What should you buy for a 14-day supply of quarantine staples? [column] - LancasterOnline

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What should you buy for a 14-day supply of quarantine staples? [column] - LancasterOnline Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:00 AM PDT The word "prepping" might conjure up mental images of an underground bunker with Cold War-era metal shelving filled floor to ceiling with MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat), a shelf of various firearms and ammunition and enough water and toilet paper to survive the fallout from a nuclear happening for at least 20 years. But it doesn't have to look like that. For us right now, prepping can just look like being prepared for social distancing, quarantine or self-isolation, as in the case of a pandemic event such as we're experiencing now. As a Community Emergency Response Team volunteer and someone who's been on the uncomfortable end of being unprepared for tropical storms when I lived in Florida, preparing has long been important to me. How will I care for my family if we need to stay in our house for an extended period of time? For COVID-19, we should be stocking up on supplies to have on hand for the recommended two weeks. What will you want to have in your house if you're sheltering in place? A guiding thought for you during this process should be preparation over panic. I have been keeping an eye on COVID-19 since before it had its name. We've been slowly adding to our supplies since mid-January and haven't experienced any of the empty shelves that are now starting to be seen in Lancaster County. Many of our bulk items we picked up at Costco, but my other top shop for inexpensive supplies was Lidl in York County. Here's how prepping for our family looked. You're going to want toilet paper, but there's no need for everyone to get two months' worth of it; remember our goal is to get enough to keep us happy for two weeks. Hand sanitizer will be of use now when you're out and about and around people who may potentially have COVID-19; once you're isolated in your house, it's not likely you'll be going through 20 bottles of it. I bake a fair amount of bread, so we opted for a bulk amount of flour. If you're not envisioning anyone perfecting homemade bagels and English muffins while in quarantine, you might not need a 50-pound bag of flour. We chose a bulk amount of white rice, and I stocked our shelves with a variety of dried beans. Our family eats a lot of stir-fries, refried beans, Indian-style curries and rice as a side for one reluctant eater, so these were important ingredients to have on hand. If you do purchase a large amount of flour or rice, put the whole bag in your freezer to kill any insect eggs that are inside; we kept ours in the freezer for one week. Root vegetables last a long time and are an option for your emergency supply stock. Don't forget to grab comfort foods. This could be a psychologically difficult time, especially for those who are the youngest and used to a set routine. For us, comfort foods looked like Nutter Butter and packaged chocolate chip cookies, Kool-Aid and Country Time Lemonade, a bag of sour gummies and bags of tortilla chips. Consider canned goods like fruit, beans, vegetables and soup; instant ramen and other dried noodles are also shelf-stable, as well as boxes of cereal. Stock up on some meats and fish (unless you're a vegetarian) and store them in the freezer to thaw for meals. If you've created a well-stocked pantry, the main thing you may find yourself running out of after two weeks is milk, eggs and butter. I always keep powdered milk, but you might prefer grabbing a few cartons of a milk substitute like soy or almond; there are various egg substitutes available, but I've never used any of them. Eggs are an item we'll wait to purchase until it feels we're at a point we want to practice social distancing, and we'll get a few dozen; the Department of Agriculture advises it's safe to eat eggs three to five weeks after purchase. There are plenty of cooking fats you can use in place of butter that don't need to be refrigerated: ghee, coconut oil and olive oil are just a few. While the basic items prepped by many of us might look the same, there will be differences. For normal daily cooking, we often use organic and locally sourced foodstuffs. Our emergency supply went with the most cost-effective and financially-friendly items to make our dollars stretch further. You still have time to stock up on items your family will need and want. Focus on shelf-stable items you actually enjoy eating; don't get canned kidney beans if that can will take up shelf space until 2025 because no one likes them. A few final items to consider having an extra supply of are hand soap, laundry detergent, dish soap, pet food and cat litter, feminine products and any extra items for babies such as diapers, wipes and formula. Have access to medical records in electronic or paper-copy form; if anyone in your family becomes ill, it will assist medical professionals in making sound judgement with treatment. Have plenty of prescription and nonprescription medications on hand. Today is always the best day to prepare for a possible emergency situation. Today's Top Stories

