Fuel, light, and heat

With another winter storm looming, this blog post is coming late.

Unfortunately, things being what they are, it just wasn't going to be ready until now.

Now, folks, let me tell you. I love winter. I like it cooler, shoot, I like it cold. I love a good roaring fire. I love snowfall, and the quiet hush that accompanies it.

But I like it on one side of the glass, with me on the other.

When the power goes out, however, "the two become one", rather quickly, in some places. So it becomes vital, to have an alternate source of heat, because when the ice takes down those power lines? You're going to be sitting in the dark. For who knows how long. You cannot wait until the power goes out, to figure something out. Far better to plan a bit ahead, and get some kerosene, some oil, and put it in the garage, storage room, or even a 'removed from the main areas of the house' pantry.

If you have a fireplace, a woodburner, you need to make sure it is kept clean. It isn't difficult to do yourself, but most folks will opt for a professional job. I definitely recommend that being done in the "off season", when chimney sweeps are not as in demand as they will be come fall/winter. Lay in some good firewood--not softwoods. Do a bit of research, and you'll find out which of the best woods for burning, are common to your area. Oak, hickory, those are some of the good woods for burning, that we have here. You probably have them where you are. Don't use softwoods like pine or other evergreens, unless you have NO choice, because they will tend to build up the creosote inside your chimney. And whatever you burn, needs to be as dry as possible. The best thing to do, really, is to get your firewood in spring. Let it season for all year long, in a covered, weather-protected area. Then it will be ready to burn come fall/winter.
If you have a fireplace, and it isn't terribly efficient, you may want to look at spending the money to install a woodstove in there, in it's place. You can use the chimney to run the smoke out, but the woodstove will keep the heat inside, rather than sending it up the flue, quite as quickly. Some of my favorite brands for woodstoves (not cookstoves, but just heat), are the Vermont Castings and the Hearthstone, both of which have been around for a very long time, and have a good reputation as well as a nice look to them.

Here are some links for both of them:

Vermont Castings:
http://www.vermontcastings.com/

Hearthstone:
http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/

Now, they are not dirt cheap. But they are worth the purchase price, especially when the power goes out and it's "huddle together under blankets dressed in our heaviest clothes" or freeze to death.

For those who have no way of purchasing or installing one of the woodstoves, there are kerosene space heaters. Yes. You will need to make sure you have some sort of ventilation, even just a little bit can make a BIG difference. But unless you are in a newer house, or one retrofitted really really well, so that it is nearly air tight, you probably have a good amount of draft already (those of you in older homes know what I mean!). Just a cracked window in another room (one adjacent to, or open the doors between) will make all the difference in the world...you will need the heater, wicks, and kerosene. None of those things are, for the moment, all that difficult to find/purchase. The 7Ps apply here, as well, since the "PRIOR" part is so important. Get the heater at the end of winter. Actually use it once, or twice, to familiarize yourself with it. Buy some cans of Kerosene (you can get some at Home Depot for about $40, about 5 gallons, I believe). Or, if you have a local place that pumps it, you can get a special 'gas' can type of container, and do it yourself, and it will be MUCH cheaper. Just don't use the typical red gas can, because unless you label it in BIG BOLD BLACK, someone might be tempted to put it into a lawn mower come mid-August. NOT a good idea! LOL :-) Personally? We have the fireplace with the insert (it also has blowers, which will heat most of the house if it is roaring), kerosene heaters, and my personal favorites, Aladdin lamps.

No. Not the "genie in a bottle" Aladdin lamps, silly! The same company that makes the Aladdin thermoses, also makes oil burning lamps, and has for going on 100 yrs. Let me tell you about these things. They are, well, not just pretty (especially if you have a more 'old fashioned", or country, decorating style), but they can put out as much light as 5-10 of your standard dollar store oil lamps, *and* they will heat a good sized room. Light AND heat? Yeah, and they don't use a HUGE amount of oil (you can use kerosene, or regular oil lamp in them, btw), either. Seriously, folks, these things, well, they ROCK...

Here's a link to the company website:

http://www.aladdinlamps.com/

Here's another link to an authorized retailer, with a sale going on til just after Valentine's day, with some of these on sale rather markedly! Definitely something to check out, if you've got a wee bit of money right now, and want to do something sensible, and yet have something to show for it afterwards...and not just another doo-dad or electronic gizmo....

http://www.aladdin-us.com/

Now, for those of you with small children, you may look at the glass, and think "UGH! Breakable!" They have metal ones. All metal, except for the chimney. You do not have to have one of the big shades, those are just for "pretty" :-), but the metal lamps can be very contemporary, too. So if you aim for the more modern, maybe consider one of those (they also have the advantage of being not as expensive as some of the large glass ones, too).

I was fortunate, and lucked into an estate sale nearby this fall. I got two Aladdin lamps, for under $45. Yeppers. One is no longer in production, the other was a simple metal one. I already have one lamp, with the nice big shade, it is a standing glass one. I got the two 'sale' lamps refurbished by a friend (thank you, T!), and so now they are "set to go" aside from needing chimneys (got to remember to pull some of those out of the shop storage, and buy some more to replace them there). Sometimes, you can find some great deals on them, but I'm not willing to count on it, either. Staying warm is far more important.

It is important to remember, that being warm, especially at this time of year, is *not* a luxury. It can--and is--a case of life or death, for a great many people. After the Christmas Eve blizzard we had out this way, there were several people who froze to death...in homes, in their cars, or who got out of their cars and walked for help. We forget about prepping our cars, many many times. After all, we're just "driving around town". But when that is 20-30 miles...are you going to be able to walk 20-30 miles? In driving snow? Blistering heat? What about if you have children? Are you prepared for them, too? Folks, it doesn't take much to pay attention to the weather. If you are even going for a "short drive", go prepared. Wear a REAL coat (at least take the thing with you!). Take, or wear, GOOD shoes. Not flip flops. If you are going to the pool across town, carry the flip flops, and wear your decent tennis shoes. I actually carry a pair of good walking shoes and socks in the car at all times, since I don't generally wear them around the house. We keep 2Ls of water in the car, too, as well as some surplus Army blankets, extra diapers/wipes, etc. We need to replace the food and toilet paper we had in there. Some of those 'aluminum foil' space blankets, and some sort of orange hunter type gear, also good, as for catching the eye of potential rescuers. Matches, or a good decent lighter. Shoot, you can use your car to survive, if you just know how. If you survive and the car doesn't, well, you can replace the car, you *cannot* replace YOU. You may have to take a loss on the car, but I'd rather rip up my seats for using the seating material as insulation/fire starter, burn the tires, etc, than to freeze to death in an immaculate car.

Do any of you parents remember that couple who got stuck on the mountains back before Christmas? Totally unprepared, they spent three days (I believe up there). It was not the first time they'd gotten stuck, either. And they were *still* unprepared. I am sorry, but that is just plain STUPID. There are times, I think Darwin actually had a point. Really. You prepare your car, you prepare your home, you prepare your family. Make sure you have the things in your car you need, if you get stranded. Yes. It will require some planning on your part. Consider just putting a rubbermaid tote in the trunk/back end of the car, and keep it there. Rotate it seasonally. Clean it out, and make sure that you have the things that you need in it. I don't want to find out that one of you didn't prepare, and ended up getting caught in a snowbank, and froze to death in your car because you weren't prepared. No one "PLANS" to get stuck in a snowbank. No one *plans* to end up stranded on a back country road during the dead winter, where there is no cell service (and yes, there *are* places like that). But it *can* happen. It can happen to you. To your mother. To your husband. To your teenaged son or daughter. People kind of make fun of the Boy Scouts, with their "Be Prepared" motto, but it is TRUE. Be prepared. *THINK*--if I got stranded, what would I *have* to have? Food, water, shelter, warmth (at this time of year). Make sure you have that. Or can get to it (and going out in a light jacket or just a sweater, clogs with no socks or light cotton ones, etc, is *not* going to make for a good hike to find help, if you need to walk a ways...)...

Take care, and be prepared....

Well pumps, water from the sky, and water in the ground..

Folks, if I hadn't already said it enough--You have to have water.

Are you on city water? Do you have a well pump? If the former, please please consider getting some storage water (no, not those milk-jug water bottles). Seriously. We used 4 gallons a day just for dish washing. And that was being mighty chintzy with it, and using the same 4 gallons all day. No draining it and refilling it. We had to use a minimum of 2 gallons each time we flushed the one super-low-flush toilet we have (the others took 3-4 and 4-5 gallons per flush). And lest this be tmi, we didn't flush the toilet every time, because it takes too much water to do that, when you don't know when/if you are going to be able to get water flowing soon. We would use a gallon or so a day, just for KoolAid. Dehydration can be a serious concern, even in winter.

