old before your time, age related illness attack earlier and that isn’t helpful to any of us.

So whether you feel you want to tackle a marathon or just walk calmly around the block or even attend a dance lesson for fun, find an active activity that suits you and enjoy the benefits of physical health.

Family Finances: Finances is a personal topic for everyone, some find money easy to deal with others find it slips through their fingers like water, keeping this in mind the Church has produced several great pamphlets on establishing our financial good habits and reducing our financial traps. I can think of nothing to say on this topic save… “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all other things will be added onto you”. Pay our tithing and other offerings first and the rest will fall into place. Teaching our children, youth and young adults good solid financial skills now will help them to avoid debt and other traps later.

Deseret Industries: Not just recycling clothing and other goods to those in need, Deseret Industries could also incorporate the active giving of service to those in need both within the Church and in the wider community. Whether it be helping out at your child’s school or volunteering some time at a local charity or nursing home. You may even know of a member who could just use some company every so often to brighten their day. Service not only helps someone in need but uplifts your own spirit and reminds us to be grateful for how fortunate we are in our own lives. Though we do not have a thrift store here as they do in various parts of the States, if you have goods you no longer need and feel someone within the Church could benefit from them, make it known to me and I can list it in the Waverley Welfare and in the Ward Newsletter. Donating our quality used goods to help others in needs is a painless way of serving our fellow Saints and others in the community.

Now for the hard hitting questions. Are we doing everything within our own power to strengthen ourselves and to live the principals of welfare or if you prefer the term… provident living? Could we be more actively involved in serving others? If asked to choose one thing we could personally do better what would it be? Has any part of the welfare program fallen by the wayside in our lives? Do we believe in Jesus Christ and in this His gospel and so saying are we following his commandment to prepare every needful thing? Are we in need of heartfelt social interaction with our fellow Saints? Maintaining a regular circle of friends is fine but could we be of benefit to someone else or could someone else provide a wider social or emotional experience to us? Do we believe in the commandment to love on another? When all is said and done are we practising that commandment? Are we practising being more self reliant and provident in our lives? Are we teaching our children, youth and young adults by example or by do as I say not as I do?

I am human, I have weaknesses and failings, but each day I strive to be more than I am and becoming all that the Lord would have me be; I pray each of you have a similar desire to grow and to improve. Know of my unending love for this gospel, the Church and our Savoir Jesus Christ and for each of you.

Until next week remember it is good to be a provident living, service giving, example setting, Kingdom seeking, unashamedly honest with the Lord Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness

So much to impart so little space…sigh.

First order of business is this: sometime early in the new year there will be an order for oats. Then around June we will do the honey orders again, and I believe there will also be the toilet paper order again next year, though I am unsure when at this point. I am also looking at getting a sample of canned butter for us to try with the view of adding that to the list of orders next year.

All of these orders are a collaborative effort between the welfare specialists of the three wards that meet in this chapel. As we attempt to enlarge our network I hope to be able to bring you other offers throughout the year and give you as much notice as humanly possible. At this time I cannot say whether there will be another order organised by the stake or what it will be for, but the moment I know you will know.

Also dear Sister Cray has been industriously cleaning out her closets and has some books on flower arranging and some cooking books that are free to a good home. If you are interested in having a look at them, I will set them out on a table in the Relief Society room during Relief Society and take my time putting them away afterwards so the dear sisters who toil in Primary and Young Women’s can come take a look also.

Next a sincere apology. I am guilty of neglecting the sisters in the other auxiliaries and the brethren as a whole when it comes to letting everyone know what is being offered for order. I apologise for my neglect, it was not intentional and in order to not make the same mistake again I have devised a plan to ensure everyone knows what’s happening and when. Be on the look out for me discreetly intruding on the start of your meetings in future.

And now onto today’s Welfare topic. Personal safety and preparing children for emergencies and evacuations.

The riots in France have been on my mind for sometime and now the incident in Flemington just this past week has really set my mind on how to ensure our personal safety.

We should always have some form of identification on us, even our littlest children can have an I.D. tag attached to their bags or around whatever they normally carry with them so we can always be identified. But what do we do if faced with a riot while we are calmly about our business? Having been in this situation before my advice is this: don’t make eye contact with any of the aggressors, gather yourself together and walk purposefully in the opposite direction, avoid as much as possible bumping into people. Try not to speak or do anything to attract attention to yourself, once the mob mentality has taken hold of people they will see anything and everything as an inducement to violence. If there is no way you can get out of the area, find somewhere you can be as inconspicuous as possible, a doorway or inside a shop if possible, the shop owners or attendants will be as keen as you are to seek safer refuge of a back room or rear exit.. If forced to speak while trying to get away, calmly and firmly state you are sympathetic to their cause (even if you are not) but are just trying to get out of the way. Don’t appear frightened, nor too strong, both these have an effect on a mob, making you a target. Remain calm. If your children are with you hold them firmly to your side and reassure them. Don’t forget to call on the Lord for aid.

