Stock piling
Would you have enough food for three days if there as a pandemic and health authorities ordered everyone to stay at home? Would you have enough food and water without power and water supplies?
According to research undertaken in Queensland (state of Australia) last year, 93% said yes, they did have enough food - however only 53% had enough if power or water supplies were interrupted.
And did you know that supermarket stocks would be depleted with 2 to 4 weeks with replenishment from the suppliers.
I have enough tinned food to last more than 3 days and as I store long-life milk I have plenty for at least a week, however I don't store water (don't own a tank) and live some distances from a creek. It does get you thinking about this sort of event. Without the ability to cook, things start to become a problem before too long. However I do have a very tall gum tree which I could start to use as fire wood!!!
Those who live in the countryside would be better off than those who live in densely populated areas, where people tend to eat out more and don't have a veggie garden or a couple of chickens. It does show how reliant we are on power and water being delivered to our homes and that we have lost the ability (on mass) to be able to produce our own food, therefore if a pandemic did strike we would be in trouble pretty quickly. I don't think my 3 little tomato plants will make much of a differences.
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We have a lot of food stocked in our house, but we don't store water (could collect a lot of rainwater in a hurry though if this rain continued!). We don't have enough of a garden to make a difference this year either. I would love to be able to be self-sustained (garden, tank, animals etc), but it's really hard to do all that in this expensive country!
ReplyDeleteIf there was a crisis, we would all have to have lots of faith (at least we have God who we can be sure would provide our every need just as He has provided for His children through all the droughts and famines and other troubles throughout history - think of Joseph's day and some of the other Bible stories!)... And of course that's what God wants - for us to have faith in HIS provision, not faith in our pantry supplies!! :) :) :)
You can save water in empty Chlorox bleach jugs. The trace amounts of Chlorox will help to keep algae from growing in the water. After a while, dump the water out, since it will get old. Don't use it for plants or drinking, because of the trace amounts of bleach.
ReplyDeleteI use old milk jugs. When this gets too old, I can use it to water my plants, indoors or out, or to drink, unless it is too old. Rotate them.
What a lovely looking garden! Being semi~rural we *grow our own* & have plenty of firewood available. Water would be our issue. I keep some in glass jars in the fridge but nowhere near enough & frankly I always think the biggest problem the lack of power makes is with sanitation. We have a solution for that thanks to being waterfrontage but most people don't.
ReplyDeleteGaneida - It is an interesting topic to think about, not that I want to experience it at all. What it really shows is how dependent we are on others to supply water, power and quite right sewage. It hasn't taken that many decades to become helpless and our children are probably worse than us. How would they live without computers and phones!
ReplyDeleteI am a big user of rice and pasta -however these are things I couldn't "make myself" as I don't know the first thing of turning grain into flour!! Thats the end of bread as well.
I don't have anything stock piled. I should and I have felt a nudging inside. I really need to hop to this!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the reminder!
Love,
Beth
We have water jugs, and probably enough food for awhile...we have stocked piled before, but probably need to look at it again.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised by your percentages...that seems higher than I would say we have in the United States
We would be ok for food for a few weeks, but water might be a problem! We rely on God for provision but I think He expects us to use wisdom, and take example from Proverbs about preparedness for the future. Of course we must not worry or fret about it..as Jesus said :-) Interesting topic Jo. blessings..Trish
ReplyDeleteTrish/Clara - I am sure the Lord would provide in a disaster like that, it would certainly be a test of our faith.
ReplyDeleteYes it would be, I agree Jo. I would like to have a woodstove for cooking as well as warmth. If it heated the water too, that'd be good. When we've had blackouts in Winter we have been so thankful for our wood heater. I prefer not to have everything hooked up to electricty. When it snows here the power sometimes goes out for hours. I wonder how it would be to live 'off the grid'- could I do it?! I like the idea :-)blessings..Trish
ReplyDeleteOur milk comes in plastic gallon jugs. We always keep at least a couple of these downstairs in the deep freeze full of water, in case of emergency. I think the item that we would miss the most in times of crises would be milk. We buy three gallons a week for the two of us to drink!
ReplyDeleteI think I need to clean out my pantry dear Jo - I know that I could probably go for about a month on what is stored inside there!
ReplyDeleteVicki