Friday, February 5, 2010

PREPS, DON"T FORGET

Good morning to all of you. It is raining and miserable here but the weather forecast is saying that it will be snowing and miserable pretty soon so we get out of that rain stuff. Good fortune I guess. The Handmaiden has gone off to take care of old Fred and see that he eats and that his scrape is not getting wildly infected. He will mind her or she won't take him to visit the Amish on Saturday and that will make him disturbed. But that is how it rolls so we await the morning results. But if it snows I ain't going to let her go anywhere anyhow. I only have one wife and I don't want to risk her to some damn snow.



Yesterday's results were an eye opening look at the workings of Wall Street. The market went down about 27o points, I believe. No big deal but if it happens again today then you had better fill out your preps rather quickly. The thing I find interesting is that no one is predicting a "floor" on this downturn. A support floor is when certain buyers have standing orders to purchase a certain stock when it reaches a certain low. The wisdom here is that if stock A is selling at $100 per share and it falls to $80 per share then a huge buy order is issued because $80 a share is considered extremely cheap for what the stock is really worth. But I have not read of any floors being set. It pays to keep in mind that this is a bear market and not a bull market and so buying floors may not be part of the ritual at this point. But it is still interesting that we have no floors being mentioned. You would think that no one cared. Hah!



Reading hard core preppers while the market is dropping like a stone is just goes to show you how much we think of that damn thing. I don't own any stock and I probably never will. What happens on that market is meaningless to me. I have no horse in the race. But preppers keep an eye on it because it is a harbinger of things to come. It would seem that the stock market will tell us when the collapse is here. And it just might. And it might be the sign we need to find out when things will be getting scarce in the market place. We don't have any gravy in our preps and we, that is the Handmaiden, wants to take care of that. Apparently you are not supposed to can anything with floor in it. I never heard that before but I have now. You see, she read this account by a woman who lived three years through the war in Sarejevo. The woman made it by eating a lot of rice and beans but she acted like she would have killed for some gravy to put on the rice. This rang a sympathetic bell within the heart of the Handmaiden and she now wants gravy for her rice. Go figure. But I was all for the idea until I read the no-no's of people like Jackie Clay. You gonna argue with Jackie Clay? Not I said the Michael. People would talk about you behind your back and swear that you had taken leave of your senses.



But the point I am making is that it might be time to put some finishing touches on your preps. You don't want to go through the embarrassing moment of trying to buy food at some store that has already been gutted by hungry folks. How could you call yourself a prepper? You have to get it now! And flavoring to add to your main prep items can make or break your happy home. Like the gravy thing. We are going to can stock (broth) and put up oil and salt and flour to make the grave. Lard can be stored for a long time if it is kept reasonably cool. Pretty simple and something that might be very beneficial in the future. You have to think for a moment as to how you are going to make your food preps taste good. We are going to stock up on powdered milk for one thing. It is versatile as all get out and you can use it for lots of dishes you cook. You might get some packets of dry yeast while you are at it. It will keep awhile and it sure comes in handy for baking bread and making wine and beer. Maybe not gourmet wine and beer but at least something drinkable. And a merry heart doeth good like medicine. It pays to be merry once in a while. Just don't get so merry your head hurts in the morning.

That is all for today. Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net

4 comments:

Andrea said...

I read a similar account...I've got a few jars of gravy and a good deal home-canned broths LOL.

There are a few things we need to add to our storage, dairy being a big one, but having good friends who raise goats, I doubt my children would ever want for milk. Overall, I think we have a pretty well-rounded food supply going and it really added up quickly.

I think the real challenge will be folks learning to cook from scratch again. I'm sure the Handmaiden has said the same thing. When there's a run on the grocery store (due to storms or welfare checks) the first things that disappear are the convenience, packaged food. Bread for instance. When the convenience foods are gone, there's going to be a lot of folk in a world of hurt as they have no idea how to cook. They can assemble, but not cook. Anyway, that's my $.02

chinasyndrome said...

Michael,simple common sense stuff like that is what makes you a gotta read,every time ya post.Plain ol rice and beans every day.Better than no rice n beans,but flavorings ya gotta have.

Unknown said...

I made some pretty good wine with plain dry yeast. I also have several packages of sharp chedder cheese on hand. It keeps well in cool storage. And Lot of rice dwells in my cabinets.

Tell people how to dig a "hole" in the back yard for "waste." And maybe another for cold storage.

Northwoods said...

Michael,
I'd got to thinking about spices a few weeks ago. I knew I had a decent selection but not near enough spice vs the stored rice/beans ext.
I went to a web site with bulk spices and just started clicking away. Compared to buying those little containers at the grocery store I saved huge!
Even things like active dry yeast in 5# bags will make a heck of alot a bread, keeps a long time and a fraction of what you'll pay at the grocery store.
They are saying food prices will be going through the roof very soon. Coupled with the value of the dollar going down there's no better investment right now than food...Period!
I've no ties to them but I found bulkfoods.com to be reasonably priced for volumn spices.
Like the native said while eating a Bat in a Crocodile Dundee movie,"needs more garlic", spice can mean everything..stock up..