What Will Be, Will Be

 Hello dear friends!  Well, first the weather report, because I like to look back on older posts and see what the weather was like on that day:  more snow!  It was warm enough on Sunday for the asparagus to peep out, so when we heard the forecast for snow we ran out and picked it before it was ruined.  Got about a pound.  The first vegetables from the garden are so exciting!

We have a weekly koffee-klatch with our neighbor, Anna, where we discuss current events and hash out all the worlds woes. Ha!  Of late there's been plenty of fodder.  Are we really having inflation?  Are all the shortages for real?  Will we really have a war?  How much is too much prepared? 

My attitude is whether the issues are real or just perceived, you can bet that stores will take advantage of them.  Two things I personally witnessed are the cost of our 12-12-12 fertilizer cost $12.99 last year and the same size bag this year cost $24.99.  Fortunately, because our  governor has acted so crazily in the past, we had stocked up last year when we could purchase some, under the advice of "better safe than sorry". But whether there was an actual shortage of that fertilizer or the store saw an opportunity to make a bigger profit, that I cannot say.  

And our firewood man told us that people are charging $1100 for ten cords, up from $700 last year.   The cost of gasoline to haul it and fuel for the chainsaws hasn't gone up that much!  But oh well, the laborer has to make ends meet also. So yeah, I think inflation is real.  I wouldn't say you have to clean out your bank account or spend your mortgage payment, but what would it hurt to have a little extra of the essentials  you use often stored away for a hedge against inflation?

On the other hand, just before Easter, I bought butter for $1.79/lb!  Haven't seen those prices in ages.  As I always do when I find a fantastic deal on a staple, I try to figure out how much I need for an entire year and buy accordingly.  For me, that meant buying twelve pounds.  This is something I've been doing ever since I had a few dimes to spare, figuring out what was the lowest price and buying a year's worth.  

That's the thing, there's always something on sale.  I bought Honeysuckle White ground turkey for $1.50/lb. last week, which I made into taco meat and canned.  The clerk at the checkout asked me what I was going to do with it.  When I told her, she made a face and said she hated tacos made from ground turkey.  Well, there might come a day when she would be grateful to have that ground turkey.  As a history buff,  I can tell you, people have eaten a lot of worse things than ground turkey to stay alive.

Which reminds me of the people that always say "God will provide".  Maybe His way of providing  for you is by giving you the hint to stock up now.  "Oh, He won't let His people suffer".  Perhaps those Christians aren't familiar with the book of Job?  The life of His Only Begotten Son?  All the martyrs ?  This  very day there are Christians being martyred in China and other countries.  Sometimes He blesses  us with a soft and easy life and sometimes He blesses us even more by giving us trials to strengthen us.  Personally, I have been very poor  in the past and know what it is like to go to bed hungry and no prospects of a meal in the future.  And yes, at the time I kind of felt angry at God and thought it was unfair that I didn't have nice family that cared  and provided for me.  But you know what?   I found Someone that cared and provided more. He did carry me through those times and now I live without fear of the future.  That old saying, "there are no atheists in foxholes", when times are tough, it draws you nearer to Him.  Always remember,  your hard times are not a reflection on His love for you. Bad things do happen to good people.

The other day I was watching some YouTubers and they were all in a panic.  One lady was in tears over the fact that she couldn't find toilet paper and paper towels in the store.  Are we back to that again?  She was working herself into such a state, she was more likely to die from a heart attack than any of the scenarios  she was cooking up in her mind.  About a month ago, a neighbor came over, all upset because they were limiting the food at the grocery store and shelves were empty!  Ran and I had to see for ourselves.  We wandered around the store looking.  Looked well-stocked to us!  Then we found one aisle, the pasta and spaghetti sauce aisle, that had stickers on the shelves limiting two per person.  And the canned soup aisle was sparse. There was an empty spot where the pasta was.  Hardly anything to get in a tizzy about.  There was plenty of vegetable in both the produce and the canned vegetable aisle to make those things from scratch.  Sigh!  Some people have led soft lives!

Another YouTuber was all agitated that today was the day the big war would start.  Will it happen?  I don't know. I do know a few things, though.  Rumors of wars and actual wars have always been with us.  As a child of the cold war I've been hearing it all my life.  My friend Matty, had to wear a dog tag with her name on it at school during the Cuban missile crisis, so the could identify her body in case the school was nuked. (she lived near Cape Canaveral).  And secondly, we have very little control over any of those going-ons.  What benefit is it to work yourself up into a panic over it?  

There was a prayer that was popular in the 70s, the serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen!

So to end a helpful note, here are some of the things I would stock up on to see you through some  very hard times.  If that doesn't happen, you can still eat them: flour, yeast (which can be made into a sourdough starter), cans of tuna or mackerel , oatmeal, some kind of sprouting mixture so you  always have greens , popcorn or rice (cheap good fill-you-upper) some sort of fat (oil, lard, shortening), beans, cornmeal and a few pounds of sugar (as discovered from the $20 challenge I did).  And I'd learn to recognize some foraged foods such as dandelions, lambs quarters, edible mushrooms, purslane., for example.   Perhaps you won't need them, but perhaps someone else will.  And to me one of the most sorrowful things is to say to someone is, I'm sorry I haven't any to give, because when I could have been stocking up, I was wasting my resources foolishly.  This I know from experience.