Month: October 2016

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So I’m reading this book about World War 2. I’ve read quite a few books about this event, but this one’s perspective was different. It’s about a small town in France (which was occupied by the Germans during the war) and their view on what was going on.

All radios were confiscated when their country was taken over. There was no communication or way of being informed of events besides illegally distributed papers (and people caught dispersing these were executed immediately). Soldiers moved into or took over the local homes in the area, as well as the hotel. Citizens were given ration cards, and only received the food the soldiers residing in their town did not want.

The good news is most of the families had gardens, farm animals and skills to survive without depending on things like a grocery story. Small towns like these didn’t have that option, but instead had a butcher to visit, neighbors or the market to collect goods from and relied on their own ability to grow, then preserve their own goods.

As the war continues in the book, there is less and less food to go around. The woman in the book only really has food when the German captain, who is staying in her home, brings home food to share with them. The food she grows, preserves/cans, dries,etc is enough to barely carry them through the winter. There’s only homemade soap she trades with a neighbor to get, she saves yarn from old sweaters/blankets to knit clothing they need (she seriously knits underwear so they have some to wear. Sounds comfy, huh? Better than nothing I guess!), and their electricity is shut off so they rely solely on candles and the fireplace for light/heat.

I can’t help thinking to myself how we would do in a similar situation. Where we live we are dependent on grocery stores for all of our food. Sure… in the summer there’s farmer’s markets we could buy from, but in the winter we are dependent on the barges that bring our food up from the Lower 48. We are taught to be prepared to be self-sufficient. Our pantries are generally stocked, at our house we have alternative heat from our fire place, a back up generator and fuel stored to run it. A small camping stove with fuel. Water stored. But that is not a long term plan. It’s for an emergency…. a few days. A week. These people were in this survival mode situation for years. With the added tension of having enemy armed soldiers roaming their streets and living in their homes.

I can’t help but think of how utterly helpless most people would be if they lost cell service and with it their information source and communication (and calculator- who could live without that). We are so dependent on others for everything. It’s convenient and, yes, our lives are so much easier, but what would you do if you didn’t have your phone? The internet? The news? What if that was all gone… even without the addition of war. Scary stuff my friends. Scary thoughts.

I’m grateful I have some basic homesteading/homemaking skills, but the idea of having to rely on them to keep my family ALIVE is terrifying. To do it for ‘fun’, like heading to the cabin, is one thing… survival is another. I don’t know what my point to all this rambling thought is- again this is the babble my husband would be forced to act like he was listening to if he was home, but he’s not… so you’re welcome!

My advice (which is obviously what you’re all reading this for) would be to check out what you have at your home. How long can you go without needing something from the store? How much water would you have if your tap didn’t work? How would you cook without electricity or natural gas coming in? If you had heirloom seeds saved at home, would you know what to do with them? Do you have a sewing kit at home? First aid kit? Just some ideas. And if these questions leave you feeling panicked, or at the very least, concerned- GOOD  NEWS! You have time to learn and gather ideas on how to be self-sufficient for your family. There’s 1.75 million blogs and articles on how to be ready to provide for yourselves. Just get googling! And maybe printing… so you can reference in case of the aforementioned emergency. 🙂

PS> If you want to read a super good book about women in World War 2, here is the link. It’s amazing and heartbreaking and thought provoking…

Nightengale

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Blurry Vision

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I feel like I’m floating. I’ve always been goal oriented with short term, long term and super long term goals. So is my hubby. It works well… but now I feel like most of those goals were checked off the list or changed… and I need new ones.

Everything feels up in the air. We’ve been stuck in this period of grieving and can’t seem to pull out of it. It reminds me of when you step in that super gooey sticky mud and every time you shift your weight to move forward, you feel your foot sinking down further and the air sucking in around it, making it impossible to pull out of it. I guess our grief has been compounded by more grief, making a tough life changing event grow.

My husband said it best the other day when he asked who is he supposed to call now? Dad’s gone, my Gramps (who was incredible to talk to and always got you to find your own answer, just by asking the right questions) is gone, his mom has been gone for ten years… I obviously volunteered myself, but he told me that was a given and he did that already. It just is this big hole that can’t be filled. And to make it worse, it just doesn’t end. Taking care of the property, selling items, moving all his dad’s special things, figuring out trust details and how to get it all divided but still have money to pay the taxes in January… it’s all a big tangled web of details to sort through. For example, we sold the house finally and thought it was done… then after Vince leaves to go hunting a letter comes saying more people need more documents to be able to transfer records. Then today (after Vince is back at work) another letter about another detail someone needs. Just doesn’t end.

I guess once we’ve settled all those things, maybe we can start to regain our normal.Or our new normal I guess. It’s been impossible to do anything but distract ourselves by keeping busy and then losing it privately in the quiet moments. It’s like we need a whole new set of goals and dreams, because the previous ones involved people who are gone now. My brain feels like a video that’s frozen but kind of moving from the current scene to the next- know what I mean? Sort of shaking and not able to go backwards or forwards.

Our current ‘normal’ can’t be our long term normal. I’m a hot mess that’s one coffee spill away from a crying session. I’m fine and happy one day, getting stuff done and working out- being amazing- then a few days letter… hot mess Mama has returned. It’s like a roller coaster of emotions that I didn’t expect to be so largely present by now. But it is. Popping up it’s head every now and then, just to remind me my loved ones are missing from our lives here.

Today I was flipping through this ‘count your blessings’ type book I bought myself to try and inspire some self-reliance/recovery. This page with this super cool poem popped out at me. It’s by an ‘unknown’ author, but I’ll share it here:

“God didn’t promise days without pain.

Laughter without sorrow. Sun without rain.

But he did promise strength for the day,

Comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it”

Pretty good, right? Funny because my Gramps told me ‘God made us a lot of promises. He better keep up his end of the deal!’. Maybe me wishing for some of Gramps’s words of wisdom came in the form of this today. I’ll go with that for now.