I have always loved nature and plants. When I grew up in Southern Alberta, on a farm, we had a big, no, a huge garden that my dad always took care of, and he taught us to care for it as well, there were 7 of us kids. I learned so much from him about plants and their medicinal properties. One of my favorite things still to this day is to talk to him about the plants growing wild in the prairies, what we can eat, and what we could survive on if we had to. It has always been one of my favorite memories, but also many of my favorite learning moments.
Another favorite memory, is actually many memories over a lifetime! We canned, froze and dehydrated our home grown produce, many of the animals we had, including chickens, cows, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, and whatever else we could. We had days of podding and freezing peas, cutting corn off the cobs, cutting beans, butchering freezing and bottling chickens. We picked and froze or bottled enough fruit to keep us going for the winter months. It was a process for sure! But a process that was just what we did. I never knew any other way! And we as kids loved it!
After I got married, I raised 6 children and we always tried to have a big garden too. One of the things I have always tried to teach my own kids, as I homeschooled them all at one point or another, is to love gardening, and love the concept of being self reliant as much as possible. Some of them took to it, and others, well, not so much. We haven’t always had a garden space per say, but I have made do with planting in pots, or sharing garden space with someone else. Gardening is definitely one of my passions.
Preparedness is one of my biggest passions of all. As we were raising our young ones, I remember one night, we were particularly broke, no job and no hope on the horizon, or at least that is what I remember feeling. I had made a simple meal, biscuts and gravy, and I don’t remember if we had anything else. I don’t think so. I remember I had used the leftover biscuts and made some sandwiches with them for the kids to take for snack at school the next day. Thank goodness they came home for lunch, because I had time to figure out what that was going to be. My young, rapidly growing 5 year old boy asked me for a bed night snack, and I had to tell him I didn’t have any snacks. He and I both went to bed crying that night. I prayed fervently that God would help me feed my kids. I promised that if He would help me, I would do my best to gather food storage, and I would do whatever He needed me to do. I sent them off to school the next morning and I was pretty despondent as to what I was going to do. I had no idea.
I walked each morning with a friend, pushing both of our 3 year olds in a stroller. That morning I broke down and shared our desparate situation with her. I really wasn’t expecting anything, I just needed to vent. But when I dropped her off at her home, and was going to continue to my own a couple more blocks, she invited me in. Next thing, she was giving me a small sum of money. I told her I had no way to repay her, and I didn’t know if I ever would. She told me not to worry about that, but there would be times in the future when I could pay it forward and that is what she wanted me to do! I stopped at the store and had food to feed my kids when they got home for lunch! It is amazing what even a couple boxes of mac ‘n cheese will do to a kids tummy, and a mothers heart.
I cried some more. Many, many times in the coming years, I have had opportunities to help others – more times than I can count – and I have always stepped up to the plate with whatever I could. I had made a promise to God that if He would help me feed my family I would help Him with His families.
I remember countless times when I would ask Him to help me build my food storage, and I have always said that whatever He put in front of me, I would preserve and store it, and I have. And believe me when I tell you, I have seen miracles in my life, and have ALWAYS prepared in whatever way He has put in front of me.
I have worked diligently on Food Storage, Physical Preparedness, things like shelter, cooking, preparing in anyway possible. I now have 10 grandchildren, and have made a promise to them and myself, that never would grandma not have food on the shelves to feed them. That night long ago was one of the lowest times in my life, and even though times have always been tough for us, I have always kept up my end of the committment with God. And He has never let me down!
For the last 25 years or so, one of the things I have also done is, I started making herbal remedies and was determined to be self-taught in all things herbal, with the hopes that I might actually get into courses and education to become a “real” herbalist – but not just that – I wanted to become a “Master Herbalist”, and was just waiting for the right time. And now I am doing it! Iam working towards my Master Herbal Certificate from The Herbal Academy online, and you will find me sharing some of my thoughts and the things I have learned, right here in this blog as well. I love it!
One of my other passions is to write. I have written for and maintained many blogs through the years, on various topics. I have finally narrowed my two loves down to herbals – Bitter Sweet Herbals – and preparedness “Inch by Inch Preparedness“, this one right here, which I still maintain and try to write on as much as possible, with the hopes that soon they will be my sole 2 passions in life and I can do them full time. You can find my books here on Amazon, and here as downloads on Etsy. In the mean time, I work in kindergarten shaping those little minds and trying to help them be the best they can be. I truly love it, and it has been one of my loves for the past 10 or so years.
I promise you, that if you have the desire to be prepared in all things, there will always be a way. Watch for opportunities for free food. Maybe you can glean, maybe you can go pick apples from a friend, maybe you can garden share, plant in pots, or find greenhouses close to you with cheap produce. If you are actively looking for those opportunities, you will find them everywhere.
In today’s world I try my best to be prepared in all things as well – not just food storage – so you will see much of that information here. However I believe food storage is a big one, because as long as you can feed your family, you will be able to figure out the rest. Trust me!
Let’s learn and grow together all about being prepared in a world that is just crazy! Natural disasters! Terrorism! War! Economony collapse! And an unreal amount of other things, should make us realize that our preparedness efforts will never end. We should always being preparing something!
Let’s do it!