Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ponderng ..... Preparing...... Storing

I watched a documentary yesterday that really had me thinking and if I care to admit it a little anxious. This documentary is Collapse (you can watch instant on Netflix - some bad language spotted throughout the conversations). It mostly spoke of relocalization, collapse of the dollar, etc. I started thinking alot about what we have put in place so far and what still needs to be put in place to help use sustain our lives if something/when something happens. So in a nutshell I went to purchase big groceries today and spent more than planned with stocking some items for emergency purposes. I noticed one thing that I really need to work on is growing our own tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. We use it for so many dishes that I end up buying alot of it. I also need to think about growing so greens for us and the chickens. The area that the chickens are in is devoid of anything green. That might change when spring arrives, have to wait and see. We have very little sun - maybe 4 hours a day of good sunlight. Our garden list this year will mostly consist of tomatoes, lettuce mix, potatoes, and strawberries. Also hoping to hatch one clutch of chicks in the spring to bring in more eggs. For those of you out there that make your own spaghetti sauce, could you share your recipe. If the money is available we are also thinking of creating a pond in the front yard island to raise catfish or trout to eat. See we need another form of protein available to us, because at this point I don't think any of us are prepared to butcher any of the chickens. Can you say attached? Cows, pigs, goats are out of the picture because we only live one acre with no restrictions. Great thing about living out in the country, nobody really cares what you are doing on your property. I know this has kind of been a rambling post, sorry for that, just trying to get my thoughts together. Back to the original thought - spent $237.00 on groceries and such. This should last for 2-3 weeks with some of it going in to longer term storage. Plus purchased dog food, cat food, cat litter, personal items, etc. Trying my hand at a new wheat bread recipe, keeping fingers crossed it will turn out well.

3 comments:

Kelly Rhoades said...

It's time to put in potatoes and lettuce. Too wet for potatoes after the weather we've had, but mine are going in once it's drier.

Frances said...

I think we have that movie in our Netflix queue. I will have to check. I try not to panic when I hear stuff like that, but it is interesting to watch.

Debbie said...

I saw a great article in a magazine called Mary Jane's Farm, about planting your garden items in horse troughs. On her website, she gives complete instructions and has some great advice.
She just had them lined up, side by side.

I might give this a try after the freezing weather goes away.

For spaghetti sauce I just use one container of prepared sauce (Hunts or Ragoo) and then add 1-2 cans of tomato sauce (depending on how much you want to make). Then I add about 1/4 cup sugar and let it simmer. Not fancy, but sweet and good! Oh, and of course, ground beef.