The art of fishing - West Central Tribune Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:00 AM PDT Those duties are behind him today, but he remains a passionate fly fisherman and artist. The two pursuits are inextricably linked. The fishing came first. It all started, he said, when as a young "shaver" he looked in awe at a free-running trout stream on a family vacation in the Black Hills. "And nothing but football-sized fish in there and they were all over. The water was that clear. You could see 'em," he said. He wanted to fish for them so bad, but his dad said no. "We don't have the right kind of stuff to fish that," his father said. A fly angler was made: He began tying his first flies when the family returned to their Lac qui Parle County farm place. The young boy plucked feathers from the farm's bandy and white leghorn chickens and used the thread from his mother's sewing supplies to bind them to hooks. Mom eventually threw the mess away. After his marriage to Elly in 1968, he went out and bought a $1 fly rod, $2 spool of line and a $2.50 "how to" book on fly fishing. "I started out on panfish," he said. Soon, he was casting his colorful imitations of bugs to salmon and trout in waters from Alaska to Wisconsin. While serving in the legislature, he befriended Tom Helgeson, who operated a well-known fly fishing shop on Grand Avenue in Minneapolis and published Midwest Fly Fishing magazine. Helgeson invited Peterson to exhibit some of his fish art works in his shop, and introduced him to fly fishing in Wisconsin's Rush and Kinnickinnic rivers. And, of course, he always continued to flay the waters close to home for northern pike, crappies and bluegills, not to mention the occasional walleye or fat carp. A fly he made from a snip of fur from his Springer Spaniel landed him a walleye and won him the promise of a steak dinner in a friendly wager with a fellow fly fisherman. He has been an artist for as long as he has been tying flies. This should be no surprise: Fish are the predominant theme in many of his art works. "If you're inclined to do art you will take it up at some point in your life and keep it," he told an audience who came to see an exhibit of his work at the K.K. Berge building in Granite Falls in late February. He said his first exposure to art came in his one-room, rural school. A senior high art instructor while he attended the Madison High School, where he graduated in 1965, was also very influential in his life, he said. He went to Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D., to play football and study art. After graduation, he began teaching art and coaching football in Glencoe in 1970. Ten years later he took over the family farm on the death of his father, Harry, a state legislator. He and Elly raised two sons. He taught art in Canby and Montevideo for a few years before serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives (1991 - 2002) and as president of the Minnesota Farmers Union (2002 -2016). Peterson said he never let his busy careers in public service keep him from tying flies, fishing or creating art. But he admits: Farming during difficult times in the 1980s almost kept him from his art. He said he woke up one night realizing he had to get back to his art, but he was basically out of supplies. He rummaged through the nooks and crannies of his 100-year-old farm home, and recovered some of the old canvas window shades he knew his mother had once stashed away. He grabbed a lead pencil and used a strong cup of coffee as stain and went to work on a shade, creating a fish image. By 1990, he was exhibiting his works in a prestigious, juried art show in Sun Valley, Arizona. His fish-themed works have been exhibited in shows from Duluth to Minneapolis. Peterson said his art is always spontaneous. He paints with acrylics, approaching a canvas with little more than a shape in mind. "It's a mind to eye kind of thing," he said. "(I) take those ideas and kind of know where I want to go." Three fish, as in the Triumvirate of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, are among his best known images. He has also broadened his approach in recent years, creating fjord horses and Viking ship themes as well. As a former high school art instructor, he has experience in ceramics, fiber arts, silk screen printing, macrame, candle making, stain glass making, sculpture and more. "When you teach high school art you are going to have to learn most of these disciplines because kids get bored," he said, laughing. With more time in his retirement years, he is able to enjoy far flung fishing adventures, from tropical oceans to the Alaska wilderness. This summer he and friends will join for their fourth annual raft trip down a remote river to pursue salmon with their hand-made ties. His pursuit of big salmon dates to a trip decades ago to Washington state, where he tangled with a 45-inch chum salmon. "From there things change in your head about fishing," he explained. Yet some of his favorite fishing remains close to home. Once the season opens, he will target northern pike in pools of water on tributaries to the Minnesota and Lac qui Parle rivers, or below the Churchill dam at Lac qui Parle Lake. Like art, fishing is all in the focus. "The world just kind of melts away," he said. "You don't have to worry about anything."

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