It sucks

Okay. That title isn’t nice but I’m so tired. I have been up all night with a sick kiddoe and my brain is fried. So why try to write now? Because even with no sleep, I am more creative in the morning than I ever am at night. I tried to do my posts after I got Phoebe into bed but I mostly just sit there, staring blankly at the computer and looking for some pearl of wisdom to pass on. So I am going back first thing in the morning.

I actually have something to share. I went to the market yesterday. I was really pleased because it seems I am finally on track to shopping in what  I think is the most efficient way possible. I want to shop only to refill my pantry and take advantage of not-to-be missed sales. I came home with 4 gallons of apple juice, 12 boxes of brownie mix, 2 boxes of freezer bags, aluminum foil, canned pumpkin, and a number of other items ( 5 bags worth and I carried the juice in separately) for around $50.00. The total was actually $100.00 but with the coupons and in-store rewards, 50% was saved and I received another $15.00 in coupons for my next trip. The best bargains were the brownie mixes at $1.00 each, free toilet paper, recycled aluminum foil, free with a rebate card, a cloth shopping bag, free with a coupon, the apple juice, $2.50 a gallon and 10 pounds of rice that was on sale and I had a $.55 coupon for that I tripled with another coupon. At our small store, I picked up organic bananas for that were going brown for $.49 a pound. Altogether a good buying trip.

The worst way to shop is often because one is tempted by the goodies one sees on every trip. I am planning to do my big shop on Tuesdays because I have to go into town on that day anyway. I pick up my grandson for the day, saving his parents the drive and then hit the two markets in town. If I stick with the loss leaders in each store and check my coupons carefully, I should be able to keep my weekly spend to less than $50.00. I do need to watch for some things. I nearly bought sugar because I had a coupon but after doing the math I found that it was still more expensive than buying from BJ’s where I go once a month for some of my bulk purchases. I also found that with coupon use bigger is not necessarily better. If I get the smallest size, with a triple coupon the item is often free.

What I find amazing about these numbers is that I don’t purchase much real food with the dollars spent. I have not bought a vegetable since June and darn little fruit. I purchased some meat until recently but now that the freezer is up and running I will not need to do that again. I will get all of meat from local sources and get it in bulk. I buy most of my grains in bulk from the co-op. So the only actual food I will get is some cheese (until I learn to make cheddar) juice as I don’t can enough for the year by a long shot and the dairy that I don’t make at home like sour cream and butter. When we calculate our food bill, we are generally counting things like laundry soap and deodorant. I really don’t know how these unemployed families with no pantries to fall back on and no gardens are going to make it. The burden on food pantries and food stamps must be horrific. It also points to just how much food a family consumes. It is a lot more than most think.

So today I need to get Phoebe to the doctor and then return and get out the food saver and quart jars. I will repack the brownie mix for long term storage. If I store it in a dark closet with all of the air sucked out, it will have a very long shelf life. I may even take Karen with me when I take Phoebe in a have her run back into the store and get another 12 boxes. It is not a food I would use every day but it sure is handy to have it when one of the kids needs something fast to bring to a school event. It is also something I can cook in my solar oven or in my stove top emergency oven. I want to try a batch in a cast iron dutch oven ans see if that works.

So now I’m inspired. I think that, as I will be spending a good deal of the day entertaining a sick 6 year old, I will update my preparedness notebook. I keep pages for what I buy, how much I have on hand, what I need and the usual price. I should check over those prices and see where are they are. I love this kind of project. It helps me feed my tiny OCD monster.

 

stages of grief

It is not a good news day. Between the auto industry and AIG the markets are getting hammered. I had a notion of writing a piece about small pieces of good news like my tomatoes popping up in their little greenhouses and the taste of a just pulled carrot but I just can’t pull it off. These are real people losing jobs and homes and dreams. The feds are going to send in disaster recovery teams to communities that will be decimated by the restructuring of the auto industry but, in spite of their best intentions, you can’t create any job without the demand for that product or service and people who are out of work don’t demand more than the bare essentials.

