This is my first visit to your message board. I was wondering how you are preparing for the future. We live on two acres in a 40 year old brick farmhouse. We have two loads of firewood for the wood stove fireplace insert. I do have some canned goods stored away. We have a well for water. I would like to be better prepared for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Thanks in advance. Valerie in SC

-- V. Webster (dvmmweb@aol.com), October 21, 2001

Answers

In 1979 we moved from Houston suburbs to 111 acres in the country farther down the coast. We have cattle, a garden, our own well. We know how to put food by when necessary, but as we are both working outside the home, we don't have much time for canning, etc.

The best thing we did was raise our boys here. They know how to survive, grow things, think logically, be honest, pray, and take care of themselves.

rose

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), October 21, 2001.

You can download a disaster supplies kit list from fema {www.fema.gov/library/diskit.htm. Its a very complete list and can be addapted to fit your family. It should take care of any immediate needs. For the long term I would suggest you learn as many old skills as you can and start collecting any old fashioned tools etc. that you can get your hands on.Learn and practise, its a lot of fun too.

-- Judy Schumacher (TootlestheBrit@aol.com), October 22, 2001.

Just as in pre Y2k uncertainty, Countryside and small stock journal is a shot in the arm of confidence and preparedness. CS always seems to stay up with current events and I'm confident they will be on top of this also.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair67@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

Bad weather is easy, its short term and you know it will be over soon. The uncertain future part is the hardest. How about a dry run? Flip off the breaker one Friday night and go the whole weekend. How are you going to get water from the well without electricity? Do you have a canner, jars and seals and the knowhow to can all the food in your freezer so it doesn't waste? Do you have food, which is also fruit (the hardest part of preparing for me) once you have used up your fruit how would you replenish it, vegetables, protein from meat, diary? Can you cook or is your house electric. Can you heat your farmhouse with the heat, and how long does a load of wood last, even here in the south we eaisly go through 2 cords of wood during the winter, mostly because of the dampness. Some way to cook is essential since you won't want to cook on a fireplace insert in the summer. What are your animals going to eat? What about a garden, have seeds put away, hybrid seeds? Laundry, do you know how to make soap, have the lye or no how to make it, what are you going to use for fat? Easier to intially have 100, 88cent bars of soap put away, you can even grate it to wash clothes with. And how are you going to wash clothes and hang them to dry, what if its raining? What do you do when the toilet paper runs out, or your clothes or shoes wear out, or your child breaks their leg? Medication, personal tolietries. It really is endless, overwhelming, but a powerful high when you learn something new. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 22, 2001.

Dang Vicky....and here I thought I was prepared. Now I've got to go back and look at everything from a new perspective. You've got a mind like a steel trap girl. Whew!

-- Frank (fhill@absolute-net.com), October 22, 2001.

How do you prepare for the future? I think you prepare as you always should. Stock up on food. Grow what you can and can what you grow. Raise animals and a garden for food. I think that this becomes a lifestyle rather then an emergency plan. This should be a day by day, year by year process. Learn how much you need and different was to store it. And when those resources are needed they are there.

How do you prepare for the unseen? Somethings are beyond our control and imagination. Who would have imagined Sept. 11? And do we know the date when some of us will have a heart attack or contract cancer? "Seek the Lord while he may be found." - is good advice. This too is a day by day, year by year process. And when we need this resource, He is there.

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

First of all you DONT stock up..worse advise to give. Stocking up implies you buy a bunch of food and put it away until needed. As many Y2k folks found out, they now have unusable food, food they dont like or know how to prepare. You want foods you and your body are familair with in times of crisis. Note this does not mean tons of tv dinners, but real foods, little pre-made or pre-packaged foods.

What you do is simply add to your exsisting food you normally buy. Just buy more of them. In time you find that you dont go to the grocery store to fill your fridge or cabnet you go to fill your store room. You however MUST keep going to the store or your stored food will again run out.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), October 22, 2001.

I have stocked up on food, non hybred seeds, solar battery charger and rechargeable batteries. I have gone to several herb sites and printed out herb uses and how too's. www.botanical.com is one of the better ones. I have also found useful information at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/encyclopedia_A-Ag.htm

-- Lynnda (venus@zeelink.net), October 22, 2001.

