Prepping – Food Security

We’ve talked elsewhere about making sure you don’t go shopping over the next couple of weeks, because some people have made what we consider to be credible threats. So here’s the thing… if you’re not already stocked up on canned goods at this point, you’re not ready.

Going out today to pick up a few things, that’s fine. I’m picking up “milk, bread, eggs” on Monday, in the morning when I can have Chris ride shotgun (literally). If something violent happens between now and then, I’ll bake bread, buy eggs from the lady up the street, and pull out the milk powder. We have toilet paper, cleaning supplies, food (fresh, frozen, canned, and dehydrated), oil and wood for heating, gas for the stove. I just picked up a zillion candles for free, and we have 2 big jugs of oil for our decorative (and very useful) oil lamps. The world can go to hell; we’ll be fine.

If your cupboard is bare, you’re too late. If you don’t have things squirreled away “just in case,”  you’re too late. I need to hammer that into everyone’s heads. The only excuse for not having a stash, at this point, is if you just started prepping in the past couple of months. Even then, if you’ve been reading my posts, ignorance is not an excuse. You KNOW.

Head on a swivel is not enough. If shit is going down, you’re not going shopping. You’re going to tell your spouse she can’t have the milk and eggs she wants. She’s going to make unhappy noises, and your life is going to be miserable. The fact that it’ll be short lived doesn’t mean a thing when you’re actually living it.

If you want food security, you have to make it. That means long term stuff like planting a garden, knowing how to hunt and trap, understanding how to dress and prepare meat for canning or the freezer. It means having canned goods on hand, stashed in a back corner or under a bed. It means having enough toilet paper or equivalent on hand so that you don’t have to be concerned. If you truly want to be prepared, and today is a good day to be prepared, then starting now is not good enough.

I am hoping that the people calling for riots and stealing are just making noise. I am preparing for them to be telling the absolute truth. If that means I don’t go shopping this week or next, we’ll be fine. Instead of beef tips and chicken breast, we’ll be eating tongue and heart and lots of soup over the next couple of weeks. But we have the food. Do you?