Busy Again

 I am guessing that many of you know about that little voice in the back of our heads that tends to shove us in the direction we need to go.  That's the same one that lets us know when danger is near.  Some call it a gut feeling.  Whatever it is called, we do well to listen.

I have this nagging feeling that things are about to go head over heels off the cliff.  I don't know if it is the big balloons in the sky or the chemical spills from derailed trains or the many food processing plants going up in flames or the possibility of the Chinese marching over the hill.  Whatever it is, now is not the time to slack off.

I am storing more water.  My grocery order for Thursday includes 6 of the half pork loins that are on sale.  And 10 lbs. of russet potatoes and 5 lbs. of sweet potatoes.  The pork and sweet potatoes will be pressure canned.  The russet potatoes will be sliced and dehydrated.

The top of my kitchen table is covered with quart bags of frozen strawberries.  Tomorrow morning I will add a little sugar and can them for use as ice cream topping or in baking or just to eat as sauce.  And after that I will can up whatever is below the berries.  We here in Minnesota have a forecast of up to 20 inches of snow in the next few days.  Snowstorms sometimes take out our power.  I also ordered a bunch of extra kitchen matches to have on hand for lighting candles and a propane camp stove (really don't want to do without my coffee) and a propane heater.

I am not saying that we will go to war tomorrow.  I am saying that anything is possible.  We are now living in a country whose leader thinks it is more important to visit Ukraine than Ohio.  Which shows me that the powers that be do not give a rodent's behind about our citizens.

We are on our own.  Keep stacking.  The reason I do this is so that when push does come to shove, those I love will be taken care of as best I can.

Pray.  Often.  

What's Next?

 It doesn't seem to matter where we look. There is chaos and confusion everywhere.  

The latest insanity is the speculation about the objects in our skies that are being shot down.  Are they weather balloons?  Are they spy capsules?  Or are little green men from Mars going to parachute down and demand to see our leader?  If it is the latter, I do believe they will be sorely disappointed.

The headlines are full of other events that promise to destroy us all.

Guess what.  I simply no longer care.

Those in charge who think they are so smart - let them deal with it all.  Most of the problems originated with them anyway, to distract us from whatever criminal, stupid or mean thing they are trying to hide.  They are going to do exactly what they want to do, including lying, stealing and cheating.  And we know that no matter how much the congress critters fuss and fume and pontificate, nothing will change.

I will still glance at the headlines so I know when to duck and cover.  And I will continue to fill my pantry to feed and take care of my family should the worst happen.  But no longer will I wade through the layer of bull crap they are spreading.  I have better things to do.

I have adult children and grandchildren and great grandchildren that I love more than my life.  I have close friends that I love as well.  They deserve my time and attention way more than do some lying critters in DC who wouldn't recognize the truth if it bit them on the bum.

So yesterday I sorted out some of my fabric stash, looking for and finding enough fabric suitable for the backs of a couple of quilts.  And I found enough leftover yarn for another crocheted afghan.  Tomorrow I plan to bake bread and chocolate chip cookies.  

It is raining here today.  Raining hard.  The snow that fell earlier this year is gone.  We are having 40 degree days.  Normally we are up to our elbows in snow and shivering in sub zero temps.  I am enjoying this while I can.  This is Minnesota, after all, and we can expect at least one more snowstorm before the lilacs bloom in the spring.

And all of the above makes more sense to me than laying awake at night, worrying about how our government is going to screw us next.

We have lives.  It is time to live them the way we want and with the blessing of God.

Paying Attention Yet?

 Have you noticed just how much bad stuff is going on all around us these days?

Doesn't matter in which direction we look, there is something on the horizon that can hurt us - we the people.  And our elected officials are doing nothing to stop the madness.

I want things to get back to a normal that we can live with.  It is those who are in control who do not give a rodent's behind what I think.  They continue to do what they can do to enrich their bank accounts and ignore the fact that many can no longer afford to take care of their families. 

