Keep hearing prices/inflation is going to be bad over the summer. If fuel prices continue to go up then expect supermarket prices to also reflect.

I've been preparing garden beds and will be ready. New crops of chicks and many will end up as food. Same with the rabbits. I have eleven new kits, all will be processed.

Very wise.

Ann, I haven't done a garden in the last few years. but I need to get it going this year. + as you know, I am already set up for canning. I need to get the old Troy-Bilt tiller out of the barn + get with it, again. When I bought my tiller w/ all the PTO attachments about 42 years ago, it was the largest of the model horse, a 7 horse Kohler. My banker who financed the loan where I banked in Walburg, Tx. was a farmer himself, + let me know that I had better make the payments, since he had always wanted one himself.

Well, Randy, I hope you fire that tiller up and get on it. Gardening brings a bit of peace of mined besides the good food. You might need to run some "Mechanic in a Bottle" through your carburetor since it's been sitting awhile.

I noticed fuel prices are up quite a bit around my area. I had to go to town and hadn't been in about two weeks.

We don't have suitable land for a garden. Taking a different route with storables like rice, dried beans, canned veg/meats, jerky, instant potatoes, dried milk, etc.

Anything helps. I remember the beans, rice, etc. hoarding before Y2K, but folks have become complacent, as usual. They don't buy any bottled water until the news tells them that a hurricane is in the gulf, + of course by them ,it's all gone.

Randy, so right. People never learn.

I had to go to town and saw that fuel prices are rising again. I don't buy a lot of food at the supermarket since I produce but I do look at the prices. Everything is still very high. Nothing changed the last few months when fuel prices dropped a little. Now that 0biden has emptied the petrol reserve I do think fuel will really balloon which will make commodities also swell further.

I'm almost finished with garden bed prep and the weather this week looks good for planting a few things.

I think one issue is that most folks are too stupid to know how to cook beans and rice. Given the long lines at fast food joints every night tells me most people don't know how to cook anything. If there is more than a 5-day emergency, I'm afraid the streets will look like the walking dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Norman Conquest:
Anything helps. I remember the beans, rice, etc. hoarding before Y2K, but folks have become complacent, as usual. They don't buy any bottled water until the news tells them that a hurricane is in the gulf, + of course by them ,it's all gone.

The drive-throughs are full no matter the time of day.

True that. We as a society have become complacent in our instant gratification mode. Our grandparents are rolling around in their graves. I still recall my Mom telling me that when during the depression, "If you don't grow it, you don't eat." Now that would be a rough row to hoe for our current urbanites. Oh, + on that note, I think it should be required reading of that little Golden Book, "The Little Red Hen". I'm sure you remember it from your childhood; I do. It is as applicable today as it ever was back then.

I can't imagine spending good money for poor quality products which is one reason I take control of my nutrition. It's fun to do as well.

I agree. Canning is more fun than growing, just as reloading is more fun than shooting, these days. Don't know why, but that's true.

quote:

Originally posted by Norman Conquest:
I agree. Canning is more fun than growing, just as reloading is more fun than shooting, these days. Don't know why, but that's true.

I do enjoy it. Also, when it is time to can beans the afternoons are generally too hot to enjoy the outdoors so I can and do it in air conditioned luxury.

Oh, yeah! I pick my tomatoes all season + freeze them until the fall, + then have a glorious weekend of making salsa + canning the same, + the temperature has cooled off. I find it great fun!

Randy, I just saw a bag of frozen maters in the freezer I had forgotten about. Once my cilantro is large enough I will make some salsa.