Editor: Janine Hansen
April 2020, In the Year of Our Lord
Volume 46, Number 4, Email Version
What’s Coming?
Why Prepare? What to Prepare? How to Prepare?
The most important preparedness is spiritual preparedness. I’m sure this crisis has motivated all of us to connect personally with God just a little more. That is one good result of the coronavirus crisis. This is a time to pray for our President, the advisors who surround him, the Congress, our Governor, our Country as a whole and our families. In addition, America needs to get back to work. The consequences are going to be devastating the longer people are out of work. We must prepare mentally and financially as best we can.
Abandon your Normalcy Bias
Just-in-time delivery has left us vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. I do not anticipate that these worldwide supply chain problems will be resolved in the near future. We can see quite clearly that depending on the Chinese and other nations exposes us to critical shortages. If it ever happens, America’s industrial base will take years to rebuild. It’s only sensible to anticipate continued shortages and prepare. We now have reports of meat packing companies shutting down operations because of coronavirus including Tyson Foods (beef and chicken), National Beef Packing, Smithfield foods (owned by the Chinese) a pork packing plant. This will cause a surge in meat prices. Preparation takes place in advance. Once the crisis hits it is too late.
Some Practical Suggestions
Toilet Paper: It’s impossible to store enough toilet paper for a long term crisis. It just takes up too much room. But you can have 3 or more months on hand. Look around your home and you will find surprising places to store things. I have extra TP above my bathroom cabinets. It doesn’t look like “house beautiful” but it’s comforting to be prepared. Alternatives: In Europe they use bidets which can be installed on your current toilet so you can clean yourself with water. Travel bidets are also available…a squirt bottle. I store old phone books for emergencies. I bought flannel to cut into 8 inch squares (doubling them) and surging around the edges or cut using pinking shears. Of course, these have to be washed so you will need a bucket with a lid and Clorox to disinfect, just like is done with cloth diapers. (Here we go back to the old days!)
Kleenex: Have plenty of handkerchiefs on hand. You can easily buy men’s handkerchiefs. I saved a bunch of my mother’s old handkerchiefs.
Paper Towels: A good alternative is a package of 50 or so white towel rags available at Costco or Home Depot. They measure about 14 by 14 inches.
With all of these fabric alternatives you must have enough laundry detergent. On the outside of the newsletter is a recipe for homemade laundry soap that’s easy to store and goes a long way.
Labeling: In order to rotate food and other stored items label everything with a month and year, and date as soon as I bring it in the house. I have a pack of Sharpie fine point markers in my kitchen drawer. Nothing gets put away unless it has a date. This makes it much easier to use the oldest items first. Canned goods are usable often many years after the manufacturers date on the can. I just used some canned chicken that was 10 years past the date on the can and it was fine. However, canned tomatoes don’t last that long.
Buy what you use and use what you store: If you buy what you use you will waste less money and be happier when you are eating it. It will also naturally get rotated. For example, I make spaghetti out of my food storage. I have hamburger in my freezer. I have my own tomatoes I canned and tomato sauce, mushrooms and spices from the store (on my shelves). I have regular and gluten free noodles and dehydrated onions from my long term storage. Sometimes we have Dennison’s chili (which I like because it doesn’t have MSG or vegetable protein in it) and hotdogs (which I have in my freezer). We like to use our home canned peaches with them as a treat. Specialty items: I had a hard time when the coronavirus crisis struck finding gluten free items (I am allergic to wheat), so I was happy that I had some in my storage. Do you have particular things you would like to have in your storage? Make a list and then buy them when you can.
I do have long term storage including bulk dehydrated food like rice, beans and oils, like olive and coconut which store well, and freeze dried vegetables, fruits and meat. I read an article that said after WWII that you could get anything you wanted with a quart of cooking oil. Imagine trying to cook with no oil. Also the fat is important in keeping you from being hungry because it takes longer to digest and provides lots of calories. My long term storage is my insurance policy. I do use some of them all the time like the dried onions, rice and oil. Don’t forget the condiments, spices and nutritional supplements, especially vitamin C, natural remedies like essential oils, first aid and prescriptions.
Home Food Preservation: This crisis has reminded us that many of us need to learn or bush up on our skills including home canning, food dehydrating and gardening. Dehydrating is simple but you do have to have a dehydrator. I dry many of my tomatoes from my garden and use them is soups, stews, meat loaf and even crumbled on a salad. I used zip locks and buckets to store them in. Canning fruits and tomatoes requires a water bath or a steam canner (which I prefer) but you also need some equipment including jars and lids. (My son has had a difficult time finding canning jars in this crisis.) If you are canning vegetables or meat you need a pressure canner. I have always had a garden. Last year we had a greenhouse built so I am learning quickly. But you can have some fresh lettuce if you just have a window container and some home grown tomatoes in a patio container or window. Sprouting is another way to have fresh nutritious food. You can sprout dried beans, lentils, wheat kernels and other grains in your own kitchen. There are all kinds of information and equipment available on the internet including useful books.
Non-Food Storage: Just like with toilet paper there are many items you will want to store besides food. Soap is one of the first on the list. Meip Gies (who helped Ann Frank and her family survive hidden from the Nazi’s) writes in her book, “Anne Frank Remembered” how it was nearly impossible after WWII in the Netherlands to get soap of any kind. How would you like to be without soap or detergent? Bar soap takes up less room and is easier to store. See our laundry detergent recipe on the outside of the newsletter. I also saved some plastic detergent bottles to make it easier to use.
