1381. The Shortages are Just the Start: Here’s What You Can Do Right Now to Prepare By Carolyn Nicolaysen · February 1, 2022, in Meridian Magazine

This is something to think about! 

The Shortages are Just the Start: Here’s What You Can Do Right Now to Prepare

By Carolyn Nicolaysen · February 1, 2022

In October of 2019, I published article about preparing for a pandemic. I heard it was fear mongering and that medicine had come too far for a pandemic to happen on the scale of the 1918 disaster.

In March of last year, I began writing about runaway inflation. This warning came long before the media was discussing this topic. We understood the seriousness of the situation because as exporters we deal with the ports on a daily basis. Because we export food, we also recognized crop shortages long before they became common knowledge and the inability to economically import foods.

The time has come to issue another warning.

If you have been listening to the news you know the following:

• Russia is threatening to invade the Ukraine. They currently have 60 battlegroups on the Ukrainian border and 30 train carloads of troops positioned in Belarus on the Ukrainian border.
• Last weekend the Chinese government sent 38 military aircraft to do a fly over of Taiwan. The Chinese have created several artificial islands between China and Taiwan all of which are military bases. Taiwan is planning for an invasion.
• Iranian rebels working within the country of Iran have attacked facilities in Dubai.
• Due to the cancellation of pipelines and leases in the United States gas prices worldwide have been affected. The United States is now dependent on foreign nations for fuel, much of it coming from Russia.
• The Federal Reserve is meeting this week to discuss raising interest rates.
• The stock market is down around 2000 points from its high at the close of 2021.
• The drought continues in many areas of the United States, especially California.
• Canada and the United States have not shut the boarder to truck drivers not fully vaccinated. This results in 30% of drivers being banned from crossing the border with goods.
• The Chinese government has quarantined over 21 million people until after the Olympics closing factories delaying and limiting goods.
• The number of cargo ships parked off the California Coast hit a record high in January, with nearly 100 ships waiting offshore.
• The church has pulled missionaries from the Ukraine. Always a concern when missionaries are pulled from an area.

Any of these would be cause for concern but with so many threats right now it is time to increase our efforts to building a general store within our home. We spent 2021 challenging you on the Totallyready.com blog and Facebook page each week to add food and non-food items to your personal store. Because of our concern we have determined we will, in addition to building our emergency binder on Mondays, post challenges each Wednesday to help you stock up. We encourage you to make food storage a priority NOW. We will continue to see empty store shelves, and this will continue and may greatly increase.

What to do now?

1. Follow the Totally Ready plan for storing a balanced diet including seasonings and desserts.

There are three possible ways for you to approach this goal.

A. You can follow along each Wednesday on the Totally Ready Facebook page or at Totallyready.com blog and stock the items we recommend. Following this approach will give you a three-month supply of the foods you normally eat plus the ingredients needed to make your favorite dishes in one year.

B.  You can go to totallyready.com/blog and scroll through that 2021 weekly challenges. This approach will allow you to work more quickly and do more than one week at a time.

C.  You may choose to purchase the general store bundle at totallyready.com/shop. This will allow you to not only work faster but also allow you to take advantage of sales. With the general store bundle in hand, you can watch for sales, purchase sale items, and check off several weeks at a time getting closer to your goal in the least expensive way. You will easily save the cost of the bundle in a very short time as you learn to shop the sales.

2. Determine what you can cut out or cut down to free up cash for food and non-food items.

3. Plant a garden. We often have too much to consume or preserve ourselves when we plant. Partner with friends and neighbors and plan what you will each plant and share.

4. Order from the church at store.churchofjesuschrist.org. Prices are good, shipping is cheap, and the products are fresh. You may not need a case of carrots so find a friend and share.

5. Cook the sales. Plan your menus for the week based on the foods on sale. Buy extra of the sale items and add to your storage.

6. Plan for summer. Fruits will soon be available. Survey family and friends and discover who has fruit trees and berry bushes and ask if you can glean. Offer to teach them to can or can it for them or trade veggies or services like lawn mowing, house cleaning or haircuts. Everyone can grow strawberries and other berries in large pots.

It has not often been necessary to express this level and type of concern. Please understand these scenarios have played out in the past and now is the time to work to avoid frustration in the future. This is not meant as a political statement but merely as a wakeup call. Together we can do this.

For additional help and answers to your questions contact Carolyn thru the Totally Ready  Facebook page or the totallyready.com blog.