If you have a well pump, when was the last time you had it checked, serviced, etc? When was it installed? Do you know how to repair the more basic elements of it? Is it submersible, or above ground? Are mice getting to the wires, and eating the insulation (this can cause a serious short--and a fire, if it is bad enough)? Is the insulation in your covering for the pump, holding up well under the elements? These are all things that need to be checked regularly, for optimal pump function...Do you have a light bulb 'heater' in there, to keep what elements are above ground from freezing in winter weather? Is the bulb working?

Another thing to consider, regardless of what method you have to get water into the house...what sort of backup do you have, if the power goes out? A generator is great...as long as the fuel lasts. Is your well in a place where you can USE a generator? Ours is not. Some folks have cisterns, and shallow pitcher pumps...that will work for a while. But what if the outage is a long-lasting one? What if we are hit with some really serious disaster? Do you have a means to get clean, SAFE water for you, your family, and your animals (if you have any)?

Personally, I'd love to have a solar or wind array set up for my well pump and a few other essential household systems. But that is kind of out of budget, unless/until the debts are all paid off. In the meanwhile, however, we are going to opt for a simple "deep well" hand pump. And hopefully, at some point in the not-too-distant future, we'll have another well dug and a hand pump installed, closer to the house (cause our current well is way out in the pasture--not the best place for ease of use). That will have to do for the time being...

Of course, we had to replace our entire pump/pressure tank system. The pressure tank for the old pump was underground. Speculation is (since we weren't about the spend the money to dig it up to make 100% sure) that it developed a hole, rather from rust or some other reason, and that caused the submersible pump to work overtime, every time a tap was opened, etc. It wore the pump out in more than double the time it should have (the pump was 7 yrs old, it should have lasted closer to 20). We have installed the new air pressure tank above ground, so we can be more sure it isn't rusting through. We now know when everything was put in, and so we have an easier means of determining when to do maintenance/replacements.

I have to say, though, that if the pump was going to go out, last weekend was the time. We have our tax refund coming in this week. We had decent enough weather to have the well man come in, with all of his heavy equipment, to replace the pump/tank. Another weekend, and while the money would have been there, the weather is supposed to be awful. Ice and snow. NOT the time to be losing your well--especially not with animals to care for, and other reliant systems...

There are many options for ensuring clean water once you have the water to start with. But the difficult part, in any emergency, is getting the water in the first place. Storing some water in advance is a far better idea, and less immediate expense, than the other options, of going out and buying as much as you can--*if* you can, when the whole world is doing the same thing...We use cleaned 2L soda bottles, with a teeeeeny bit of bleach added in (we're talking, no more than 1/4 tsp per 2L). Enough to sanitize it...and then we use KoolAid to cover any residual chlorine taste (opening the bottle up and letting it air out overnight will also help with that). We use untreated water for things like toilet flushing. I make sure to clearly mark the bottles we treat, so that we know which ones are suitable for consumption by people, and which ones are not (I put a big B on the top of the lid of the treated)...Seriously. It is that easy. Just rinse it out. Clean them out. Then you need to just fill it up from the tap, put in that teeny tiny amount of bleach into the jug, and put it away, wherever you store your emergency supplies. You need a minimum of 3 gallons, per person, per day. MINIMUM. More in summertime. And that minimum is only if you aren't doing anything. Laboring, in the summer time, will require/demand more water than sitting around in mid spring or fall, if you understand what I mean.

Things don't have to be all doom and gloom, folks, but being prepared is simply prudent. And especially if one has a family to care for? All the more important. If I'm single, and alone, and it is only myself that I am accountable for? Then if I don't prepare, well, I'm the one who suffers. But if I have a family dependent upon me? I'd better make sure that at the very least, we are prepared for THEM. It is no one else's job to take care of them. Remember that folks. The government may not be ABLE to help you. Your neighbors, may be in as bad, if not worse, shape than you are. There may very well not be any help in a week's time.

Do you want to count on someone else's timely actions to "save" you and yours? Or would you rather take the bull by the horns, and do it yourself? A can or two, every shopping trip. It isn't much, but it is a start.

Don't wait for someone to do the work for you. Do it yourself, start today, and keep on it! If nothing ever happens, then you've still go the food. But if something *does* happen, you'll be ready...

Ever want to run screaming, into the streets?

Yep, well, the weekend has not gotten any better than the rest of the week...

Okay, so yesterday I *did* get to spend three hours doing nothing but being with God. And that was, I will admit, a wonderful wonderful thing.

It is as if He knew, I was going to need it, because this morning, we awoke to find nothing but a trickle of water coming from the taps. And now, that trickle is nothing.

We have a very nice well, with a newish pump (it is probably about 5 yrs old right now, and they generally last for 20yrs, give or take). The well is deep, and even if we were in drought conditions, would take some serious issues to go dry. So that is not it. El Husbando, being the wondermous man that he is, has determined that the pump does have voltage, and is trying to work. God willing, it is something easy to fix, like the capacitors. He is going to go back out and check them shortly (prayers would most assuredly be appreciated!).

Otherwise, we have no clue what the problem might be. And given the economy, we really cannot afford to be spending what teeny bit of money we have, on well pump repairs...although we will have no choice, if El Husbando cannot do it himself.

And did I mention I took a header just now, when getting eggs, and have slashed up my leg? Yeah. Just lovely. Into the mud, no less. Sunday is appearing to be one of those days you would just be better off sleeping through...

Hope yours is going better than mine!

A long, long, long week...with more to come...

I know I promised a blog post on heat and lighting preparedness...and I will do it...just not tonight, I'm afraid.

It has been a terribly long and trying week. Monday was "off" since El Husbando was home, and we *never* get anything done substantially around here, when he's on a holiday. Tuesday, he spent half the morning home, because he'd moved some lumber Monday afternoon, in his shop...and torqued his back. Wednesday, he spent the whole day at home (back again). Thursday and Friday, fortunately, he was at work. So...the first half of the week, was spent dealing with El Husbando and his back issues. Thursday was a frantic "make up" day of all sorts of household and schooling tasks, and today, we were gone from 8am til 4pm. He was at work, and we were up north of here, doing some speech therapy, a trip to Super Target, and a trip to a Salvation Army in that same town. Let me tell ya, I am wiped. out. Two plus hours of driving, two hours sitting there trying to keep a lid on two 2 1/2 yr olds, two other children at all times, trying to get schoolwork done and the toys not strewn about too much. Then the shopping. Came home, and El Husbando very sweetly made dinner and now it is being cleaned up. But mercy, I am tired. I want to go to bed, but I know I'll lay down and toss and turn.

After dinner, I got a phone call from my mother, informing me that my father has been involved in an accident at work. He's a mechanic. The rains they had down there leaked in through the roof, and got all over the shop floor, mixing with the oils and such on the floor. Then he slipped on it, and twisted trying to avoid hitting himself on some equipment, hoping to catch himself. It didn't work, and he hit the concrete, all twisted up. An ambulance had to be called to transport him to the hospital. That was around 2 this afternoon, ET, and when they called us, around 9pm their time, they were just then leaving the hospital. He had messed up his hip/leg/back. It is a muscle/nerve issue, and something that will take time to heal. There is nothing I can do from here, other than pray, which is difficult to deal with. I would much prefer to be fluffing pillows, making tea, and bringing him his pain meds (I suspect my mother will make sure he takes his pain meds regularly, if only to temper the irritable patient that resides within him, lol).

One of the worst parts about it, is that this is a car dealership, of the Government Motors variety. The service managers have been trying to get people to quit for some time, because if you quit, you cannot draw unemployment. And they do NOT want to pay unemployment. Of course, my father had planned on staying until he got to the point he literally could not take it anymore, and then work it so that they ended up firing him instead of him quitting. I do not know how this injury (even though it should most definitely be covered under workman's comp) will affect that, however. I am grateful that my mother's job provides medical benefits. Not great, but something. However, the fact of the matter is, that my parents need my father's income to help meet the regular monthly expenses. This is not a good time to be getting injured, especially as work has been slow for his shop for a very long time now.

Please, if you would, pray for my father ("D") to heal quickly and well, and for my mother ("S") to bear up well under whatever he slings her way (because he is just like my grandmother, and she does not handle infirmity well at all). Pray for a quick resolution to all of the issues that they will be facing.

