That Which Is Useful

I know a lot of Christians who are stockpiling right now. I am seeing a LOT of talk, and I tell you that a LOT of it seems VERY much pre Y2K.

Anyone remember that? We were looking for our first house about that time, and I remember seeing several houses where every spare space was STOCKED with food. Even the bathrooms! I remember laughing and thinking how sad that they did not trust the Lord. And of course, there was no run on the stores, no mass hysteria or any of the other things predicted.

And while I do not expect another Y2K type thing, I do think it is smart to stockpile right now.

Two reasons.

First. The price of food is only going to rise. As the value of the dollar falls, commodities like produce and other foods will rise in price. We have already seen that. And it will only go higher. I do know that in Europe, there are already bans on what kind of foods you can buy and how much of it. There was an interview of a restaurant owner who was complaining that not only had the price of rice (he was the owner of an Indian restaurant and their main staple is rice!) doubled in the past few months, but now he is only able to get a limited amount. He talked about how lucky he was that he was friends with the store owner because he was able to get a little more rice than others just because of the friendship. But even the friendship is not allowing him to get the amount he needs for his store.

Am I filling up every spare room in my house? Not even close. Am I being a better steward and seeking out sales and stockpiling more than usual? You bet! Is it done in panic? No. Is it done in an effort to be a good steward of what God has provided and get the best I can for my money? Absolutely.

Secondly, suppose they are right. Suppose the worst happens. I look back at the 1930's and how many people felt that nothing bad would or could happen. And they were totally unprepared. I would rather be in a position of being able to provide for my family, and possibly even share with others, than scrambling to provide.

But I am not stockpiling on things that I do not use or think we will need. I could stockpile on cigarettes to barter in the future should prices become so high that those who are addicted would be willing to trade food, jewelry or services since they are unable to afford to buy them from the store. That to me is panicking.

But stockpiling on dry beans when they go on a good discount (we love beans over here), or rice (yes, we love beans and rice - the secret is in the seasoning) as well as herbs and spices (the secret is in the seasoning remember?) just means being prepared. It is almost the same as having an emergency fund. You plan for the worst and hope and pray for the best. It is good to have it, just in case. I know that it would have been nice to have an emergency fund when JJ ended up in the hospital.

And even if the worst doesn't happen with the economy and all that, what if the worst should happen privately? Like another month long stay in the hospital, or my husband not being able to work for a period of time?

I have also been more careful about the things we have been bringing into our home.

Yesterday at Goodwill, I taught the girls to look for items made from 100% wool. This will help us stay warm during the winter months AND, if needed, can be felted to make other items. It was HARD to find things that 100% wool. Most everything was either 100% polyester or 100% cotton. We did find a sweater for myself (OH so nice and warm) as well as a sweater for EE. And a shirt (100% merino wool) for beloved.

We also bought some plastic trays (the kind like at a cafeteria). I figure that is MUCH cheaper than washing tablecloths and placemats so frequently. AND it will help keep crafts in one place so we lose less beads and other craft items.

We bought some books for $.50 which I plan on swapping on PaperBack Swap (where I get all my books for FREE! Even if I were to pay 1 cent for a book on another site, I would have to pay near $4 shipping. I pay media rate to mail off my books - $2.32 at the moment, which gives me 1 book credit to get 1 free book. So it is ALWAYS cheaper to PaperBack Swap than to buy.) It is GOOD to have an iPhone or some sort of way to check the internet to make SURE the book you are about to buy is wanted. There were quite a few that I almost bought, but when I checked, there were already SEVERAL of them online. It would have been a waste of money and space to buy and list it for who knows how long!

I also need to go by some bakery and get those buckets every one talks about getting to store grains.

Well hopefully this has been useful to SOMEONE! :) What are things you think are necessary to stockpile? I read one woman is also stockpiling things that are nice for her so that should a time come where the price rises too much, she would still be able to feel like she was not deprived. What are your thoughts? Are you stockpiling?

Making It On One Income

Read this GREAT POST on how this one family makes it on one income. GREAT ideas, some I had not even thought of before.

I DID IT! Chicken Time!!

Well, I did it!! After talking about chicken tortilla soup, I had to do it!

So here is what I did.

We roasted the chicken (a la Alton Brown).

We took everything he had us cut out (minus all the guts, I just could not bring myself to do anything with them at this time - I hope to get over my fear of the innards soon as I know I want to waste as little as possible), plus all the bones (which my husband lovingly took all the meat off for us to eat that night) and the drippings from the pan.

