I have to admit, I'm probably only an amateur prepper. I have about 3-9 months food put away for my family of 4. I don't have near enough water, although I do have a stream nearby. But given that we're in Texas and prone to droughts, it's not enough. I do have a bug out location picked out, should that become necessary. I've started to network and make friends who think like I do. Most of my current friends that I've had for a long time still have their heads buried in the sand and think that could never happen in America.
I started all this back in 2009, late, like September. So I'm just now coming up on 3 years. I built shelves along one living room wall out of cinder blocks and 12x1x9.5's to hold my extra food. I outgrew that, not wanting to go to the ceiling when it wasn't attached to the wall. I'd hate to have a mild earthquake and everything come tumbling down. So I built a smaller version along the back wall of my kitchen. The one in the living room has a sheet over the front, so it blends in with the wall better. The one in the kitchen is mostly lower than the table, which is up against it. Normal stuff is table height and higher, like the bread machine, a spinning thing that holds paper towels, spices and condiments and most of my baking pans. I also had to add a small 4 shelf book case and a cabinet that originally held Cd's, movies, etc. I have considered getting rid of some of the stuff in my china cabinet and using it, or at least the bottom. What I have is actually called a Hoosier Cabinet, with glass doors on top and a big section behind a solid door on the bottom, with 3 drawers beside that. There's a double door space that holds all my cookbooks currently. I even considered getting rid of the soffit (the part above the cabinets) in the kitchen and storing pots and pans and stuff up there so it would open up a couple shelves that I have.
When I first started storing food, I had a couple sites that were my favorite. Both were either Mormon or Mormon influenced. They have a policy that they should have a year's worth of food stored away. Their theory is that God tells us to prepare for disasters, just like in the Bible days. Sometimes you don't see how decisions can affect the future, but our saving up a bit of food has already paid off. A year ago, my husband broke his leg and was out of work for 2 months. All we had to buy was perishable foods (I can't drink powdered milk unless I have no choice, and I hadn't stored things like powdered sour cream or freeze dried cheese, things my family doesn't think it can live without). We still had his military retirement and my son's SSI, but we were also paying 2 mortgages. We never missed a bill, because groceries cost next to nothing. I gave up our small pittance of an allowance, but only cut my kids' allowances in half for those two months.
BUT, since my sources were either Mormon or Mormon influenced, I just got to thinking: Does Mitt Romney and his family have a year's supply of food put away? Everyone wants to know if he wears his magic underwear, but I'm more concerned in him having food put away. I don't think, as a Baptist, that it's against God to put away food. I actually believe the opposite. If you SEE disaster coming and you don't prepare, it's sort of like jumping off the roof and expecting God to save you. God allows us to see the disaster SO we can prepare for it. Will Romney persuade Paul Ryan to put away food, too? I always figured what's the worst that can happen? I don't have to spend money on food for a while, and eat my reserves so I can bank that money if nothing happens or we get better.
I do things a bit differently than the Mormons, however. I don't have 5 gallon buckets full of wheat and rice and beans. I put away canned goods and stockpiled recipes that only require shelf stable ingredients to fix. I didn't just buy cases of green beans and potatoes, unless they fit a recipe. I do have a lot of canned fruit because that's an area of nutrition that we often forget. I don't get enough fruit now, imagine an emergency situation. I put away a lot of canned meat, so I'm trying to experiment with Spam recipes. I'll also have Vienna sausages should I decide to go camping (my family survived on Vienna sausages for snacks while camping...no heat required or refrigeration).
If every government official had food stored away for a year, would that influence how they decided legislation? Would they be slower to just print money, knowing it would inflate prices even more? Or would they say to themselves, inflation won't affect me, because I can ride it out for a year?
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