And please pray I get some rest this weekend...hopefully, I will be posting the much anticipated "light and heating preparedness" blog post sometime this weekend, if all goes according to plan. But you know what they say about planning? "I told God my plans, and He laughed". :-)

Rachel

Can you help, ladies?

A fellow blogger, Gina, the blogger and shopkeeper from "Feather Your Nest" has had a terrible loss this week, that of her 39yr old husband (and the father of their children), Michael. Michael worked so that Gina could run her online boutique, and be with the children, and now she is going to have to find a fulltime job....so the boutique is closing. She is having a 25% off sale to clearance everything out asap.

If you can, would you go over and look? See if there is anything you like? Pass the word along? It is the blogging world's way of helping...

Here's the link:

http://www.shopfeatheryournest.com/

Stuff is selling out, so please, go take a look. Remember, it is 25% off, and goes to help a newly widowed woman..

Thanks...

Expanding on what I have said before...

I'm sure all of you Americans are aware of the effects this brutally cold weather has been having on the annual citrus crop down in "sunny" Florida...the growers are literally having to turn their fruit into juice *now* because that is all it is good for, once the fruit has been frozen...Despite their best efforts, large portions of this year's citrus crop are going to be ruined for general consumption. I will be stocking up on Friday. We don't drink juice or use lemon juice very often (yes, I use the bottled--I simply cannot be running to the store every time I need a couple teaspoons of lemon juice!), but when I need it, I need it. And at this point, it shouldn't cost much to put a couple of good sized bottles onto the pantry shelf, and a couple dozen cans of frozen concentrate into the freezer...

But having started there, what about those things that we take for granted, in our stores...avocados, tomatoes off season, lettuce and other greens...or even in season, there are many many produce items that can be grown nearly anywhere, and yet, we buy them at the store...?

Now is the time of year, to be getting your garden together. It's actually beginning to get late, to get some seeds, or order some plants, especially if you want to get some open-pollinated, heirloom varieties, because people are seeing them for the natural gift that they are...non-hybridized, no GMO tinkering...not to mention, the ability to keep the seed, and grow the same exact plants next year. Seriously. You cannot do that with hybrids or GMO seed. Simply won't happen.

There are many people who believe that because they are in an apartment, there is nothing that can be done, and they will just have to settle for buying their produce in the markets. But that is not necessarily the case. A sunny balcony or window-ledge, will provide some space for containers you can use to grow vegetables in. Admittedly, not root crops, likely, because the depth will be lacking. But you can grow some nice container tomatoes, even run some beans up a trellis. Garlic and onions, while root veggies, don't require the amount of depth that carrots and potatoes do, and add immeasurably to the taste of your food (especially if you are eating from the pantry). Small pepper plants (both spicy and bells), and of course, greens of all types, are also a good bet for your average container gardener...

But why? Why grow your own? I mean, can't you just run to the store?

Well, there are several reasons why we personally try to grow as much of our own food as possible...
One, it is cheaper, in many respects, than hopping into the car and running to the store when I need a head of lettuce, cukes, and tomatoes, for a salad of an evening. Have you looked at the prices on the vegetables these days? Let me assure you, things are not going to get cheaper, or of better quality, in the coming months...not with the price of gas soaring again..remember, those costs *will* get handed on to you, the consumer...besides--what if they don't have any at the store? With the problems in large agricultural areas of California, crop failures across not just the US, but all over the world, a steady supply of "any" agricultural commodity is not a 'given', not anymore...

Secondly, we know what goes onto, into, and around our food. We can amend the soil with compost, we can apply the right amounts of mulch at just the right times, and keep an eye out for pests, rather than spraying indiscriminately, whether the plants need it or not, just because "this is when we always spray the back 40". I know the conditions that the produce was harvested in, and so I *know* that no migrant worker, carrying goodness knows what diseases, took a call of nature just up the field from my future head of lettuce...you can wash it all you want, but the knowledge that someone very likely voided near your food? And didn't wash their hands before going back to work...yeahhhh...Makes *me* want to go to the store and pick the veggies off the produce displays...yepppers...

Thirdly, this is a way to involve our children intimately in the growing and production of their food. My children will know what a tomato plant looks like. They have their own little patches of earth, where they can grow what they want. Or at least *try* :-) . My oldest three have already been around at butchering time, and quite enjoyed 'dissecting' (very carefully, and under strict adult supervision) the still warm heart of one of our pigs. They also know that our animals and are our 'charges'...that we are, as human beings, the stewards of the blessings God has given us, and that we ought to treat those gifts with respect, and thank God for the opportunity to live on them, grow our food, and raise our animals ourselves. We take our job as "stewards" very seriously, and try to take the best care of our animals and land, we can...We thank Him, as well, that our animals have lived good lives, in fresh air, sunshine, and being the most of whatever animal they are, under His watchful eye, and our loving care. And while my children are somewhat saddened, when the animals meet their Creator, they are also always thrilled, when we eat something we have grown, or raised, ourselves. "Is this *our* pork? Is this *OUR* chicken?"...not to mention, the discussions we have had, the first time we had a meal with potatoes, onions, carrots, and pork all grown and raised here on our land. Thanks be to God we have been able to do so while our children are still young and small. There is no doubt that my children will grow up knowing that ground beef comes from those cows in the pasture, when their day comes to be butchered.

There are many reasons *for* growing our own food. No one is saying, "go out and buy 15 acres and immediately plant it to food...and expect to live off of it right off the bat". Nope, that's not going to work out very well for you. Start out, with some small space. Especially if one is in a subdivision, where there is a HOA, you may be restricted on what you can and cannot do (personally, I find HOA rather silly and power-hungry, but hey, I moved to the country to get away from that mindset)...

One thing that several of my friends have done, is to incorporate their food plants in with their bedding plants. By planting, say, a tomato, surrounded with a beautiful basil, and perhaps some carrots, you not only get some lovely plants to 'fill in', but they are useful, and those three are great "companion plants" for one another. Especially if you get determinate, bush varities, you won't have to worry about trellising and twine and all that stuff. It might be sneaky, but it gets the job done, right? Put herbs into your window boxes, your porch planters, and watch them grow (whatever you do, do *not* put mint in the ground. Any of the mints will spread by rootlet and take over...ask me how I know!). You can use some herbs as ground covers, in lightly trafficked areas, or as border plants in a flower bed. Be sneaky and be creative...I'm sure you all know what I mean...

There are many wonderful seed catalogs out there. Some of my favorites are the Seed Saver's catalog, Jungs, Burpees, and Johnny's. But make sure to read carefully about what seeds or plants you are getting. It can be very easy to over-guesstimate how many seeds you will need, and then you end up feeling like you need to plant all those seeds...and in two months time, your planted area is completely overwhelmed...buying ready-to-go plants is also a good idea especially for things like herbs, and small container plants like cherry tomatoes and peppers. Make sure to check the way that the plant grows. Does it need trellising support, or does it need to ramble? Is it a bush variety, or is it one of those that needs to spread out and leaf out allll over the place? Keep your space allowance in mind, and really think.

Seed catalogs are terribly seductive. Oh my, yes. I can easily spend an entire day just browsing through my stack of seed catalogs, drooling over things I have no hope of growing here. Between the soil/light requirements, zones of growth, and amount of work required for many of them, I'm just out of luck. Not to mention the flower portions which don't really add anything to the diet but do make one's spirits bloom a bit. Try and make sure that any seeds you do buy, especially the herbals, have a pretty look to them and aren't supposed to be too leggy. In hard times, sometimes, a pretty plant is all we need to perk our spirits up a bit...I would recommend some sunflowers, of varying heights and colors, if one wants to plant something edible and pretty at the same time.

Once you have your garden going, there are many methods of preserving the harvest, from freezing (very easy, but if you don't have a spare chest or upright freezer at hand, well, you may not want to do that-and if the power goes out? Well, you'd better like vegetable soup!) to canning (somewhat space and labor intensive, but there's no worries about food deterioration/loss if the power goes out, *and* you can reuse the jars and rings year after year) to dehydrating (a good way to go as far as storage goes, since things tend to dry smaller and lighter, but they may not look as appetizing as your other options, and if you want it done quickly, the dehydrators can be expensive to build or buy)...Herbs are easiest dried, of course, if you aren't going to use them fresh. Some veggies store better fresh, some don't do well frozen--it is really a matter of learning what you eat, and what is the best method for preserving that particular fruit or veggie. There are many good books on the market about this, but after the Ball Blue Book (canning), I really like "Preserving the Harvest" and "Stocking Up". Those are mainstays on the library shelves and you *should* be able to check them out right now, and think about what you will want to eat, what you would like to plant, and then do a bit of research as far as the best means for preservation.