Most of us are familiar with Kubler/Ross’s work on the stages of grief. Essentially, we all go through a similar series of emotions when we have a major life loss. First there is denial followed by bargaining, then depression, then anger and finally acceptance. I hope that, as a country, we get through these stages very quickly and move on to acceptance. We need to accept that a life of credit funded consumption is over. The feds can make all the promises they like, but ultimately, we are going to have to take care of ourselves. That means prioritizing your needs.

You need shelter. You don’t need fancy shelter. You need a roof over your head, even if you have to share it with family or friends. The best shelter will have space to grow some food and be something you can keep warm. It will be in a place where you have the support of people who care about you.

You need food. When things are desperate, you need to treat the acquisition of food like a job. You will probably need to use multiple food sources rather than simply heading off to the grocery store. That may mean buying clubs, co-ops, farmer’s markets, the woods behind your house and the planter on your deck.

You need to be warm enough. Fleece jackets and wool socks, closing off rooms that don’t absolutely need to be heated, getting used to sleeping under quilts in cold bedrooms could  all be necessary.

You need a reason to get up in the morning, a sense of purpose. Even if you don’t have a job to go to, get up and make a plan. Set up a neighborhood pot luck to discuss how you can work together to grow some food or work with your children. Start a scout troop of set up a 4-H program. It will take some doing to wean your kids from video games and structured programs and teach them to have fun and learn something without spending money.

Take care of you health. Take care of you marriage. Take care of your neighborhood. Take care of yourself.

 

CERT team

After this winter’s ice storm, my community decided to meet to form a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). This a team of community members trained by FEMA to respond to emergencies until state and federal teams arrive. After reviewing the procedures and demands required to become certified, we decided to forgo the acronym and design our own team with our own strengths and needs in mind.

Decisions like this give me hope for the future. We are so used to giving up our power for the mantle of protection offered by some governmental agency or other. Fearful people can  behave like children, looking for the direction and aproval of an adult before making a move. The problem with behaving like a child is that one is then invariably treated like a child. I know of too many cases of hearing those infamous words, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”, and all of the sudden someone is telling you where to go and when to go there. There is some help I would rather do without.

Our little commitee designed a short survey so we will know who lives where and is likely to need help in a crisis. We will know who is elderly or alone or disabled. We have a couple of people in town who rely on grid powered equipment for medical reasons and we have put a plan in place to deliver generators to those folks. We also set up a community shelter plan along with a plan to check on people who might need transportation. We made a water plan and a food and cooking plan, a sanitation plan and a communication plan. No one who doesn’t want to participate would be required to. You’d be surprised how quickly this plan was put together when we didn’t have imposed standards and rule to abide by.

The past decade has brought many folks to the realization that the government may not always have our best interests at heart. It may not always know what’s best for any one group of people and it certainly does not have all the answers. Heck-it doesn’t even have the right questions. Every time you have the chance to look out for yourself and the people you love, grab it. Every time you can learn something, grow something, rise to a challenge, face a fear, do-it-yourself or take a stand, it behooves you to see it as a gift and an opportunity. Read some history. Remember our roots.

 

Sunday thoughts

We have a lovely day planned. We are going out to breakfast with some of Bruce’s family. Karen is waiting tables for the first time and we want to give her some moral support. Then we are heading off to church. My son is singing a solo and we can’t wait to hear him. He sings a lot locally but we don’t often get to go. Then Nate, his wife and little boy, another son and his two kids are all coming by for lunch. I want to talk to them about a couple of preparedness things.

One thing we will discuss is who gets what kid from where in a crisis. We babysit for my grandson 2 days a week while my daughter goes to school next door to the place my son works. In a disaster, I want to make sure that my daughter gets picked up and that the kids come here first and worry about feeling silly later.

Families need to have plans for this kind of thing. Most of us don’t want to spoil a beautiful day with talk about emergencies but if not now, when?

