It's February already. Time flies when you're having fun. I hope you're enjoying life. We have a lot to talk about this month. Let's get started.

The Haiti earthquake has been on my mind. When I was there several years ago, people struggled to have enough water. I can't even imagine what the people are feeling now. Water is something we take for granted until we don't have it. Are you prepared to live without running water?

You might have a personal experience or know someone that's lived without running water for an extended period of time. We'd love to hear how they did it, what they learned, and what they're doing to prepare for a similar situation.

To encourage you to take a few minutes to write down your experience or contact someone you know who's had an experience, we're offering an incentive this month. Those who have already added comments to the living without running water page are included in this incentive.

Anyone who writes an accepted "Living Without Running Water" experience will receive 10% off the complete Emergency Water Purification Kit if they want to get one. The top three entries will receive their choice of a: pasteurization indicator, giant water sock, or polar pure iodine crystals.

We'll judge the entries after we've received at least 20 submissions. Check out these useful ideas as they're posted on the blog. Help me by rating the entries and posting your comments about how useful and helpful and ideas are.

Now what's new on the website? If there's an earthquake, is your food storage safe? Check out the Earthquake Preparedness - Keeping Your Food Storage Safe page to see how you can use bungee cords to keep your food from jiggling off the shelves.

I've been playing catch up this month. There were many home canning pages that I didn't have time to write during canning season. My friend shared a great spaghetti sauce recipe with me this last summer. Not only does it make great sauce, but you can also use it to make tasty soup.

Learn about how you can use part of the onion green that normally goes to waste to make dehydrated onions.

I've written about all I know on apples. We already had canning applesauce on the website. Here's what's been added: making apple cider, homemade apple juice, dehydrating apples, and storing fresh apples. If you don't know what to do with apples after this, I don't know what to say.

If you don't know how to grow apple trees, we've included a page on growing apple trees and another one on pruning apple trees. Remember "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Many of you have visited the root cellar page. Now there's a storing fresh fruits and vegetables page. Click on the picture links on this page and learn how to store FRESH: Apples, Beets, Carrots, Garlic, Onions, Potatoes, Pumpkin (link coming), Tomatoes, and Winter Squash (link coming).

Dad keeps working on the gardening pages. The growing broccoli and growing cabbage pages are done. These are some of the first vegetables you'll plant in your garden because they're cold hardy. You should be planting them indoors this month so that they're ready to be transplanted into your garden by the first of April.

If you haven't already ordered your gardening seeds now's the time to do it. If you order your seeds through the Provident Living Today Website link you can save an additional $20 on your Gurney's Seeds & Supply order. It also helps to support the website.

Walter Jacque just submitted a very useful comment about candles on the Provident Living Ideas page (scroll down to the bottom of the page). If you've ever lived without electricity, you know how much you depend upon candles. Candles keep you out of the dark.

The healthy food storage recipes page is under construction. I hope you like the changes. Cook up your favorite food storage recipe, take a picture of it, and post your recipe and picture on the website. We'll be very grateful.

Melonie and I are looking at our schedule for this spring and summer. If you live within a couple hours of Cache Valley Utah and would like us to come teach a class, contact us to set up a date. An average class is 30 to 100 people.

Let your friends and family know about Provident Living Today and help encourage them to live providently today and prepare for future.

Until Next Month,

Jennifer

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