An Apple Box oven is made from an apple box covered in tin foil. Using charcoal and a wire rack stacked on pop cans, you can cook in it just like a conventional oven. It's a good, inexpensive item to have on hand along with charcoal to be able to cook in an emergency. Click here for simple instructions on making one and cooking with it.

The church has posted a new page on Provident Living explaining how to prepare for a pandemic flu if one should ever occur.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, "the world supply of food is dwindling rapidly and food prices are soaring to historic levels." World wheat stores declined 11 percent this year, to the lowest level since 1980. Futures for March delivery of Wheat in Chicago reached a new high.

Every week I grind some wheat and make fresh whole wheat bread in our breadmaker. My family loves it and I'm sure it's much more healthy than the white bread most people buy from the store. Several people have asked me for the recipe I use. Here it is:

Whole Wheat Bread

Place the ingredients in the bread pan in the following order: water, butter, sugar, salt, and flour.
Make a small indentation in the flour for the yeast so that it doesn't touch the water and add the yeast.
You may need to experiment with more or less yeast for the best results. Use the wheat bread setting on your machine (3:40 minutes on my machine). I like to use the light crust setting. The great thing about a bread machine is that you can do this the night before and set it to be ready when you wake up in the morning.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed a major outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and said 166 deaths there since April could be linked to the disease."

Remember the movie Outbreak ?