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“What you imagine as overwhelming or terrifying while at leisure, becomes something you can cope with when you must, there is no time for fear.” Rebecca Solnit |
I wrote this and my other blogs focused on the modern homesteading life. Always pointing out to my readers that there were no rules. You never had to follow any rules, regulations or guides to being a modern homesteader. People would tell me that they could not do it because they did not, or could not, live off the grid. I knew living off the grid was no proof that you would be a real modern homesteader. I always felt deep inside that I was not really living what people believed it to be. I believed it meant something way beyond living off the grid. Generating your own power really had nothing to do with modern homesteading. Nothing at all.
One thing I have come to recognize is that it is easy to be prepared and be self-sufficient when you live in the country. Not so much living in a city. Especially living downtown in an apartment building. This needs to be the focus of my life now. Being prepared living this way as much as possible. As more people age, they may have to step back from that life of country living. It does help if you have your health and physical ability. I do not. I cannot walk far at all. Barely any distance without my walker. Do not say, "I would never move to the city or a town," instead say, "What would I do if I had to move to a city or town because of my health or financial situation?" You never know.
Instead of waiting for an emergency situation to appear, such as what we are living through now, the Coronavirus. Everyone needs to prepare before it happens. Instead of maxing out your credit cards or using all your savings on buying supplies suddenly, do it before it happens. It won't always be for a virus such as this. It could be a trucking strike, a natural disaster such as a hurricane, a flood, an ice storm or it could be an illness in your family or a new roof expense. If you have your food and supplies and a roof over your head, that is the key to any kind of emergency that might occur.
Since I am living downtown in a small city I have to figure this out. How can I best prepare for anything if I have to stay in my building for two weeks or more? As a senior citizen with mobility issues, this is the plan I have in place. You would need to make your own plan based on your life and health. As long as I do not need to go to the store for anything, I am fine. My son lives down the block from me. So he can always come here to me. This explains why so many people became anxious about getting that toilet paper and food. They always do this when a storm is coming, but now this is country wide not just a certain area. And they did not know how long they may have to stay home.
One thing I think that will hinder your efforts to prepare is if you live with other people, family or not. Many times, I find that others will use your hidden supplies or not want to spend the money on any to begin with. They would rather get a pizza then buy a bag of canned foods to put away. You need to sacrifice. Living alone means it is easier. I can live on leftovers for a week if I cooked a big amount of something. No leftovers get wasted in my home. If I don't want to eat the same thing over and over, I can put it in the freezer.
I do a lot of cooking. I buy larger packages of meat because they are cheaper. Then I repackage them using a vacuum sealer and store them in the freezer in my refrigerator. Even in a small studio apartment I have room for a small freezer, if I chose to have one. I could do store more food. My neighbor has a freezer in her apartment and is never concerned about not having enough food. I don't feel the need to do that. Maybe if I was living with another person I would consider it.
If you are concerned about the expense of stocking up food and supplies, this is the way I do it and have tried to do it for years. Put in your budget a certain amount of money for your prepping food and supplies. What I did was to take the money I used to spend on ice cream, snacks and bread and now I spend that money on my stocking up food and supplies. I might put aside as little as $5.00 a month for that. Then I buy things like canned ground beef, pork, tuna fish, chili beans, garbanzo beans, pasta sauce, vinegar or laundry soap. The next month, I buy completely different things. Just keep doing that. If you use some of it, replace it quickly.
Water is kind of tricky to store for the future. I am not really comfortable with plastic bottles, even though that is now what I am using. I do what I have to do. You need to work with what you have or can get. You could get a water filter for the water that comes from your faucet. If you had the water filter on the faucet at the sink, you could fill canning jars with water when you knew ahead of time about an emergency situation in the near future.
Becoming panicky or depressed over this whole situation will not help you. Stress will cause you to become fearful and that alone can cause you to get sick. My mother always told me not to worry about something until I had no choice. So I try not to worry ahead of time. I just keep on with my life, staying busy and not stressing over what I might get. Now if we are confined to our homes for a certain period of time, it would not cause me to panic. Every time something happens though, it is a test to see what I should or should not do. What did I need that I didn't have? I prepared for a power outage and instead had a different type of emergency. You learn as you live through these emergencies.