Vicki make some wonderful points. Where I am today and where I was 10 years ago when we first got that "feeling" that we needed to prepare to be more self sufficient has been a very long process. Looking at each item you eat or use is the beginning of becoming self sufficient. We have made some permanent changes in how we eat and how we do things. Everything we buy is carefully watched and evaluated as to it's long term usefulness if we were to have to spend considerable time "on our own". We are not doing it out of fear but consider it to be a wonderful challenge toward independence. Each skill (like a friend just came and taught me how to make soap) adds to our sense of independence from the high scale consumerism culture we are hoping to leave behind us.

How much of what you cook is cooked from scratch?? I have to admit it has only been in the last ten years that I stayed on task until I could consistently make a decent loaf of bread or pie crust or noodles. Buying things "premade" was so much easier that I just did it without thinking. Each of the skills I have learned has saved more money and that more money has been reinvested into our homestead bit by bit until we have tools and equipment that would carry us for many years.

This is getting lenghty so I will stop. Lots of people stock piled stuff for y2k without learning even how to use them. I think that is a mistake. Times of stress are not times to try out new things.......NOW IS. Learn how to cook rice, beans and other things that can be combined to be a complete protein. While I was in Haiti I was fascinated by how many different ways rice and beans could be cooked with different herbs etc. and sauces that where all wonderful. The cook books "Recipes for a Small Planet" and "More-with-Less" provide many wonderful recipes. Try something new each week and find what your family likes.

IMHO this world is going to be a rather unstable place for some years to come and we need to each day evaluate where we are going and how we are prepared to help ourselves and others around us. Panic will not help one bit. Careful evaluation of where we are on the food chain will be a service to ourselves and our country.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

I have always hated running out of anything. I love to bake and want to be able to decide I'm going to bake something and have all the ingredients on hand and not have to go out and make a special trip to the store for one or two items. So I buy anything I can in bulk. I buy spices by the pound and staples in as large an amount as I can store and/or use up before it gets too old.

So as far as food goes, in an emergency, my family and I are all set for at least a month, probably more. We might have to get creative, but that's OK.

In 1998 Maine experienced a major ice storm. The only thing we lacked at my house was a way to have a hot shower. My husband has since bought a generator for power outages. We already have wood stoves, a dug well we can open up for water, plenty of candles, and oil lamps. I have a gas kitchen stove. It doesn't have a pilot, but it can be easily lighted with a match. I just can't use the oven, since it has an electric ignition. However, this winter I will have an old fashioned cookstove, so I will be able to bake in a power outage. In fact, I look forward to having one just so I 'have' to use my cookstove!

Since September 11, my husband and I sat down and discussed the possibility of some sort of terrorist attack affecting us. The only type of attack we could conceive of being able to prepare for would be nuclear fallout, so I ordered some Potassium Iodate and have begun stocking up on canned goods. I also began putting together a 72 hour emergency kit. Things a family of four would need for 3 days if we had to suddenly leave the area. Probably most of you already know this, but 3 days worth because in an emergency situation, it could take that long before an emergency response team could get set up in an area to begin to provide for the needs of the community. Before this all had happened, I had never given a thought to making such preparations, but any area could have some type of natural disaster and it's a good idea for people to prepare in some way, even if you never have to use it. We do live very near two rivers which could flood the town at any time (although the whole town hasn't flooded since the 30's) and I live about 100 feet from the rail road tracks, which transports hazardous materials to the area mills. So even without the recent scare it's a good thing to be thinking about being prepared to leave suddenly.

No big changes, mostly trying to think ahead and plan accordingly.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

I don't know about y'all, but I've never been one to hold much stock in the idea of a certain future! ;) Remember the old saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), October 22, 2001.