Personally, I opt for canning 99.9% of my produce. And even some meats. It is all in the method used, and the recipes, as well. I make our jams (blackberry, strawberry, and peach strawberry/strawberry peach), and peach butter. This year I also made salsa, vegetable soup, more salsa, ketchup, more salsa, tons of pickle relish (I think it was 26 quarts?--and that is in addition to all of the pickles--dills, mostly--I had left from last year's harvest), more salsa (say, are you seeing a pattern here? ;-) ), pickled banana peppers, pickled jalapeno peppers...And it really didn't take that much time, it was just being busy the days that I *did* can. I also put a great many blackberries and jalapenos into the freezer, for later use, since I don't need that many pints of pickled jalapenos, and I would like to try my hand at blackberry brandy. I did make some homemade cherry brandy this fall, but as I've yet to taste it, well, we'll see which of our friends are going to be our handy-dandy guinea pigs.

Many things that we believe are far too difficult to preserve, or to make ourselves, are, in actuality, quite simple and easy. Take the cherry brandy. Cleaned fruit. Sugar. Yep. That's pretty much *it*, folks. A dark, coolish place, where it isn't going to be shaken, stirred, poked, and whatnot...a decent covering, and there you go. Cherry brandy. Yum. I'll have to try it over pound cake one of these days...

I believe that in large part, the main reason behind the majority's unwillingness to consider growing their own food, or even a part of it, is simply the thought that they have better things to do. Now, I'm all for relaxation. I certainly enjoy a good book in front of the fire on a cold evening...a nice leisurely evening with friends on the front porch, after a wonderful bbq dinner from the grill...but those things do not, should not, preclude the labors of our hands and bodies.

Too many of us (self included) would much rather have a life of ease, and relative leisure. The thought of getting out and shoveling tons of used stable bedding onto a garden plot, leaves much to be desired. It is certainly not high on most people's "Things I Want to Do Before I Die" bucket lists. However, it is good exercise. It is honest work. And once a rhythm gets going, it becomes a sort of prayer to the good Lord, who created us all, and told us that we would be forced to work, and to grow our food by the sweat of our brow...the relative silence, of the thud of the shovel into a pile of composted manure, straw, and "such", provides time for meditating on the mysteries of life. Christ was raised by his foster father, a carpenter...did He, Our Lord, ever shovel a garden for His mother? How can I, even as I am shoveling some really nasty stuff, direct my thoughts to God, and His will? Perhaps by concentrating on the fact that the very nastiness that I am shoveling out there, is the very thing that will make my flowers grow bigger and bloom brighter, my tomatoes reach for the sky and put out a gazillion blossoms and fruit...realizing that it is sometimes the ugliness coming before, that causes the beauty of the end result, to shine so brightly in our mind...how many of us, have seen what seemed to be a horrible situation, turn around and become an example of how great God is, and how He can work in our lives?

Admittedly, it is easy to see the drudgery, and not see the potential goodness that comes from such labor. We have been conditioned, as a culture, as a people, to refrain from such things at nearly whatever cost we can manage, and only to resort to manual labor if we cannot possibly pay someone else. There are hold outs, of course. Many of us, cannot afford to pay someone to come and do all of our gardening, our painting, our cleaning for us, and so we do it ourselves, neglecting a very great opportunity to submerge ourselves in the "mindlessly mundane" work...

Yesterday, after I finally took down the Christmas tree, and the Christmas decorations, I rearranged a bit more of the spaces in the family room. Not needing that space for the tree anymore, I moved a rocking chair (a very nice, heavy, substantial oak one) to where the tree had been, and over it, I hung a picture. A rather large piece, with a quote from 1 Corinthians underneath the print of a woman, working at picking fruit from a tree...

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. ", 1 Corinthians 15:58

What a better thing to meditate on, when one is performing such drudgery, knowing that our work...even the mundane, daily tasks, is not in vain (I realize that St Paul was in fact writing to the Corinthians, to scold them, to chastise them, to exhort them to remain true to the Gospel of Our Lord...but for the purposes of this blog post, I'll admit to cherry picking scripture! And even better, this one is hanging in my family room... :-) ).

We are, for the most part, Christians, reading this blog...some Catholic, some protestant. What better work is there, than seeing to the well-being of your family? And if you are single, or have no family to provide the bounty of your garden with, well then, surely, there is someone else, who can benefit. Those disabled, on limited incomes, and the elderly, who cannot garden on their own, and yet, cannot afford to buy themselves such things, either--would they not benefit greatly from your efforts? Not just in a financial sense...but in the intangible--better nutrition, of course, also in the building of ties within the community. Someone thinking of them, gathering some freshly grown, warm from the sun, vegetables and fruits for them? I wonder how often that happens? We talk the talk, but do we walk the walk?

The sharing of our bounty, whether it is fresh, or preserved, is an important part of our Christian faith. And even the sharing of our poverty (the widow's mite) is of great value...(see the stories of Stone Soup, for an idea of what I mean here).

I realize that I have wandered a bit, from my intended discussion on food growing and preservation. I apologize for that...Please, do check out the books and such that I have mentioned. Other good general gardening books, for those inclined, are "Lasagna Gardening" "Square Foot Gardening", "Carrots love Tomatoes" and "Roses love Garlic"...there is much that can be done, even on a standard suburban plot, not burdened by HOA rules, to make you a bit more self-sufficient...

I do hope that you got "something" from this post. I'm sorry if I rambled too far off course for some of you. Remember, I'm a beginning blogger, and I still like to talk about myself--hey, it's not like I'm looking to make a living off of it!

Hopefully, I will be able to get another post up tomorrow, about another preparedness issue--fuel, light, and heat...if not, I am now apologizing in advance! It has been a couple of very busy days around here (like I said, yesterday was dismantling the Christmas decorations, and El Husbando was home with a torqued-up back. Massively ugly pain. :-( ). Today, I finally got my table linens pulled out, the drawers cleaned out and reorganized, and I even got the end table table-cloth changed, and the cabinet by the back door cleaned out a bit more...Yay for the home team!! Considering that was on top of schoolwork, regular housechores, and everything else that goes on around here, I don't feel too bad!

I do hope that you have had a productive day. And if not productive, well...I hope it wasn't BAD. And if it was bad, well, it wasn't too horrible--you are still alive to read this, right? God has granted you another day (sometimes, we may wonder WHY, but hey, who am I to question HIM? LOL)!
For now, my friends, think about your yards, your balconies, what can *you* do, to make yourself even a smidgen better prepared? Do you have a wonderfully sunny backyard, and have been trying to decide what to do with it, besides grass? Consider a non-traditional vegetable garden, design it like a flower bed, and instead of delphiniums, foxgloves, pinks, roses, and daylilies, try green beans, tomatoes, carrots, lettuces/greens, onions, and herbs. Think outside the box.

Skip day...

Sorry folks-I forgot that this afternoon/evening is our pastor's appreciation dinner, and I'm slated to bring a casserole. I am going to have to pass on working on my next installment, and getting it up online today, and make a vegetable medley casserole, instead.

Pray for me. We have to be there by 530, its a 20 min drive, and it is nowww....230. I've got time, but doggone it, I'm bushed. I had a three hour "break" in my sleep last night, I've got folks needing some serious apologetics work, a blog post to write, a casserole to make, five children to get dressed for going out, into the car, and back to town, and the animals to take care of--plus the usual indoor house things.

I got to get all wrapped up and go break ice on the pond with a sledgehammer for our cows...after Mass, of course...even got to scoop out the thickest, biggest chunks, with a shovel...yep. Dh's back is messed up again. Prayers would be definitely appreciated. Thankfully, things should be warming up over the next couple of days....

Hopefully, you are all having a great day today, and a blessed, warm(er) weekend...

Rachel

Whatcha got to eat? Or, how to keep the hungries at bay...

