How are ya'll doing?

RhondaBusby
RhondaBusby Posts: 22 ✭✭✭
edited November 2020 in Encouragement

How is everyone holding up during this time? Any blessings or lessons learned? I'm taking this time to reset and re-evaluate things. Trying to bring some calm amidst the storm. Blessings everyone :)

Comments

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We live in Alaska in a small village. Have had folks from the cities coming out to purchase everything they can because their stores are out. People calling in a panic, because they don't have supplies and foods on hand for their families and many places are sold out. I am totally amazed at how many people here have not learned to keep enough on hand to last a minimum of 2 weeks. We have earthquakes, snow storms, avalanches and other weather and natural issues. As well as many areas only have one road in or out. Many things can disrupt our supply chain. Even a trucking strike or similar in the lower 48 can have a major impact here on any given day. We should always have at least two weeks if not more on hand. I would recommend it to folks in other areas as well. You never know when something can happen where you are laid off or for some reason fall on a tough time. It brings peace of mind to know you can take care of your family even when things are not going well. As for my husband and I we will be just fine.

  • solarnoon.aspen
    solarnoon.aspen Posts: 219 ✭✭✭

    I also live in a low population area - in the Canadian Rockies. We are homesteaders, and can go quite a while without stores for ourselves, However my big concern right now is availability of feed for the animals. Everything is changing so fast that I really don't trust that trucks will bring grain for animals, even though the feed stores assure me it will be no problem. I wish to self isolate, which is not too different from usual. However, I've been to town more lately than ever before, as the stores won't allow a person to purchase more than a week's worth of feed and I'm trying more than one store. It's fair what they are doing, and I totally understand , but I am wondering if I should cull some animals and make the feed last longer.

  • VickiP
    VickiP Posts: 586 ✭✭✭✭

    We are looking at the feed situation also. While not exactly preppers we do always have plenty of food and other essentials on hand but you can only store so much feed. So far the supply chain in our area is holding up. All we have right now is chickens, we free range the older birds but the new ones are kept in a tractor with an exercise area. If worse comes to worse we can free range all of them and just give a little grain. We also have some roosters we are finishing up to butcher so we can take care of that a little early and reduce the feed even more.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    I live on the outskirts of a big city, stores have been selling out of tp, milk, and bread. Many stores have nothing left as others are busy at restocking their shelves. Talks are coming up as just the essential stores remain open; gas stations, grocery stores and banks. The date from April 15 to turn in tax information has been increased to July 15. Over 95,000 unemployment applications have been turned in for those from the hospitality industry, mostly restaurants and bars. Almost everything, all schools and businesses have been closed. So many people remain in their homes with their children keeping them home-schooled. I’ve been staying active with my lifestyle change living happy thin and free from food addiction and its struggles, also tending a very small garden. Looking forward to spending time in the yard.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @solarnoon.aspen Check in here! 😁

    Feed has been of a bit of a concern, but for us in the Prairies, it may just be a matter of calling up neighbors and working something out. It might not be the usual feed for the birds (the larger livestock won't have any change), but it would work. We need to get grit locally today, but that should not be an issue here yet.

    As far as a job, our income has been unaffected to this point. As far as our sustainability, we should be good for at least a month or more without having to go in for anything. After that point, we will see what's up. We will have meat eggs & milk and whatever is in the freezer at the very least. Not much will be growing here in a month (way too early), so that's no help.

    Being as we are life long homeschoolers anyway (I was homeschooled & we have homeschooled for almost 21 years now & counting), shutdowns haven't affected us beyond our extras such as sewing mentorship class & judo.

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We always buy our feed for the chickens by the pallet, and currently have enough on hand to get through at least June. If we go get some spent grain from the brewery down the street we can probably make through July with just what we have. Once the huge amounts of snow melt we can add free ranging to stretch things even further. Right now this is the only animals, other than our dog we have. We always keep a couple months worth of dog food on hand as well. Not preppers either but know everyday could bring a situation to cause us issues.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I, too, live in a rural area. Our nearest urban community is half an hour away and it services a surrounding, outlying population as far as a 280 mile radius. We are also experiencing shortages but nothing like I am reading reports of in other areas. Stores have been out of TP & Paper towels for several days. Flour, sugar and potatoes are in very short supply but most things are coming in daily in trucks. If some of the produce is gone later in a day, it will usually be replaced by the next day. Even things like rubbing alcohol, peroxide and other cleaners are being replaced on shelves, although not as regularly as grocery items. When I was in town yesterday, I got everything on my list except for a big bag of potatoes (I did get a 2 lb bag). We also have a general store in our small immediate community and it is still being supplied with dairy and other groceries. I think a lot of people in our area learned lessons from our disastrous fire seasons of 17 & 18.

    The health food store is out of zinc lozenges, elderberry syrup and oil of oregano but still has a good supply of other items. I think that is because we have an unusually large number of Holistic Health Care Providers in our area and most have their own very good supplies of medicines. However, I got e-mail from Harmonics Arts (Canada's answer to Mountain Rose) saying that they were shutting down their website for at least a week to get re-stocked. Finlandia Natural Pharmacy in Vancouver also sent out an e-mail saying that they would not be taking orders online until they could restock.

    N95 half-masks are still available but no paper masks. Our Provincial Health Officer stated yesterday that there are currently enough medical supplies on hand, though this may change.

    I grew up with parents and grandparents who went through rationing during WW2 and have always been taught to be prepared. Just a part of daily life. So we are well stocked on most things that we would need to survive any length of time. Full freezers, full pantry and cold room shelves and lots of herbs & supplies to make preparations and a wide pharmacy of homeopathic remedies.

    Too soon for us to start growing here as well. It will be at least 6 weeks before things can start being seeded. But I have a sprouter and lots of seed.

    Best wishes to everyone on staying well and not experiencing many shortages.