Looking Back

 Most people, at the beginning of a new year, look forward to whatever it brings.  I find myself looking back.

Some time ago, someone close to me had a look at the room in my apartment where much of my food storage is located.  Their reaction to the shelves and boxes full of food was to ask why.  Clearly they were under the assumption that nothing will ever change, that the stores will always be completely stocked and nothing bad will ever happen - at least not in their back yard.

Generations younger than mine do not seem to realize that for us, being prepared is not just some trendy thing to do.  It is a lifestyle.

Looking back, I remember the huge garden my Dad planted every year.  And how summer and fall we canned and froze as much food as possible to get our family through the long, cold Minnesota winters.  Dad didn't farm, but he did rent out our 9 acre field to the neighbor to grow corn or soy beans in exchange for beef.  That same neighbor milked cows, so we got our milk from him, and our eggs from another neighbor who raised chickens.

My grandparents raised milk cows and hogs and chickens for meat to feed their family of nine children.  Dad told me about loading a wood burning stove onto a hay wagon, along with boxes of canning jars.  The family would go to the blueberry bogs of northern Minnesota, where they would camp.  The kids would pick blueberries and Grandma would fire up the stove and can blueberries until all the jars were full. 

In addition to canning vegetables from their huge garden, Grandma made butter from the cream separated from the milk, and traded the butter in town for flour and sugar.  They dug a root cellar in the side of a hill near the house for keeping potatoes, carrots, cabbage and rutabagas over winter.  

Families then did not depend on anyone to take care of them.  My Dad consdered it shameful to accept any kind of government help.  They did as much as was humanly possible to take care of their families.

All of this was common to families older than my generation.  They were preppers but didn't know it.  Neither did I until I saw some websites about preparedness.  This is just what we did to feed or families.

Even if we can no longer raise vegetables or meat animals, we can still be prepared.  If you think some government agency is going to bring you a ham sandwich and a bottle of water, you are sadly mistaken.  Nobody is coming to help.  We need to be as self sufficient as possible.  Look to the old ways.  Those people survived without all the gadgets.

Most importantly, continue to pray.

There comes a time...

 when perhaps it is a good idea to put everything on hold and spend time with loved ones or just doing other things.  That's where I am.  So I will be here resting, reading, sewing or whatever I decide to do until after the new year.  

Here in the Great White North, everything is frozen solid.  The temp this evening is minus 8 degrees.  Snow and wind are headed our way.  

We don't need to prepare for the end of the world.  Preparing for cold and snow and wind is just important.  While others are lining up in the grocery stores, stocking up on whatever they need to get through the storm, I will be sitting on my cozy apartment with a cup of hot chocolate, watching the storm from the comfort of my recliner.  Your neck of the woods may have different weather related difficulties, but being well prepared is the same no matter where we are.

Stay safe.  Enjoy the holidays as much as possible.  Wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a better New Year.

Just Checking In...

 There hasn't been much activity here in the Great White North lately.  I haven't been canning or dehydrating, but am more concentrating on basics like rice and pasta and sugar.  My groceries are delivered Thursday afternoon and there will be things to repackage and put away.  I repackage in Ziploc bags anything that comes packaged in cardboard or thick paper, like sugar bags.  I haven't had a problem with bugs here, but past experience tells me bugs like paper or cardboard - plastic, not so much.

I am nearly finished writing out the old family recipes and some of the stories associated with them, for my kids.  I still need to dive into my recipe box and find Mother's recipes for apple pie and peach pie.  

Each summer Mother would make at least a dozen apple pies using apples from our very small orchard.  Dad would bring home lugs of peaches from the grocery store and she would make about the same number of peach pies using part of the peaches and would can the rest.  She stored the raw pies in the freezer, stacking them one on top of the other, forming towers of pies.  We would bake them, one at a time, throughout the winter months.  When her hands became too crippled from arthritis to be able to continue this practice, she turned that task over to me.  To this day I love apple and peach pies.  Making them - not so much.  :) 

Here in Minnesota, for the last day or so, we have had rain, sleet, snow - rinse and repeat.  It is in times like these that I am more than happy I do not need to go outside.  That will be especially true come the weekend when temps here are supposed to drop to single digits.  Times like this I envy my friend in California who is picking oranges and grapefruit from the trees.  :)

That's all I've got for now.  Stay safe and warm. 

