Reality

I think it is safe to say that most of those who read and comment here are not kids.  I don't blog about fashion trends or make-up tips.  I may have a tube of lipstick somewhere in my apartment, but it would take me some time to find it.  Instead I write about the world around us, about my grands once in a while, but mostly about the importance of being prepared.

I read many blogs.  I have the greatest admiration for those who homestead, raising their own food, preserving their own food, cooking from scratch and who are much more self sufficient than I will ever be.

There was a time when I did many of those same things.  I was 30 or 40 years old and under the assumption as are many of that age, that I would likely live forever.  I now know better.

If you are one of those 75 year olds who still run marathons or climb mountains, good for you.  And I mean that sincerely.

If you are one of those who have become spoiled by the abundance of America and lazy by thinking nothing bad will ever happen and if it does, the government will rush in to take care of you, shame on you.

But if you are one of us who has found the need to slow down due to age or infirmity or both, this post is for you.  We have spent our lives working hard, raising our families, paying our bills and expecting nothing to be just handed to us.  We have done everything we know how to do to keep our families safe and secure and fed in troubled times. 

And now we find ourselves unable to do many of the things we once did.  I occasionally like to think I am still Wonder Woman who can do it all.  The reality is that I am a 73 year old granny with health issues. 

This reality has been brought home to me this week.  I have always bought fruit by the crate to home can.  I spent time checking all the grocery stores and markets in my area to see if they sold fruit by the crate.  Apparently city folks don't home can any more, for I found none. 

But what really surprised me was that I was relieved.  Reality time.

I still can vegetables and meat.  Those require not much effort on my part.  But to can peaches, for instance, I need to stand at the stove and blanch the fruit to loosen the skins, then stand at the sink to peel the peaches and remove the pits, then stand at the stove again to cook the syrup used in canning them.  That's way more standing than my body will allow.

I will be buying canned fruit for my food storage.  I know the taste won't be as good as home canned and I realize there are issues with added preservatives and such in commercially canned fruit.  But do I want my family to do without fruit just because I am unable to home can it now?  No.

Sometimes we who have done for ourselves for a lifetime without asking for help, feel a twinge of guilt when we find we have limitations.  I am here to tell you that it is OK to use and to stock up on products that are available to us now that can make life just a bit easier for us.  The reality is that for me, when I am in one of my Wonder Woman modes and overdo my capabilities, I spend a day or two being completely useless in recovering.  Sometimes the pain is worth it, but most times it is not.

It is OK to use a cake mix instead of baking a cake from scratch.  It is OK to keep a stash of frozen meals for those days when we hobble instead of walk.  It is OK to let the crockpot or microwave do the cooking now and then.   And it is OK to open a can of peaches when we can no longer can them ourselves.

The thing is, I may not wake up tomorrow morning.  Or I may follow in the footsteps of my Dad and live to age 93.  Only God knows which it will be.  But as long as I wake up here on earth each morning I will continue to do what I can and I will continue to encourage others to do what they can.  If we are unable to do things the way we would like, then we have the imagination and ability to find other means to an end. 

Never give up.  Learn to adapt.  We are all in this together. 

Nuttin'

I've got nothing.  It is hot.  It is humid.  The air conditioning is working - not so much.  Read the folks over in the side bar.  I'll be back when my brain starts working again.  :)

Mow the Lawn

A couple of weeks ago I watched a documentary where a Holocaust survivor went with a group of high school Seniors on a tour of Auschwitz.   The children were respectful and listened attentively to the survivor's descriptions of what life was like for him as a prisoner there, obviously moved by what he said.

At one point the group was walking across a grassy area and one young man pointed at the luxurious lawn and asked who had mowed the lawn at that time.

The survivor replied, "Mow the grass?  Nobody mowed the grass.  If we were lucky enough to find a blade of grass, we ate it."

Keep on prepping.

Another Milestone

I got a phone call the other day.  It seems that my youngest granddaughter had passed the test for her driving permit.  My son had posted this picture on Facebook.

"Way to go, Maddie Mae!  She passed her permit test today and is already asking for the keys."

David, Maddie Mae and grandson Jacob were in the car on their way to Jacob's Little League ballgame right after she took the test.  They had waited in line for 2 1/2 hours!  David said he wasn't sure it was worth the wait.  Maddie declared it was well worth it.

I asked Maddie if she was behind the wheel.  In the background I heard her Dad say, "I'm not ready to turn her loose on the freeway just yet!"  He should be conditioned to it - he now has two daughters of driving age.  :)

My brother saw the picture and left a comment:  "Congratulations, Maddie Mae!  (I am keeping you in my prayers, Davey.)"

Congratulations, Maddie Mae.  You said you weren't sure you could pass the test, but I knew you would.  And if your Dad won't let you drive once in a while, you just give me a call.  I have ways of getting my son to listen to reason.

Love, Grandma

Do You Remember...

Do you remember a time when you could ride your bike all over town and leave it on the grass while you played catch with a friend or prop it up against the outside wall of the drug store while you went in for an Eskimo Pie and you didn't have to lock up the bike because you knew nobody would steal it?

Do you remember conversations where you voiced your opinion and your friend voiced his opinion and you could agree to disagree and nobody was called a racist or a Nazi?

Do you remember Sunday mornings in church where the minister didn't care about your 'feelings' or about being politically correct but actually preached from the Word of God and let you know in no uncertain terms that if you didn't repent of your sinful ways that you would spend eternity in the fiery depths of Hell?