Beside paper products we all use a lot of items everyday like toothpaste, toothbrushes, cosmetics, shampoo, etc. Just buy an extra bottle when you go to the store. Make a list of everything you use every day and every week and start obtaining them.
The Coming Economic Tsunami
I have written for many years about the consequences of the private Federal Reserve Bank printing money created out of nothing. Below is some critical information on our current and future economy in the U.S. We must look beyond the headlines and rhetoric of politicians however well meaning they may be. The most important things for you to do in preparing for this coming financial crisis is to pray about what you specifically need to do, get out of debt and obtain essentials like food. What you buy now will be like insurance for the future when hyperinflation really kicks in.
A Critical Question to Consider: Where is the Money Coming from for the payments the U.S. Government is making to banks, businesses and individuals? From Egon von Greyrez, “Central Banks (Federal Reserve in the U.S.) are now creating unlimited amounts of money in order to assist small and big businesses as well as individuals…but no one asks where the money is coming from. Nobody worries about the fact that THERE IS NO MONEY. The 100’s of billions and trillions of dollars that are being given to the needy don’t exist. They are just created out of thin air. Since the (financial) crisis started in the early autumn of 2019 with the Repos (Bank overnight lending), the Fed’s (Federal Reserve) balance sheet has gone up by almost $3 trillion to $6.5 trillion. But this is just the beginning. The forecast is that it will reach $9 Trillion in June and probably $12 Trillion a couple of months later. What we must remember is that this crisis didn’t start now but in 2006 when the Fed’s balance sheet was $800 billion.”
“It all started with private bankers taking control of the financial system in 1913 when they founded the Fed for their own benefit. For almost 60 years their power grew gradually but then in 1971 when Nixon closed the gold window, all hell broke loose. Money printing and credit expansion have grown exponentially since that time. The U.S. already started what is now 60 years of deficit spending. Every single year since 1960, the U.S. has had a deficit. The Clinton surpluses in the late 1990’s were all fake since the debt continued to increase. Just imagine that the mighty U.S. has lived on a lie for more than half a century. The economic miracle is not a miracle at all but just printed wealth.”
“If we measure the dollar against gold it is already down 98% since Nixon’s fatal decision…What we are seeing today is a fantasy world all built on debt, federal, state, consumer, mortgage, auto, student, etc. The Coronavirus was the perfect catalyst, albeit horrible. The trillions of dollars of fake money and fake assets will now implode and so will the U.S. economy. The rest of the world will sadly follow.”
“What the world has experienced in the last 100 years is not real capitalism. It more resembles Voodoo capitalism. Central bankers, led by the Fed, have successfully adopted Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s philosophy: ‘Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.’”
“A Hyperinflationary Depression has always been the inevitable end to the biggest financial bubble in history. And this time it will be global. Hyperinflation will spread from country to country like Coronavirus. It could start anywhere but the most likely first countries are the U.S. and the European Union…followed by Japan and most developing countries…” https://goldswitzerland.com/the-greatest-financial-crisis-hyperinflation/
What Kind of Faith will People have in their Fiat Currencies?
From www.zerohedge.com “So, it is clear the Fed is going to print trillions of dollars in fresh cash to pay for bailouts, unemployment checks and debt payments to avoid massive defaults in the U.S. economy. Michael Pento, money manager and economist asks, “What kind of faith will people have in the purchasing power of their fiat currencies?"
"...If the Fed can print trillions of dollars with no consequences... why bother working? Everybody can just stay home and cash a check...This is a recipe for hyper-inflation. It’s been tried many, many times in history, and it has never worked...
“The gap between the real economy, asset prices and debt and the underlying economy has never been greater...
“You have a massive increase of insolvent debt...Then you are going to ad inflation to that mix? Think about the carnage that is to come. That is the real crash... We will partially recover from this virus. . . . We are now sending money, helicopter money, directly to consumers, and that will cause inflation.”
Pento predicts a “tsunami of inflation” is coming in the not-too-distant future. Pento says,
“People are losing faith in fiat currencies. The price of gold in other currencies is already at all-time record highs. Even in dollar terms its $1,700 per ounce and on its way to record highs. What is the government going to do when you have insolvency and inflationary implosion of the bond market? The real crash is coming... https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/losing-faith-fiat-covid-crisis-has-dragged-forward-moment-when-money-no-good
Thomas Jefferson warned us:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around (these banks) will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Home Made Laundry Soap Recipe for Use and Storage
I like this Home Made Laundry Soap because it stores well. You can put the ingredients: 2 boxes of Borax, 2 boxes of Washing Soda (not Baking Soda) and your soap bars in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid from Home Depot, and store it under your house, in the basement or garage. Put a copy of the recipe in your storage bucket. It takes far less room to store than traditional detergent, costs a lot less and makes a lot more when you are ready to use it. The ingredients are available in the laundry isle of most grocery stores including WalMart.
Homemade Laundry Soap
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, like Zote or Ivory
½ cup washing soda (not baking soda)
½ cup borax powder (20 Mule Team Borax)
~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~
Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load. It will be a watery gel.
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