09:46 – Barbara yanked out our pathetic broccoli plants the other day. Their leaves looked moth-eaten, and there were no heads developing. Lori, our mail carrier, is just the latest person to tell us that broccoli doesn’t do well up here. Too bad. Barbara and I both like broccoli.
We need to figure out by trial what works for us and what doesn’t, but that’s true of any gardener anywhere. The climate here is definitely different from Winston-Salem. I just realized yesterday that our first frost and first snow up here will probably occur in September, while it’s still summer. It reminds me a bit of growing up in New Castle, PA, where one year I remember there were still traces of snow on the ground on my birthday, in early June.
Email from Jason. He and Jessica now each have a shotgun. They decided to pay the extra price to get Remington 870 pumps. Both are in 20 gauge for ammunition commonality. Jason’s is a standard model, and Jessica’s is a youth model to suit her smaller frame. They also picked up 20 boxes of buckshot to give them 50 rounds per gun as a starting point.
Given that they both work and they have a young child to care for, Jessica convinced Jason that they didn’t have time to repackage bulk staples, so they decided to make a run or runs to their nearest LDS Home Storage Center and pick up a bunch of dry staples in #10 cans. That costs more than buying 50-pound bags of stuff and repackaging it themselves, but they both considered that a worthwhile trade-off. That fits well with the considerable amount of food they’ve already bought at Sam’s, most of which is canned. At my recommendation, they’re buying a lot of white flour rather than wheat. It’s rated at only a 10-year shelf life, but in fact it’ll be good for far longer and it’s much more convenient to use, particularly under emergency conditions. That also means they don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a good mill.
They do plan to repackage some stuff at home, mainly dry staples that the LDS HSC doesn’t offer. And they’re already putting together an order for Augason Farms stuff in #10 cans and pails. To address the water issue, they’ve already bought several foil packages of HTH for water purification, as well as a Sawyer PointZeroTwo micro-filter. They have easy access to surface water, so an ongoing source of water won’t be a problem. Their goal is to have a one-year supply of food for their family complete in the next 30 days. I suspect they’ll achieve that goal.
With Jen, Brittany, and now Jason/Jessica, I’m seeing an interesting phenomenon. I’ve been exchanging email with newbie preppers for a long time, but there seems to be a new sense of urgency. Instead of just thinking about it and talking about it, a lot more people seem to be actually doing something about it. I suspect the BLM rioting, muslim terrorism, police shootings, and the upcoming election have something to do with that.