Most of us live in a area with very little room for large gardens and very little access to the real farms if we lose our transportation. We are mainly hooked to the Grocery stores in our areas for our supplies. How can we change that? WE CAN"T ! What we can do is use what ever methods that are available to us to get ahead of the crowd and make sure our families are sustained. Maybe not with steaks and chops etc but with protein and nutrients we need to grow and stay healthy.

I cannot and will not tell you what you should do as you are the only one that knows what you are capable of and willing to do, I will tell you what I have done.. get ready as you all know I am a bit long winded at times...

I go ape pulling out my hair at some of these people sitting behind a computer screen telling you how you need to do this or that etc... I would bet their own cupboards are full of instant food, quick and easy, ready to nuke.

My Pantry is full, so is a 30 x 24 building just for supplies. There is not one single item in there that I can't reproduce myself. I don't store noodles, or bread or canned items from the store.. when the SHTF where will you get these cans of Campbells and Progresso and Charlie the tuna? Where will you get your Peanut Butter ( full of additives and preservatives) ? Sodas? non existant in my stores. Teas Yes, coffee yes... there are some things which even a old dog like myself is addicted to which simply cannot be produced at home. There are some which I obcess in laying in more and more every month like vanilla and other spices which simply do not grow here or anywhere close. These Items I get and put into sealed containers and hope they will last for years but as with anything they will eventually run out, hopefully by that time the crisis will be over and they can be replaced.

When I first started on this mission I was centered on items I couldn't make myself, I brought in case after case of toilet paper, dish soap, laundry detergent, vegetable oil etc.. then thought hell we didn't have this mess when I was a kid... well we did have toilet paper but the rest were non existant. We made all of our own soap, shampoo, etc.. We even made our own paint. Everyone did.

My trips to the grocery store became fewer and fewer as I began to realize we simply could not afford to buy in bulk from the store. It was all we could do to just get what we would use in a week. we were living like everyone else from paycheck to paycheck until I shook off all of the advice from the experts and began to figure it out for myself.. What would my Grandparents do? Simple they would make it or do without. Once I stopped buying all of the convience items and concentrated on the basic needs things began to work out and make more sense. Instead of buying spagetti and macaroni and egg noodles it only took a minute to make your own and my Lord what a difference in taste.. So I concentrated at first on flour, meal, etc... then evolved to getting wheat berries and grinding my own flour as needed.. OH Lord what everyone is missing. Right now it takes me about 20 mintues to make a pan of biscuits which means I grind the flour, make the biscuits and put in the oven. If things really went south I have a wood burning stove to cook on and if that wasn't available I have a dutch oven which will make biscuits on a open fire. As children we all learned these skills but now no one bothers most parents couldn't teach their kids anything as they don't know how to do it themselves.

My husband manages a produce supply store and has lots of waste or did. I scrounged everywhere on the craigs listings to the Iwanna papers looking for canning jars. After a few months we have in excess of 1000 jars, pints, quarts and half gallons along with 200 1 gallon jars. I saved up and instead of buying regular lids for them invested in the tattler lids which can be reused over and over. They are a little pricey but well worth it when you consider the cost every year of the ordinary lids.

I was ready to start on the produce canning... every day Tim would bring home produce that was damaged and he would have had to throw away. I cut, trimmed and canned everything from carrots to zuchinni and a lot in between... he brought home 12 cases of asparagus not long ago because it was getting woody ? I just wacked off the bottom inch or so and they were perfect. Now we have 4 cases of Asparagus ready to eat. The sad part is I canned so much in the period of a few months or so that our storage was bulging, I offered these vegetables to the neighbors, even offered to help them get them canned, and not one of these people had the time or inclination to do any canning. They were just too tired and you can buy a can of tomatoes at the store for less than a dollar... Well what if there are none at the store at any price???? We found a organic farmer with a very small place and drop off the boxes of throw away food every day for him to feed his animals, I was talking to his wife the other day and she confessed she has been canning a lot of the stuff like it was something to be ashamed of... I laughed at her till it hurt, that was exactly what I would like for everyone to do.

For months I put up at least 14 quarts of stuff every day. I bought another big pressure canner off of craigs list for $30 which is like new so I have two kettles to use at once. I also found a dehydrator on the list for $40 which I snagged quickly. Now I have 2 small dehydrators and 1 large one.

