"In the ancient word, the survival of any household depends on its ability to feed itself. Anyone who threatens the economic self-sufficiency of a family is, in the long term, threatening its very survival."
Peter Jones, In the Introduction to The Odyssey, by Homer
"These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have, but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter
If the classics have taught us anything, it is that life does not always go to plan and being prepared for these deviations is a wise way to be. I have encountered this message numerous times in the books that I have read, and the two quotes above are just an example.
Annabel at The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm decided last week to initiate a 30 day Preparedness Challenge and I thought I would join in. She is posting daily over at her blog, but as we are in lockdown and I'm working from home as well as helping the children with their work, I thought that I would do a weekly recap of the challenge and how we fared.
Day 1: Your Purse
With this challenge, I not only made copies of all the important documents in my purse, but I also cleaned out my handbag to ensure that I was carrying everything I needed, including face masks, hand sanitiser and a small packet of tissues. Pen and paper are also essentials for me (I'm old-fashioned that way!)
Day 2: Ready Meals
I started reading Annabel's blog at the end of 2019 when our biggest threat was the bushfires raging across the country. She gave me so much inspiration about how to be prepared during that time, and then of course when the pandemic hit, I knew she was onto something! We increased the amount of chickens that we had, bought a deep freezer and started a modest but effective "prepper pantry." All of this placed in good stead in the last 18 months where we have seen repeated lockdowns and shortages.
Just over a week ago when the COVID virus returned to our city we found ourselves in isolation, as my husband was considered a close contact. This meant all of our preparation had paid off and we did not run out of anything. We were able to order food online, but until then we had everything that we needed at home. While we haven't been sick, having meals prepared in the freezer is always a life saver (and a time saver) and it's something I like to prepare during the holidays for the coming term.
This week my husband made a big pot of lamb shanks stew. We ate it for two days and froze another portion which will work as either a stew or cooked in pastry to make a filling and nutritious pie.
I made roast chicken and used the carcass for stock. This gave us broth and noodles for lunch yesterday and enough stock leftover to make a pumpkin soup to put in the freezer.
Our lemons are abundant still, so I squeezed these and put them in the freezer in ice cube trays.
Finally, the chooks are laying regularly again now, so I made a quiche, sliced it up and froze the portions.
Our freezer is looking good now, though I would like to add some bread and cakes or muffins for the kids' snacks.
Day 3: Lighting
As Annabel says in her post the amount of candles we tend to have around the house as decor pieces has increased. We definitely use candles in our house, and even make our own from the lovely bees wax kits available online from Hilltops Honey.
As we are also a scouting family, my husband keeps a range of torches, solar powered lights and other non-electric light supplies in the shed. These include LED lights with a solar panel to recharge the batteries. We also keep a variety of matches and lighters in different (easily accessible) places around the house.
As mentioned above, because we camp and my husband is a scout leader we have a range of non-electric cooking options. We have an outdoor gas BBQ as well as a small shellite cooker which we take camping with us. We also have a pot belly fire outside which uses wood and can be cooked on like a stove top. Like Annabel, we also collect lint from the dryer and toilet rolls to use as fire starters.
The ability to boil water is indeed a life saver. Earlier this year we had some trouble with our new solar panels connecting to our hot water system. When it came to wash time, I had to boil kettles of water to take to the bath! What an adventure! But I was glad that at least I could still boil water on our gas stove. We have a range of large pots plus the stove top kettle so this is handy for boiling water.
With our camping supplies, we also have a range of cast iron cookware, a box of supplies (such as washing up detergent, soap, tea towels, paper towels, cooking oil etc) and spare plates and utensils.
So, all in all, I feel that we are in a good position but there is always room for more. Do you like to be prepared or are you a day-by-day sort of person? Will you join us in this challenge? Let me know in the comments, or go and visit Annabel.
Kirsty x
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