THINKING ABOUT THINGS

I have been wondering about preps and such. You go reading the women preppers and they have a bunch of things they want for the food supply that they say is needed and I never thought of. But that is why God gave them the ability to run a keyboard and communicate with the rest of us, we need to be told of these things. I have been reading about canned butter. Yep. You can stock up on your butter that same as you do tomatoes. And butter is a nice thing to have, especially when the stores are closed or out of everything. We get ours from the Amish but they could run out. It would be good to can a few pints or quarts of butter while it is still feasible. Lasts two years with no refrigeration.



The wife is getting plastic 5 gallon buckets from the Amish with lids for them. Cheap price and we can store lesser amounts of the grains we want than 35 gallon cans. I go for the 35 gallon cans. Once they are full you have the job DONE and I like to have the job finished and over with so I can go on to something else. I think she is looking at corn storage and flour storage right at the moment. Beans will got into large plastic bags, resealable, 3 for a $1, and get put into a larger 35 gallon can. And Pinto beans at our local cut-rate grocery were $1.60 a pound Friday. That is amazing. I will grow beans as best I can. Believe it. But I look for necessary food items to go sky high pretty soon. As if $1.60 a pound AIN'T sky high? But maybe I haven't imagined the soaring costs of the future.



I am thinking about spices. You know what I mean. Those little cans and shaker jars that come home in the grocery bags all the time. If you are in there nosing around looking for goodies you habitually push them aside so you can go on for better things. But did you ever have Chili with no spices in it? Hamburger and bean soup, anyone? Ain't nothin' like a good bowl of Chili! And my wife can make a damn fine pot of Chili. Gonna have to look into growing spices of all sorts. You can get into appetite fatigue if your food ain't varied enough. Kids especially. You gotta try and keep them interested in eating so they will keep strong and healthy. And I want MY kids and grand kids to be strong and healthy. Makes me think that while we ponder the necessaries of protein and vitamins, we better have some fun in there for the kids. I would especially stress having goodies and great tasting menus the first three days of a hard time. Someone, I can't remember who, said that the first three days of an emergency were the most stressful and food was the best way to combat the stress. So ladies, when the SHTF, get the food to the table and try to make it taste good. If rationing is going to be a reality then wait until day 4. Hopefully, most folks of your association will have more than 4 days of food on hand. If they don't, you have a problem.



If you like salad dressing on your salad, and I do, then you had better store up some cooking oils for your wife to make the dressing with. The Handmaiden tells me that buying the ingredients is cheap compared to buying the finished product. And along with canned butter you can put up soft cheese also, if you like a cheese based salad dressing. There are canning methods for soft cheese on the Internet. But hard cheese will keep for a long time if it ain't exposed to air much.

There area so many things to amass preps for. I was reading Mayberrry this morning and I got reminded that I need some different kinds of rope on hand. SURVIVAL TOPICS says I ought to get Paracord along with my other stuff. SURVIVAL TOPICS is an excellent data base for essentials and you can learn how to get them on your on, too. I have waterproof matches right in front of me that the Handmaiden made from the recipe on SURVIVAL TOPICS. And they work every time! She has since made up some more of the little gems but I cannot tell you how many there are. I do know that I bought 10 boxes of strike anywhere matches for safe keeping. SURVIVAL TOPICS also has Fire Steels from Sweden and they are supposed to be the best in the world. I gotta get a couple of those little jewels too! Plus there is a recipe for a firehole set up that will really help cook a meal or dry some meat or whatever. Like I said: It is a storehouse of essentials. http://www.survivaltopics.com/ will take you to the site.

We are happy to announce that we got mentioned on Survival Blog by Mr. Jim Rawles this morning. I read him every day and he has inspired me to go on a lot of times. You will find his URL on the opening page of my blog. I call him the Godfather of Survival Blogs. He has a lot of great info up and can help you in many ways.

Have a good Sunday night and may God bless you and help you stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net