looking kinda rocky

 

Tonalism / Frederic Remington/ Pool in the Desert

Been a while since I thought about prepping.  

But little things like the European war, the associated energy and raw materials shortages, the extensive droughts and the potential for food shortages due to climate change, and the possibility of economic instability when folks start noticing that the west is nigh onto bankruptcy have made me a mite skittish.

One has to be realistic about this whole thing.  If the whole thing goes shithouse and a complete societal breakdown occurs, old folks like me are going to be the first to die.  No way around that simple fact.  This being said, “mad max” prepping with rooms full of canned goods and another room full of guns and bullets really doesn’t appeal to me.  

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I am not going survivalist or even Mormon food supply prepping.  I am just considering that the situation is bad enough that it might behoove me to lay in a more organized and wide range of supplies.  

My real problem with this is that, in light of the lifestyle choices made in the last few year(small apartment and retirement), my space that is available for prepping is even more limited than before.  This means that I have to consider space requirements even more carefully than in the past when I had an extensive basement to absorb my periods of paranoia.

The first thing to consider for me is being able to absorb the upcoming inflation that I feel is almost inevitable.  Luckily, my needs are minimal.  I am vehicle free thanks to the nice lady falling asleep and totalling Bessie (my faithful 22 year old van) and I have enough money in transit tokens for two years of “getting about”, gas and movement costs are minimal.  I cook for one and my diet is “rice and bean centric” so food costs are low even in good times.  

Energy costs are pretty minimal, no direct natural gas use, electricity for heating and cooking.  The most electricity I have ever used is 0.45 mwh in a month.  Costs here are around $180 per mwh with all the taxes and stuff added in.  It actually gets cheaper per MWH the more that you use.  But that ain’t the way I need to roll.

So, transportation and energy use are factored in and appear to be manageable for the next twelve months. So food and drink are the next issues.  I think that this year may be a pretty bad harvest in the US.  This much drought in the great plains and great basin are not a good sign.  Here in the upper left of the US, the drought has managed to pass us by this year, so  water isn’t an issue.  The cost of food and sundry will probably keep going up. 

Baking in the winter warms your house and lowers food costs.

Today’s project is cookies for the week.

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients

Cream together the wet ingredients

Mix everything together

Bake at 350℉ for 12-14 minutes

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon cardamom

•  

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar

• 1/4 cup (60ml) unsulphured or dark molasses*

• 1 large egg, room temperature

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract