Idaho's Governor Otter takes a stand

Idaho is first in the nation to have a governor sign legislation indicating that our state doesn't want to be included in the federal healthcare bill should it pass, at least in part because of the section in the healthcare bill that requires people to purchase health insurance.

Whether you are for or against the healthcare bill, if it passes it will add another mandatory expense to cover--all the more reason to have the basic necessities on hand so that you don't have to choose between them and what would become a required "necessity". I personally am against the current legislation being discussed, (though I think that there are some types of healthcare changes that would benefit the country) but the one of the great things about the United States of America is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

You might want to make your opinion known on the healthcare bill soon if you are interested--things seem to be moving pretty fast right now. Idaho's Representatives are Congressman Minnick and Congressman Simpson, since they are trying to pass it in the House of Representatives right now.

Not a good list to be on...

Heard a little bit about this previously, but just found this article about states that are having problems with supplying refunds that are owed to taxpayers. It's not very long, but supplies information about other states in addition to Idaho.

This kind of situation could cause an emergency for people who were depending on their tax refund for food and/or other necessities. Emergencies can come in all shapes and sizes, so I truly hope that everyone will put food and/or other necessities aside for potential emergencies. What you have in your closet/storage room/pantry is a sure thing, while apparently what was a "sure thing" in the past in terms of a tax refund may be a long time coming--sometimes an emergency can be caused by a delay rather than an actual event...

Some other ideas

Thanks again to Aloha2U from Hawaii Preppers Network, who left a comment about using noodles and spam in your 3-month supply. We are so glad that Hawaii dodged a bullet and the tsunami warnings remained warnings! There were so many good ideas in the comment that it deserves its own post:

For starters local people love to add spam to saimin, cup-o-noodles is like saimin. What you do is dice the spam and throw it in your cup-o-noodles with some chopped green onions it makes the meal heartier. You could also add other types of meat to your noodles as well like chicken or pork and beef, you'll have a different tasty noodle meal every time you eat cup-o-noodles.

People here also love to add different types of vegetables to their saimin too, such as chopped watercress or slivers of scrambled egg, bean sprouts, bok choy, thin slivers of carrots anything really you can add.

Honey Baked Spam with Cloves, is another delish meal. You make it just like the ham recipe except it's with spam but instead of adding orange juice to the recipe you add pineapple juice with the chunks of pineapple using the entire can of pineapples and it's juice this is REALLY good. You just need to modify the recipe mixture size wise because the spam is much smaller than a ham.

Hawaii people love spam, a lot of the restaurants here serve spam to some degree or another and the local folks create all kinds of dishes using spam. For now I think these recipes should keep you busy and your tummy happy. But I will keep you posted on other recipes as well. Enjoy!

End of comment.

We have some Ramen noodles in our storage, and we have had our children prepare some with canned vegetables as a meal so that in a pinch they would be able to cook something for themselves that doesn't take long and doesn't take that much energy. You never know when the people who usually make the meals will be unable to do so due to illness, etc., so teaching children how to deal with emergencies is one more way to prepare.

More ideas are always welcome, and thanks again, Aloha2U!