(Continued form Part 2. This concludes the article.)
Preparing for WTSHTF
When I wrote the 7-year food plan, it wasn’t just an idea. I actually did it. I took a guest room in the farmhouse, and half-filled it with food-grade buckets of dried goods and supplies that were calculated to last seven years. It has been nice to be able to pull out anything I needed. In addition to that, I bought several freezers over the past 3 years. They are mostly full as I write this. The last freezer I purchased from Costco was the biggest chest freezer they make, and it was on sale! It is full of pork and beef that I raised here on the farm, and venison that was a gift from a neighbor. The other freezers are full of chicken, and miscellaneous produce and berries that I froze for later processing, and butter and cheeses made from the dairy cows’ milk and cream.
I do worry about extended power outages, but I also purchased a large gasoline-fueled portable generator and stored gas. I have not spent a great deal of time canning, in order to make the freezer foods “shelf stable”, but I have all the canning supplies that I need for putting up a year’s worth of canned food. I have purchased additional supplies over the years, to replenish what I used, but the nice thing is that I rarely go to a grocery store. My “grocery budget” goes into animal feed, but it’s a fraction of the cost of “people feed.”
I also learned to forage on my own property. I am blessed with numerous elderberry bushes that popped up and are thriving. Wild blackberries and honeysuckle started to grow along all my perimeter fences, so I was careful to not cut them down when mowing. I found that Goldenrod, which makes a wonderfully helpful tea (good for kidney health), grows profusely here. Lamb’s Quarter popped up and provided greens for eating that I didn’t have to plant. I am learning more about foraging and plant identification.
I am surprised how many things that grow naturally here are good for eating and for medicinal purposes. I am wondering if it is a byproduct of not spraying any chemicals on the farm. I am not located near any farms that spray chemicals, so I’m not concerned about drift. The God-given plants are free to grow unhindered. Not to say there aren’t undesirable plants, as my latest bout of poison ivy proves out. Ouch.
I also invested in a higher-power firearm and the projectiles to go along with it. What initially spurred me to do so was a black bear sighting. I realized I had nothing that could take down a bear if one decided to break into the garage or house searching for food, or go after the livestock. I know, from my time living in Idaho, that bears are opportunists, and I leave nothing outside that would encourage a bear to rummage. I never did see the bear, but the neighbors did.
Secondly, I have become more concerned about the importation of undesirables being trucked or flown in by our own government, and dropped in various cities in the country. The last count of importations was some 10-13 million. Crime has increased dramatically in the last few years. Although, I’ve never seen a stranger make his or her way up into these hills. I know all my neighbors in the surrounding farms. There is scarcely any crime where I live, but there is an enormous increase in crime in the larger cities that are within a day’s journey of my farm. I wanted a weapon that would stop the threat of a crazed individual in one shot, and a device that could conceivably handle a group of them. I took the advice of the military and law enforcement members in my family and feel that I am now suitably armed. Although I pray I never need weapons of any kind, it would be foolish to not be prepared.
All the money and work that went into this farm was with an eye for surviving an economic collapse. Could I close the gates and not leave for an extended period of time? Yes. Is there room for my extended family to come here to a “safe place”? Yes. Could I defend it by myself? No, even with a good number of big dogs, it’s just not possible. Should such a time arrive, I will invite family here. They are all armed and trained. In the meantime, I don’t worry too much about that. “Prepared, but not scared.”
In Sum
This has been really, really, hard. It’s not just that I do it alone with the occasional hired help. It’s that I had zero prior knowledge of farming. Oh, I’ve had gardens and a few laying hens in the past. But, not a real, working, farm. There are layers upon layers of things that have to work. You must have infrastructure: good fencing, gates, accessible water, productive land, shade trees, decent living structures for people and animals. You don’t want to be in a flood zone – not even in a 100-year flood zone. Our county experienced serious flooding this past Spring. The town seat was literally underwater for days. The local feed store was wiped out, had to be gutted, tons of feed thrown in a dumpster, and the whole layout carefully reconstructed with flooding in mind. I was so thankful that I live up on a hill. As well, we had numerous tornado emergencies across most of the state this past Spring. There was one time when I was huddled in an interior closet under the staircase, in the middle of the house on the ground floor, praying. That huge tornado lifted a couple miles away before it got to my home. I thank God for that. Many were not so blessed. I was very thankful that I decided to get some tree trimmers out months before to get all the old trees away from the only barn that I have. This was an exceptionally adrenaline-provoking Spring.
I do not regret one single thing. Not one. My knowledge has increased 100-fold. My physical strength and stamina are pretty impressive in spite of becoming anemic. I had one bout of heat exhaustion that was pretty serious, but I instantly recognized it and did “all the things”, and recovered in a few days. I realized exactly what I did wrong to bring that on and will avoid it in future. It was a very hot and humid day, and I had appointments in town that morning so I was wearing what I consider suffocating clothing. When I got home, without changing out of my nice clothes, I attempted to load a cow into a trailer who didn’t want to be loaded. A rodeo ensued and by the time the cow was finally loaded, I was dripping sweat head to toe, sunburned, and dehydrated. I had no time to eat or drink that morning. I was completely depleted by the time that trailer left. What ensued was a horrible, pounding, headache, weakness, and the feeling that I couldn’t cool down. I stripped down, ran cold water over the veins in my forearms, cold and wet rags to the veins in my neck, drank lots of fluids, cranked the Air Conditioner, elevated my feet and rested. It took three days to recover, and it’s a wonder that it didn’t kill me. It was definitely too close to heat stroke for my comfort. I won’t be doing that again.
I’ve learned that there is no way I can keep up a home and a farm to my satisfaction. My standards are way too high! Farming, or ranching, is not some digital experience where if you check all the right boxes things magically work. I realized that our modern world helps us believe that we have some sort of invincibility because when we “click”, things happen. It’s a lie! There is no “clicking” out here on the farm. There is shoveling, raking, sweeping, lifting, carrying, pulling, shoving, driving, walking, climbing, running, jumping, etc. It’s all physical work all day long until you decide you’ve had enough, and sometimes you gotta keep going to save an animal’s life.
I have not been this physically strong in probably 30 years. My “normal routine” is to be up and going before the Sun rises, and I keep going until Noon. I’ve learned that I have to rest, eat, and drink liquids for a few hours, then I do a “walkabout” animal welfare check before the Sun goes down. No such thing as keeping “regular hours”. You have to restrict yourself because the work never ends. I wonder if I will ever find the right balance? I hope so.
This has been extremely satisfying and rewarding despite all the difficulties! I am so thankful and happy that I have been given the opportunity to do something like this. We all talk about “grow your own food”, “buy local”, be self-sufficient, et cetera. But, to actually work it out, step by step, day by day, year by year, is an extreme privilege. I’m going to keep going, Lord willing.