Since this looks to be another long post, I think I’ll be splitting into two parts. Part 1, today, is just on basic purchasing and storage. Tomorrow, we’ll discuss growing your own, gardening, and a few other things as I come up with them…

There are three things you absolutely cannot live without…air, water, and food. You can make it for up to three minutes without air, up to three days without water, and up to three weeks without food. But do any of you really think you want to only breathe every 2 ½ minutes? Drink a gallon of water every third day? Eat every second week, and go without, in between? Or, more importantly, do you want your children to have to do so? This is the thing that drives many folks to prepare—the concern for loved ones. Especially, those folks who have actually seen hardship and privation first hand…

When my father was growing up, his family was poor. And I don’t mean, they didn’t have a tv, or a new car every 5 years. I mean, my dad’s family was a family of migrant farmers. Today, migrant farmers are typically immigrants, of dubious legal status. But back up until the 60s, the vast majority of them in the deep South of the United States, were poor whites. Occasionally, my step-grandfather and grandmother would do a stint as a tenant farmer, but that is as bad in some situations as being a migrant. There were many times, when they were so impoverished, that lard on biscuits was high eating. And this was in the 50s and 60s. Not that long ago.

Memories of those times, drove my father to make sure that his family—both we children and our mother, as well as my aunt and grandmother—were cared for. That we had food to eat, and food put back, just in case. My dad would work two and three jobs, when I was young, to make sure of that. It didn’t matter how tired he got, he insisted on two things. One, that my mother be at home with us children—no one else is going to be responsible to the Almighty, for the upbringing of the children, but the parents. And two, that we eat. It did not matter what he had to do, he would do it. He would not go back to living the life he had been raised in, a promise he made with his sister, and that they have kept to this day.

That mindset, of the “Do whatever you have to do, go without yourself, work three jobs, it doesn’t matter, but make darned sure your children are well taken care of, and provided for” school, has been driven into my own psyche. I do not believe that it is anyone else’s responsibility to take care of my family, but El Husbando, and I. Proverbs 22:3, talks about a wise man seeing trouble coming, and preparing for it. While I hesitate to use the term “wise” in connection with myself, I do think that being prepared for events beyond our control is a wise idea. Yesterday, I spoke of how the extreme weather is resulting in folks not being able to get to the stores, and food not being able to get to the stores in the first place, to be restocked. Eventually, those folks who bought a dozen eggs, a couple loaves of bread, and an extra gallon of milk, are going to run out. Now, if they cannot get to the store to resupply, what are they going to do? Are they going to moan and cry and fuss because some government official didn’t get the roads cleared for them to make it to the store? Or are those folks going to be able to go to their pantry, open the cabinet door, and say, “Well, dear, we have powdered milk, plenty of canned veggies, pasta and sauces, enough meat in the freezer to last us a while. What would you like for dinner?” Which one of those pictures would *you* rather be a part of, if times got hard—either for a shorter term natural weather event, or a longer term economic one?

Some folks seem to think that having a good pantry built up is an immediate, expensive process, too complicated to bother with, for the average person. The mindset of “well, that’s okay for the Mormons” or “Those crazy nutjobs next door got another pallet in today”. But the reality of building up a pantry, is that it is *not* difficult, nor terribly expensive, if one goes about it the right way, with a plan in mind before you start out, and a clearly defined set of goals set out in advance.
There are many websites out there, that will sell you a pallet of dehydrated food in #10 cans. Vacuum packed, with oxygen absorbers, and everything. But for most of us, “dinner in a can” is not really what we are looking for, when we think of building a pantry. The best way, I have found, to actually build up a pantry you know you will eat and use, is to simply buy more of what you normally eat, usually when it goes on sale. And, if what you normally eat is processed, start trying to make it from scratch. Yes, scratch. Homemade food. I know, it takes more time. Most folks reading this blog are stay at home moms, and some of you are homeschooling. It is not easy, as I well know, to cook from scratch when you’ve got one or more little people directly underfoot, two or three more at the kitchen table dawdling over schoolwork, and a house that desperately needs cleaning. But it is far better for you, and actually a good way to cover those valuable “home management skills” many of us were missing when we left home/married/had children ourselves (notice I am including myself here). I know, as much as you hate to hear it—involve the children. The mess. I know. The loud, loud talking (I know, I know..it gets on my nerves too). Believe me, this is important…

My nine year old can make bread. Seriously. GOOD bread. Admittedly, it is the 5 minute artisan bread that does not require kneading. But she can make it by herself, with little to no help from me. I generally do the shaping, or direct her to make it into rolls in the muffin pans, but she can do it all by herself. So bread baking is not this mysterious art only reserved for the properly trained. You too, can do it. With four ingredients. No joke—flour, water, yeast, salt. That’s it. We have used it for pizza dough, rolls, artisan bread, grilled it in our fireplace, made cinnamon rolls with it, cloverleaf rolls, etc. It is YUMMY. And easy easy easy. Now, if my 9 year old daughter can make bread—so can anyone of you reading this. Probably, any of your children can, too, if they are 8 or older and able to follow simple directions. If something this basic to life (bread), is so easy to make, then maybe this whole cooking from scratch thing, isn’t so exotic, difficult, and time consuming as food manufacturers and processors would have us believe.

But wait, you say. If I’m cooking from scratch, what about ingredients…??? And recipes?? A great cookbook, is the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Another good one, is that favorite, “The Joy of Cooking”. Two large, very broadly based cookbooks, with lots of good ideas, recipes, techniques, etc. Get a good, solid hardcove version—a spiral bound, flat-laying version with the metal spiral, not the plastic, is a good idea, too. I hesitate to say, have each of them removed from their original spine, and have them then spiral bound at your local office supply store, but it can be done, and is a good idea, especially for a book you would use frequently.

Now, ingredients. Those tricky little things that trip us up when we don’t plan our menus around our pantries, and instead plan whatever we’re going to eat “on the fly”. Stocking up a pantry has to involve ingredients, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now…I think you will find that if you plan ahead…and make more foods from scratch, you will find an increasing amount of money savings, not to mention better health, and a certainty that if the Hamburger Helper stash in the cabinet runs out, you *will* be able to cook something for dinner…What do you eat? Sit down, every evening after the children are in bed, or throughout the day. And write down what your household has eaten. Snacks, meals, etc. Don’t forget any lunches out, or the lunches your DH eats while he is away at work. At the end of the week, sit down and look at it. How many frozen bags of veggies, or cans, did you eat per day/per week. What about meat? What kinds, how much did you go through, etc. Once you’ve done this for a couple of weeks, up to a month, you’ll have a good idea of what you are looking at, as far as regular food consumption. This will also tell you what foods you like, are used to eating, etc, not to mention, give you a leg up on finding a homemade version of whatever it is that tickles your family’s tastebuds. There are websites, and programs you can buy, that will tell you how much food you “should” need per person, in a given month/year. That’s all well and good, unless you have growing children, in which case, the numbers need some skewing. You really need to look at your family, because your family is different from every other family out there… One good, overall, program I would recommend is Revelar’s Food Storage Planner. Here is a link to a supposedly free downloadable program…

http://ptf.com/download/food_storage_planner/601062/

It is definitely a worthwhile thing to have. And it has a number of additional features that worth investigating, when you have the time and inclination. I can highly recommend it, as we purchased it years and years ago and have updated and used it off and on ever since. This will make the next step of your food preparedness easier to handle…

So, you’ve found out what you eat. And now is when to start comparing the prices of the stores around you. What is a good price, per can, per oz, per lb? I know, for instance, that if I pay more than $.40/lb for sugar, I’m paying too much. You *can* find it for that price, you just have to look. And keep track. This is where what some folks call a price notebook comes in handy. A little spiral bound notebook, easy to stick into a purse or a pocket, a diaper bag, whatever, when you go to the store. Keep tabs on what the running price is (and keep an eye on those prices, cause they are going up). Find the best prices for the things you have to buy regularly. This doesn’t require extra trips on your part, just when you go to a given store, check and see. This is assuming of course that you don’t only go to one store, because it is ‘better’ than the others, or more conveniently located. If you do this, you may be missing some really good deals, and really good sales. Think outside of your comfort zone a bit here, and explore some newer/out of the way places, if you can.

Giving yourself some time to get a price book going is a good idea. Chances are, if you are like me, you have a stash of grocery store receipts in your purse right now…(yes, right there next to the checkbook, that ink pen that has no ink left, the wadded up tissue, the copy of your church bulletin from last month, and a business card from someone you know you should remember, but don’t). Check them out, and see what the prices were that day, at your store. That’ll give you a little bit of a start. Check those prices out, in comparison, when you go out. Where is the better deal? Simply knowing where—and what—the best prices are, enables you to wisely take advantage of good sales, and stock up. You may be able to fill a niche, just because you chanced across a sale price that was light-years better than the ones you usually see and pay.

