Pappy
04-22-2006, 07:11 PM
I think I just had reality smack me in the head:p
Its gardening season here, well for cold weather crops, but it is the tiome of year when I begin getting my gardens ready for a productive season. So, as usual, I run a quick search to bone up on different vegatables when I stumbled across a website that must have died shortly after Y2K. Anyway, the discussion on the forums of this site were all about growing and raising your own food for survival etc.
The Y2K ofcourse was a dud, but re-reading the fear combined with Sept 11th, and the Hurricane that devastated portions of teh south really brought home the fact that as a society we are basically screwed if something bad ever did hit the majority of teh country.
Just think how the people of New Orleans reacted, and how you would react in the short and long term. I think back to Y2K and remember stocking up on a few items that would sustain my family for a short period, but I remember thinking there was really no way to prepare for the long run. Now, 6 years later, I am in a position where I am creating longer term solutions for my families needs not based on some big event or being scared, but for the sake of saving a few dollars otherwise handed to a big company for a can of green beans etc.
I dont mean to sound wierd or be a bell ringer for everyone to start stockpiling foods, but after some figuring, I feel I can shave almost $4000 a year off our food budget alone with my gardens and canning/freezing of the food. I will be adding a hog pen, more chickens to the coup and maybe even a cow or two, however the later being almost as expensive to raise as is it is to buy anymore.
LOL....sorry, I dont mean to rant on, I geuss with fuel at $3+ and rising, the grocery bill thru the roof it really started me thinking how I could make some changes to help myself and it made me think of how bad things could be if the slightest hiccup occured in our society these days.
Its gardening season here, well for cold weather crops, but it is the tiome of year when I begin getting my gardens ready for a productive season. So, as usual, I run a quick search to bone up on different vegatables when I stumbled across a website that must have died shortly after Y2K. Anyway, the discussion on the forums of this site were all about growing and raising your own food for survival etc.
The Y2K ofcourse was a dud, but re-reading the fear combined with Sept 11th, and the Hurricane that devastated portions of teh south really brought home the fact that as a society we are basically screwed if something bad ever did hit the majority of teh country.
Just think how the people of New Orleans reacted, and how you would react in the short and long term. I think back to Y2K and remember stocking up on a few items that would sustain my family for a short period, but I remember thinking there was really no way to prepare for the long run. Now, 6 years later, I am in a position where I am creating longer term solutions for my families needs not based on some big event or being scared, but for the sake of saving a few dollars otherwise handed to a big company for a can of green beans etc.
I dont mean to sound wierd or be a bell ringer for everyone to start stockpiling foods, but after some figuring, I feel I can shave almost $4000 a year off our food budget alone with my gardens and canning/freezing of the food. I will be adding a hog pen, more chickens to the coup and maybe even a cow or two, however the later being almost as expensive to raise as is it is to buy anymore.
LOL....sorry, I dont mean to rant on, I geuss with fuel at $3+ and rising, the grocery bill thru the roof it really started me thinking how I could make some changes to help myself and it made me think of how bad things could be if the slightest hiccup occured in our society these days.