author « Robin Writes

As I said last week, there’s lots of talk online and on news channels about “something big” coming in September. Sure, it could just be rumor, but I, for one, don’t want to wait and find out too late.

The market is going down, down, down. If you—like me—aren’t an investor, why should you be worried? Well, I don’t pretend to know all the ramifications, but you can Google it; the main reason, though, is that this is an indicator of economic health.

You know, economics: prices and value and cost. Hey, give me a break; I’m trying to keep it simple. Also, I don’t have enough coffee in me yet to make a lot of sense of this.

The point is that, sooner or later, this effects the prices you’re charged for goods like food, gas, and other products.

Now would be a good time to step your prepping.

And that’s exactly what we did this past weekend: convenience foods, staples, water, etc. And gasoline. Probably a few more things this coming week.

You all know we’re planning to GOOD next spring. We’ve changed the timetable for that too . . .

I decided there were some things that I didn’t want to leave behind, if it came to that, and so I started packing. We’ve gone through two rooms so far, packing and moving things that we likely won’t need between now and spring—so if we have to GOOD sooner, we won’t have such a loss.

But keep in mind a few things:

We’re moving just a few hours away;

We have a place to go to;

It’s not like we could never return, if we needed to or wanted to do so.

I’m not expecting a major apocalyptic event that levels our house or burns down the metro area, although I guess things could get very scary here. I’m not expecting to have to LIAH, but if we did, we’d be pretty well set as far as clothes and personal items and so forth.

Remember, if you have to LIAH, you’re going to be limited in what you can take with you. In our case, we’d grab all the food we could, important papers and cash, phones, wallets, and pets. Not necessarily in that order, in case you’re worried about Fido.

The other thing that has me concerned is, again, the market. Falling shares could mean a run on banks or a banking system snafu. Or credit cards shutting down. It’s been suggested that one withdraw cash in the next couple days, just in case.

That is, after all, what preppers do—look at the just-in-case scenarios.

Now that I have a supply closet in the barn, I can take stock of what supplies I have and what I still need. It’s much easier when everything is organized, and in one place.

Back in STL, I had a shelf in the garage, plus overflow onto the pool table, plus the upper kitchen cabinets. Now, I can walk into a 8 X 8, 6-foot-tall storage unit and see everything on the shelves.

So, what do we have?

Three cases of water bottles. We use these on occasion; they are the most practical to store at this time. When working outside, we use refillable bottles, and we do have a well and a pond. We also have various containers that will hold water, along with other empty containers to repackage certain foods.

Commercially canned vegetables. Not ideal, perhaps, but if one is hungry one tends to worry a whole lot less about GMOs or preservatives and additives. The key is being prepared to ward off starvation, if it came to that. We buy these on sale, a few at a time.

Home-canned fruits and preserves and dried herbs and vegetables, as well as pickles. Okay, so I went a little overboard on the pickles…that’s another subject! Once we make the move, I’ll have more time to do more canning, and we’ll purchase a new deep freeze; I much prefer frozen vegetables to canned.

Commercial spices. These, too, are purchased on sale. Even icky stuff can be made more palatable, which brings me to the icky shelf. You know those food items you accumulate somehow, the ones you’d never eat but immediately find their way into the food drive box? I have a shelf for that. Naturally, I stock and store things we’ll eat—just as I plant the garden—but you never know. Someday, that tin of sardines or whatever might sound good. I doubt it, but ya never know!

We also keep a supply of personal care items: shampoo, soaps, deodorant, toothpaste, etc. We have shelves for first aid and OTC meds, as well as keeping 90 days or more of prescription meds. And of course, household items, such as detergents, dish soaps, paper towels, toilet paper, and so forth.

Now, you don’t have to have a huge supply closet—you can easily tuck things away here and there, in regular closets, top kitchen cabinet shelves, your garage. But you should always keep track of those things: first in, first out. Make a running list and keep it up-to-date so you always know what you have.

That was my problem. I had so many places to store things, and occasionally someone besides me would re-stock the pantry or bathroom. Ahem. It was pretty rare, but it did happen. So I got to the point where I wasn’t entirely sure what I had and what I needed.

You’ll also notice in the picture that there are a few plastic tubs. These are for things that a mouse might find particularly tasty, and yes, that includes toothpaste. Doesn’t do a bit of good for you to store things that are ruined by rodents. We do everything we can to keep their population down, but sometimes they still can find their way inside.