So what do we do?

I am not in a position where I can bug out to some secret location deep in the northern Minnesota woods and 'live off the land.'  No matter what happens, I will be right here in my little apartment, as will many of us be in our homes.  

Even so, it is possible for me to do everything I can to prepare for whatever happens next.  My every-other-week grocery order arrives tomorrow.  The weekend will be spent dehydrating frozen corn, mixed vegetables and hash browns plus 10 lbs. of onions.  Yes, they are expensive, but I am pretty sure that they will cost more next month. 

The room where I store most of my food and supplies has been organized, everything sorted and labeled, so I know at a glance what I have and what I yet need.  Because I was blessed with a mother who taught me to sew, I am working on sewing together quilt tops to make warm blankets that are necessary in my cold climate.  And I have collected recipes for making many of the food items I would normally buy, like cream soups, Bisquick, other soups using dehydrated vegetables and pasta, and seasonings, to replace some of the items I might need to buy.  Jennifer over at 'Prep School Daily' is a wealth of information on all things preparedness and is the source of much of my information.  Her blog is listed in my side bar. 

This isn't a brag session but is a suggestion or two to give others an idea of what we can do to get ready for whatever our 'betters' have in mind for us which is absolutely nothing good.  You know, I am sure, that everything that is happening now is all about control.  As those close to me know by now, I do not do well with some trying to control me. 

I think those things that can make life even tougher than it is are accelerating at breakneck speed.  The wide-open southern border, the flight of a Chinese data gathering balloon flying across the breadth of our nation, the out-of-control inflation, are but a few examples.

Get ready.  Don't wait.  Do the very best you can to take care of your families, especially since it is likely that some of them think you are nuts for doing so.  We do not want even the nay sayers to starve.

And pray.  All the time.  God is our only hope.   

As you know...

 if you have followed along here for a while, I am easily distracted.  Sort of like a dog when it spots a squirrel.  :)

While digging through some boxes and baskets, I came across a partially finished granny square afghan that I had completely forgotten about.  How a person can forget about a green and purple afghan is beyond me, yet there it is!  And because the weather here has been bitterly cold, it occurred to me that an extra blanket might be a good idea.

I have been working to finish the afghan to the exclusion of everything else.  Partly because I wanted another warm blanket and partly because I was feeling a bit of burn out concerning my food storage.  Sometimes, we just need a break.

The afghan will be finished today, for all I have left to do is to crochet one row around the edge for a border.  After that, it is back to stacking food and supplies to the rafters, starting with several quart bags of strawberries in my freezer that need to go into jars before freezer burn finds them.

So far I have not heard of empty grocery store shelves here in my neck of the woods.  But I am noticing that substitutions as far as brand names or types of some goods are becoming more frequent.  For instance, my grocery order last week included 4 rolls of parchment paper.  I got 2 rolls because that was all that was on the shelf.  I also ordered 4 large bags of shredded hash browns to dehydrate.  What I got was 4 bags of potato dices, marked 'hash browns' on the bag.  We preppers are nothing if not flexible, so the diced potatoes went into the dehydrator anyway.  I know I will find a use for them. 

Keep stacking it, my friends.  We are going to need every crumb.

Looking Back

 I don't know where to turn any more.  If I agree with the propaganda of the left, I am just as bad as they are, but I will not be harassed or 'cancelled.'  And if I continue to believe in God and the Constitution, I am labeled every nasty name in existence.

I have to wonder what happened.  How did we as a nation get to this point?  Are we so incredibly stupid that we no longer see bs for what it is?  Seems like it.

I remember a time when my kids could go outside to play without needing adult supervision.  I remember having friends of all shapes, sizes and colors and nobody thought anything about it.  I remember a time when people could have conversations about political differences without the hate and discontent we see now.  

A generation or maybe two back in time, people were vastly more prepared to fend for themselves and handle hardship than current generations.  Not only did they have the skills to do things like build stuff and care for livestock or raise their own food, they did these things as a matter of course.

