OooooOOOOOoOoh! LOL
But anyway. My husband and I have been watching all these documentaries about survivalists and people preparing for the apocalypse. And of course we listen to Coast to Coast. We both like Art Bell more than George Noory, but that is neither here nor there. So we hear about it a lot too. All these people scared of the end of the world or a big events that will destroy civilization. I.E. a “The Stand” or “Walking Dead “ scenario. They believe that they have to build shelter that will survive a nuclear explosion and sustain them for years.
I don’t believe in all of that but like my dad said, we should prepare for large storms. Back when the tornados tore through our area, we where left without power for a week. The phones where down. The only phone service we had was cell, which I had to charge in my car. We had to be creative. Mom and dad cooked on the grill, which thankfully it was warm enough for. We had enough candles to use for light at night, thanks to my mom. But even with that, all work on anything stopped when the sun went down, because even with the candles there was not enough light. We only had hot water because the water heater was gas. We were taking care of reptiles from the pet store, so we had to heat rocks over candles to keep them warm and had to take them out in the sun during the day. The long and short of it is that, that was just how resourceful we had to be with just the power out. It could have been worse. If that would happen now, Brett and I would be screwed. Plus, Brett would go insane without his video games. LOL We have candles, but a limited amount, and not enough open space to use them. We don’t have a grill, and most of our food, we make by microwave, so we are screwed there.
It just comes down to, we all need to be more prepared. Not just that, because of prices and recalls and food scares, we need to start growing our own food, and being more independent on things. We all need to be better stewards to the land. We can’t leave it all up to the farmers. Back in the world war 2 days people had vegetable gardens in their back yard. They canned what they didn’t eat right away. They kept food costs down and food was there when they needed it. Usually when natural disasters hit, they effect things a whole lot longer than a day or two. People panic and hit the store buying stupid stuff. And with doing that, leave nothing behind for those who need it. Example, the recent earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. I was felt throughout all of Japan for weeks. The areas that were barely effected by it, lost gas service for days. Because no one keeps more than a day or two worth of food at home, they all made a run on the stores. They cleaned them out, hoarding everything they could, so there wasn’t enough to go around. There were no food shipments coming in, or it was being diverted to disaster areas. It’s not even over there. The majority is back to normal, but the places hit the worst, people still are without homes and have limited resources coming in. All over this is happing every year. So many are unprepared.
I know I’m not the one that should be preaching this. My house is a mess and the only attention I’ve paid to my gardens since I moved into this house is with a weed whacker and loppers. What room do I have to talk if I can’t even keep my house clean and my yard maintained. I understand this. It’s nice to say I want a storm shelter, garden, wind turbine, and vegetable garden. It’s well another thing to actually get up off my ass and do it, let alone keep it going. I’m just saying we all need to try to do these things. I need to make the effort. I would like nothing more to spend my days surfing the net and taking care of the house. Trolling the garage sales on the weekends looking for stuff I can sell on eBay or use at home. I know that the only effort I have made was to buy a reel mower, which I ended up giving to my parents. But the truth is that things are the way they are now. I’m trying to keep myself strait, while making the monies and taking care of my husband. I tend to be so tired, that the house gets put on the back burner. Then I look around at the mess that has built up and feel over whelmed. Excuses, excuses.
I know what my family would say about that. Not nice things at all. Believe me, I have been hearing them all my life. It’s different when there isn’t someone cracking a whip behind you. It’s different on your own. But people have been doing this for years, and I should be no different. My sister is going to help me get my house cleaned up this weekend. Hopefully it’s the jumpstart I need. Time will tell. What about you? Are you able to be more self sufficient?
