Record-Breaking Storm/ Last Preparedness Post 14.0- ***UPDATED***
If you've been watching the national news there was an "atmospheric river", a Cyclone-type rain storm that hit the West coast and the Pacific NW. We definitely got hit with lots of rain and some gusting winds. We had almost 3" of rain in three days!!! While that's not record-setting that is a lot of rain in October! We haven't had any real damaging winds in Boise luckily. Supposedly there were much higher winds up in the mountains. Just glad we finally got some rain, as it was so dry! We have cooler temps coming next week, time to get out the comforter and add the sunroom to the coop. The sad part of the storm was it hit some areas with high winds, mudslides, power outages and road closures in parts of California. Info here Record Rain Storm California Excerpt- A rainfall record was shattered in Sacramento-Northeast of San Francisco, 5.44 inches (13.82 centimeters) fell on downtown Sacramento, shattering the one-day record for rainfall that had stood since 1880. Lake Oroville, a major Northern California reservoir, saw its water levels rise 20 feet (6.10 meters) over the past week, according to the state's Department of Water Resource.
We got lots of notice ahead of time which was good-
Good news for the fires and drought! More goods news here-
Yosemite falls come back to life
Autumn here-
Time to stash the table/chairs, empty the pond!
Some blue skies today
Last Preparedness 14.0-
I decided this will be the last specific prep post for a variety of reasons. You're either getting prepped or not. There's plenty in my previous posts for those who are interested! I went to our local Natural Grocers store a few days ago and their section for oats was completely empty. An herbal supplement I've taken for a long time was out, they said they were having supply chain issues, not a surprise. I stocked up on a few more bags of wheat berries, Natural Grocers had 2 lbs for a $1.50. Our Winco grocery store has been looking pretty good, as far as being stocked, but I have noticed some of their produce is looking pretty sad. Meat prices, especially beef, continue to go up. Two of our largest local school districts are running out of foods for school lunches. Supply chain issues. Supply Chain Disruptions School Lunches While some can start packing homemade lunches many high-poverty families can't. I saw this first hand working in my school as a librarian. Doesn't matter why but kids need to eat to function and stay healthy. I've been stashing extra veggies with some leftover freezer baskets-
I was watching a video blogger and she was talking about doing self rationing moving forward. That idea, if things start getting pretty tight, might be VERY useful. People survived the Depression doing that.
*** UPDATE*** Here's the video I was speaking about, I really like her approach (on this blog I do, however, stay of politics)
If you can't see videos on your phone choose "web version" at the bottom
I also think it is really about RESILIENCY. We might have to change how we shop, how we eat, how we garden and preserve foods. How could we barter moving forward? What do we spend $$$ on? Do we really need the newest technology, streaming services, etc? Do we really need to spend, spend, spend like we used to? I just shake my head when people buy certain things. People are worried about buying plastic toys for their kids and not buying food or fuel. With everything on the news about this perfect storm people still bury their head in the sand. There are also so many people that can't cook anything from scratch, at all. If I gave somebody a bag of flour, baking soda, baking power, etc. they would probably look at me and say "what am I supposed to do with this?" I used to make homemade mac and cheese for our kids, on a work night, and it didn't take that long! Cook the pasta, make a simple cheese sauce, toss toss toss and it's what's for dinner. No preservatives, no fake food coloring, just plain food. I'm hopeful that some folks can make the tough transition I think is coming with some flexibility. I hope so. For now winter is coming, time to get your house in order...
Canning Tomatoes Vs Dehydrating-
We harvested all of the tomatoes recently so I finally had enough to can some! Pretty easy to do, add a some lemon juice to water and off they went. Because some of them are really dead ripe I didn't really push them down hard enough. There were a few floaters, but that's okay. I have some more, will wait another week and let those ripen a little bit. I mixed the really ripe ones with the slightly less ripe ones to balance out the flavor. After thinking about it I decided to dehydrate the rest, it's faster and take less space to store. They'll look like this-
This jar is full now, 1/2 gallon
We have made some nice pizzas too! I buy dough from a local pizza place, add tomatoes, herbs, etc, yummy!
Pepperoni, tomatoes, some Moz and it's dinner
15 comments:
Hi, Nancy!
I'm from Portugal and here in Europe some countries also have been hit by storms or other natural disasters. La Palma volcano has been spewing lava for days, Italy was hit by a severe storm and floods, etc...
I learned from my mother to have a well stocked pantry and when this pandemic started, my husband and I didn't need to run after toilet paper, meat, canned goods or whatever.
