Gummint Check

Well, we finally got our "refund" check in the mail. They want people to take them and splurge, buy things, help the economy. Horse hockey. I'm investing in my future survival with it.

Yeah, food is on my mind a lot these days. I guess living in a place where food is the source of income for so many people has a lot to do with it. You can't escape the daily grain reports, beef reports, rain reports, and how everything relates. That hailstorm two days ago was amazing - as long as it wasn't piercing leaves and decimating cornfields just about to produce. That lightning at night is beautiful - but if it strikes in a pasture and sets it afire, and the winds push it rapidly, the grasslands lose their ability to feed the masses of cattle here. If it strikes a hay barn, someone has just lost thousands of dollars of potential income in an hour. The late snowstorms this past May killed calves of ranchers I know. The unusual rain here (7 inches above average) has made the hay grow fast, and they will be able to pull in at least two more harvests of it before fall - but the cattle standing in hock-deep water are not happy and not fattening. Low-bottom ranchers are scrounging for pasture or hay, while others in more drained areas are sitting pretty. Everything relates.

I couldn't believe some of the prices in the store today. Oh, there were some good deals - the price of my # 10 can of Oregon blueberries hasn't gone up, so I bought another, even though most of what I got from the previous can is still in the freezer. They had the rolls of pork sausage that hubby likes for $1.00 apiece. And the vitamins were on a BOGO sale, and were pretty cheap to begin with. But some of the prices on that other stuff will put a run in your pantyhose (not that I wear pantyhose any more).

So, this evening I went online and ordered.

Nothing fancy, just some basic necessities. Dried fruit, vegetables, more heirloom seeds. All of the food is canned for a minimum of 5 years of shelf life, freezedried and/or dehydrated fruits and vegies, milk and whole wheat flour. Not your regular nasty milk in the boxes, either, but milk with real milk flavor. Yes, even things like shredded dried colby cheese, and butter powder, shredded potatoes, even beef stew and potato soup.

I have a dehydrator that does really well, but hubby has a problem with smelling things like garlic and onion drying for three days. And the 'good stuff' - well, sometimes I catch him opening the dehysrator and pulling out some fruit or vegie to munch on as a snack! I need to start it up again, though - it shouldn't take too long here, where 40% humidity is considered "high". I can even do jerked meat in it...

Bit by bit I'm building up a food supply. A little here, a little there, what's on sale. I wish I hadn't gotten here too late to do my summer garden. We'll see if I can time my fall vegie garden just right, to avoid the snow... Hubby will need his collards. Ah, well, that's what hoop houses are for. What's a hoop house? PVC pipes or wood strips with plastic stretched over them, about two feet high, put over plants to extend the growing season.

One thing that real depression-era folks have talked about was not having seeds for those much touted gardens. You see, when the crash came, there was no money to buy seeds. And then, when they got a little money, there were no seeds available to buy. So they were still dependent on the gummint handouts. I'll. Be. Damned. So I ordered the canned, non-hybrid seeds, that fill a garden the size of half of a football field. They are guaranteed - as long as the can stays sealed - to stay viable for five years too. Of course, most non-hybrid seeds stay viable for a year or two anyway, after their stamped-on expiration date has passed. That is just a ploy to make you throw out last year's leftovers and buy more. If you've ever plowed or rototilled a new spot in your yard, and three weeks later you've gotten all sorts of new plants and growth that was never there before and that you didn't plant, then you know what I'm talking about. Stuff can wait for years to germinate...

The problem with a lot of the 'food storage' places that have come into existence is that they advertise many wonderful things - most of which are out of stock. And then there's shipping. One place I tried out didn't list what was and wasn't in stock (aw, just guess!) but would bill you for it anyway, because they would 'eventually' ship it to you. Then, they wouldn't tell you how much shipping was. Then they said there was at least a 6 week waiting period for you to find out 1) what you were getting (and, not getting) and 2) how much shipping would be billed to you. So three weeks later I got an email from them requesting a phone call on my order. They STILL couldn't tell me what was available - but told me it was A DOLLAR PER POUND to ship. Good grief, not even the postal service charges that much!!! So I cancelled that order posthaste. Shopped around a little more. Desperate I am not. I have all my listings in a little bookmark file, separate, so I can compare prices, shipping, stock... quiet thoughts for a quiet evening. Something those people back in '29 didn't have.

And of course if there is no crash, if some wunderkind comes along who really saves us all from ourselves once again, instead of promising more gummint help to any and all, well, I'll still have cheap and viable food, stashed away to last, and enough seeds for a heckuva garden plot. After all, some winters here, one can get snowed in for days, even a week, at a time. Which reminds me - watch for sales on toilet paper...

Sometimes it's the little things you forget.