Do you remember a time when right was actually right and wrong was wrong and the difference was clearly spelled out by our parents and was clearly spelled out in the Bible and if we chose wrong over right, there were consequences?

Do you remember a time when the worst name a person could be called was 'Liar' and the person who lied to you was never again trusted and a person was respected whose word was his bond?

Do you remember a time when people could look at a monument in the shape of a cross or at a Christmas Nativity scene or at a Civil War statue or at the name of one of our founding fathers on a building and not be so offended and so vocal about it that these things had to be removed?

And do you remember when families gathered to celebrate a holiday or Grandma's birthday or Junior's graduation and everybody got along and nobody checked their cell phones every 5 minutes and when there were disagreements, we kept quiet out of respect for the holiday and out of love and respect for Grandma and out of a desire not to ruin Junior's party?

And do you remember a time when you had more rights than someone who broke the law by sneaking across our borders and when those laws were enforced and when we weren't expected to pay for all the services for those law breakers?

And do you especially remember when men were expected to be the head of the household and earned a living to provide for their families and weren't considered 'toxic' and when women weren't shamed and disrespected for raising their children and being the heart of the home and when children said 'Yes, Ma'am' and 'No, Sir' and got their mouths washed out with soap when they dared use a vulgar word within the hearing of their parents?

Not everything in times past was sunshine and unicorns.  But I just don't remember those times as being so mean and nasty and scary as they are now.  I don't remember having  to double check to make sure my door is locked all the time.  I don't remember being afraid to walk outside after dark.  And I don't remember living with the knowledge that we are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, headed into truly dark times. 

I know I can't go back and live in the past and I know that I can not change the horrible realities of today where those who wish to be in power believe killing babies is OK and where killing police officers has become a sport and where the Antifas of the country are tolerated rather than jailed.

I can only hope that when the time comes, enough folks will remember what life was once like here in our beautiful country and will find the courage to do whatever can be done to find those times again.

And because I am also a realist - keep on prepping.

A Granny on a Mission

Every morning the first thing I do is swallow a handful of pills.  Every night at bedtime I swallow a couple more.

How am I going to deal with the medical issues these pills address when I can no longer just go to the drugstore and buy them.

Lately I have been spending some time online researching alternative herbal remedies.  I am finding that many require exotic herbs or plants that do not grow in our climate.  No problem...I can just order ...... no, wait.  If there are no prescription medicines available, if the lights are out, if the Internet has gone away.....what then?

I live in a small, downtown apartment.  There is no space for a garden to grow my own herbs .  So my focus has changed to learning all I can about herbal remedies that can be made from either herbs that can be grown in pots on a window sill or foods that are readily available now that can be dehydrated and stored for future use. 

Blueberries are good for many ailments.  If I can lots of blueberries or dehydrate them to be ground into a powder, will they retain their usefulness?  Strawberries and their leaves have properties beneficial to good health.  If dried, do they retain their benefits?  What vegetables can be dried and powdered for use in medicinal teas or salves or in other ways to treat medical issues.

The answer is...I don't know.  But I am on a mission to find out.  My prepping focus has been on food and water.  Still is.  But having shelves full of stored food will do me no good at all if I die from a condition I can no longer treat with prescription meds. 

And I have way more living to do to allow that to happen if I can prevent it.

I got to thinking...

the other day.  What if we were in a situation where we were living off just our food storage.  And what if the electricity had gone away so the freezer wasn't freezing any more.  That would mean there was no frozen meat left.  All of my hamburger in jars is browned and canned - not in patty form.  Just what would I give after a while for a hamburger patty or a cheeseburger on a bun.  I have seen videos about canning hamburger and sausage patties.  I think I need to give that a try.  I will order some hamburger in two weeks and see what happens.

I have four family sized packages of chicken legs ordered for delivery tomorrow.  Usually when I can chicken legs or thighs, I raw pack them in wide mouth jars and can them without liquid.  That works well except when the meat doesn't make enough of its own juices and the parts that are not covered in liquid turn really dark in color.  They aren't bad or spoiled - just ugly.  This time I think I will lightly brown the legs first and then pack them in jars, adding a chicken bouillon cube to each jar and then hot water.  I think that will solve the problem of ugly chicken legs and add flavor at the same time.

Sometimes we need to think a little bit outside the box.  For instance, among preppers we always hear about storing rice and dry beans.  That is a good thing to do, but what happens when we want beans for a meal and water is at a premium and so is cooking fuel.  Even with soaking beans overnight, it takes considerable time to cook them.  I have been running a load of various kinds of beans through my pressure canner now and then, or if I don't have a full canner load of meat, I will add jars of beans to make a full load, as the canning times are similar.  Then when I want beans for a meal, there they are on the shelf, fully cooked and just need to be added to soup or heated for a meal.   So far I have navy beans, great northern beans, kidney beans and some of those 15 bean soup mixes canned and on the shelf.   I need to can up other varieties. 

If I could figure out a way to successfully can rice, I would do it.  But so far it hasn't worked for me.  Rice added to chicken soup all but disappeared during the canning process.

 I have done some experimenting with canning various kinds of meat.  Ground beef for Sloppy Joe's didn't turn out well.  The taste changed in the process and the change wasn't good.  It had sort of a scorched flavor. The taste convinced me not to do that again.  Taco meat, however, was a success as was barbecued pork for sandwiches.  Although I usually can ingredients rather than the finished dish, once in a while it is nice to be able to open a jar, heat it up and have a meal.

 I think that in an SHTF situation, variety in food will be welcome.  I know that if all I had to eat was beans and rice, I would soon be much more grumpy than I am now.  :)