Step by Step: Start Where You Are, Pt 1

 Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. ~ Arthur Ashe

"Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program. We could refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in relation to holocaust or disaster, but in cultivating a life-style that is on a day-to-day basis its own reward." (President Spencer W. Kimball) from Becky's Monday Message on Frugal Measures blog.

Start Where You Are.

I was reading Patsi's blog, A Working Pantry, the other day and she wrote a post worth reading.  She ends her passage with these words, 

"There is always going to be someone who can do more than you, accept it and move on doing what you can with what's in your hands."

Having myself fallen into the current trend of following homesteaders who do ALL the things and seem to do it with money to spare, I have felt the sense of frustration and yes, helplessness, as I look at our own financial situation and the constraints we have upon our time in our home and realize that I CANNOT do all the things.   

I know how satisfying it is to look at homesteader cellars full of canned goods and to hear of freezers packed with various items, and the gardens that produce enough to feed them for a year and listen to others share about bug out kits and long-term food storage. 

But remind yourself of one thing before you toss up your hands and say, "I'll never be able to get there..."

You can only start at the beginning.  The beginning is where you are right now.

If the beginning looks like you've got enough food to last the week, then that's where you start.  If the beginning looks like enough food to last perhaps a month, then that's where you start.  If the beginning looks like a home with small children and not nearly enough hours in the day, then that's where you start.  If the beginning looks like retirement and limited income and less of that than you'd thought you might have, then that's where you start. You can't begin anywhere else except for where you are!

Let's talk about building up a pantry that can feed you for a month, three months, six months, a year and start right where you are.

This is where I am: I live on a little less than ten acres, and about 3 of it are clear of trees and underbrush.  I have no special equipment with which to till up a garden or even create a flower bed.  I am, at present, 64, and supposedly retired.  I am helping to raise a soon to be 4-year-old boy.  My husband and I share our home with this little boy and his mom.  

I currently make a few things from scratch, but I could do more, and I know it.  However, I have to take into account the time factor because of the little boy.  He needs time and attention, too.

I have only had a proper garden once in my life.  It was hugely successful but that was ages upon ages ago and not here on this property. My current 'garden' consists of lots of pots and two raised beds and a tiered planter full of mostly herbs.  To date, I have harvested 15 tomatoes, a handful of herbs, and currently have carrots and beans and snow peas that were flourishing but not yet ready to produce.  We're about to have our first frosts of the year.  So the dreams of those plants providing us with a thing are done.

In my youth, I often canned items, but I haven't done that in years..  I have only recently acquired an electric pressure canner and had gotten a hot water bath canner just a couple of years before.  I don't do a lot of canning at present.  I make jelly and apple butter. 

I bake bread and cook from scratch.  Over the years, I have built up a pantry, but it's taken time and sacrifice to do it.  My 'pantry' is a makeshift area.  I took over the walk-in closet of one of my bedrooms when my daughter left home and turned it into a pantry area with shelving and bins.  Now my daughter and grandson use that room as a bedroom and the closet needed for their clothing has been an old Chiffarobe and a spare bookcase.

I have passable sewing skills.  I've upholstered furnishings.  I've learned to use paint and ingenuity to transform things.  Over the years, I have learned new skills that have allowed me to do more.  Currently I am attempting to cultivate food.  

Following 2020, I determined that I could do better in being prepared for medical needs.  John, being a paramedic, feels we have what is required for an emergency that might affect wound care.  We don't have a full-blown pharmacy, but we have enough to see us and another family member or two through an onslaught of colds and minor accidents.

I've been trying to make my home more friendly for our elderly years.  We've had our back deck turned into a back porch with low broad steps at one end on which we might easily place a ramp if needed.  We've removed the upper cabinets in our kitchen and are just about to get the kitchen renovated with new lower cabinets in the coming weeks.   We're replacing a deep awkward tub in our master bathroom with a walk-in shower that will be large enough to accommodate a shower chair.  We don't anticipate needing a ramp or shower chair right away, but the porch and altered bath and kitchen will be just as useful to us now as it will be in the days ahead.  I want to be able to stay in my home long term. 

If I were to tell you I'm starting today, this is the place from which I would start my journey.  This would be MY beginning.  You can't start from this place unless you have had the exact same experience and the exact same materials I have right now to work with.  

I do have ideals.  One of my ideals is that I would be able to raise a majority of the produce we'd typically eat.  Because of where I live, I think it would be possible to grow something we might eat fresh year-round.  I'd like to have a few chickens.  I'd love to support local meat producers.  I'd like to be able to can and freeze foods all year round.  I'd like to be less dependent upon the grocery store and more able to buy in bulk those items that we must purchase from the store.  

I'd like to make still more items from scratch than I do now.  That means working harder.  And smarter.

I'd like to be better prepared for emergencies such as long power outages.  We've survived admirably well for a week several times without electricity in the aftermath of severe weather situations and I've learned a few things because of that, including what we'd need to do it better.  The last such outage saw me lose a considerable amount of food from our freezer.  I was lucky that my freezer was very nearly full so larger bulkier items were saved.

My ideal includes continuing to improve our home and property.  I want flowers as near all year round as I can manage.  I would love to have a prettily landscaped yard.  It's not important for preparedness but it is important to me because that's the sort of person I am.  I need to be surrounded by beauty. I would like to replace lesser quality furniture with better quality items that will see us through the end of our years.

This is my beginning.  

In the week ahead we're going to look at how to build a pantry and where that pantry can be located.

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