May 9
The melting snow drips off the barn roof and fills the chicken yard with mud. When we open their little door, the chickens come running out, excited by the sight. They stomp around, looking silly, the mud sticking to their feet like big black boots, but they don't care. The prospect of earthworms or bugs makes up for any discomfort they feel.
Today the road looked pretty good, so we ventured out for supplies. Our closest town is Parowan, the county seat, which has a small grocery store, a couple of gas stations, a hardware store, a wood lot, two banks, and an auto parts store. We can get the basics there, but not much more. Instead, we made the big trek into Cedar City to buy groceries. It’s about 25 miles, of which most is freeway, speed limit 75. It only takes a half hour to get there, but it uses a fair bit of gas. At today's gas prices, we try not to go any more often than we have to. We made the rounds of the various stores: Lin’s has the best meat, produce, and dairy; Albertsons has the cheapest pharmacy; and Wal-Mart for lower-priced paper products and canned goods. And of course we stopped at IFA for feed. While in town, we bought a few dozen bars of soap, some more canned goods, and a couple of extra bags of dog food. We didn’t buy more grain or legumes. The prices on flour and rice have gone way up, but there's no shortage here, and when you buy it in bags it doesn't keep very long and it's easy for the mice to get into. So we didn’t really extend our food supplies much, but at least we now have some extra pre-cooked food in case of inclement weather.
The Mormon Church is big on preparedness, and though we’re not members, it seemed prudent to explore their recommendations, living where we do. They say we should have a full year of food and necessities, like our neighbor Steve does. We started working toward that, but stopped at about four months. Of course, we also have chickens and goats, so there’s a steady supply of protein for as long as we can feed them. Sarah and I had talked about buying gold, but I wouldn’t know where or how to get a good deal. And gold mutual funds won’t do us much good for buying groceries in an emergency. I figure ammunition may be a better bet. It’s certainly more familiar, and in a crisis would be easily traded or liquidated. I went online and ordered a few thousand rounds of 7.62 x 39, the standard ammunition for the AK-47 and SKS assault rifles. It’s not cheap: the price is up to $270 per thousand rounds when you include the cost of shipping. But UPS brings it right to our door, making it easy to buy. And I figure it’ll hold its value in good times and bad.
"We should stockpile condoms," Sarah suggests.
"Why?" I ask her.
"So when we die, people will wonder why we had them all," she says, laughing.
I laugh, too. This is why I love her so much.
Today the road looked pretty good, so we ventured out for supplies. Our closest town is Parowan, the county seat, which has a small grocery store, a couple of gas stations, a hardware store, a wood lot, two banks, and an auto parts store. We can get the basics there, but not much more. Instead, we made the big trek into Cedar City to buy groceries. It’s about 25 miles, of which most is freeway, speed limit 75. It only takes a half hour to get there, but it uses a fair bit of gas. At today's gas prices, we try not to go any more often than we have to. We made the rounds of the various stores: Lin’s has the best meat, produce, and dairy; Albertsons has the cheapest pharmacy; and Wal-Mart for lower-priced paper products and canned goods. And of course we stopped at IFA for feed. While in town, we bought a few dozen bars of soap, some more canned goods, and a couple of extra bags of dog food. We didn’t buy more grain or legumes. The prices on flour and rice have gone way up, but there's no shortage here, and when you buy it in bags it doesn't keep very long and it's easy for the mice to get into. So we didn’t really extend our food supplies much, but at least we now have some extra pre-cooked food in case of inclement weather.
The Mormon Church is big on preparedness, and though we’re not members, it seemed prudent to explore their recommendations, living where we do. They say we should have a full year of food and necessities, like our neighbor Steve does. We started working toward that, but stopped at about four months. Of course, we also have chickens and goats, so there’s a steady supply of protein for as long as we can feed them. Sarah and I had talked about buying gold, but I wouldn’t know where or how to get a good deal. And gold mutual funds won’t do us much good for buying groceries in an emergency. I figure ammunition may be a better bet. It’s certainly more familiar, and in a crisis would be easily traded or liquidated. I went online and ordered a few thousand rounds of 7.62 x 39, the standard ammunition for the AK-47 and SKS assault rifles. It’s not cheap: the price is up to $270 per thousand rounds when you include the cost of shipping. But UPS brings it right to our door, making it easy to buy. And I figure it’ll hold its value in good times and bad.
"We should stockpile condoms," Sarah suggests.
"Why?" I ask her.
"So when we die, people will wonder why we had them all," she says, laughing.
I laugh, too. This is why I love her so much.
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