September 3, 2005

The nay-say-ers and dooms-day-ers have been arguing the point for years with little or no resolution. Y2K came and went leaving little more than a pile of kerosene heaters in it’s wake. I wonder though, whether all of those emergency preparedness stuff hasn’t had a positive effect even though most of us haven’t personally experienced any “emergency”. This year alone we have had the tsunami and more recently the Hurricane Katrina in the gulf shores... the latter being dubbed the worst natural disaster our country has ever experienced. And of course, a pile of rice and bottled water won’t do anyone much good if one’s house gets ripped from the foundation and into 2 pieces in a matter of minutes. But in a broader scope I wonder if it has changed anyone else.

For me, when we pull in to a gas station and pay $3 or more a gallon for gasoline it is reality! Not some Y2K maybe-it-will maybe-it-won’t scenario. And the cost of food gets higher and higher too. We can no longer afford to buy beef. I never thought I would see that happen. Now it’s chicken or turkey almost exclusively on our dinner table. Our milk has been paid for by my working on a website for our “Goat Lady” (AKA: Julie Miles of See For Miles Farm). That has been a huge blessing. I can’t imagine being without it now - fresh milk that is OR visits from our Goat Lady and her crew. :) We have come to enjoy ALL of them so much!

Speaking of meat for the table, we are still holding out for our meat rabbits. The projected return on that project has been stretched out into the fall now. I did not anticipate how hard the heat of summer is on the buns and after seeing it first hand I didn’t have the heart to breed them through the hottest months. It’s probably good that I didn’t. We lost our herd buck and a litter of almost butchering age to the heat last month. It was sickening. I’m still looking for a buck to replace Mr. Mighty. with no luck so far. I’ll have to start digging into the 4H crowd soon because we really need to get them going before much longer if we hope to have meat by winter. We NEED it. It is hard to get by on $35/week of groceries for a family of 6. Very hard. We aren’t hungry by any stretch of the imagination but we are bored. :) Oh Lord - I pray that is the closest we come to real hunger.

The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger:
but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
-Psalm 34:10