But talking about price books, and how to go about getting the food, really glosses over, the main idea. Yes, you need to buy and stock up on what you will eat. But what you really ought to be doing, is making sure that you are not relying on store bought, processed foods, but instead are learning to make your own. Buy the basics—especially those basics that there is NO way you can grow or produce yourself. Baking soda, baking powder, sugars, salt, honey, rice, beans, oatmeal, vinegars, oils-- these are things that by and large, we cannot grow or raise on a small scale property. Herbs and spices—many of them simply do not grow in the climate zones of the US, or maybe don’t grow where you are. How many of those do we use and not think about, every single day? There are many things that as times have changed, and transportation has become faster/easier/cheaper, have come to be “standards” in our day to day lives, that have not always been available to most of the world, most of the time, if at all.

There are those who will say “But, I don't have room" line. PISH POSH! There is so much more space in the average American home than we use, that it is nearly shameful. Clean out a closet, and use it for an additional pantry. Put an extra shelf in the top of *all* your closets (you and I both know that there is a TON of space up there, that goes unused), and store things up there. Under beds, couches (especially if they have skirts). Double and triple stack things in your cabinets. Shoot, before we had children, and had to do away with such niceties as tableclothed end tables, DH and I used brand new, smallish sized plastic trash cans, with a big round wooden lid on it (covered with a nice tablecloth that matched our curtains) as end tables in our family room (not here—this was eons ago, lol). Talk about a ton of storage! Space that would have gone completely to waste, was not only put to good use, but discreet storage, as well. Rubbermaid totes store things like grains pretty well, if you make sure to freeze the grains thoroughly for an extended period, to eliminate bug eggs, etc (yes, there are bug eggs in the food. Shoot, used to be, folks had to sift the bugs out of their flours and such, which is one reason sifters came into being). No sense storing food if you are going to let pests get to it. Those lovely 5 gallon buckets that the frostings come in at bakeries nationwide, are another good resource for finding food-grade storage on the cheap. You can also find them at HomeDepot (although I am not sure about them being food grade, and would hesitate to store anything not in its original packaging in them). A set of shelves, can make for a lot of space, especially if you have a basement. Go up, not out. Keep your shelving neat, and clean. Store like with like, keep those nifty cardboard “case” boxes, that canned goods come in—they help to keep things in neat rows, and make it easier to move, and organize…

So, what did we discuss today? Well, let’s recap:

First of all, preparedness isn’t for the abnormal, paranoid folks. It’s for everyone. Because you never know what tomorrow will bring, it is best to be prepared, and able to take care of yourself (it is NO ONE else’s job to take care of you, prepare for you, provide for you and your family. NO ONEs. Got that? Okay, good). Now, buying extra amounts of food to put back for your family’s use, is not abnormal, except to someone immersed in the current “it will always be available” mindset. This is wrong, and historically proven false. *WE* are abnormal, these days, for not putting food up, for not looking down the road, and relying on a rather extremely fragile train of transportation and resupply, to take care of our food needs. How to best start building up a pantry? Start with buying more of what you already do, and put it back. Even a can or two at a time, can make all the difference in the world, if the power goes out and there’s no way to get anything more to eat. Just put it on the shelf. Pantry-building is not a one time, expensive, deal. It is an on-going process that changes and develops as your family’s needs change. Keep that in mind as you go. Also, bone up on your ‘cooking from scratch’ skills. Not just dumping food from one can into a big pot (although that does have its merits from time to time), but instead, really learning what food IS, and what it does…and how best to prepare it. Start small, but be consistent. Grab an extra sack of sugar, flour, beans, and rice, when you go to the store the next time. Go ahead and get that extra canister of salt, and put it back. Grab two jugs of vegetable or olive oil, and put them into the back of the pantry. Start *somewhere*, but start *TODAY*. It doesn’t have to be much, but doing something, is better than sitting back in confusion, doing nothing, until it is too late.

Remember the 7Ps—Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Pi$$ Poor Performance. Memorize it. Are you prepared? How would you fare if there was a massive storm to hit suddenly, and keep you in your house for a week or two or three? Go look in your kitchen cabinets. What do you see? How much of it? How many times a week, a month, do you go to the store? Do you plan your menus out, weekly, daily…at all? Spend some time really thinking about what you are prepared for…and if you come to the conclusion you are *not* in fact, prepared for anything at all, much less something extended and drastic, start to think about ways to *get* to a better preparedness level…

Now that I’ve given you something to think about the rest of today, I’ll leave you to your thoughts—share them if you want—I’d love to hear from you. Are you preparing? Do you know people who do, and do you think that they are weird? Are you some Idahoan preparedness demi-god, who can teach us all a thing or four? Please, go ahead! Visitor participation is not only welcomed, it is encouraged!

Til tomorrow folks,

Contingency plans, the 7 Ps, and what that means to you and I, Part 1

The recent weather extremes here (as well as across the country) have really caused me to sit and think about "what ifs"....not to say I've never sat and given them any thought before, because I have. But sometimes, circumstances will occur that make you sit back and re-evaluate your previous "percolations" on a subject, and honestly, this time of year, combined with spending the last two weeks primarily in my house (leaving only for one trip to Mass, and one trip to the grocery store, since two days before Christmas), aside from the daily trips to the chicken coop and mailbox, has caused me to reconsider my plans and priorities, as well as giving more serious and sustained thoughts to the "whys, wherefores, and how-tos" of contingency planning...

When my beloved El Husbando was in the Army, one of the things he would say every so often, was something about 7Ps. I never paid that much attention to it, until one day I finally asked him what he meant by that...surprised that I didn't know, and hadn't asked him before, he explained, that the 7Ps stood for Proper Prior Planning Prevents Pi$$ Poor Performance (pardon the language, this was the Army non-com talking. Ahem). It meant that they planned, planned, planned, and planned for any and every possible contingency that could, would, and likely, HAD come up in a given situation. They made sure that they had ever bit of redundancy, every bit of double and triple checking. They tried to avoid catastrophe, by simply sitting down, and thinking, before they went off "half cocked" and really dropped the ball on a given mission.

Now, obviously, when one is talking about military units, the 7Ps are really life and death, particularly in combat operations. But even training can be deadly if the 7Ps are not followed...

But what about civilian life...is there a place in civilian life for the 7Ps? Well, yes. Most definitely.

Think about the massively awful winter weather the Northern Hemisphere has been having (oh yeah, btw, Al Gore called and said they'd called off the Global Warming for this month) . People dying from a lack of heat, grocery stores running out of food (because roads are closed in every direction, and truck shipments cannot be brought in to resupply), houses burning down because people have not considered what they need to do when the power is out, and its 20 below 0 outside, before the windchill...Folks being trapped in their cars, with no supplies, no way of getting out, and freezing to death because they were ill-prepared for what they encountered...

While it seems like such extreme happenings "can't happen to you"--they *can* happen to you. I can guarantee you, none of the dead had thought that they would die because of their action/inaction/poor preparedness level...

Yes folks...I said it. Preparedness. Now, before you go running screaming for the hills, let me elaborate...

Preparedness is *not* just for Luddite, 2d Amendment quoting, y2k leftover paranoid nutjobs whose dream is to move to Idaho and to never again see another person who looks different from them...to use no electricity and drink water from the stream out back...

No. Preparedness is, in fact, for everyone. Little do you know, who around you, might be a "prepper". 99.9% of them, will never come out and say it. You may never know. They look like you. Like your neighbors. Like the cashier at the hardware store. The little old lady at church, who has lived in your town her whole life, never married, and is the one who brings that phenomenal coconut cake that no matter how hard they try, no one has been able to wheedle the recipe out of her (sounds like I know someone like that, doesn't it? ;-) ). Yes. People who are prepared are, well, dare I say it?

Normal.

Yes. Believe it or not, being UNprepared, is abnormal, as history goes. Think on it. For thousands upon thousands of years...there were no grocery stores. There were no electrical power plants. There was no shipping of perishable fruits FRESH across large expanses of territory, expecting them to still be fresh when they got to their destination...meats were salted, brined, pickled, smoked, you name it, it was either eaten immediately after butchering, or it HAD to be preserved in some way, cause freezing was not a reliable option...

Instead, people planned ahead. They stored (like squirrels...ants...honeybees...)food for the winter. Anything and everything that they could "put up", they did. I'm sure some of you, had grandparents and older relatives who would can every summer. If it wasn't nailed down, it went into a mason jar, and got pressure canned, hot water bathed, or got dehydrated, frozen, or otherwise 'stored' in some way. They remembered the Depression. They remembered having nothing but lard and biscuits to eat--and being grateful for it!

