You don't have to be a Cougar Fan to love BYU-TV!! They have some fantastic shows, but two of them are perfect when it comes to Preparedness...
"Living Essentials" covers a variety of topics that we deal with in every day life. I've watched them on everything from home organization, budgeting, depression later in life, communicating in marriage, canning meat, solar ovens, food storage basics, family dinnertime, a sick child, infertility, retirement planning, investing, etc, etc. So much information!! And it's all explained in "down to earth" terms so that even I can understand it! I think Gordon is getting tired of me watching and then quizzing him on it. After the retirement planning one, I asked him all about our 401, annuities, IRA, etc and tried to see if we were diversified enough and on track for his retirement. And I love the fact they they are only 30 minutes, and many have demonstrations. I feel like I could go buy my pressure canner today and do chicken without reservations,after watching the show.
Here's a link to all their shows: http://www.byutv.org/show/9e945bac-b08d-4f4e-a0c5-bdc28e6d6f03/living-essentials-from-byu
"Home Grown" is another program, with the same host as "Living Essentials", and she walks you through everything about gardening. We started with "how to plan a garden", "soil", etc and have now watched ones on "bulb vegetables", "container gardening", "Square foot gardening", "Irrigation", etc. The one on soil was very informative and helped me to know what I needed to mix in my clay soil to get it workable for landscaping. The one on square foot gardening has really inspired me to try that method because you save so much space and I like the fact that I don't have to try and make my clay soil "workable".
As far as food storage goes, I even learned some things there that I didn't know before. They said that commerically canned foods will last indefinitely if the can is not bulging or dented (and if stored in a cool, dry, place). Same with "Crisco" (this brand is the only one that guarantees this). The experts on the show also don't worry about rotating spices. If they start gettin old and weak, they say just to add more-don't worry about rotating it. They also talked about powdered milk and how the recommended amount for one year is 50# per person. They said that you can decrease this to 16# per person if you increase the grains to 400# per person. But you won't get all the necessary calcium you need so storage a vitamin.
One thing they mentioned on water storage was that it is NOT RECOMMENDED to use 55 gallon barrels that had soda pop syrup in them. They said it's because the sugars in the syrup eventually leach into the plastic and become a breeding ground for bacteria. Ok, I guess I might be able to understand this, but I'm not giving up my barrels. I figure I can always treat the water when I want to use it and that will take care of any bacteria.
Here's a link to all the shows: http://www.byutv.org/show/a5c0c27f-d930-4fbe-8ae7-f59e30f98a83/homegrown
Happy viewing!
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