V Formation of the Geese - An Important Lesson

This morning I observed once again the most beautiful thing - several flocks of geese flying over my home. It was their flight honk that caught my attention and made me look out the window. It reminds me again the principles of the V formation. And it is another reminder of all the things I love about Fall.

And why do geese honk in flight?

It is to support the leader. The leader has the most wind coming at it and the other geese get lifted up my the air from the leader's wings. By honking, they tell the leader that they can do it and to keep going!

A flock of geese flying in formation can move faster and maintain flight longer than any one goose flying alone. Synergy is a law of nature.

What is synergy? How does it relate to leadership?

We have a lot to learn from these geese.

By flying in "V " formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

=>People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

=>If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are heading in the same as we are.

When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

=> It pays to take turns doing hard jobs, with people or with flying geese.These geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.'

=> We need to be careful what we say when we honk from behind.

Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow him down to help and protect him. They stay with him until he is either able to fly or until he is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation until they catch up with their group.

=> If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other, protect one another and sometimes make new friends who seem to be going in our direction.

Why is it Important for Humans to Drink Ample Amounts of Water?

Even MILD dehydration will slow down a person's metabilism as much as 3%. One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study. Lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy sort-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.

Wonder Box

The Wonder Box recipes and instructions originated from a booklet published by "Compassion" of South Africa in 1978, 1979 and 1980. "Compassion" registered name Wonder Box and the logo of the kneeling figure. This information may be freely quoted, acknowledgments being made to "Compassion"

Wonder Boxes work like vacuum flasks. In these days when we are being warned of worldwide shortages of food and fuel, this wonder box and it's simplicity is designed to keep food at the temperature needed for cooking. Using very little fuel you only use about 15 minutes of energy to bring the food to the required temperature and then put it into the Wonder box. It makes it as though it were a thermos. On the flip side it will also keep ice-cream cold for about 4 hours.

More Info - Wonder Box - A Cooker That Saves Fuel

Additional Info - Wonder Box Deluxe - A Cooker That Saves Fuel

Instructions: From www.ourldsfamily.com/wonderbox

Boil your food on the stove for 10 - 15 minutes until the food is heated right through. (In practice this is too long.)

Use any cooking pot, provided it does not have a long handle, but do not use a large pot for a small amount of food. The W'box does not work well if there is a large air space. Remember that the more food or liquid that you have in the pot, the longer and better it will cook.

Put the lid on the pot before you remove the pot from the stove so the lid can also get hot. Make sure the next in the bottom cushion is ready to take the pot and that it is nearby so you do not lose heat carrying the pot around. Place pot into the nest of the W'box, making sure that the sides are snug against the pot, so there are no air pockets. Quickly cover the pot with the top cushion, making sure there are no gaps or air pockets. Make sure that no one peeks inside. If this happens, heat will escape, and the food will not cook properly.

Do not leave the W'box on a metal surface while it is being used. Metal is a good conductor of heat and may draw off some heat through the bottom.

When cooking anything like a roast or a whole chicken, the liquid around it can boil before the meat has reached the same temperature. Make sure the liquid covers the meat and it has come to a boil. Meat must be covered with liquid! The cooking time seems to be 3-4 hours, or all day. It is sure to never burn.

Note: We had a chicken that was put in at 9:30 in the morning before church. This single dad prepared the chicken by placing it into an oven-cooking bag. He added spices to the chicken closed the bag completely (no added moisture was added to the bag) then brought the pot of water with the chicken in, to a boil and put it all in to the W'box. We ate with him at 4:00pm and as he tried to carve the chicken that was well cooked, the steam was 'rolling' off the chicken. It was still so hot he worked with forks to carve it. Nb: the opening to the bag was left protruding from under the lid.

The W'box was designed for cooking meals, but it can also be used for keeping food hot, cold or frozen for 3-6 hours depending on what it is For example, frozen meat will stay frozen longer than a tub of ice cream.

The cushions filled with polystyrene can be washed with hot water and soap and hung on the line to dry

Slow Cooker Recipes

Slow Cooker Recipes, Better Homes and Garden

Struggling

"So if you have problems in your life,
don't assume there is something wrong with you.
Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life's purpose.
As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses
and through them make us wiser, stronger.
If you're seeing more of your weaknesses,
that just might mean you're moving nearer to God,
not farther away."

(Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All of all, Ensign, May 2004)

"The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me"

To all of my Internet friends,

When I finished reading “The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me” by New York Times best-selling author Richard Paul Evans, I immediately bought a copy for each of my married children. Why? Because I have never before read a book about how to manage my money, get out of debt and become financially secure that was so much fun to read and so easy to put into practice.

In the book, Evans tells of his niece, Heather and her husband who are hopelessly drowning in debt, despite the fact that they are both working and making good incomes. He taught them the 5 lessons that he learned as a young boy and has applied throughout his life. They agreed to apply the principles. In fifteen months they returned to Evans and proudly reported that by using the 5 lessons, not only were they out of debt but they had saved $30,000! This is just one of the many true stories and examples that fill the pages of this fabulous book.

Best-selling authors, Gary and Joy Lundberg gave the book a rave review. “If married couples learned and used these Five Lessons, money would cease to have the power to control their lives. Instead, it would be their valuable ally in bringing peace and happiness into their family and the world. We highly recommend this amazing book.”

The principles that Evans teaches in this “easy-to-read” book are so timely and so badly needed right now, that I purchased a block of these brand new books from the author at a special price. These are brand new, soft cover books that normally sell for around $12.95 in the bookstores. (Available on amazon.com for as low as $3.59 plus shipping and handling.

I don’t want to bother with shipping and handling, or the expense of handling credit cards. Instead, I am offering The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me” for just $3.99!

If you live in Utah County (Utah) and want to pick the book up in Payson, you can pay for it by check or cash when you pick it up. I only have 50 copies, so I need to know as soon as possible how many copies you want (limit 5 per person). This could be the ideal Christmas gift for someone you know.

If you want to take advantage of this offer and live too far away to pick the book up, please email me to reserve your copy. I will send it to you, but will need to charge shipping and handling of $3.99. You can mail me a check.

Email your book order to: ksbray@mac.com

I will respond with details on where you can pick up your order.

Kathy Bray

Dedicated to “preparing every needful thing”
801-616-3332

http://www.kathybraybargains.com/

Disclaimer - How to Bottle Butter

There are blogs about the canning of butter but one should consider this disclaimer:

http://preparednessnibblesandbits.blogspot.com/2008/12/important-information-regarding-canned.html

Who would have thought that you could preserve butter for emergencies and power outages? Canned butter should store for 3-5 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf.

http://greenappleorchard.blogspot.com/2008/09/bottled-butter.html

http://simplicityfirst.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/canning-butter/

Do It Yourself Medical Kit

From Kathy Bray's Bargain Website

Link to free step by step instructions:

https://www.kathybraybargains.com/DIY_First_Aid_Kit.html

Sisters in Action & Friendship

Saturday was a Relief Society service activity. It was also in conjunction with the annual Women's Conference. Many good things happened during this gathering. Greeting cards were crafted for the women's shelter and princess wands were created to be sold at the Christmas Tree Festival. Delightful christmas stockings were put together with care. Six quilts, newborn caps and personal hygiene kits were assembled for the humanitarian center. Baby products were donated to the Family Support Center of Midvale. There was great support and much was accomplished for these worthy causes.

Because of recent hurricanes, the Church is in need of 450,000 hygiene and cleaning kits. They are asking for 6000 volunteers to help assemble kits. Please donate your generous time.

Water Barrels

This rack holds fifty-five gallon drums of water HORIZONTALLY so the water can be extracted simply by turning on a faucet. No pumps, no siphons.
























For directions open the PDF file at
http://www.theideadoor.com/Preparedness/storing_water.htm#Storing_Water_Barrels

Hurricane Texas - Be Prepared

Dear Friends:

Just to let you know that the Rittman's are doing well. We have a 6'x6' hole in our roof, no electricity or running water, trees down everywhere. However, because we listened to the counsel of our Prophet we are prepared, calm, and helping one another with trees in roofs, flooding, etc.