They had plans for how to heat their homes, that didn't necessarily rely on the power company. The men and boys would spend their 'down' time, cutting, hauling, and splitting wood for fireplaces, wood stoves, and the like. They'd stack up cord after cord after cord, and then some...More modern efforts, not reliant on a steady wood supply, would be kerosene heaters. Less work, more expense.

As times changed, and motor vehicles were entering the scene, those inclined to be prepared (following the Boy Scout motto), would make sure that they had water, any medicines that they HAD to have, warm clothing, shovels, kitty litter, spare tires/jacks, jumper cables, warm clothes, blankets, good walking footgear, food, etc, for themselves and their passengers, were they to get stuck somewhere in a wintry climate, or water, and the appropriate clothing and gear for a summertime breakdown/disaster while on the road.

Today, however, we have people going on journeys into snow country, in winter, with a light coat, if that...no water, no food, no way to signal help (cell phones may not work), no extra clothing or good walking footgear. They don't know how to use their car to keep themselves alive until help comes (the car won't make it, but you will!). And days, weeks, months later, they are found, frozen to death, near death, frostbitten, or just plain old COLD and HUNGRY, because they weren't prepared for the situation they found themselves in...

We have people who literally have no more than a day or two's worth of food in their homes, for themselves and their children...they panic at the mention of "snow" and run to the store and grab bread, eggs, milk, and toilet paper. A few might sensibly grab some vienna sausages, some canned soup, or some Chef Boyardee. But by and large, you can tell when snow is predicted, by the store shelves in your local stores...

We have a generation of people (actually, more than that) who have no idea where meats come from...I saw an opinion piece some time ago...a woman wrote in, telling people to "buy their meat at the grocery store, where no animals were harmed"...ummm, lady, you DO know where that steak came from, right???? Children who think milk comes from the store...that meat is just "popped into existence" in styrofoam platters at the local grocery store, and wrapped in shrink wrap...

Yes folks, we are raising a whole lot of people, who have absolutely no clue what manure is (and if they do know, they likely use another, four letter term for it, and rarely if ever use it in its proper context)....no idea about how to grow food, what various garden crops look like at various stages of growth...how to cook food from scratch...what "from scratch" means, even...

Now, given that you are reading this blog, I doubt you are one of these people. I like to think that the (admittedly, few) folks who read my blog, actually are pretty smart. At the very least, you're not likely to think "Hmm, Rachel's gone off the deep end, what does she mean, meat doesn't come from the store! Hey, wait! I think I wrote that letter to the editor!" :-D

But the point remains...we have devalued the "currency" of being prepared. We, as a people, as a culture, have come to expect "services" to be available...what IF the ice storm of the century hits, overnight one night, when only a light storm was predicted...power's out all over, there's no heat, no electricity. Do you have the food you need? What do you do with your perishables in the fridge and freezer? How do you stay warm? What if something happens, a medical situation--not a life or death, but a situation not normally handled at home...do you know what to do? If the ambulance, fire department, and police cannot get to you, they will be of no help--if the phone lines aren't down. You *will* be on your own....even if you don't do some things in every day life, it would be valuable to have resources at hand, to take care of such situations...books, manuals, etc...experience, even once or twice, would be better than nothing...

It seems as if, in our pursuit of the "now", we've forgotten that tomorrow does come, and it may not be as rosy a picture as today...


As I am sure you have guessed, if you've been reading this blog for long at all, I believe that our country is very very close to an economic collapse. Maybe not tomorrow. Or next week. But the state of our economy is fragile right now...despite what certain persons in power would have you believe, an economic recovery is not coming right away...our bond market is tanking. The dollar is being devalued against foreign currencies...other countries are refusing our goods...the agricultural sector of our economy is in extremely poor shape, and only likely to get worse this next year. We have little to no reserves (there used to be food reserves, did you know that? There aren't any more--we sold some and used the rest), on a national level. Enviromental and agricultural-fiscal policies have resulted in an absolute horror of a situation. The main agricultural region of California, has been denied the water it needs to grow the foods that are the mainstay of the Central Valley's economy--foods that we consumers in other parts of the country, have come to count on. The citrus crops in FL and other tropical coastal regions, are being affected by this incredible Arctic front that is hitting the entire United States in one form or another. The droughts in late 2008, early 2009, freezes early in 2009, massive rainfalls in the central part of the country all summer long, ruined crops all over the US. Crops failed abroad as well--rice, sugar, fruits...folks, it is a very very ugly picture. Combine that, with the demand for biodiesel corn, subsidies for NOT growing crops, the collapsing small farms, and we have a situation that could very easily topple over into something particularly ugly as 2010 progresses. Energy prices are on the rise (I'm sure you've noticed the price of gasoline rising? Well, the price per barrel of crude oil yesterday, was over $82...a week, week and a half ago, it was still under $80. We're going to see $3/gal gas again, soon, if you aren't already.

So what, you think...the problem is, is that that cost is applied to food...to plastics...to ANYTHING hauled by truck..the food cost is not only rising due to scarcity, but also because with the price of petroleum, goes fuel, fertilizers, herbi/pesticides...not to mention the sheer cost of manufacturing whatever food is getting processed..hauled to the processor, hauled to the packaging, hauled to market warehouses, hauled to stores...packaging costs money...you see? There is so much of a petroleum base in our Western economy, the rising price of crude oil is going to cause a cascade of inflationary prices...

The big question is, can we (you?) afford it? Are you prepared, to be able to shell out that much money? Do you have the discretionary income, to 'cushion' the blow that such a spike in prices--of *everything*--is going to require?

How does one prepare for such events? A second Great Depression, I mean, really, how *does* one prepare for that?

First thing on *my* list? Get out of debt. As much as you can, as fast as you can. THROW money onto the debt. Make the sacrifices NOW, while the dollar is actually worth something (frankly, the way things are going, the old images of the Weimar Republic in Germany keep coming to mind). Skip eating out...throw the $20 onto another bill. Instead of buying presents for Valentine's Day, do that whole "coupon book" idea--actions, not gifts..make a niiiiiice dinner at home. Get the itch to redecorate? Either do without, shop the thrift and consignment stores, or, even better, "shop the house". Seriously. Think outside the box, and look around your home, and "repurpose" things. Move them around, and see if that doesn't work better for you. Save your money. Use any windfall money, to pay down debt. This is our personal plan, with our tax refund (and God willing, the sale of our old home this spring). Any and every bit of "extra" is going to the debt paydown plan. It *must* be done. *MUST*. And not just because I am tired of writing the checks. But because it does, in fact, make me a slave to those companies. We are working and slaving, merely to give them their pound of flesh each month. Repellent as it is, there you have it...

If you aren't in debt, don't go there. Stay put. DO NOT DO IT. I don't care what the motivation is "It's such a good deal!", "We'll never find something like this again!"--you know what, if you *know* a big purchase is going to be coming up, start saving. I know, I know, saving is a dirty word. Seriously. Pay cash. DO NOT get into debt. It is a very very bad idea at any time, and especially right now.

I can say that, because I have been--and am--on the debtor side of the page. When El Husbando was still in the Army, he was sent to Iraq. He was supposed to be gone for 18mos. Now, soldiers get a LOT more money when they are in combat zones, than they do when they are home. We planned to save up our money, pay down debts, and get out about 6 mos after he returned home. We figured we had a good 2 years before we had to worry about retirement and a lower income.

But we were wrong. Very...

Four months into his 18mos tour...a month after I'd had some expensive foundation repair done to our old (then, current) home...he was sent back early. Less than 5 mos after that, he was medically retired. Our income was more than halved. This is ugly at any time, especially with (relatively) so little warning. But with five children, a move, and two houses, this is particularly bad. The Veteran's Administration's process for determining disability (which El Husbando most certainly is) can take more than a year. We ended up maxing out the credit cards within 7 months. All of them. And then, just in the nick of time, the VA letter arrived. Thanks be to God, it came. And with it, money. We paid off some of the debts, but nowhere near enough, and unfortunately, we made some more poor choices, and ended up further in the hole shortly there after.

So, now, we are using any and every penny to dig ourselves out of the hole of our own making. We have the heat as low as we can stand it, lights go off and stay off, Christmas was fairly small. We aren't buying much of anything but bare necessities and pantry stock ups (because with five children, you can imagine what the cost of food rising is doing to the budget--stock up while you can, folks!). We aren't going places, having date nights, or even hitting the thrift stores lately (the children got clothes for Christmas, thanks be to God).

