May Prepping Challenge-Day 3

Hello Beautiful Wednesday! The clothesline is full today! I just love the solar powered dryer.

My Prepper story-I always thought Preppers were the extreme Preppers like the ones on that tv show. I never thought of myself as a Prepper, being prepared is just something we do.  I grew up on a farm-dad worked in the logging industry and worked the farm, mom took care of 6 kids. We had a garden every summer, canned fruits and vegetables, animals butchered and processed for the freezer, a trip to the Prairie Market to buy a car full of groceries for the month or longer. When it was time to fix a meal, everything was pulled from the supply at home. You didn't run to the store for something. You used what you had. We also had a milk cow and if we didn't, there was a local farm that we bought from.

When I got married, I did the same thing. We bought a freezer from Ernie's mom-oh that thing was a beast! and we filled it up-he grew up the same way I did so this was normal. I shopped at Prairie Market and stocked up on things. I helped mom can and had a small pantry.  After a couple years we moved here and I grew a garden. Each year it got bigger and bigger and my pantry shelves were full for the winter. I seldom make a trip to the store just to get something special. Even when I went to work and stopped canning so much, the pantry and freezers were always full.

We never worried about being without power for several days or being snow bound. We had plenty to eat, a wood stove for heat and cooking. As soon as the weather would start to get nasty, I filled everything I could with water. If we needed more water for the toilet, we have a creek to dip out of. This is all true still today only I just go out to the hot tub and fill the bucket.

We survived all the snow and ice storms, we survived the ash from Mt. St. Helen's erupting and the several ash storms after. We survive because it's what we have always done.  I am not worried about being house bound for any length of time, we will not go hungry.

Still today, I stock up with each grocery trip. If there is a sale and it's something we eat, I buy as much as I can get. Each time I go to Costco, I buy tp-I refuse to run out of that stuff! I buy canning lids every time I buy groceries so I have them when I need them. It took me a long time to get my stash/stockpile to a comfortable level. Slow and steady. A little here, a lot there. Whatever I can afford at the time I buy, but always, always jar lids and tp. LOL

Today Ernie's lunch box is full with a ham sandwich, everyday apple, more venison jerky-no, he isn't tired of it yet!, zucchini bread and energy bites. I get up each morning and make his lunch. I honestly don't know how he does it, everyday it's pretty much the same things in his lunch. I keep asking him if he wants something more or different or what but no, he'll tell me when he's tired of something or if I've forgotten something that is normally there.  Crazy! I need variety.

For my breakfast, I had a smoothie. I juice berries when they are in season (I can't have the seeds) and freeze them flat in quart Ziploc bags, then when I want a smoothie, I break off a chunk. So I had mixed berries, a banana (also from the freezer), some ground oatmeal (I use the blender to grind it up and keep it in a jar in the cupboard), some ground chai seeds, a spoon full of almond butter and water.  It makes a nice size smoothie and keeps me full most of the morning. For lunch I had leftover turkey soup.

Dinner was not something I fixed at home. Ernie had physical therapy late this afternoon and said he wanted teriyaki from our favorite place, so he is picking that up. But if we were eating at home, it would have been steak and salad.  So he can have that tomorrow for his dinner because I'm headed out in the morning for retreat!

I'm anxious to read how everyone else is doing today.  Check out the links today at Patchwork Times.