There is a POD or Point of Distribution in Tomball where we live. There you get water and ice IF you have enough fuel to wait in the 3 hour lines. We don't have to do that because we have 3 full water barrels, 75 juice bottles filled with water, and our pool which is dirty but we use it to flush.

It is very difficult to get gas. Police guard the stations when fuel is delivered and you might wait half a day to get up to the pump just to have them say, 'Too bad, we are out'.

I am grateful that we have a generator. We run it 4 hours a day to keep our fridge and light. I am grateful that we have had fuel for it. You can't even by gas containers as they are rationed. We can only by bread once a week and limited to 2 loaves at a time. Water is rationed by the case at the grocery store - 3 cases per family.

The ATM machines do not have power. For the past 6 months I have stashed small bills away because I have had such a feeling of foreboding. We have cash because of that. LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT. Get cash in small bills because the stores can't make change and credit and debit cards often don't work. I had to pay 5 dollars more for an item because they couldn't make change for me. PHONES ONLY WORK OCCASIONALLY.

Believe it or not... I have not had a bath in 4 days, Today was the first day I got to wash my hair with pool water. I haven't fixed my hair in a week!!! It just doesn't matter anymore. We can not do laundry because we don't have water. So, we wear our clothes until they are literally disgusting. When we do finally get water we will have to boil it since it is contaminated.

I am grateful for my parents. When we got low on generator fuel they drove 45 minutes to help us. They filled up their cans and brought us 10 gallons of fuel which kept us going until this morning at 6:oo am when we finally found some gas.

I want all of you to know that I have such a testimony of following the counsel of our living prophet. There really is safety and peace in your heart if you are prepared. Please get your generators, 5 gas cans full of gas, canned goods, baby items, baby wipes to bathe, and all the water you can store...even if you have to trip on it in your home. Have your lanterns, crank flashlights, tarps, rope, etc.. ready to go because you never know when it will be your turn to endure the test. It's overwhelming, but it's going to be ok eventually. I have a home, I have food, I have water, because I listened to the counsel of the prophet. Please make sure you do the same. It's time to have your life in order. Tomorrow may be too late.

I love you all so much. I wish you were here. Take care!

Jyl

Preparedness Presentation

Attached is a link for the presentations at a recent Spanish Fork Utah South Stake Self-Reliance Fair held in August. If you click on the link for "all the presentations", that is only for pandemic, and the first paragraph of each slide is redundant, however there is some good information about preventing the spreading of germs if you are stranded in your house for extended periods of time. . .

Prepare yourselves and as recently spoken in another fireside given in Utah County, be kind to those neighbors of different faiths who don't live the LDS "culture", and do the best you can to prepare, and do not fear. . .

http://webpub.byu.net/dst05/

Preparedness Guide

This link was passed along to me and I requested the guide described below. She emailed it off to me very quickly and it is wonderful! If you would like one emailed to you, just email her at the address at the end of the following message. She asks that you don't forward the attachment on, but to have people email her directly so she can share other stuff she gets with them. I think you'll find this very helpful.

Hi All -

Last year, while serving as R.S. President of the West Mountain 3rd Ward, I compiled a fully indexed, 80 page guide on Emergency Preparedness that I would be happy to email (FREE) to anyone who emails me asking for it. Being indexed, it's easy to find information. It was compiled from info given out by wards, stakes, the Church website, and other web sites dealing with preparedness and covers what to do in all types of emergencies, first aid, fuel sources and storage, and also food and water storage. The beauty of the guide is that I have eliminated much of the duplication that we all have in our ER binders, and now I can find facts quickly using the table of contents or the index.

You can print it out, put it in a binder and add to it. When you do this, I suggest that you number the pages and make an additional table of contents for the pages you add, so that you can quickly find the material you want. For example, I compiled this before material on the coming pandemic was available, so when you get this info and add it, just make a note in your table of contents as to where the material can be found in your binder.

I have only one request. Would you please have any friends/family who also want one, send an email to me like you did? I will have other freebies from time to time and this will allow me to offer them directly to each person who responds to this email. Please feel free to print as many copies as you wish. Nothing is copyrighted

Kathy

mailto:ksbray@mac.com