Interesting Week

Today started out at -2 degrees F.  Tomorrow will be warmer with 4 - 8 inches of snow, depending on which weather report you listen to.  Thursday is to be sunny, Friday cloudy and then it gets interesting.  Rain and snow is predicted for Saturday with more snow on Sunday. 

If things go true to form, the grocery stores will be jam-packed with panicked shoppers stocking up on bread, milk and whatever else they think they need to survive the weekend.  I just don't understand why folks would rather fight the crowds in stores than get ready ahead of time.

For example - I will run out of milk today.  I usually have two gallons delivered every other week.  It is my own fault I ordered only one gallon this time.  My bad.  But I have lots of instant powdered milk on hand.  So this evening I will make up three quarts of milk and put it in the fridge to chill.  I am not fond of drinking powdered milk, but chilled with a few drops of vanilla added to each quart, it is palatable.  And I will have milk to cook with or bake with.

By tomorrow evening I will be out of bread.  So tomorrow morning I will bake a couple of loaves, some hamburger buns and a pan of cinnamon rolls.  (And yes, Duane, you can fill up a plate of rolls to take home with you!) I have all the ingredients stocked.  I will cheat and use my bread machine, but should the ice storm headed our way knock out the electricity, I have the knowledge to bake bread the old fashioned way, stirring and kneading by hand.  I wonder how many of the younger generation have bothered to learn this skill.  Or of my generation, for that matter.

Suppose for one storm related reason or another, I can not use my kitchen stove or oven.  I have a propane camp stove that will work to heat all sorts of food.  And most importantly, heat water for coffee!!  My shelves are filled with jars of home canned meats, potatoes, vegetables, fruits and soups.  And some pickles and relishes and jam for variety.  Even if I can't cook, the food is fully cooked from the canning process and can be eaten straight from the jar, if necessary.

This is NOT a post to say that I am better than you because I prep and you don't.  Not at all.  It is merely a reminder that life can be easier and more safe if a person plans ahead.  I learned from my parents who learned from their parents.  My grandparents had no weather forecasts other than the signs of nature.  They couldn't just run to the corner store because the corner store was miles away and required first hitching a team of horses to a wagon and later, travelling in a Model T type of car over roads that were bumpy and rutted in the best of weather and impassable in the worst.  So they stored supplies.  They canned vegetables from their garden.  They butchered their meat and salted it down or cured it or canned it.  And they saw to it that their family of nine children was fed no matter the weather.

Grandma and Grandpa weren't preppers, especially those with all the gear and bug-out bags and the like.  They were ordinary people who knew how to survive.  We could do well to learn from them.