Great report, Amy Dixon! You’ve really been busy.
My gardening efforts are so-so at this point. We had so much rain I think that affected how well things grew and then although I was trying very hard to go all organic, insects attacked my plants with an intense purpose to eat everything – so I had to break down and use some chemical insect control before I lost everything. When I drive to town, I notice huge swathes of the fields that apparently flooded out after planting so crop production is definitely going to be down for our local farmers. And we haven’t had near the flooding other areas have. Will prices be higher this summer? I don’t know but I am stocking in more flour than usual.
I attended the 1969 class reunion I mentioned in one of my previous reports. It was fun seeing former students I had not seen in 50 years and they seemed really pleased I attended. Oldest GD is in Europe studying for six weeks this summer – college credit is granted for what looks like a really fun experience. Recent college graduate, Hannah, is headed home for the weekend and I look forward to seeing her. Carolina, who has been studying in France for the past six months, will be headed home in a couple of weeks. Just turned 16 year old GD has her driver’s license now. And, my recent annual checkup indicates I’m still going strong enough for an 80 year old. Woohoo.
As for prepping, I continue to purchase pantry items, still working toward having a year’s supply put by for one adult as per the LDS guide I am following. Space is becoming a little bit of an issue but as I live alone, I can pile things up where ever I like. I working on getting a couple more rain barrels to add to my water storage efforts. I guess what I’ve come to realize is that in a complete grid down (no electricity, gas or water) I wonder are any of us who still live primarily on the grid really going to be able to cope for an extended period of time? I like to think I can just because I’ve always been a fighter – but the reality of the difficulty of hauling water, cooking outside on a fire, staying cool in hot weather and warm if it is cold makes me wonder how long I could tough it out alone before exhaustion would stop me in my tracks. One can only pray we never have to confront a total grid-down situation.
Oh, that sounded like such a downer….sorry my friends. Just thinking out loud. Hope all ya’ll are doing well and hope some others we haven’t heard from in a while will catch us up on their doings.
G’day and be blessed.