 

communications

I have been thinking a lot about the importance of communications during any crisis. When our power was out in our small town for 10 days this past winter, checking in on neighbors was made more difficult because so many people only had portable, plug in phones that do not work without electricity. Our cell service is spotty at best and, of course, once the batteries died, the phones quit working anyway. I have a cheap wall phone next to my bed that works as long as the phone wires are up. A lot of people also lost their list of phone numbers as that is stored in their phone memory. They couldn’t call family members who had only cell  phones because there was no way to access the number. It’s crazy just how dependent we are on that pesky electrical grid.

Take an evening and update your address book with essential phone numbers and addresses. Get yourself a phone that will work without electricity. If you have a cell phone, make sure you have a hand crank charger. I have one attached to my emergency radio.

I was think about getting a set of walkie talkies that would allow conversation between us and a few neighbors but we live in a very hilly area and I guess they only work  in line of sight. My next thought is CB radios. It may seem like overkill but I really don’t think so. Our power grid is so fragile that I can see sporadic blackouts becoming more common. The ability to reach neighbors could be lifesaving.

I am the editor of a small (small as in 80, 4 page papers a month) newspaper. The phones may stop working, but The Messenger will go on. The Messenger will tell you who was born, who died, and who got married. We run a couple of adds for local businesses, a town calendar and news from the school, library, town boards and sustainability group. You can sell home made quilts or look to buy some laying hens. You can advertise your tag sale. We also let folks know the wildlife news like when the bluebirds show up and who got an early frost. The cost is ten dollars a year if you can afford it but lots of people send in more so anybody who wants a Messenger can get one.

I can see these small town papers making a comeback. As the world gets more complicated and we become increasingly disconnected, there is a place for celebrating the Harper’s new baby and mourning the death of old Mr.Willis. There are a lot of days when the fate of the Creamery, our local grocery store, matters a while lot more to me than the fate of CitiBank.

 

food security

One of the more enduring pictures of the depression is that of bread lines. I fear that we are beginning to see a different incantation of modern day bread lines. Food stamps applications have soared and what are food stamps but invisible soup kitchens and bread lines. Private donors are handing out food in places like Elkhart where unemployment has reached 20%. My husband volunteers at our food pantry where donations are down but usage is up. The demand for subsidized lunches and breakfast at my daughter’s high school has surged to the point that they can no longer afford to offer a hot breakfast and have switched to a selection of cold, presweetened cereals and milk.

We all need to think about food security, not in the abstract, isn’t it awful what is happening in other places and to other people, but in the sense of personal security. What will you do if food becomes too expensive for your budget?

I looked over several years of checkbook ledgers last night, pulling out what I spent for food. The numbers are difficult to figure as, at times, I have had a houseful of teenage boys to feed and other times when it has been just me, Bruce and the three girls. Still. I think I have a pretty good idea of where my food money has gone and why we seem to be eating a lot better for a lot less money today.

I rarely go grocery shopping any more and I almost never shop for the ingredients for a meal.  Rather, I shop to restock my pantry. One week, I will put in a co-op order for dried fruit and nuts and maybe a fifty pound sack of grain. Another week, I might buy a bulk order of chicken. I take a trip to a big box store 6 times a year and get things like sugar and case lots of the fruits that I can’t get locally. I hit a buy one get two free sale to restock my juice supply. If I didn’t get to the market for a month, I might have to pick up local milk or cheese and maybe a bit of fresh produce at the the general store here in town but I could manage quite well  even if I couldn’t get there as I have a large supply of dried milk and all the supplies for making cheese. My goal is to use at least 2 jars of something I preserved last summer every day. Last night, we ate a ham and scalloped potato casserole. The potatoes and onions were from our garden and the ham was local. The milk was local and the salt from storage. We also had canned applesauce (ours) and bread and butter pickles (ours). I made canned green beans which no one likes but they ate them because they could smell the rhubarb/blueberry crisp in the oven.

Not everyone has the space to grow as much as we do but I think we shortchange our ability to grow something. There is a terrific web site called path to freedom you should check out if you think you can’t grow food in you back yard.

