We kind of knew the run on stores would happen. But toilet paper? I was surprised to see toilet paper being the first items to vanish from stores. I guess most folks are better off food wise than I ever thought they were. But then, are they buying something they know they will use up to feel good about doing something? Canned goods were next but in our area so far it's mostly toilet paper and Hand Sanitizer.
I know many folks still believe it is being over played by the media, but in serious consideration older people are at great risk. If you're over 60. have a breathing issue, are diabetic, have cancer or had it, you have a compromised immune system and it could very well kill you. I like many fall into a couple of these categories, so I guess we old people need to worry or at least be concerned. As most of you know the President has declared a National Emergency and the ball is now rolling, all kinds of things are coming into play and if the virus continues to spread and I am sure it will, then more could happen. With all the testing that will be going on I know they are going to find
many that have been exposed and those numbers could be staggering.
I think the next thing we may see happen is people being asked to stay home for 2 or 3 weeks to allow the virus to pass without being passed on to even more. Yes this is the kind of disruption many have warned about to no avail. Allot of homesteaders have lived their lives producing as much of what they eat as they possibly can. Some can make it from harvest to harvest, others only a few months. All has worked according to what that families priorities were.
This certainly isn't the time to stick ones nose in the air or give themselves a pat on the back, nor is it a time to beat ones self up for doing very little or nothing to be ready. But it sure is a good time to give some serious thought about what you should do whether it be grow and raise you own or stock up for the next event. Oh yes I get it, but Luke, what are we going to do now! Well a couple of weeks ago I gave my thoughts on that, and I pray folks took that advice and spread out their buying to different stores so as not to look like you were up to anything and not causing a panic. If you did that you should be in pretty good shape. If not, you now have no choice but to go out and see what you can buy, and at this point it I would still look at basic staple items, flour, salt sugar, yeast, baking powder and such items that you can use to cook from scratch. If you can still lay hands on canned goods do so. Also beans,lentils, rice and other dry goods. Most people are going for the easy stuff, so you go for the cook from scratch stuff. Anything that needs to be kept chilled, use first, if it's frozen keep an eye on it and use it before it thaws out all the way. I only say that in the event we are asked to stay at home and the power should falter.
This really shouldn't be anything major, it should be more of an eye opener than anything and maybe give those that think the prepper and homesteader are nothing more than a bunch of conspiracy theorists that live in fear and have no idea what they are talking about. If we look back on history you will see many times where people were not ready for what came. I know we aren't ready for a huge disaster, I'm not even sure I would want to survive a nuke. But what I'm really getting at here, is we should all be ready for these kinds of disruptions.
The things I have seen in our area was the toilet paper buy out, I was amazed to see folks more concerned with their bottom side than their top side. Once the toilet paper was gone the canned goods started going. Folks panic buying is something that has become the norm in America in the past 40 or so years. I wrote something about cooking from scratch some time back, look back in the archives, I'm sure you will find it. But the point truly is we need to become producers at home again, not consumers. There is so much anyone can do to prepare themselves through the course of the growing season. If you live in the city you can purchase extra at farmers markets and can it at home, find a farmer or even a homesteader that would be willing to make a deal to raise animals for you. Have a storage area you can stock and operate out of the store room on a first in first out basis. not that you have to have years of stuff stored, but enough to carry you for however long you are comfortable with.
If you want ideas, please feel free to comment and leave me your e mail and I would be happy to help you out as best as I can for ideas based on my own experience, there are also tons of books out there today on preparedness that can give you so many ways to be ready. While your at it, find a book on cooking from scratch. You will be amazed how that alone could change your whole way of thinking when it comes to what you need for food to get by on. This virus may not turn out to be as bad as some think, or it could be, we won't know until it passes. But it has given us all a lesson about being ready and not sweating it if we need to hunker down or are unable to go anywhere for a time.
As for now, our seed order has arrived and we are now waiting for planting season, the snow is really going now and yes, I know better than to think it is over this soon. We have to get through April first and maybe the middle of May will have things dry enough to let us get in the garden and start getting dirty. Our Bull is home from our friends and he is in hopes of having several calves born this summer. They have offered us a calf from one of their girls and I may take them up on a steer to raise for meat. I'll also be looking for a young bull to raise as well, our bull turns four this spring and I don't like keeping them much past that. The Jersey bull is the meanest of the dairy breeds, maybe a Hereford bull if one can be found, we really don't need to keep purebreds anymore and the mix sure does make for a good meat cow.
Our chickens will be ordered in another month and it looks as we'll be doing over 100 this year, oh the dream of a busy homestead again this year. It honestly is a labor of love and a life of adventure.
Until next time,
God Bless
Comments