We stayed home and used what we had, but when I saw the craziness, with people cleaning the shelfs in the supermarkets, I asked God to give me wisdom and now we're stocking even more.
We live in an appartment, so there's not a lot of space to grow vegetables and fruits, but I buy our fruit and eggs at the farmers market, so it's cheaper and I know it's produced by the farmer itself.
The pizza dough is made by my husband and I learned how to make a basic bread. Unfortunatelly, it seems that these days it's a motive of pride among some girls, not to be able to fry an egg and eating almost every meal out.
Lately I've been reading about dehidrating and canning, so when I found your blog I was a happy camper!
I've been having some doubts especially about buying a dehidrator. Is it really worth it? Does the food taste the same as fresh food or at least similar?
:)
I already read the Strangers and Pilgrims on earth blog and G. Donna's Musings and I've learned a lot from them.
Have a wonderful day and God bless!
:)
Dried tomatoes are one of my favorites, but I have never made them myself.
So glad rain has come!
Oh I will miss your preparedness posts. They always motivate me!
I think those of us who are thrifty already think in a more flexible way because of how we approach problems. It will be tested though for sure!
Oh and I meant to ask who that vlogger is. Sounds interesting!
Thanks, Nancy, for your posts on preparedness. You lay it out all so simply that I'm sure it's a real motivation for folks just starting out. Unfortunately, there are still so many people who think we're nuts to "work so hard" at gardening, preserving, and cooking from scratch and it's difficult to convince them that when things get really tough, our government won't step in to take care of them. Looking on the positive side (!), the larger the number of those who are prepared, the better off we as a society will be. So here's to canning/freezing those veggies and drying those tomatoes . . . and homemade mac and cheese!
Thanks for commenting Paula! You're really smart to do what you can for sure. I started our pantry closet years and years ago and a spare bedroom. I just really amp things up the spring when I started seeing the writing on the wall. I think the hydrating is definitely worth it and hydrators here are very inexpensive about 35 or $45. They don't take up much space or use much electricity. Yes really when you rehydrate things they do taste pretty much just like fresh. I have dehydrated homegrown tomatoes, store bought spinach and more. And I think there are always ways you can tuck food and water here and there even into an apartment with a small space. Good luck and thank you for commenting I've always wanted to see Portugal!
Thanks for dropping by Michele, it's pretty easy and if you don't own a food dehydrator you can certainly do it in the oven on a very low temperature lots of info out there online! It's great because you don't need much room to store them and they last a long time
Thanks for commenting Angela! I will probably do a few preparedness blurbs here and they're mixed into my regular posts. And you can certainly always read the old ones I even read my own old blog posts sometimes! I think you're right that yes we all need to be more flexible. We've always eating a lot of vegetarian foods and me for instance but some people are hardcore meat eaters only. That's great if you can find your products and afford them if not time to eat other foods then
Her YouTube channel is Appalachia's Homestead with Patara. She's really great and has all kinds of ideas, I just don't get into politics here on my blog so I stay out of that part.
Thanks Mama! Yes I think at least a lot more people do to the lockfown situation got more into gardening making bread ecetera. I think for some it is more as a Hobby though time will tell. When push comes to shove people may just have to figure it out if they want to eat. And it's never too late to start being more prepared especially now! Things appear to only be getting worse so better late than never
Angela I'm going to add a few links to my blog because there may be some other people who'd like to see some of what I've been seeing thanks!
Thank you, Nancy! Around here, dehidrators cost between 50 and 90€ (that's about 58 and 100$), but I'll definitelly buy one. With this awful pandemic and the prices skyrocketing, I want to be prepared.
I don't know if you are a christian, but I am and the Bible says:
"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man." (Proverbs 6:6-11).
I love this verse!
:)
I've had my food dehydrator for over 15 years and it's still going strong! I think they're a great investment and certainly simple oh, you can just put the food in and walk away. Poverty will come to you like a thief amen!
Nancy I can't take my eyes away from that pizza to comment on everything you wrote about lol...I think the idea of dehydrating is wonderful. Canning has its advantages of course. Next year's big purchase will be an Excalibur dehydrator. I have dreams of soup prep and dip prep dancing in my head!!! Oh that pizza....
Thanks rain we had several different versions of the pizza! We can't do a whole lot of dairy but I did do a small amount of mozzarella and topped with some Parmesan cheese. Nothing like your own fresh tomatoes on top of local made dough! I think dehydrators are really great investment. I think I may have one that we can build next summer that would be in outside one which would not require any electricity. Since it's so hot and dry here that might work for us to do larger batches at once
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