By Danny Quinney (Guest blogger)
So I was talking to a couple of co-workers at lunch recently about the crazy economy, the Middle East, our governments OUT OF CONTROL spending, and the hurricanes brewing off the east coast. In the conversation one of them says, “I’m glad I have a barrel of wheat in my basement”.
“Wheat?” I asked him, “you just have wheat?” He replied, “Weelllll, not JUST wheat, we have some powdered milk and honey too. We are totally prepared”.
I turned to the other guy with a questioning look. He said he doesn’t have any food storage. His budget wouldn’t allow it.
In that minute I had confirmation of what I had always suspected.
ALL MY CO-WORKERS AREN’T VERY SMART.
What does any of this have to do with United Families International (UFI)? EVERYTHING. UFI spends a lot of time and ink on helping us understand how to protect our families. You won’t be doing much “protecting” if your family is starving.
Doomsday?
Now, I’m not a “dooms-dayer”. Well, not an “over the top” dooms-dayer. I don’t own my own radiation suit, and I have never taken courses on “Apocalyptic hand-to-hand combat”, and I wouldn’t know where to start in gutting an animal. But I do understand our society is soooooo very dependent on certain services. If there was a disruption in food distribution, power, or water for any extended period of time it would be a NIGHTMARE. It could be a terrorist attack, or a natural disaster. It wouldn’t take long for many people to become uncivil. Look at what happened in England just recently. Now in your mind add hunger to it. Like I said, it would be a NIGHTMARE. The point is you have to able to sustain yourself and your family.
Of my two friends “Wheat boy” will do better if and when TSFTF (the $#%^ hits the fan) than “Tight budget-boy”, but if “Wheat boy” gave it one minute of thought he would know you can’t go from microwave pizzas, every night, to chewing on raw wheat (when I asked, he said he wasn’t sure how to prepare wheat – he said he would grind it with a rock. When asked if he knows how to make bread, he said, “No”). Guess what “Wheat boy” your body won’t stand for it. You will get really sick.
What if “TSFTF” never happens? All I can say is “WHEW”. I hope it doesn’t!! I’m still glad I have food storage. What if we have hyper-inflation? What if you lose your job? What if your neighbors need food? In the worst case scenario wouldn’t it be nice to have a hedge between microwave pizzas and grinding wheat on the sidewalk?
What might you do?
Some say you should have a year’s supply of food. That’s not bad advice. I know in some countries it is illegal to store food. I don’t understand the reasons behind these repressive laws, and I’m certainly not advocating breaking them. I do suggest you store as much as you legally can.
Do I have years supply of food? Not even close. I think it is a less-then-clever idea not to have something squirreled away. A bag of rice and some canned soup is a good start.
What I do in addition to the occasional bag of rice, bucket of wheat and canned goods, is save up and every once in a while I purchase one of those pails of freeze dried food. I have never actually tried them. And I hope I never have to. Those would be used to break up the monotony of beans and rice. We also own a wheat grinder, have a bread maker, and we have a small garden. At least we know some of the basics. Every once in a while we will take an empty 2 liter bottle of soda, fill it up with water and put it in the back of a closet somewhere. We don’t have enough to go frolicking in our yard having a water fight, but at least we have something (this may have been the first time I have ever used “frolicking” in a sentence before). Anyway, that’s what I do. Find something that is right for you.
Honestly, let me tell you, there is NOTHING more satisfying then when you look at your little stash of food and know, no matter what happens, you can at least feed yourself and your family.