Seems like every item on everyone's list is a whole subject. I could comment on each one---but won't. When preparing for y2k, my husband was preparing to retire (Dec 99) He is a welder by profession. Seemed as good a time as any to purchase a NEW welding machine. But this one just happens to be large enough to generate enough electricity to run the whole house. Isn't that great? Not really. It requires lots and lots of gasoline to run. We had 600 gal stored. Figured it would last 3 months by running the generator 2 hours twice a day. During that 2 hours, we would warm up the house, (propane heat, elect blower) could wash a load of cloths (not use the dryer) Replenish the water jugs (electric pump) Take a bath, warm the water on the propane cook stove and not run the electric hot water tank at all. I have an electric cook stove with all the bells and whistles. BUT out in the shop, still in the box is a new plain Jane propane cook stove. Will move it in AFTER the lights go out. OK, I said all this to say, generators are great, but require lots of stored gasoline. We have our's in a pole barn several hundred feet from the house and shop. We have to keep the weeds mowed and be so careful of grass fires. So the gasoline is the down side of the generator.

-- Belle (gardenbelle@terraworld.net), October 22, 2001.

we are simply continuing our self reliance/family preparedness plan we've been working toward for the past few years. We have recently installed a propane stove and have a new wood burning heating stove that will be installed by this weekend (and I can cook on the top of it too)....

We try to buy two of everything when we run out and are slowly building up our supply of canned food and other items like toliet paper.....but be sure you rotate your food if you do this! We had lots of stuff canned and frozen from last summer's garden too!

We're also trying to pay off as much of our debt as possible...we don't "do" credit cards but still owe on my car and off course the homestead mortgage....

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

This was asked of me privately, thought I would answer it here. It was about different levels of food preperation and storage. My example is Macaroni and Cheese. My son loves Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, not even the good kind but the powdered cheese kind, so yes I do buy it and also have it in our supply. I also have srote made dried noodles and powdered cheese, powdered milk and powdered butter in the supply. I also know how to make noodles with white flour and eggs, and still use the cheese powder, milk and powdered butter. I also know how to grind wheat into flour to make noodles and hens for eggs, goats for milk, make noodles with ground wheat and goat milk or even water. I also know how to make cheese, and though I haven't the patience to skim I also know how to make butter. I also have wheat to plant very small scale, goats to milk and make cheese with, babygoats born and know how to make rennet from their first stomach, so I can curdle the milk to make cheese, have hens for eggs. So its levels of things learned, and levels of prepardness.

Now I would love to learn how to make vinegar! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 22, 2001.

Vicki, apple cider vinegar is easy. Just let it sit all winter someplace where it will not freeze. Then you will have vinegar and "mother" to add to other cider so it will not take so long.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), October 22, 2001.

Our church, LDS, has been teaching us Food Storage for years - each family is to have a l-year supply of food and other such items as is practical and possible. One of the first "rules" is: Store what you use and USE what you store. Rotation of your food storage is the key to success. Also, springing new, untried foods on your family in time of "emergency" is a sure problem waiting to happen. You need to be familiar with the foods you store.

Also, this forum has a TON of useful info - so just keep reading posts and printing out useful info as it applies to your family.

Remember not just food, but emergency medical supplies (and proper first aid training), baby supplies, toiletries and feminine supply items, religious and education supplies. You as parents will feel wonderful knowing you have provided a measure of security for your children.

Most important I think is: Just START. Make it a family project.

-- Dottie Shafer (shaferd@msn.com), October 22, 2001.

I guess it just becomes a way of life. Once you get into the frame of mind to make sure you have a good supply of the things you need,you just try to keep well stocked-AND rotated. We also garden, have goats, steer ready to butcher as soon as the weather here turns cold- and stays that way for a few days, chickens, pigs and rabbits. Living next to the national forest helps. It's also great knowing Vicki-and she lives just 2 miles away!!hehe Honestly, she has been a big help to us over the years! We have propane to cook and a wood heater that we heat the house with. Water could be a problem after some time, but an old well could be put into use again. Good luck to all. susie

-- susie yeager (susiemby@samlink.com), October 22, 2001.

Designate some amount of money each week to go to garage sales, thrift stores and flea markets; how-to books, blankets, camping gear, tools,gardening equipment, clothes, etc. One way to find the money is to set a budget for Christmas gifts, then buy nothing new- using all that is left over for useful items.