Put out the word that you are interested in growing and foraging more food. I got 50 pounds of peaches last year from a woman who was swamped with them just through word of mouth. We are still eating those peaches and will have them until the new crop comes in. If the crop fails, I have cases of canned peaches in storage to hold me over until the next harvest.

Food has been rationed by price for many years. If you had money, you could afford fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and good bread. Poor people ate peanut butter, white pasta, and kool-aid. I see food rationing by price as something that will get a lot worse. Prepare for that time by figuring how and where to grow food. Learn how to preserve it and cook it. Plan to enjoy it during the lean times that are already here.

 

cooking when the power is out

This past winter, the power was out in my town for 10 days. That is very long time if you aren’t ready for it. If you have a gas stove that work without electricity, you can cook very acceptable meals on your range top, as long as the propane holds out. I have several alternative cooking methods at my fingertips. The are pros and cons to each.

Solar oven

I have a very good solar oven. In the summer, I use it a lot. The temperature gets up to 350 degrees on a sunny day. Keeping the oven oriented to the sun and out of the wind helps a lot in keeping the temp up. Mine has an electric back up in case the sun goes in. I can’t cook anything too tall this way as the oven body is not high. It is best for things like stews and casseroles that need long cooking. Plan on 50% more time than in a conventional oven.

sterno stoves

I have 3 of these little one burner, fold flat stoves.  I keep one in each vehicle. They are cheap, and actually put out quite abit of heat. It works quite well for boiling water and heating soup. I wouldn’t try use it for anything else. The biggest benefit is for the apartment dweller with very little space or someone with very little money.

propane camp stove

These are the 2  burner stoves that a lot of keep with our camping supplies. We cooked on this while our power was out. I was surprised at how efficient it was. Again, one can be had for very little money and the propane canisters are also inexpensive. I store about 25 fuel cylinders.

gas grill

I guess if you have no other option you can cook on your grill but you have to heat the whole thing, even if you only want a kettle of hot water for tea. Not very effiicient. You also have to cook outside which isn’t much fun in a blizzard.

hibachi

Same as above but uses charcoal instead of propane. I have one, just in case, and I store a couple of bags of charcoal, along with lighter fluid and matches.

Obviously, if you have a wood stove, you will cook on that. Bruce got me a stove top oven for Christmas. You set it on a range top or on top of the wood stave and You have and instant oven. It is not large but you can cook up muffins or meat loaf. i tried out a couple of home made stoves from cans. They use paraffin for fuel. They were smelly and smokey and not at all efficient but you might want to make one with your kids. I like to know how to do things which explains why we spent a couple of hours making a pizza box solar oven with the kids, then another larger solar oven out of some big boxes. I worked pretty well considering it was made from junk we had lying around the house.

The point here is that you never know when you might be without power. Sharon Astyk did a very good post today about all of the scenarios that might leave us in the dark. All are possible and some, quite likely.

 

slush bound

Sometimes a slush bound day is good thing. I was supposed to go out this morning but the weather will keep me in. This works because I am finishing Mike Folkerth’s book, The Biggest Lie Ever Told. I keep up with economic news but there are often pieces that don’t make sense to me. Mike’s book is not your typical doomer read. It is funny, informative and makes sense to someone without an MBA. I don’t recommend a lot of books but this one will find it’s way to my kids, just as Sharon Astyk’s book, Depletion and Abundance did. Add my book and you have a good starter library to life in this new world.

After that shameless plug, I want to talk about grains and legumes. I store a lot of both as they are cheap, readily available, will store nearly forever and provide a huge nutritional bang for the buck. The trouble for me was making them tasty enough to appeal to my family. Last night I made an investment in a cooking class that walked me through the finer points of preparing meals from what seem like pretty pedestrian ingredients. Even my husband, the meat man, liked the bean burgers I brought home and the kids fought over the dal (a kind of stewed lentil dish served with rice).

