Okay, so here’s the truth...up until three years ago…no, not so far back….okay, eighteen months ago…it never occurred to me that there was ever any other way to procure a loaf of bread other than to hop in the car, drive seven miles to the nearest grocery store, and hit the bread isle.  Oh, and while I was there I would just grab anything else that was prepackaged, chemically preserved, and easy to stick in the microwave for the evening meal.  Next would be the laundry isle where I would proceed in choosing some sickeningly high priced laundry detergent that only lasted a month.  It also never occurred to me to take coupons along with me and to look for sales to get the best bang for my buck.

Americans today, spend more time looking for the fast, cheap, manufactured ways of making their life easier and, for lack of a better term, complete.  The busyness of life prompts many to cut corners, procrastinate and just plain turn a blind eye to the possibilities (and eventualities) of coming crises.  I know I was one of them.  It is always easier to “live in the now” and not worry about tomorrow, right?

Everything changed for me one Sunday as I was attending a preparedness meeting at my church.  First, they started talking about things that I had never heard of before, like “mylar bags” (no they are not, I later found out, old birthday balloons), and oxygen absorbers (uh?).  It got me thinking.  You mean to tell me that I can prepare all that I need for my family without my thrice daily trips to the grocery store?  That gardens are good and that dehydrating fruit and veggies are better for you than the fruit leathers and dried fruit you can buy commercially?  That water is essential and do I have enough for my family if something happens to our water supply?

Wow…a whole new way of thinking emerged and I began to learn how to can and dehydrate.  I started a garden for the first time and it did great!  I installed a laundry line in my back yard and began drying clothes outside instead of in what many don’t know is the most expensive appliance used in the home, the dryer.  I started learning how to bake homemade bread from scratch with a sourdough starter (easy!) and created a cooking fire pit in my back yard to learn to cook in a cast iron Dutch oven.  I began couponing and looking for the best deals and also networking with friends and family to take advantage of group buy specials for food storage.  (My mom still looks at my strange though…I’m still working on her).  Oh and did I mention, I am testing for my black belt in American Karate within the year (watch out intruder!).

I get giddy with excitement when I see rows and rows of recently canned green beans, tomatoes and pickles on my kitchen counter, a load of laundry hanging on the line outside and a loaf of artisan sourdough rising in next to the fireplace.  I never knew there would be such satisfaction and fulfillment in saying “NO” so the industrial world and ways of doing things.  I sit back and think I have a lot to learn yet but I am barreling down the tracks to the good ole days of self-reliance and preparedness.

Excuse me, please.  I have some cheese to wax.

A.N. MT

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