December Week 1: Emergency lighting

This week's food storage items are:

December Week 1: Matches, 100 hour candles, 12 hour light sticks

This is one of those weeks where once you have it done, you shouldn't have to rotate or replenish it (as long as you haven't used any of your stock). 

The large can in the photo is one of two emergency cooking candles that I made years ago at homemaking night (that tells you how long ago it was). I wish I had the instructions, but I wasn't teaching the class, so I don't think we got the instructions. I can tell you that the candle is made of sawdust and wax (a messy process), and has a wick down the center of it. The theory is that you can use it to cook over in an emergency. I haven't had to use them yet, but they are there, waiting just in case!

The other items I have are the 100-hour candles from Emergency Essentials (on line). They are around $5.00, which seems pretty affordable for 100 hours of light. I'm pretty sure that in an emergency, I would pay the $5.00 to have light that I could rely on. I like the idea of having those around.

Don't forget the matches. Buy a few good-sized boxes and keep them with the candles on your emergency supply shelves.

I also have some light sticks. I think these might come in handy in a lot of different ways. These are also available at Emergency Essentials.

Since these are items that you won't rotate through, you'll need to think of them in a different way. How many do you think you'll need in an emergency situation? If you didn't have electricity for several days or weeks, what might you need on your shelves? It's difficult to guess, but at least get some of the items on your shelves, and you can add to them later on, if you feel the need. 

Now, I have seen a few other sources on Pinterest of ways to use household items as candles. This one, in particular, caught my eye. Since most of us have crayons somewhere in our homes, I thought this might be one to try out. In the particular Pin that I saw, it said that crayons will burn for 30 minutes. So, I figured it would be worth a try. I got a crayon, and secured it with a clothespin, and then put it in a pie tin.

It took a few tries to get it to light, but it finally did light. And the flame actually grew to about 6" in height.

Five minutes later, it went out in a flash.

So, if you are relying on crayons for your emergency light source, you may have to buy several boxes of them, since the flame only lasts for about 5 minutes.

I think I'll stick with the 100-hour candles. :)

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. You can then click on any single week and it will take you to the blogpost that featured that week's items. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.