The past week

We had a full weekend with several out of town relatives coming for a family celebration.  Brother who lives in Europe and can’t really tell me what he does for a living came as well.  There aren’t too many people under 50 who aren’t on Facebook or aren’t found on a Google search.  He is one of those people.  Nothing.  

His wife, SIL, grew up in Appalachia in a pretty poor family.  Sometimes she has to be reminded that she can buy good food.  She knows how to make moonshine and her relatives brought bottles of it to their wedding.  I was giving SIL a tour of our house since she’s never been here.  When we walked into the home store I said it was my favorite room and it would probably be hers too.  She then made a comment about how Brother requires that they have at least two years worth of food in their home.  She said they do but it’s hard because they don’t have a specific room to store it all. They also grew a large garden. 

I found her conversation really interesting because Brother always tries to say things are fine and nobody should worry.  His job has to do with analyzing all the evil in the world yet he when he talks to family and friends he downplays the evil in the world.  I know he can’t give away secrets but he must be worried if two years of food storage is their plan. 

He also said that he only has one more year overseas.  After that they are coming back to the US to stay and they need to figure out where they will be.  He mentioned Colorado, which would make us happy since that’s where we are going next year.  About 20 years ago he worked at NORAD so I’m sure there’s work for him back there again. 

I got a Facebook message from a realtor who said she may have a buyer for the Bug-out place.  She wanted to know if I’ve picked out a realtor yet.  I told her I hadn’t because I was waiting until I was finished with the house.  She is going to come up to the property on Saturday morning and look at the place and give me a pitch on why I should choose her.  Her last name is an old family name in the area where I work.  I thought she may be the wife of my coworker so I asked him.  He said that she was married to his cousin about 15 years ago.  The marriage lasted for less than one year and produced no children.  She kept the last name.  It makes me wonder if she did to try to drum up new business. 

The boss is still off work.  It’s been about a month and no word as to whether he is getting fired or is coming back.  It’s interesting because we really don’t miss him.  His boss (who works 5 hours from our office) shows up each week for a day or two.  Anything that’s come up he has been able to deal with. 

I finished reading the book that I won from an Apartment Prepper give-away,   A Time To Endure by Kyle Pratt.  It wasn’t great but it was not bad.  It’s ok for Boy and Girl as well.  It’s much less graphic than some of the books I’ve read and again makes a teenager a hero.  The shootout scene with the teen and his girlfriend against the gang was farfetched, but boy liked it because the teen made some mistakes but reasoned out his strategy.  The main character is a few years older but still on the young side.  He has a lot of integrity and is very sensible.  Those are good qualities for a main character that I like having the kids read about.  It’s the second of a series and I haven’t read the first.  Max in Colorado Springs gave Boy Curtain Fall and Lamp Black written by Kenneth Cary.  Boy is half way through the first book and is enjoying it.  I told him to hurry so I can read them too.  Girl said she wasn’t interested but if Boy and I like them then she will want to read them to see what she is missing.

I can’t believe the price of eggs.  I went to the store to shop for the family gathering.  No, I wasn’t buying eggs.  I just noticed the price as I walked by.  One dozen cost between $4.75 and $6.99.  For one dozen!  In some places in the country I’ve been told that egg prices are up because birds have died of disease.  That’s not the case here.  A couple of years ago a law was passed that hens needed more room to be happy.  The farmers have cut the number of hens in half in order to provide additional cage space.  There are also a lot more who have gone to free range.  It’s just a lot more expensive and makes my home grown eggs much cheaper! 

While I know that I’m moving and I am very happy about that, it is still an uncomfortable feeling to sell the bug-out place.  It’s also uncomfortable to not be putting away more and more supplies.  While it’s nice to be saving a bunch of money right now by using up the supplies, I sure will feel better once the new place is built and we’ll be able to start stocking it. With the stock market going crazy this past week, I think many people are on edge.  I am a little but only because I've pretty much stopped my prepping due to the upcoming move.  I really could stay away from all stores for the next year until our move, if I choose to do so.  That would mean no dairy until next spring since we dried up all the goats, but we'd get through it fine.  I haven't thought about putting money that would normally be spent on preps into a separate account.  I am going to do that so when I get to Colorado I wouldn't be breaking the bank when I go make a mass purchase of all the things I'm not buying this year. 

We ended up canning 20 jars of applesauce.  I would normally can more but since we are moving I wanted to can just enough for the year.  Not canning a several year supply is another thing that’s bothering me.  I am getting impatient for my new home and new garden.