The Holidays for Old Folks

 This time of year can be a bit stressful for those of us with large families and limited income.  We worry about Christmas gifts for our kids and grands, without wrecking our budgets.  Here is how I solve that problem.

I have six grands, one grand-in-law and two great grands.  Because I don't know what gift would make each one happy, they get cash.  Teens in particular seem to like having extra spending money.  The little ones have something for the piggy bank that will eventually add up to a fair amount for them when they are older.  In order not to break the bank, I save a little here and a little there all year so I have enough set aside by December.

One year everyone got jars of my hot chocolate mix along with bags of homemade caramel corn.  But this year because health issues prevent me from doing large projects, my kids are getting hand written recipe cards that contain recipies from their grandmothers and a couple of aunts, all of whom are no longer with us.  There are stories connected to some of the recipies and I am including those, too.

Whenever there was a family gathering, my mother would make a cold shrimp salad.  At one of those gatherings I was fixing a plate for her and I asked if she wanted some shrimp salad.  She wrinkled her nose and said "Absolutely not.  I can't stand the stuff."  When I asked why she made it, she replied that it looked pretty in the bowl!  And that was Mother.  She loved 'pretty.'

Included is Dad's recipe for peanut brittle that he made every Christmas season.  His children called it "Dad's World Famous Peanut Brittle."  He almost always cooked it a bit too long so it had a slightly scortched taste, which distinguished it from other peanut brittle.  And that is how we liked it.

Mother's recipe for gingersnap cookies is there, too.  When growing up, my family lived in a big, old farmhouse with a large screened in porch.  We often had visits from relatives.  In the summer, Mother would serve her gingersnaps along with ice cold lemonade, all enjoyed on our front porch.

There are all sorts of ways to enjoy the Christmas season without spending a fortune.  All we need is a little imagination and to remember the reason for the season.

Anyone besides me completely fed up?

Here's the thing...

I don't care what was on Hunter's laptop.  Nor do I care what percentage of ill gotten gains went to the 'Big Guy.'  I have no interest in who dines with Trump.  Who is banned from Twitter and who is not is of no interest to me either.

Every day one politician or another is bellowing about the wrongs being done by those in the opposing political party.  The next day those opposing are screaming a rebuttal to the accusations of the accusers.

Nobody seriously tries to change anything.  They would rather get their faces on TV and their pockets lined by special interest groups.  There is not even one politician I would trust.  If they were honest people they would not be politicians.

I will not be marching in the streets to protest anything.  That  changes nothing and these days is more likely to get me run over or shot.  Write or call my congress critters?  Nope.  Whatever makes anyone think the politicians care what we the people think.

I have come to a place where most of my alloted time on this earth has past.  There are not all that many days left.  I can think of no good reason to waste time worrying about what government types are doing.  They are going to do what they want no matter what I say.

What it comes down to is that many of us just want to be left alone.  Not by friends and family, but by those in power who think it is just fine to tell us how we need to live when they have not a single clue about what it takes to live a normal, everyday life. 

I intend to live out my days spending time with kids and grands and great-grands.  My pantry is full enough to feed my family for a long time if necessary, but I will continue to add to it.  There are quilts to sew and afghans to crochet and genealogy research to be done.  Those things make me happy.  The government has not even once thought about my happiness or that of the rest of us.  So they can just scream and holler all they want.  I am not impressed.  Nor do I care any more.

I am just done.  I refuse to comply with their silly edicts and mandates.  I refuse to bow and scrape.  I have only one Lord and Master and He doesn't live in DC!