All of that produce goes right on the trays as soon as it is washed and blanched... Now even my gallon jars are full and I feel so good looking at all of the food stacked up in cases all along the laundry room waiting for tim to take to the store room, but first I have to get in there and reorganize it as we have pulled a lot of stuff to give away leaving spaces open etc....If you were on my Christmas list you know what I gave for presents this year....

I invested in several of the FoodSaver machines which I totally wore out in just weeks so have let that go as the bags will be hard to find if they are areound at all if the economy fails so why keep buying machines which will become obsolete? I have gone back to everything in glass. So much easier and economical as it is reuseable.Plus everything looks so pretty in the glass jars or else I just happen to like looking at food.... All of the spices and herbs I grew this summer look so good and fresh. The parsley ( on left) stays a vibrant green not that brownish dead leaf looking commercial stuff. The sage and basil smell nearly knock you over when you open the jar, the commercial stuff has very little smell to it...

One side of my storage bldg. has nothing but staples... flour, wheat, corn meal, lard, salt, pepper, spices, baking powder, baking soda, olive oil, laundry detergent, shampoo, dish soap, toilet paper, wax paper, saran wrap, tin foil, alcohol, yeast(<will not replace) cream of tartar, beans of all kinds in 5 gallon buckets, rice both brown and white, clorox, diamiatieous earth, tooth brushes, hair brushes, combs, medications, bandages, animal feed and probably a lot more I can't remember at the moment.

My freezer is full but not more than I can can in 3 days if we lose power. I have canned everything you can think of from baby back ribs to pulled pork. Meat is fairly simple and cans well. I have half a shelf of hamburger meat, both beef and venison. The half gallon jars are perfect for the ribs cut apart and packed in with a little BBQ sauce added to the jar and processed in the pressure cooker... When you open one of these jars all is needed is to heat them, the meat falls off the bones.. really good. Spagetti sauce and meat balls, corned beef, ham, bacon, and best of all real Butter that won't spoil and won't melt if left out on the counter. Poultry cans nicely also. Hot dogs my grandkids favorite is so simple, stack them on end and add just a little water, seal and process.

I was going to purchase a pasta attachment for my mixer but then thought what if no power? so... got a silicone mat to roll out my own. It takes about 10 minutes to make a pot of home made pasta and it tastes so much better...

Right now a pot of vegetable soup is simmering on the wood stove which is cranking due to it being frigid here in spite of all the global warming. I will make some home made crackers for dinner and we will have a satisfying hot meal that is healthy and nourishing without all the preservatives which are killing us all.

My best advice is to start thinking like you do not have any power, try to figure out how to do normal things without the normal appliances. Even in a small Apt you can grow a lot of things in pots, and store lots of food but the water would be the biggest problem and not much way of storing enough to live on for any legnth of time. Bottled ? that is just as bad for you as your tap water... Find a friend with a well or make a friend with a well and get your water from them. Shop at the second hand stores find hand operated food grinders, graters, all kinds of hand tools, don't depend on electric being at hand for ever or even if you will be able to afford it which I think will be the way this whole thing works out.

Don't be a slave to anything or anyone. Go your own way but use others knowledge to do so. You don't have to copy anyone, just figure it out your own way and go for it. It is a full time job for women to run a home and do things the way they used to. No shame in that, women are ashamed of being a at home Mom now when they should be gloating over everyone that takes their children to child care centers to be indoctrinated and poisoned both in their bodies and minds.

If you can stay home, keep your children close, educate them yourself and don't participate in the propaganda of big Government.. Use your own common sense don't listen to what everyone else is doing,,,, who the hell cares... do what is right for yourself and your children. Remember you have to teach your children how to survive well in the future when you will not be there to do it for them. That is education... not handing them a calculator so they don't have to learn to add and subtract or a computer so they can sit for hours entertaining themselves. Turn off the TV, go to the second hand store and buy tons of books, teach the kids to read and use their imagination. It will pay off greatly for both their futures and your satisfaction.

YELL AND SCREAM ABOUT YOUR FREEDOMS

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GRANNY WARRIORS