GUEST POST BY MY SISTER-IN-LAW…A WISE WOMAN!
I was recently talking to Ted, a 73-year-old friend who explained how he survived the great depression. As a boy, he lived in a house on 3-4 acres; his family had a garden and some animals, and his mom canned food. He explained the great depression this way – “we were poor before the depression and we were poor during the depression. Life was the same.” As the U.S. continues to spend trillions of dollars we don’t have, it is almost certain we will experience another great depression in our lifetime. Let’s hope it’s that simple. We all know someone who has lived through the great depression and we know how to prepare. Should the country experience an economic collapse, that’s when we will be in uncharted territory.
Over the past couple of years, my family has been stocking up on household goods and food in our basement-turned-pantry. Some things we have stored in big plastic bins and forgotten until recently. As we have reassessed what is down there, I have found that the canned goods are the most easily stored. I ran across an article that suggesting using a soda can holder for canned goods. I have 5 and plan to get more. I purchased them from Wal-Mart and they have been a great addition to our pantry. They are stackable and a great way to add new cans to the top and pull the older cans from the bottom. I plan to buy another 10 to 15.
The boxed and packaged goods are another story. They have a shorter shelf life and I haven’t found a good way to keep a constant rotation going. We also discovered a package of trail mix with a hole in the side. Seems the mice love our packaged goods as well. We have big plastic bins we use to store goods, but these bins are not airtight and the food tends to be forgotten. If you’ve found a good way to store and rotate packaged goods, please let me know.
Some of our habits have changed over the last several years. In addition to stocking up on food, we started a garden. I also spend a lot less time going to the big chain grocery stores and more time visiting the local butcher. Our butcher had to double his space from last year and he is still having trouble keeping up with demand.
Reuters recently printed a relatively positive article about preppers. If the media is writing non-mocking articles about people who prepare, then the trend is becoming mainstream. Those who don’t prep, well, frankly, I believe they’re the crazy ones. And all the people out there mocking the preppers (whether civilian clothed or in uniform), don’t come knocking on my door in an economic crisis. And don’t call me un-Christian. Noah didn’t have any room on the Ark for mockers either.
As the economy stagnates and small companies close or go bankrupt, some new business are thriving. Farmers markets selling locally grown produce and butcher shops with grass-fed, hormone free meats, eggs and milk are doing well. Farmland purchases are on the rise, people are saving more money and homebuyers are skipping the McMansions and opting for smaller homes with more land. The old way of doing things has become the new way again. I’m glad to be a part of the growing trend that values traditions, the Bible, self-reliance and smaller government. What’s wrong with honoring our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers or our Founding Fathers for that matter? Some may want us to forget where we came from. I say we embrace our history before we become it.
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Thanks, Sister. To the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed hearing from another prepper. We all have our unique stories and it’s good to hear the accomplishments and even problems others have.
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
A Proud Daughter of Texas
Daughter of Texas 