Our freezer is full. Today I picked up the meat from the pig we raised and had butchered. Even after taking a ham, some thick pork chops and sausage to the neighbor who brings his food scraps to the animals, there were still things that didn’t fit. My tetris skills came into full play, and I got nearly everything in, but there was still no room for the large, meaty bones the butcher let us keep, so I spent the day making stock.
It was good timing, too, because some of the carrots and parsnips in buckets of sand in the basement are sprouting, and the last of the leeks are donating their tough outside leaves to the broth. Even a couple of squash from the cupboard by the back porch found their way to the chopping block.
For the bones, I first got all the meat off the bones that I could, and lightly coated the bones and meaty bits with oil. I roasted the meat until it was cooked and sizzling, and put that in the big stockpots of hot water along with the best parts of the past-their-prime veggies. The bones got roasted even longer, until they were as brown and the juices in the pan were thick and sticky. The bones went into the pots and I deglazed the pan with hot water for the stock too. Some handfuls of dried herbs and salt and pepper got thrown in, and it simmered all day. Tonight it will stay on the lowest setting on my stove, and tomorrow I’ll cool and strain it. Most of the stock will get jarred with the pressure canner, and some will be made into soup for dinner. The house smells heavenly, and will probably make me have food dreams tonight.
While going through the freezer and cupboards today, I got to thinking. The election and all the damage being done by executive order has been keeping me up at night with worry. While I’ve been phoning and letter writing and marching and being as activist-ish as I can, it isn’t helping my peace of mind one bit. When I lay down my mind “what-ifs” so much I dread the night. “What if Trump starts a trade war with Mexico and China? What will that do to prices of ...well, everything?” “What if Trump starts an actual war? What would it be like?” Well, you know the worries, because I bet you’ve had a few too.
I don’t have a lot of money. On paper my finances don’t look great, but we don’t feel it because we always have good food, very few wants, and plenty to do, so there is no privation at all. We have low expenses, and I’m good at finding bargains. But that could change if the economy goes nuts. If basic things like toilet paper, shoes, and laundry soap quadruple in price, we’re screwed. If electricity prices shoot up, we are royally and emphatically screwed. I know I’m not alone in this. Depending on what polls you look at, between 40 and 75 percent of the country lives paycheck to paycheck. We would all be screwed.
To feel like I have some control over my future, I’ve decided to become a prepper. Not a dig-a-bunker-full-of-guns-and-ammo prepper, but I want to have stuff that will get us through for a while if inflation goes crazy, and scarcity sets in from lack of trade with other countries.
I shamefacedly admitted to a group of progressive friends that I was thinking about prepping, and told them that I knew it was a nutty thing to do. To my surprise, several of them said that they, too, had thought about it, and a couple actually had started. On one hand it made me feel better, like I wasn’t overreacting to our situation. On the other hand, when so many people I respect see how very bad it might get, it doesn’t calm my worries. I kind of want to be told that I’m paranoid, but I don’t think I am.
Believe it or not, when I typed “progessive prepper” into Google, it brought up very little except a Daily Kos story from back in November-- a story that got very little attention. We must be a very small group. So, where does a low budget prepper start? Luckily, I’ve got a very good head start, since I already raise so much of our food, and preserve it. Our meals could get boring if we couldn’t buy much, but they would still be tasty and nutritious. Its the other stuff that would be hard to get by without. Not having things like shampoo, animal food, and light bulbs would make life really tough, and so much of that sort of thing is imported from China.
So, this week’s project is to clean out the old coal room in the basement, and knock together some shelving from the pile of pallets my neighbor told me I could use. Then, I’ll start spending a couple extra dollars at the dollar store whenever I can, to buy toothbrushes, cheap solar lights, and shampoo. I’ll put them in storage, and use them if I have to. I’ll also see if my local thrift store has winter coats in my grand kids’ upcoming sizes, and maybe winter boots some sizes ahead too.
I really hope that in a couple years I’ll look back at this time and feel silly for being so worried, and the country will be stable. If that happens, I’ll feel proud of my activism that helped bring stability about, and we will donate the boxes of toilet paper and bar soap to the local homeless shelter. I really hope that happens. Please, please, please, let that be our future. But I’ll also read up on how to make my own laundry soap.