I was raised in a family that always had food storage, I thought it was totally normal to have fathers, and uncles that hunted each fall, aunties that all had gardens, and to be sent to the cellar to get Pickles, relishes and fruits raither then to the cupboard.

I was raised to believe that you should have a min of six to eight months of food in the house, It was based on the growing cycle for my climate, on good years, when we have bumper harvests, its always a wonderful idea and joy to be able to put up two years worth of goods, as an example would be tomato’s, I had a wonderful crop in 08, put away almost two full years worth, which turned out to be a very good thing, as we have a crop failure in 09 with blight, (as did many) and a good crop last year 10, where I again put away 2 years worth, just in case. 

My father works hard but he choose a living that has boom and bust cycles, you make really good money when you work but there are times of the year you don’t work (spring Breakup) and there are times, there just is not enough work to go around, till the next job starts, I am aware that this has helped make me who I am, as I watched us often go from plenty to rationing in different ways, and while my DH works a steady regular job, I can’t seem to stop myself from prepping just in case.

This stocking up on food, and household goods, allows us to have a buffer and the wiggle room to wait for sales on goods, which in turn allows us to stretch our buying power just a little bit more.

Add in what I see happening in the world in terms of rising food prices, rising costs in power, rising costs in gas, and the fact that I believe that we are a climate change, which is effecting crops and countries (my heart goes out to so many of the area’s/countires/peaple that has had natural disaster happened in the past couple years and is still happening in Japan)

With our global  network linked in regards to almost everything that touches our daily lives,  we have a couple choices, Put our heads down and just keep plowing ahead, hoping for the best, or read, learn, panic and feel overwhelm, an plow ahead making no real changes, because how in heck can anything we do make a difference.

Or in my case, Read, learn, watch, listen and quietly step sidewise, grow alot of my own food, raise my own meat, have my own milk, my own fruit, make choices to spend my money on life style choices and in keeping with that comes the ability to choose to stock or prep now to help in regards to future needs covering as broad as base as possable.

What about you? How are you feeling about these issues? Are you taking some extra baby steps to get a few more things in the house? or are you taking big old leaps in regards to getting your things in order? or are you happy to stay the course with what you are currently doing or not doing?