I know too many people who store food they won’t eat, thinking that in a crisis, they will figure it out. Guess again. Kids will go hungry before they eat something they hate. It pays to spend the money on some good cookbooks and spend time preparing meals from stored foods. We eat from storage several days each week. My new goal is a rice and beans in some incatation twice a week. I also want to cook with some grains I have never eaten before. Last night I ate rye and quinoa, new foods for me. With the right seasonings, they were terrific.

We are a spoiled bunch when it comes to food. Walk into a supermarket and the sheer volume overwhelms the senses. We can have strawberries in January and winter squash in July. Meat is affordable to most Americans at least some of the time. It is easy to forget that most people in the world eat less than we do and have a far more limited variety available to them. I can see a future where the lowly bean plays a much bigger role in the family meal plan. It behooves us to figure this out sooner rather than later. We will be healthier, save money and tread more lightly on the planet.

Back to the book and the cleaning. I do love getting things accomplished after laying around for nearly three weeks.

 

inventory continued

I just finished organizing my baking supply cabinet. I composted an awful lot of outdated spices. I think, in the future, I will buy smaller amounts from the health food store of those spice I seldom use. One can get into a bulk buying frenzy and it isn’t always best. I grow and dry most of my herbs and those have held up well. I can have trouble with ants because of the honey and molasses I keep. After washing the cabinets and replacing the shelf paper, I sprinkled some Cayenne pepper around the edges. Ants hate it. I had a bumper crop of hot peppers last year. I whizzed them in my spiced grinder and used that.

I am getting ready to tackle my pots and pans. I have a few Teflon coated pans left. I am tossing them. I do not feel good about using anything that flakes for my food. If my food is excellent, it deserves the best for cooking. I am slowly replacing my old pans with better quality cookwear. Tools of all kinds are investments. I am willing to have have fewer to have better. In fact, I look forward to fewer. This is the essence of preparedness and sustainability. I have been through 10 sets of pots and pans in 35 years of marriage. If I had gotten better stuff to beging with, I would have been using the same ones now. Less in the landfill and less overall money. I plan to buy stuff that can be handed down to my kids. One of my favorite pans is my mother’s old cast iron skillet. It is my go-to pan for biscuits and popovers.

 

spring cleaning and mistakes made

I know spring has sprung when I get the urge to clean. Not clean as in sweep the floors and pick up the living room but clean as in turn out all the closets, wash the curtains and scrub the cabinets, inside and out. I started in the cellar, removing all of the remaining food I put up last year and deciding what I had enough of, where I was short and what I overdid. I can see I was about spot on with tomato sauce, short on pickles and way over on jams and jellies.

I do it every year. I love to make jelly and jam and I raise a lot of fruit and berries. The problem is that we don’t eat as much as we could. I do give a lot away as gifts but I still have 15 jars hanging around. I put up 50 pounds of peaches last year. When I was done, I had a huge pile of peach skins left. As usual, my skin-flinty self could not just compost the leavings. I had to reboil them, strain out the juice and turn it into peach jelly. Unfortunately, the darn stuff had almost no flavor. Someone would open a jar, realize it was bland, then leave it to grow mold. Why eat it when we have jars of fabulous blueberry and raspberry jam? I still have 5 jars that I know no one will eat. I suppose I will send it too the neighbor’s pigs.

I found a couple of jars of canned carrots and green beans. We really don’t care for canned vegetables unless in casseroles. As I also found a couple of jars of canned beef chunks I put up last fall. That means stew for dinner tonight. I think I will make a double batch of biscuits too. Then I can serve some with jam for breakfast tomorrow. I only have one more jar of bread and butter pickles. I think I will save those to perk up a dinner of leftovers one night.

Every year I fill the cellar pantry with the best of intentions for keeping up-to-date with the inventory but real life gets in the way. I always have 50 1/2 gallon bottles of juice, more or less, downstairs. I just checked and I only have 6 1/2 gallons. I will hit the market in the morning and restock.

I did find 12 jars of applesauce that I had put in the wrong spot. What a treasure! We eat a lot of applesauce. I sure wish I would find more dried apples, canned blueberries, rhubarb and dill pickles. Ah well. Summer is coming. Right now, I am off to empty the kitchen cabinets.