But we have got to get out of it. With what we believe to be hyperinflation looming only around the corner, the cost of everything on the rise, the sensible thing to do, is to be paying down, paying off, debts. Not getting into any new ones (paid off cards get cut up, except for one frozen into a block of ice in the freezer). Is it fun? No, not really. Do I miss certain things? Yes. Would I change the past if I could? MOST DEFINITELY--which is why I am warning YOU.

You may be tempted...lured in..convinced that the economy is going to turn around. That the money train we've had for decades, isn't coming to a screeching halt on the side of a mountain with a tunnel painted on it. That "we can afford to do/buy X on the card--we'll pay it off over the year"...don't count on it. Pay cash, or don't get it. Save up. If it is really a need, you can make yourself save up...Such "economy" will cause you to really think about what needs versus wants.

If you are already out of debt, good on you. I mean that. But then the question becomes...are you prepared in other ways?

I think what I am going to do, is going to make this a multiple part "series"...rather than trying to cover so much material, in one day's posting...so tune in tomorrow for more...

Ack! Has it been a week almost????

I can hardly believe it. But honestly, I've been so busy the last few days (since Sunday morning), that I've scarcely even checked here (I figured, I have comment notification, if anyone says anything, well, I can check in..it is not as if I have a high traffic volume, or anything, lol ;-) ).

What have I been doing? Catholic apologetics. For those who don't know, apologetics is *not* apologizing for what we believe, lol. Basically, it is explaining the Faith, what the Church teaches, and why, and where we get the scriptural basis for what we teach and believe. There are MASSIVE numbers of people who simply have no clue that what they *know* about the Church...that what they've been told about the Church by people that they respect, is absolutely wrong, and has been set up by people who either simply don't know any better themselves, or are deliberately mis-representing the Church and Her teachings.

I will admit, I am not the strongest apologist out there. But, having been raised a Sola Scripturist, I can definitely discuss scripture (anyone else out there participate in Bible Bowl? Yeah, raise your hand...yep...I did, too!). Some Catholics have a problem with *just* using Sacred Scripture to back up Catholic belief, because the Church teaches from Tradition, as well as Scripture...but the problem with that tack, is that Sola Scripturists, by the very meaning of the term, do not recognize Tradition as a reliable source. So, being at least a bit versed in Scripture, I discuss the Church from that perspective, as much as possible.

As I've pointed out to some folks before, "If I were going to France (or, discussing the Faith with Sola Scripturists), I wouldn't take lessons in Swahili (or, defend the Church from Tradition), and expect everyone to understand me...no, I'd speak FRENCH". I discuss the points from what we hold in common, so that there is a agreed upon, shared basis for understanding.

Now, keep in mind, I am not dismissing the faith that those who are not Catholic, hold, for Our Lord and Savior. Their faith is very real--after all, I did, for more than half my life, count myself among them. However, having taken the time to truly investigate what the Catholic Church teaches, why, and where She has the scriptural, and historical, evidence for doing so, well, I feel compelled to explain to them that they are missing a good bit of the story. Not to mention that, as a Catholic, I am bound by that very Faith, to "instruct the ignorant" (in this case, those who are ignorant of what the Church teaches and why).

There are so many people, who hate the Catholic Church, not for what She truly teaches and believes, but for what they *think* She teaches and believes. Common misperceptions range from the understandably misconstrued, to the ludicrous and incredulous...unfortunately, 'urban legend', wikipedia, and the History Channel, all seem to hold the same level of proof, as centuries of extent historical record--not to mention scripture--to the contrary.

I have had people tell me Catholics worship idols (no, we don't. The Church specifically forbids it, as does Sacred Scripture)....that Catholicism is pagan in origin (related to Mithras, Ba'al, and the Sol Invictus cult of ancient Rome--also completely false)...that the early Church did not have the Traditions that we have (ditto)...honestly, I have had people quote me, near verbatim, a greatly discredited (by scholars on both Protestant and Catholic sides of the issue) illustrator who has spread his lies for decades via cartoons (if you have seen them, you know very well who I mean. If not, I am not going to put his name out there for further publicity). Unfortunately, many people read his lies, do not bother to verify on their own, and swallow it hook, line, and sinker. And by that, I mean, actually checking to see what the Church teaches from a Catholic source---not a former Catholic, not a protestant, not an atheist--no, they should go to the source, not get it filtered through the lens of someone else's experience/bias...

The problem is, is that even appealing to Scripture, does not, in fact, seem to matter. Even when you expose big gapping holes in their premise, when you ask repeatedly for them to explain why, and how, they are not obeying, observing, John, chapter 6...when you ask them for actual, historical PROOF of their claims (and they cannot make them), when you point out that the earliest records, of the early Church, written by the spiritual sons, and grandsons of the eleven remaining disciples, all support the Catholic stance, from the earliest days of the Church...they do not want to listen. When you ask where the historical proof is for what *they* believe, from between the years of 33AD, and oh, let's say, 1500AD...and there is none...and then you have to ask them, why Our Lord would say that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Bride, the Church...and yet apparently the moment He ascended into Heaven, the Church immediately fell into error, became pagan, and it wasn't until around 1450ish years later, that He decided He ought to come to the rescue, since the gates of Hell had prevailed for 1450 +/- years...

It can be very frustrating. It can be heartbreaking, to have some one tell you you worship some pagan deity that bears no resemblance to anything whatsoever in the Catholic Church, and they will not listen to any evidence to the contrary. But as Catholics, we are bound, by the very Faith we claim, to counter these fallacies when and where we find them being spoken of, when we find the Church being slammed as pagan, and false, and an arm of Satan (oh, yes, I've heard it all)...we are to refute them.

I don't ask for much. Common courtesy is all, really. I simply would like a moment of intellectual honesty, and for the folks espousing these falsehoods, to simply listen. To actually spend a few minutes, listening. And maybe, just maybe, investigating, on their own, what it is that they believe to be true about the Church. Instead of believing a man who is a known spreader of lies and falsehood...lies that anyone with an ounce of logical reasoning ability, would discount if they gave it a moment's thought. It is quite simple to sit and listen. If there is a rebuttal, or more questions, wait, and ask them when I am done. Don't shout over me, don't try and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about...if I did the same thing, I'd be considered a rude boor, and that "Catholics don't have any manners and don't want to hear the 'truth'." But what they don't realize is that their shouting and yelling and unwillingness to listen to the other side, does nothing for them and what they are saying (even if it was true)...I am not asking them to immediately believe what I say, and convert and apologize, etc. That's unrealistic. But I am asking for simple, common, courtesy. Good conversations involve give and take. Not pointing fingers, shouting, extreme accusations, and a complete and total lack of listening skills....

So folks, that is what I have spent my time doing, since Sunday morning. I have answered, refuted, and disproven their claims. I have repeatedly asked them, to PROVE what they say is true. I have repeatedly asked for their explanation of their disobedience of John, Chapter 6 (among others). And yet...no answer.

I realize, that not all of you reading this are Catholic. I understand that, I respect your right to hold your beliefs, and even though I disagree with you, I am not writing this to make you feel as if I hate you, etc. Or that I lump "every" person who isn't Catholic into a big ball of "irrational screaming protestant". That'd be nonsense (considering I'm the only Catholic in my family of origin, it'd be kind of hard for me to hate everyone in my own family, lol). Some people out there hold the view that if you don't agree with them, you are mean, and hateful, and are 'unChristian'...I know, I know...but you and I both know folks like that.

It has been a long, and tiring few days. I missed "De-lurker Day" yesterday. Don't think I have any lurkers here (do I? Hmmmmmm....lol--if I do, would you please say hi? No further comment necessary, but it'd be a nice boost to know that more than the 9 people in my followers list actually read this, lol)...we started back to school, too, and I'm trying to gear up to take down the Christmas decorations, haul the children an hour away so that we can do our speech therapy (#2 and 3 are already doing therapy, #4 &5 are being evaluated this week)...etc, etc. And we had company Monday evening. We're expecting to get slammed with some Arctic winds later today, and that will last for a few days (for those in the Great White North, bear with me. Highs of 15, with windchills under 0, is cold). The well pump is wanting to freeze up, I'm hauling 5 gallon buckets of warmed water for the animals, on top of the usual day-to-day "keeping chaos at bay, one moment at a time" type stuff..

I do hope you are all doing well. If you blog, and I have you on my blog roll, I'll be over there shortly to read what you've written in the past few days (you *have* written in the past few days, haven't you? ;-) ). If you don't blog, wrap up. Stay warm (unless you are Therese, in which case, prop your feet up, get a big glass of iced RRL tea, and sit back under a ceiling fan!).