I carefully search for the bargains at the grocery store on things we REALLY USE, like mayo, sugar, cat food, and so forth, and buy lots on good sales, saving more money per hour when I do that than I can earn. Once the system is up and running, it becomes self perpetuating- I don't run out until the next sale. This is both fun and saves money, and keeps us from running to the store for the kind of spontaneous trips that are disastrous when I'm hungry! My goal is to have a year's supply of basics and some frills,too. Who wants to run out of brownie mix!?

-- seraphima (gardener@com.post), October 22, 2001.

November is typically a month in which grocery stores offer HUGE savings on food. Flour, sugar, chocolate chips, turkey, and other holiday/baking foods are offered at the lowest prices of the year. I buy a year's supply (200 lbs.) of flour, etc., at these rock-bottom proces in November every year.

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), October 22, 2001.

I was the original poster on this thread. Thank all of you for your responses. You have given me plenty to think about and some concrete solutions. Thanks!

Valerie in SC

-- V. Webster (dvmmweb@aol.com), October 22, 2001.

Can you imagine what this country would be like today if on 9-11 those had been nuclear suitcase bombs going off in NY and DC instead of airliners crashing. The destruction and loss of life would have been many times greater. We'd be under Marshal Law. The Military would be in charge. Major US and Canadian cities would have been evacuated(read kaos)immediately with city folks pouring into the countryside to escape the possible "next blast". No one would be on TV asking us to continue life as usual. Practically all commerce would be shutdown and basic necessities would be a thing to get killed over. Believe me, those chickens in your back yard, those few goats you have, that milkcow you just bought, that pile of firewood you sweated over while chopping, and those homegrown/homecanned vegetables you put up this past summer, they'll all be worth more than any CD's you may have down at the local bank. Oh, and I forgot to mention that ole shotgun Grandpa gave you that's stashed away in your closet. Not taking away from the tragedy that befell the thousands on 9-11-01, but I think you all get my point.

-- mgb (monty@bayou.com), October 22, 2001.

Wow! We live on two acres in a brick farmhouse as well!! Ours is 101 years old however. We have been doing it for 2.5 years and are learning stuff all the time. CS mag is great and these forums have taught me so much. So many willing folks. We(my wife and eldest) have become excellent gardeners, we raise a few goats, chickens and steers all on two acres!! We hope to buy or lease a few more acres to allow steers/goats to pasture else it ain't too cost effective. Vicki covered about anyhthing I could think of. Food, water and shelter are your basics so start there and persevere.

-- Paul (pbray@tds.net), October 25, 2001.

I got my hair done today.

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@Hotmail.com), October 25, 2001.

Okay, just trying to keep it light (not my hair anymore though....costs too much!)

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@Hotmail.com), October 25, 2001.

My mother did it and I just continue the practice. I like to have everything on hand that I may need for several months. I HATE to go to town. Fresh fruit and produce are the hardest here in No. Wisconsin so I have to rely on the freezer or dried. Just think about the really necessary things- food, water, heat if you live in a place like we do, health and sanitation supplies, and extras. For me that means COFFEE- my one vice. Do check out the FEMA site, it's a good start. Ask yourself how you would provide those necessary things for your family if you couldn't get them the way you are used to?

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), October 26, 2001.

Hi Folks,

I have a copy of a wonderful book called "Making The Best of Basics- Family Preparedness Handbook" by James Talmage Stevens, printed by Gold Leaf Press (1-800-748-4850). This book takes you through planning for your family size, and figuring what is most important for your individual circumstances as well as obtaining and storing the goods needed. It contains charts on shelf life of certain products stored in different ways, and cooking the items you have stored. It is now in it's nineteenth printing. I paid $22.95, but it was a really good investment. Hope this helps!

-- Sandie (peqbear@maine.rr.com), October 26, 2001.

Those of you who unsure of a uncertain future, I would like to make a big suggestion...First obtain a book put out by Readers Digest called "Back To Basics" I know several people who have started a new life with it..And done away with all the modern conveniences and live like our fourfathers did. Lots of luck

-- Bob (se ohio) (snuffy@1st.net), October 27, 2001.