When the WHO declared the global pandemic, I knew right away that things were going to get ugly. As of March 13th 2020, I have decided that my family needs to go into a bug in situation. This was always the plan, the proverbial trigger has been pulled! Here is a daily update on what we face.
Day 22 –
Calculated risks are part of life these days. In an attempt to prepare ourselves for a possible second wave, or even an extended first wave, food production and storage is high on the list of priorities.
Production is actually the easy part of all this. We have about 1/3 acre where our house sits, and another lot about the same size not far away. Right now, that second lot is used to supplement our heating wood, but we may be harvesting some softwood from it this spring for building materials. Mostly for corner posts for raised beds, but maybe some planks for the walls.
As space is cleared on that second lot, we can’t help but wonder how we can use it to our food producing advantage. The problem is security though as we can’t keep a 24/7 eye on it like our home lot. Investing time and energy as well as seeds on that second lot is a calculated risk. A calculation that we haven’t yet done.
Another issue is that of meat. We cannot produce meat on our small lots, so purchasing in the supermarkets is the only option. After having done a couple of grocery runs over the past few weeks, we’ve gotten to know which stores we trust going into. Those that are strictly enforcing protective measures are on the OK list, while others are to be avoided. We will not go to a Costco or Walmart. The shoppers there just don’t seem to get it and we have no information about limiting the number of customers or other measures.
Our “good to go” stores have been carefully examined and we are truly impressed with some of the measures. One local grocery store is doing a fantastic job by placing arrows on the floor to keep customers moving in the same direction and implementing a strict “you touch it, you buy it” policy. I have seen customers being escorted out of the store for not following these directives! Even still, it’s a calculated risk, but we feel that limiting ourselves to those stores for stocking up.
China seems to be open for business once again. We’ve made a couple Amazon orders for disposable and washable masks. Sure, it could take a few weeks for these items to arrive, but we don’t feel this will be anywhere near over in a month from now, and we are still wary of a second wave.
More news tomorrow…