abby « Robin Writes

A lot. That sums it up nicely, but makes for a very boring story . . .

We’ve planted the April half of the garden:

Two-year asparagus crowns and some seed, just in case;

Potatoes;

Spinach;

Onions;

A few tomato plants, and have some starters to put out next week;

Carrots;

Cabbage;

Garlic;

And kale.

And of course, we have herbs growing on the back porch: cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, and a few others. Next week, we’ll add beans, corn, cucumbers, squash, melons, and peppers to the garden.

So far, NO DEER!

They come up the house and hang out and eat corn and mess with the salt block almost every night; the first wave usually arrives around 9:30 for a few hours and the next one shows up about 4:30 in the morning.

We also added two cherry trees to the orchard and two more blueberry bushes. We’re cultivating a section of wild raspberries and started two grapevines—all of this is INSIDE the FUD. Thank goodness.

I’ve put in some flowers around the house and moved a few iris. I swear, there are bulbs all over this place, and in random spots. Planted my rose cuttings from the St. Louis house and started a few more.

Last Saturday, we went to an auction about 45 minutes away. Came home with two ATVs, a newer tiller, a saddle, and a blade. My husband has been having fun with that ATV and blade—but naturally, my ATV needed some work, so the poor guy spent all day yesterday tinkering with it.

Oh, it runs. Until it doesn’t.

I think I could get used to going out in the woods on this, though. Its name is le Pew. Since the Mule was christened Pepe and both machines are quite contrary, I figured they were related.

Remember that rock crop? When we had the garden plowed, the guy brought his wife and kids to pick up rocks. Now we have a huge pile by my old rock wall; I call it the snake pile. Haven’t seen one yet, but am being very, very careful! I’ve been moving rocks up to the house to stabilize the bottom of the lattice around the decks.

And I swear that snake pile is growing. It never seems to get smaller.

Is there such a thing as over-prepping? Yes, particularly when it comes to food.

I finally got my supply closet a bit more organized and was a little surprised to discover 12 bottles of ketchup. Twelve.

Now, when there were three of us or even five of us, I think we went through a bottle maybe once a month. Since we’re down to just two, I’m estimating that bottle would last two months.

Which means I have two years’ worth of ketchup, an item that I can make myself if the tomato crop is good. And I’m not even sure how it happened, but I’m guessing it’s for the same reason that we have two jars of Miracle Whip in there too:

My husband doesn’t look in the cabinets or closet before he goes shopping.

To be fair, he used to call me like ten times—okay, five. Seriously. During a shopping trip my phone would ring off the hook. So to speak. And the reason he was going, and not me, was because I had a lot of things to do already. So he’d call.

I broke him of that habit, but the trade-off is that we have extra stuff that he might think of at the store and just grab “in case.”

I think, though, I have a solution:

I hung a whiteboard in the supply closet to make a list of things needed. Take a picture before you go, and voila, you have the list to pick up any sale items. Plus, of course, the regular grocery list.

IF SHTF happened any time soon, we’d be ready. And ketchup is a vegetable, right?

Just kidding. But we’re nearly fully stocked for a good six months—for two-three people. And this is how it should be.

The other side of prepping is this:

For example, I have a couple packages of store-bought cookies in that supply closet. Now, of course they need to be rotated like everything else, but they’re “emergency” cookies. My husband and I have very different ideas of that word. “Emergency.”

I’m all for cutting back and toughing it out—even with food. I cook a little less; not less often, I’m talking about portion size. It’s something we’re trying to get back to, particularly since as one ages, one needs fewer calories. Yes, I take the workload into consideration. But the typical diet in the US consists of overinflated portions, restaurants and at home alike.

So if I feel like having a Chips Ahoy cookie, and I know where they are, I might or might not take a stroll and grab that package. But only if I happen to being going that way anyhow—I’ll wait and maybe remember to get it.

See, when SHTF, you’re not going to be able to run to the store just for a cookie, and you might really NEED that damn cookie. The heck with your appetite or calorie intake, your emotional health is important too. And cookies make a lot of things better.

And this is the other side of prepping: your mental and emotional preps. Get used to doing without or doing with less now, and if it happens, you won’t be caught by surprise. It’ll be just another day as far as your habits and health are concerned.

But you can always make oven fries to use up all that ketchup:

Oven Fries

Scrub potatoes

Slice to your preference

Toss with olive oil

Season with whatever you like: garlic, onion powder, pepper, anything in your spice rack/cabinet.

Bake at 425 for about half an hour or so, stirring once or twice, until as crisp as you like.