Storage of canned goods

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My family and I live in an earthquake zone and I would hate to do a whole bunch of canning and have it all wind up broken on the floor if we have a little bit of a shake.

Does anyone know of a cheap and easy way to store glass jars so they may survive an earthquake?

Also my wife has a great receipe for home made hair spray. 1)take one lemon and wash it. 2)cut it into smaller chunks. 3)put it in 2 cups of water. 4)Reduce it slowly down to one cup. 5)put it through a coffee filter. 6)put in an old sprayer bottle (keep in fridge). I never would have believed it but it works just as good as store bought hairspray. It's not sticky and it does not even smell like lemon after you use it. Some say that it may lighten the color of your hair but it hasn't done anything it ours.

-- Tim Jaeger (tjkayaker@cyplace.net), April 27, 2000

Answers

Tim, until the New Madrid fault lets go, this is one of the few problems we don't have here. I do know that there are a lot of sites on the internet that have information for securing things in your home in case of earthquakes. Also check locally with your nearest Red Cross, emergency preparedness or similar organization. They just love to help people get prepared BEFORE disaster strikes.

One thing we do when we use metal shelving is put the shelves in upside down. That gives us a tray to set things in. We often take strips of wood (sanded lath would work) and attach the strips maybe 2 or 3" above the new top of the shelves. It takes a little finagaling to assemble the units with the shelves upside down, the braces will have to be put on as best you can, but it really helps keep stuff from getting knocked of. You'd also need to attach the unit to the wall, we're just trying to keep the cats from knocking everything off. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 27, 2000.


I'm not in an earthquake zone, but I have been keeping my stuff packed back in the canning jar boxes. This is getting a little more difficult, as more friends realize what I am doing, and bring me huge stashes of jars dug out of their basements, but other boxes, or plastic milk crates, seem to work just as well. I use stick on labels to keep from having to root for anything. In your case, I would use Gerbil's shelf idea to keep things more stable.

-- Connie (connie@lunehaven.com), April 27, 2000.

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