Empty Shelves
If your grocery store shelves went empty right this minute, how long would you be able to feed your family comfortably?
I'm writing this after coming home from a shopping trip. A week will have past by the time this publishes, but I wanted to get my thoughts down while I could. Today, after nearly a week of ice and snow, people were out restocking their larders, including me.
The weather was nice, Super Bowl was hours away, and I needed fresh veggies. I walked into Walmart, the closest store to me, and was shocked by the near empty shelves. I don't mean kinda-sorta empty. I mean entire bins picked clean.
Several varieties of canned goods were depleted and three quarters of the meat department coolers were barren. I asked one of the clerks what happened and she said several of their trucks were running late, caught in the storms of the northeast. Compound that with the big game and more people venturing out than normal and all of a sudden I go without orange juice.
It was sobering. I never gave it much thought. Like everyone else, I always assumed food will be there when I want it. A few trucks fail to meet their delivery date and within hours shelves went empty. What if this happened to more than one little town? How long would people cope if it affected a large city, or a state?
Granted, this was an isolated instance, but it unnerved me. The store was packed and people were loading up their carts like piranhas stripping a carcass.
Scary.
***
It was nice to take a week off. I got some serious writing done and I managed to visit more blogs than normal.
And I finally figured out what people meant by making a friends list on Facebook. I made a list but I couldn't find it again once I made it. I didn't realize it was within easy access in a pull down menu. D'oh! I told you I was a slow learner. So embarrassing. Maybe now I'll catch news in a more timely fashion.
***
Please come back Sunday and visit with Marian Perera. Promise, 'kay? She's releasing the print copy of her novel, Before The Storm. I asked if she would talk about the sensitive subject of slavery in fiction. As always, she tapped into the pulse of the topic.
Stop by Sunday and say hi.
***
So how is everyone? Has this winter weather thrown you any surprises?
Scary.
***
It was nice to take a week off. I got some serious writing done and I managed to visit more blogs than normal.
And I finally figured out what people meant by making a friends list on Facebook. I made a list but I couldn't find it again once I made it. I didn't realize it was within easy access in a pull down menu. D'oh! I told you I was a slow learner. So embarrassing. Maybe now I'll catch news in a more timely fashion.
***
Please come back Sunday and visit with Marian Perera. Promise, 'kay? She's releasing the print copy of her novel, Before The Storm. I asked if she would talk about the sensitive subject of slavery in fiction. As always, she tapped into the pulse of the topic.
Stop by Sunday and say hi.
***
So how is everyone? Has this winter weather thrown you any surprises?
Comments
brrrr.
:-)
I’m glad you got some writing done. I can’t wait to read more of your books. I’m planning on buying Touch of Fire, but I’ll wait a little for the sequel to come out so I could read both back to back.
Love the Nutkin Store!! Love it!
Everyone, be sure to check out Angelina's blog too. She's been on a terrific blog tour. Her guest posts are short, bright, and absolutely charming.
Take care, Joanne. It can't last too much longer.
It's made worse by the fact that our heating is by oil, delivered by those same trucks that can't get through a little bit of snow, so we have to make sure the oil tank doesn't go less than half full.
Winters are fun - until we get snowed in!
Ours are relatively mild--but this year all bets were off. But the folks up north had it far worse.
Thanks for sharing your story. I learned something today.
I have heard that the barren shelves often happen in places that aren't used to harsh weather. Everyone panics and clears out the grocery stores. Then, if a truck is delayed, people panic more, etc etc.
We generally have enough food for two weeks here, just because that's how it works. I only shop for groceries once a month (with the occasional pop, chips, and toilet paper runs), so there's generally always food here.
I also like making preserves, so there's plenty of sweets in the pantry, plus lots of freezer food. And since it's so cold, I don't need to worry about the electricity going out and ruining the food. I can still light the fireplace and cook a meal that way.
--
Like Tony, I grew up with delivered oil plus a wood stove. We needed lots of wood, but also you needed to make sure you never let the tank get down past half, because you didn't know when the next blizzard would happen.
The late delivery trucks remind me just how interconnected we are to the rest of the country and the world. Paraguay has a bad season for soybeans and suddenly there's no edemame in the freezer section.
Which reminds me to plant soybeans this year. :grin:
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Melissa: OMG. I forgot about Mt St Helens. What a nightmare that must have been for you.
Good for you for being prepared.
Fresh produce is available here, but not a huge variety. And it can be expensive, even when in season, or not in the best shape sometimes. We do have a box of organic fruits and veggies come in every other week from a Washington grower. The stuff is of better quality and variety than what's at the local store.
It would be rough if we couldn't get our fresh veggies or a gallon of milk, but we wouldn't starve : )
the only weird thing that happened in Houston where I am currently hanging out is the loss of power and this is just because they went down to like 29 degrees bizzaro hunh?
KarenG: I have a lot of respect for Mormon practicality and homekeeping, and also for their generosity of spirit and time. One of my favorite cookbooks is Marlene's Magic with Food Storage. An excellent book! I highly recommend it.
Kaylie: You're the second person to recommend that book to me. As a homesteader, stocking up is a way of life. This is a lifestyle we chose deliberately. It's been more useful than we expected.
As much as I didn't want such a big house, it's proven useful for storage. Everything always looks tidy because I have so much room to put stuff away.
If I had to last stuck at home for two weeks there'd be enough food, well hopefully. :)
The one thing you can say about disasters is that it brings out the worst and the best of mankind. I hope things calm down for you down under.
Sherri: That's cuz you got all dem boys. Wait until they're teenagers. You'll have to go shopping every day.
Yikes!
All I have to worry about is the dogs.
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Jennifer: That's exactly what I thought. I looked around and wondered--what did I miss?
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Sherri: I will start praying for you now. LOL. But think of it this way, you'll have some fine young men as escorts when you're a little old lady.
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Rula: Absolutely. Adults can manage fine, but kids--their needs are more complex.
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Liz: I need to take more sabbaticals. It was very refreshing and I got some good writing done.
I was raised in the Mormon church (yep!) and one of the things they teach their members is to always have a year's supply of food stocked away.
I may have left many of their teaching behind, but that one stuck with me. My DH and I have one site of our basement dedicated to food storage. I have four bookcases full of stuff: canned beans, canned veggies, canned meats, various condiments, dried beans, dried grains (for grinding into flour), powdered milk, powdered eggs ... I could go on and on.
Fact is, we'd be set for at LEAST six months, probably longer. We may get really tired of eating tuna, but we'd survive.
I use the food regularly, and then restock (I have a list where I check off what I use, and it automatically becomes a shopping list).
Yes, I'm a bit obsessive.
Glad your time off did you good! I should do that some day ...
I heartily recommend the time off. It gave me a chance to visit more and enjoy my friends.