Mormon Squirrels

I just wanted to show a few pictures of my hobby and show how it makes me like a squirrel. As you will look at the following pictures, you will see that we have food stored away in nearly every possible nook and cranny of our home. I have finally gotten to the point where I feel I need to stop and just eat it, instead of acquiring more. Of course that doesn't mean that I am very good at controlling myself when I find a sale that is too good to pass up.

This is a shelf in our master closet, possibly my favorite :) I love cereal!!!

Under our bed and the kids beds we have these boxes of wheat and other long-term food items in #10 cans. It is ongoing from my Christmas gift from 2008, which was 600 lbs. of wheat, which is what is require for a family of our size. I have used a lot of it and have made our own homemade wheat bread since that Christmas and we have barely even made a dent!

More boxes of wheat, oats, rice, powdered milk, etc. tucked away in a corner of our piano room. We have more of these boxes in the kids closets as well.

This is a nifty little closet hidden underneath our stairs. It is perfect for hiding all our soda, juices, water, salt, canned turkey (which I did this year with a friend), etc.etc.

The back view of the closet, it looks messy I know, but it is hard to organize with a slanting ceiling and at least 50 gallons of water!!

Another random space with more rice, milk, oat groats (the grain before it is milled), red beans, and brown rice. I haven't figured out a spot to hide this yet, so it is just sitting in another corner of the piano room.

Another of my favorite shelves, with all the junk food goodies for our 3 month storage. What is food storage if it doesn't contain things that our family will actually eat? I've got boxes and boxes of crackers, brownie and cake mixes, dried fruit, nuts, chips, etc. YUMMY!!!

Our canned goods closet. The shelves are barely holding up under all the weight.

The other side of the closet.

Our kitchen. I have to keep some of the white buckets upstairs and easily accessible because I just do too much baking and cooking to have to go downstairs everyday for these things. I've been grinding our wheat with my new wheat grinder that I got for Christmas, and I love it! I stewed for months over websites and research for the perfect grinder and finally ended up buying a Nutrimill, which has been wonderful. So, we can now used freshly ground wheat every week, instead of borrowing my friends' grinder every other month and grinding a few buckets full. The freshly ground wheat is a lot more nutritious and seems to have a better texture and smell (in my personal opinion). We also have white flour, powdered milk (which I use for all my baking now), another bucket is for my homemade granola which I am addicted too, and then one for my wheat mix that I use to make pancakes and waffles. I have really grown fond of cooking and using my food storage, it is a fun pasttime for me and I enjoy creating new things on a regular basis.

Now I just need to control myself before our entire moving van is filled with food and nothing else in a year and a half! I love being a Mormon squirrel! It brings me great peace of mind knowing we have enough food to weather any storm or disaster (as long as the food doesn't get ruined in a flood or taken by a tornado or something drastic!). I love listening to the prophets and obeying their counsel! It truly makes me happy.