No doubt, we have all heard that if you are hungry enough you can eat anything. I wonder who said that quote? I wonder if they ever had to eat "anything". Let's face it we do not enjoy eating something that you are not used to eating.
I am sure you have also heard it said that we can survive with little food, the pioneers did. Well, if you do some research, you will find that the pioneers dyed at an early age and they died in winter because they did not have enough food to give them strength.
We are living longer than any generation before us. We owe that to the fact that we have plenty of food and we have more medical knowledge than ever before.
I would like to share a story with you. It is a true story.
One Sunday morning as families gathered for church services, the Bishop called two families into his office. He challenged them to not purchase any food for the next month. Nothing was to be purchased at all. They were each to feed their families with what was in the home. Both families accepted the challenge. Neither of them had any warning of this so they could not stock up for this one month experiment.
At the end of the month, the Bishop ask each family to give a talk concerning the problems they encountered during the month. These families learned the hard way that they were not prepared for a month of not spending. They were all ready to go to the market and purchase some food.
Each family did as they were ask to do. Each family had food to eat but they could not eat what they were used to eating by the end of the month.
Now for my question to you:
If something would happen that delivery trucks could not get to the stores in your area for a month. Would you be able to eat and keep warm?
Yes, the pioneers made it - but don't forget that many of them died from being froze to death or starved to death.
How safe and happy would your family be if you suddenly have an emergency?
Another story to share with you:
During the war, there was a US citizen working in Germany for the government. She had money, in fact she had a suitcase of money saved up. The problem was that she could not spend it. There was no food to purchase. Food was limited and she had all this money and still was hungry.
We all think that nothing will happen to us. We all think we do not need to prepare for an emergency because the power will be repaired soon and the delivery trucks will make delivery soon to the stores. This may not be the case.
Have you noticed that prices of food has raised? Because of the weather, many farmers did not have the food that they normally have to sell. So the reality is that not only are we spending more money on gas but we are spending more money on everything that we purchase.
Just how prepared are you?
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Comments: 39
I think we all need to get prepared. The weather has not been kind to us for a few years now.
By the end of a month, we might not really like what we were eating, but we would still have food. We have a freezer full of food, and probably close to 100 cans of food, along with a couple of bags of rice and beans, various boxes of crackers, etc. We have plenty of baking supplies (I bake 80% of our bread), so as long as we had electricity we would be good on food.
If we lost electricity for very long, I'm not sure what we would do. It's pretty cold in North Dakota!
You know in addition to stocking up we could all benefit from finding ways to live more sustainably on our own. Growing our own foods is something we are trying to do more of every year..
Wors case scenario, we can hunt and fish for our food, and I do know how to cook over an open fire. There are plenty of trees here we can cut if need people for heat and cooking. I could boil water from the creek for baths and what have you. I usually try to can lots of fresh vegetables every season just in case, because as you've said, you just never know. Thank God I'm a country gal and that country boys can survive! lol Because of that I think we could hold out a little longer than people who raised differently or with more luxuries. I pray we could make it anyway.
In regards to heat, we don't really need it. We have only turned on the heat once this winter as we are in South Florida, and even then we could probably have done without. We have an emergency solar powered radio, where we can also charge our cellphones and we have a small bbq grill that we can use to cook on.
Since we are in South Florida, we have to be prepared, so we have done our best to be.
I would like to learn to bake bread though. I don't mean with a bread maker either, I mean all by hand.
Take care.
It is something I think about though. We have two wood stoves, so that helps us when the power goes out. And even though the burners still work on our gas stove, I've learned to cook with the wood stoves, just in case. I also know how to bake bread - some people are shocked when you tell them that you can do it without a bread machine lol. I also learned how to make my own sourdough starter and can make bread even if my yeast eventually ran out. I buy flour by the 25 pound bag, and rice by the 10 pound bag, and that is a lot lol. Still, I'm not sure how long that actually lasts. We also live near a lake so we could draw water from that if the well pumps went down, and of course, we know how to fish. There is lots of dead wood in the woods around our house for additional firewood,k though there might be some competition for that if things got really bad.
Anyway, I don't consider myself a survivalist or anything. But I think my Yankee spirit definitely comes through when it comes to self reliance. And again, I don't obsess about it, but it is something I have always thought worth having i.e. at least some of the skills to survive if you needed to. And I would LOVE to get on solar power someday, but it really isn't all that affordable at this point. You can, however, buy little kits that you can keep small appliances attached to that are somewhat affordable. In an emergency, having some sort of radio or portable TV is almost a necessity so that you can stay connected to the outside world. Also, those little hand crank cell phone chargers are pretty neat (and cheap!) as well.
And we have a big wood burning fireplace and plenty of wood, so if our heat got cut off, we would survive. Of course, the dogs would help to keep us all warm too :)
I have a freezer well stocked.
I have a pantry stocked with 2 months of food (canned -boxed).
I have a generator to keep refigerator running, I have power for generator.
I have 1 month supply of water. And am going to stock that up to three month supply ASAP. (Hurruicane season will be here before we know it)
I have water purifier and sanitizer.
I have battery's and rechargable batteries with their own power source. I have candles, flashlights, lanterns and more.
I have first aid, and what I know I will need.
When Wilma hit here & every power line went down, we were okay. We are more perpared than most people here, and well I liked that actually.
I am stocked - year round - like this, because I live in Florida, in the event something happens, I would like to think I am ready.
We have had to to this for over two weeks. We were comfortable and we also took care of other families too. We even had people staying in our home because they had no heat.
It does get very cold here in winter.
If you or anyone else can find that article and knows how to link to it, feel free. I'm not urging you to do so, just noting the information is out there.
LOL After eating them all the time, you would probably be sick of them. :)
Jane,
I too can dress out a deer.
I think I would be Ok- I live in the woods and I am pretty good at foraging!
I hate that the prices of foods just keeps going up but salery's not so much.