I had the rare pleasure of spending an afternoon with a 75 year old grandma prepper yesterday. She is the grandmother of my son-in-law and what a neat lady! The visit was a surprise to her. My daughter and son-in-law normally spend Sunday afternoons with her at her rural property in the Texas Hill Country, but they did not tell her I would be with them yesterday. We had a nice visit, just casual conversation for the first hour or so. But then the daughter and son-in-law went off to do their own thing and Granny and I got into so some deep discussions about prepping. She brought up the subject of canning and dehydrating food from the garden and then asked me, rather hesitantly, what I thought of the way things were going in this country. She clearly did not know I was already a prepper! I certainly didn't realize she was but I'm glad to know it.
We exchanged several recipes for canning and I learned several things from her. I had no idea you could can things like flour and fresh nuts and rice. They will keep even longer canned, so good to know! She is making me copies of some really old (circa 40's and 50's) canning pamphlets she has from Kerr and Ball and she gave me a handful fo dried hot peppers that she said are prolific and good for lots of things. They are not habaneros but one tiny pepper, crushed and stirred into a pot of chili will take it from mild to three alarm ...and one dried pepper placed in a stored sack of flour will keep the mealy bugs at bay forever. The dried pepper is easy to see and remove from the flour and does not affect it at all. I explained EMP's to her and gave her some of my tips of my own ...things to stock up besides food and ways of storing that would not make them conspicuous and a target.
Granny said she started prepping back in 1999, in preparation for Y2K. She kept on prepping through about 2005 but said used more than she preserved in 2006 and 2007. But when she got serious again last summer when she said she 'could see the way things were going.'
She's a smart cookie and is in a good location if she has to hole up for a while. She has two grown sons that live on the homestead and help her maintain things. She said her other three sons and my daugthter and son-in-law know to come to her if things get bad too. I'm glad for her sake and for my kids to know she's one of us.
Can't wait for you to get back so we can talk about this.
ReplyDeleteYeoldFurt
She sounds like a pretty neat lady. I'm glady you had a good visit.
ReplyDeleteHugs~Felinae~
Hi WWRWH, I'm sure your time away will go quickly and you will be back to the ranch before you know it. It sounds like you had a good visit with "Grandma". To think that the way we prepare used to be the norm for previous generations is comforting. We have strayed as a society but seem to be slowly getting back to basics. Well at least some of us. I enjoyed reading about all of your horse's backgrounds in another post and never get tired of looking at horses. They are an awesome mix of power and grace. I hope the ankle is doing better and take care my friend.
ReplyDeleteYeoldfurt: We can 'talk' if you want to when I get home, but it's not at the top of MY priority list! (talking) Ha!
ReplyDeleteFelinae: My son-in-law's grandmother is a neat lady for sure. I would want her to be my friend even if I did not have the excuse of an 'in-law' relationship with her through my daughter.
Sanjac: Good to hear from you. Yes, training will go quickly and I'll be home before I know it. I need to focus on the information they're giving me so I can be more efficient at my JOB when I get home. But home is what's on my mind mostly. The ankle is okay as long as wear the splint. I have the MRI next week and, hopefully, whatever the solution is NON-INVASIVE and doesn't involve much down time! YOF gets away with far too much when I'm laid up!! Say hello to MsSanjac for me. We'll have to get together again soon.