I hope and pray this advice is never needed by any of us, and should it I know without a doubt the Lord would protect us from harm.

I also wanted to cover preparing children for emergencies and evacuations. Children can develop fears of anything they don’t understand. We need to ensure our children do not develop a fear of an emergency or evacuation.

In teaching our children about emergencies we need to try and see it from their point of view and explain it with their view of the world in mind. Keep it simple. The Lord commands us to be prepared. We want to follow that commandment by… having drills and practises and pop quizzes helps take the fear out of it. It becomes less frightening when they know what needs to happen. When we first explained a fire drill to Mr. Darcy and instructed him on a fire evacuation. He said he understood. I was not so sure, so I stood in one corner of his room out of the way and watched as he reacted to Grant setting off the fire alarm. All our instructions to him went out the window and he reverted to fear. He did what most children do, he tried to hide in the wardrobe.

It took some time to explain to him without causing more fear how dangerous that was and why we wanted him to get down low on the ground and feel the doors before opening them or seeking another way out.

Elizabeth is at an age now where we need to start ‘playing’ evacuation with her. We will start with getting her to ‘get down low and go, go, go’ then as she gets older and her understanding increases we will give her more detailed instruction on what to do and where to go.

But an evacuation away from home is completely different. It is leaving the known and heading into the unknown and uncertainty. There is a fear that they will never come back again, with that comes the fear of being separated from parents, siblings, belongings, everything. We need to help them feel safe and confident in the face of an evacuation.

In preparing for an evacuation we need to do several things. Make sure we have our 72 hour packs (and they are up to date) know where we are going, if to a designated evacuation spot assigned by the emergency teams, know how to get there and what is available when we get there. We need to let our family know where we are going and how to reach us. We need to remember that major roads will be gridlocked with everyone else who is evacuating. We also need to be aware that we may not be able to get any money out of an ATM, due to power outage or them being emptied by other people trying to get away. We need to ensure our papers and documents are with us, if we have been wise and sent copies to out of area friends or families, we can rest a little easier, but we still need our own copies. Before we leave the house we need to lock it up and secure it, bring in any outdoor furniture and turn off the utilities.

But our children during this time can be left to entertain themselves, while they watch us calmly doing all we need to before we leave. In that time fear can take hold. So we need to give them tasks to do, small things they can cope with that will help them feel involved and give little time for fear to grow.

Talk to children about what is going on, more information helps them understand and reduces fear. Ensure they understand why you are evacuating and where you are going. In the car play car games to keep them occupied, evacuation travel can last for days, so games to occupy them are a must. Once in the car take the time to explain where you are going and what will be expected when they get there. Other families may not have prepared and their children may not have bought toys to play with. Discuss how the children feel about maybe sharing their toys; explain that it could help other children not be so afraid either.

Children will revert back to a younger mentality, your toilet trained preschooler may suddenly begin wetting their pants again. Though it is more for you to deal with understand it is for them a security thing. When they were little Mum and Dad did everything for them, changed them and feed them and looked after them, so they will want that security again and that is their understanding of security. Be patient, talk, talk, talk, to the children so they have less reason to fear. Include them in discussions about what is happening. Remember fear is based on the unknown.

If you are going to a public evacuation spot, take the time to become familiar with the lay out as soon as you are settled. It helps with settling the children too. Keep reassuring the children and re-enforcing the family ground rules. Maintain as many family rituals as possible FHE, scripture study, prayers etc.

Once the evacuation is over and you are allowed home, a new set of fears will set in… for everyone… what are we going home too? Discuss on the way home what could be there and how you will deal with it. Even though talking worse case scenario with children can instil fear, explaining how you will deal effectively with it will help them to deal with it too. Remind the family that whatever the loss, you are all safe and well and in the end it is only ‘stuff’ anyway. The most important part is family, being together and being safe.

Until next week remember it is good to be a safe talking, evacuation planning, emergency preparing, always explaining, fear quelling Latter Day Saint.

Yours in preparedness

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