During the Great Depression, money was tight for a farmer in northern Minnesota like my Grandfather.  But he would not even consider asking for help.  One of his daughters went to teaching school.  A couple of his sons went to work in logging camps.  My Dad and a brother hopped a freight train headed west.  They worked on grain thrashing crews.  They found jobs going behind the machines that dug potatoes and they picked potatoes off the ground and filled sacks.  They sent every penny they could home to help the family.  The rest of the kids stayed home and milked cows, fed hogs and cared for the chickens and the huge garden.  They all worked to take care of the family.

Now folks just get in line to sign up for food stamps and welfare benefits.  And have meltdowns if they can't get exactly what they want.

Most times I think we should be looking backward for inspiration instead of looking to see what we can get for free.  The day may come when all we have left is the knowledge gleaned from our ancestors.  Grandma and Grandpa survived because they knew stuff.  Because they relied on their own selves instead of relying on government individuals who couldn't find their own backsides with both hands and a flashlight.  

Nobody is coming to save you.  You could at some point have to depend on yourself and on the knowledge you have.  Never stop learning.  It could save your life.

Question...

 Is anyone else but me noticing how often the F-bomb is being dropped?  Doesn't seem to matter where or under what circumstances.

I am not a prude.  I know there have been times when provoked that I have been guilty of unleashing language more becoming to a drunken sailor than to a lady.  But it is not language in the heat of the moment that I am talking about.

Many of my evenings are spent with computer videos and yarn and a crochet hook.  I watch many preparedness YouTube channels and sometimes other channels just for the etertainment value.  It is on the latter channels that I have noticed a serious uptick of ugly language.  It seems like folks have lost the ability to talk without dropping those bombs.  

Thing is, those words are no longer bombs.  They now seem to just be part of everyday conversation.  So I have to wonder if words that years back were not uttered in polite society are now just part of the program to bring the population down to the level of some crawling creature.  Like the insistance that men can be women if they wear a skirt.  Like the insistance that abortion is not really murder.  Like the insistance that white people have some sort of privilege and are automatically racist.  Like that.

When we let all those things go by without question, we are agreeing that all of it is just dandy.  I do not think these ideas are dandy.  I think they are dangerous.  And to not acknowledge them is to agree with having our lives turned backwards and upside down.

Nope.  Not gonna do it.  Not gonna agree.  Not gonna allow that kind of foolishness under my roof.  So there!  End of rant.  For now.

 

One Size Does Not Fit All

 Over the years I have watched many preparedness videos.  Many of them have really good information.  But very few fit my lifestyle.  And I am pretty sure there are many of my vintage who are in the same boat with me.

I would love to have a homestead and raise chickens and other meat animals and grow a big garden.  And I admire those who can sustain that kind of lifestyle.  But I am not one of those people.

There are all sorts of videos about what one should pack into a bug out bag.  Good information for those who plan to cut and run when things get dicey.  But many of us can not even consider leaving our homes due to age or physical problems.

I do what I do in order to make sure my family is fed should things get really bad.  I am able to defend myself should it come to that, but I can not move all of my stored food and supplies.  It does me no good at all to can, dehydrate or buy food and supplies if I can not use them as intended or if I leave them behind.

I also pay no attention to those who tell me I must have 10 specific food items or that I can not survive unless I have the gear they are selling.  Some of those 10 items are often things I don't use.  And the idea of needing 'gear' is ridiculous for me as most times they are talking about things like night vision goggles or tools to build a shelter in the woods.  Don't need much in the way of gear here in my little apartment. 

The point to all of this is that each of us has specific needs.  What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for everyone.  In preparedness, one size doesn't fit all.  We need to take what we can use and let the rest go.  

Finding alternative ways to do what we need to do is helpful.  We can't garden or raise animals, so we visit Farmer's Markets in season and take advantage of grocery store sales.  

Keep stacking what we know will be used.  And most definitely keep on praying.