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Yesterday was day 3 for not having any sweets or wine. However, I probably ate too many grapes in the afternoon because I was hungry and they were so delicious. I was suggesting to Debbie Cousins that she watch "Robbie & Gary Gardening Easy" on YouTube to build your own soil for free by burying most of your kitchen waste and yard waste. I'm not good at gardening but things are going to get so tough we all need to start growing whatever we can. It's worth watching YouTube "Alaska Prepper" for some of the facts about what's happening out there or "City Prepper" for a sensible plan.
I care about all you wonderful people here at FS so I feel the need to share with all of you as a warning to prepare as best as you can. Each of us are in different circumstances but if we just do a little something every day to prepare ourselves for a tough future it won't seem so overwhelming. My neighbor said she does not want to hear “anything” negative. There are statistics of only 1% or 3% doing any “preps” for the future. Or are people just not talking about what they are doing, in fear of protecting themselves in the future?
The powers that be want to eliminate gas cars. I'm not buying an electric car and most of you won't either. Our electrical grid can't handle that. It's old and they are destroying the backup plants. Now they are killing our poultry. How long will beef be available? Without fertilizer, the farmers can't grow grain. We can learn to make fertilizer for our individual gardens without kitchen and yard waste. I have a compost tumbler but I can't turn it my myself so I am going to sell it. I can't turn compost but I'm learning from YouTube to just bury the scraps and leaves and never have to stir it. I am lousy at gardening and my progress in that area is very, very slow.
But I am saving canned goods and dried things. I do not buy complete freeze-dried meals because they are expensive for what you get. I prefer to save individual ingredients. I can speak of these things because I am anonymous on FS. Each of us have our problems against “prepping”. I live in a hot inland valley and have limited space to store anything. The garage or attic are the worse places. Much of Southern California is just basically a desert when water is not piped in. My husband does not want me to save water for an emergency like an earthquake and he pours it out. Perhaps, just perhaps I could barter for some from a neighbor that has a pool, but all the neighbors would probably want to do that. One neighbor told me he saves 10 gallons of water, but does he know how long that would last? It is said that we should have a gallon a day per person. In an emergency, I would only have water for drinking and cooking so I don't plan on any laundry whatsoever.
I have canned tuna and ham but I sure didn't want to get into canning. Now as of last week I see that if I want to have beef and poultry I better learn to can. Walmart still had some pint jars at the lower price and those should be big enough for meat for just the 2 of us, maybe even for 2 meals if we need to stretch it. My husband was raised in Europe and they didn't have an abundance of meat so he can get by without a lot of it. During the war, it was almost used as a condiment. His health is doing better than the last couple of years so maybe he will be around longer than appeared. Some say you can pressure can in 4 pints in the largest “instant pot”, others say it's not safe. Some say a pressure cooker is not a pressure canner. I need to learn more. Someone said a pressure canner used to be about $33. and is now $150. I need to dig out my pressure cooker from the back of a closet and see what it is and how it works. I hear there are 2 good brands of pressure canners: Presto and ???. I'll study. While I am studying and helping my husband I'm not gardening. But I cut up a lot of tulle and tied most around the outside of my 14 filled storage container raised beds hoping the slugs won't crawl in. And I bought small plants (tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini) a week ago since I never started any of my seeds but haven't planted them. Also, I'm taping the tops of cardboard boxes "up" to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes in. They will deteriorate during the season and the potatoes will be easy to pull out and the junky boxes will just be put into storage totes to make more soil to grow in. Time to get ready for church.
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61.2 kg
Lost so far: 0 kg.
Still to go: 7.9 kg.
Diet followed: Reasonably Well.
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Losing 1.7 kg a Week
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