We then added carrot chunks, celery chunks (with leaves), onion chunks (with skin). Then we followed a recipe for Healthy Herbal Chicken Stock which will help us fight off colds and flu this winter season. They call it a tonic. :)

It simmered all night long! Then this morning, I made the condensed cream of chicken soup and used some to make the chicken tortilla soup for lunch and froze the rest of the herbal chicken stock and cream of chicken soup. Which is 8 cups of stock (which honestly is about two soups worth for our family), and about 3 cans worth of the cream of chicken soup.

Which brings me to a question. How do you freeze liquids without using plastic? Everything out there I read said to use freezer bags. I am hoping to move away from those. (Although with the success of using cereal bags around the freezer bags I am really happy and liking the ease of freezer bags, especially for things like frozen veggies.) But with soups I would really like to use something NON-plastic. Can I use canning jars? Anyone with any advice?

Darning

Well, I did it! I have to sadly admit hat when things got a hole in them, I usually got rid of them. But not this time! I just finished darning two pairs of stockings and the crotch of a sleeper for JJ (that we had gotten from the clothing swap). It feels SO GOOD and literally took only MINUTES!

Why and HOW do we ever get the notions that things take longer than they actually do? I mean, when I set my timer for 15 minutes and say to myself I will clean for at least 15 minutes (a la FlyLady) I am ALWAYS amazed at how much I was able to do in such a short amount of time. I look at the sink and think to myself that will take so long to do, I will just wait, I don't have the time. But when I time myself, I get the sink done, wipe down the stove and counters, and even get to organize a little all in 15 minutes!

I used to get rid of things that needed some little TLC (like the holey stockings) because I always thought it would take too much time to fix it. But today I found out that if I do it right away, a stitch in time really does save nine. Nine DOLLARS to replace those stockings!! :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Found a recipe for Six Can Chicken Tortilla Soup from stockpiling. It looks REALLY good and easy to make. We are about 95% vegetarian. But every once in a while when you find a yummo recipe, you just gotta have you some chicken tortilla soup!

I also found a recipe for Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup. She mentions making a big batch and freezing (LOVE that!).

Now I just need to find out how to make chicken stock/broth. I was watching some show my husband downloaded off the internet. It was a 20/20 like special from the UK. In it, they were showing how the rising prices of groceries were affecting everyone's budget. THen they had a chef come in and EVERYTHING was made from scratch. VERY 1930's! The chicken was made into a broth by using the bones and onion skins. I mean NOTHING was wasted.

I found a recipe on Tamm'ys for Tammy's Chicken Broth. But I do not see quite what I am looking for. Hmmm...

Maybe I will just have to find a 1930's cookbook. Does anyone know how to make this kind of broth/stock?

PVC Greenhouse

I found some online plans for how to build an inexpensive greenhouse.

I am not sure about doing this. I know that in the past when I have researched greenhouses, they actually require a bit more work than just set it up and let it go. There is temperature and air control. We do have a space heater which can be mounted to a wall (even though this greenhouse would have no walls, I wonder if we could build a small wooden one in there?). I think it definitely requires more looking into.

Has anyone built this type of green house (or ANY type of green house?). Any words of wisdom you can share??

Showers vs baths

I had to laugh when my husband suggested measuring the water meter to see just how much water we saved by taking showers over baths. Have you ever done it?

Make sure all the water is off and will not be running (no watering lawns, no running dishwashers or laundry). Look at the numbers on your meter. Now take a shower. When you are done, go check the meter and look at the number. A couple of days later, when you are needing a bath, do the same thing. Make sure no water is running and check the meter before and after your bath.

I know I was shocked. I mean I knew that showers used less water than baths, but for me, I use about 3-4 times as much water in a bath as I do in a shower! I also noticed that for the kids baths (where I put in less water than I would in a bath for me), it was only about twice as much as my shower (and I take fairly quick showers).

SO the question then becomes, is it more cost effective to have the kids shower or bath? Well, according to my thinking, a bath would use less water for the kids than showers for the kids. Why? We have four kids. :) One or two, I can understand the argument for a shower over a bath. But it seems the more children you have, the more beneficial, water and cost wise, the bath is.

Why? Because they all use the same bath water. :) I use a little less for the littler ones, and then add some more hot water for the older ones once the little ones are out. This has worked VERY well for us