We know they will not leave us alone.  Continue to prepare.  Continue to pray.  And perhaps if enough of us just say "No," that might at least slow them down a bit.    

Yeah. I know...

 I managed to disappear for a while.  I'm sorry.  No excuses - my bad.

I have been adding to my stores.  My son did a Sam's club run for me.  I canned 10 lbs. of boneless chicken thighs and froze 10 lbs. of apples.  My grocery order arrives tomorrow and there should be some canned goods included for my food storage.

Some of you are of retirement age.  I think whoever coined the phrase "Golden Years" must have been in their 20's and never had to deal with all the fun - and often painful - stuff that comes with old age.

I mention this only because I completely understand the frustration that goes along some of the 'delights' of old age.  My arthritis flare-up doesn't seem to be going away this time.  I tell you this not to whine or feel sorry for myself, but to illustrate the fact that sometimes we need to adjust how we do things.

I am pretty much done canning unless there is an emergency reason for doing so.  Lifting a heavy pressure canner isn't working for me.  But I have other options.  I can freeze or dehydrate most fresh foods.  And so far, the stores in my area don't have much for bare shelves, even if their prices have reached ridiculous heights.  So I am buying more canned goods.

For some products that have outrageous prices, making my own is an option.  I like to have boxed scalloped potatoes on hand for an easy meal.  But not at the price they want now.

Scalloped Potato Mix

Sauce:  1/3 C. +  2 Tbsp. dry milk - 2 Tbsp. each flour and cornstarch -  1 Tbsp. crushed dry onions - 1/4 tsp. pepper.  This equals one batch.

The dehydrated potatoes are thicker than the ones in store bought mixes, so cooking works better in a crock pot.

3 C. dehydrated potato slices - 3 Tbsp. butter - 3 C. hot water - one batch sauce mix.

I just let it cook on 'medium' all day and about an hour before supper I might toss in a cup of either diced ham or cooked and crumbled bacon.  With a vegetable or a salad, this makes an easy meal.

Here's the thing.  Don't give up.  There are some who are in far worse shape than me and yet are able to carry on.  Nobody said life would be easy.  We just do what we can, which is more important than ever these days.

Pray and prepare, my friends. Pray and prepare.

  

    

Busy Time of Year

 This past week I made up a dozen batches of my dry soup mix, using vegetables that I had canned some years back and now have dehydrated them.  If someone wants to use dehydrated foods they already have in stock, here is the recipe.

Soup Mix

1/3 Cup each of dehydrated corn, green beans, carrots and diced potatoes

3 bouillon cubes  (may add more dry bouillon to taste)

1 tsp. garlic powder and 2 tsp. dry parsley

1/4 Cup dry onions

I added a couple of Tablespoons of dry, shredded cabbage just because I like it.

This soup can be made in a crock pot.  Add 2 quarts of water - a little more depending on how much broth you like in your soup or if you add additional dry veggies.  I just let it simmer all day.  An hour before serving, I add a pint of canned meat - usualy beef or chicken.  The meat may be eliminitated if just a good veggie soup is desired.

My grocery order arrives tomorrow.  My bill is outrageous for the amount of food I am getting.  I am incredibly thankful that I started stocking up years ago when prices were at a more reasonable rate.

As a result of prices at the grocery store rising nearly to the completely unaffordable rates, I am going through the recipes I have collected over the years, looking for home made substitutes for some of the products I normally buy.  I have stocked ingredients.  I can make a variety of mixes to replace some of the convenience foods I have been using. 

I am not hurting financially - yet.  But I probably will be if I don't change the way I do some things.  I am also looking through my mother's recipe box.  She cooked before convenience foods or microwaves.  I really need to remember how she stretched meals.

I doubt this inflation will end any time soon.  We can either pretend everything is alright or we can adjust the way we do things accordingly - in the real world.  Nobody - at least nobody connected with the government - is coming to save us.

As always - pray and prepare.