Pen, Pencil, and Paper: Developing Your Family Preparedness Program

Weather Report: Pen-to-Paper– Three examples of the use of a pen/pencil and paper in establishing, growing, maintaining, and evolving a family storage/preparedness program.

Pen-to-Paper: Our first example is from Anita Evangelista’s small gem of a book How to Develop a Low-Cost Family Food-Storage System.

Ms. Evangelsta mentions within the first few pages of her book that in beginning a family-specific food storage program one should start a two-week record of daily menus, as well as keeping grocery receipts for two weeks, in order to know what foods are purchased and consumed by the family. This knowledge is then organized into groups such as meats, oils, and pasta (etc. ), and quantified. The group totals may then be multiplied X 2 for a one month storage program, and the monthly total multiplied by the number of months desired for additional storage capacity.

Implicit in all of her writing is list-making, evaluating, and adjusting all of the facets of her program on paper.

Our second example is from Kathy Harrison’s Just in Case: How to Be Self-Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens (Our review of Kathy’s excellent family preparedness book should be posted next week)

Ms. Harrison works through a “… preparedness notebook“, divided into categories such as ’Basic Baking Supplies”, “Staples”, “Condiments”’ etc. Kathy says that this structure will provide you “… with a jumping-off place and keep you organized.” Kathy speaks to an evolving record of storage items that is centered on a “… notebook, divided into categories” for each kind of stored item such as laundry products, cleaning supplies, personal care products, medical supplies etc. (We very much like this system in the form of a loose-leaf notebook with plastic page protectors.)

Our third example is considered the “bible” of family preparedness books: Making The Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens.

Mr. Stevens addresses the need for “pen/pencil and paper” by structuring a great deal of the preparedness information needed in the format of a treasure chest of informational charts, lists, formats and forms. He provides “workbooks” in effect to aid in the organization and understanding of storage items of almost every kind.  However, you’ll still need pen/pencil and paper to make effective use of these great tools and we recommend getting several copies of his worksheets and using those to set up your own family preparedness notebook. Without actually seeing this book  it would be difficult to imagine the amount of family preparedness information it holds.

Here at Prudent Home we recommend that you consider:

1. A garden diary that records your seed choices (with results), plantings, fertilizers, compost (and use), tools, plant protection, etc.,

2. A prioritized, ever-changing list of needs/got-to-have’s for each category of storage items and

3. A pocket notebook to jot down pertinent ideas, check-ons’, sources, and anything that might relate to family preparedness.

All of the “example” books we’ve mentioned we own and highly recommend.

Until the end of the week, keep your eyes on the horizon as the weather’s changing fast.