Living the Pantry Lifestyle - Answering a couple of questions

One of the things I find interesting to do is to listen to some prepper YouTube videos when I need inspiration, even though I am far from being an extensive prepper like many of them.  Sometimes it is just for new-to-me food sources that are available and sometimes it is a way of finding out about current events.  Serious preppers do like to follow the news and rarely the MSM (main stream media).

I'm asked all the time where I get my news since my avoidance of the MSM has been legend in my family for a very long time.  Most of the time, I go to one or two sources where they just have headlines that I can click on if I want further information, I receive a couple email updates, but there are also some YouTube prepper people that keep their ear to the ground who update listeners.

I'm careful about making recommendations because one ministry guy I used to recommend that had a great news section on his website became very weird and extremely antisemitic.  To the point that it seemed the focus of his ministry became anti-Jewish in general. I don't even go to his website, anymore.

Having said that, my preferences for a couple decades has been for news sources that have a slant far out of the MSM and that honestly are a little (or a lot) on the edge.  Places like Stan and Holly Deyo's website, which I have on my computer's toolbar.  

They have been a go-to for news since the 1990s and they have a long history of knowing where to find what is going on in the world.  I like that they throw out links on a variety of subjects and you can decide which you want to read.  They update Monday through Friday, sometime after 8:30 AM Mountain Time.

I like Michael Snyder's email updates on The Coming Economic Collapse.  He was a young attorney in Washington D.C. many years ago when he and his wife decided to move out of that area and start a ministry.  You may not agree with his theology and like the Deyo's, he can bring up some interesting subjects you may find strange, but he has been correct most of the time.

Both of the above options are very conservative so if that is not your preference, I'd go elsewhere!  Neither are for the faint of heart since they bring up some scary subjects like TEOTWAWKI!  The Deyo's also cover some unconventional subjects.  However, I like them a lot!  Stan and Holly lived in Australia for quite a few years so they are familiar with that part of the world, too.

As for my home this week, the weather has been cool but sunny so my husband is getting a lot of outdoor work accomplished.  He was ill last year and a lot of seasonal projects didn't get done as usual, so it is taking more effort this year.  We are also making some changes like taking out the bushes in the side yard that neither of us have liked.  I'm pretty sure some hydrangea bushes will take their place. 

Those bushes were getting too scraggy but he has been able to shape the small trees and bushes elsewhere to make them look better.  The forest tries to take the land back each year and it takes constant effort to bring it under control.  Anyone who lives where there was (and is) a forest knows what I mean.

We have been reading about the inflation that has started and what will probably be down the road.  My husband's undergraduate degree is in Economics and he is very concerned.  So, we want to get the most urgent projects out of the way this year if we can afford it.

I've mentioned that our deck has to be replaced and the inflation in the lumber industry has already made that impossible.  We are considering options but we do have someone that can take the deck down for a good price.  In a perfect world, that would happen when you already know what is going to take its' place but a perfect world would not have termites!!!

Speaking of pesky things, I was asked if my pantry shelves in the garage were safe from rodents and ants.  I've never had a problem with ants because I don't put anything on the cement floor where they tend to reside.  Even the few buckets of wheat I still have are sitting on strips of lumber on the floor to protect from condensation.

I have written about the mouse nightmare we went through.  After many many years of only having a few mice off and on that we set poison out to "eliminate", we suddenly were inundated with perhaps dozens of tiny field mice.  Without us realizing it, they made nests and then did a lot of damage to canned goods (their urine rusts the top of the cans), food not in containers such as beans and pasta, and even paper and books stored in the garage.

I think we suddenly had so many mice because a couple of houses were being constructed in the forest, one on our gravel lane and another just down the road so they were dislodged from their former environment.  It was a major pain but we once again only have a few each winter and I put traps out for them right away.

I was glad if that was going to happen, it did so when we didn't depend on our pantry for what we were going to eat and that most of the canned items that were destroyed were those my husband brought home from food pantries, they were not what I used the most.  

[We depended on food pantries during the time I was forced to go on Obamacare, which is extremely expensive and didn't pay for hardly anything.  It did not even pay for my insulin.  Once I could get off of it, we could afford groceries again.] 

That is one of the reasons that having a good pantry is important, you can stock the food you eat and not the limited options from food pantries.  They are life savers for those who depend on them but the food they have to give out are often the cheapest options to feed the most people and not the best for those on special diets.

I now make certain that anything that would draw mice to the garage are all placed in Rubbermaid style containers.  I didn't have any mice get through to food that was in a container like that.  Who knew that they loved dry beans?  Pet food is a big draw for rodents, too.  Food such as pasta, crackers, and other items in a box also must be placed in either Rubbermaid style containers or food quality buckets.

But these containers can be purchased one or two at a time and once you build up a good collection, they last a very long time.  One mistake I made long ago was to depend too much on the really big Rubbermaid style containers because they become so heavy.  They are fine on the bottom shelf.

I keep most items in their original packages.  There are some bags of flour and a couple other items in the large containers on the bottom shelf, boxes of pasta and bags of beans go into a small to medium size container, and I have a couple shoe box size containers that holds small items.  I have a few old very large Tupperware containers that hold bulk purchased white sugar, salt, etc.

So, storing some pantry items on shelves in the garage does work but it takes more planning than when one has an indoor pantry.  I don't get concerned about anything in the garage during the below zero degrees days of winter but I do take some items inside when it starts to get hot for two or three months.  Items like dairy products in aseptic containers or cans, items that might melt, etc.  It's pretty much common sense what doesn't do well in heat.

I hope this answers the questions about where I get my news from and how I store items in the garage.  I don't have any favorite YouTube news resources, yet.  I've been able to get some good news bits and pieces from regular prepper videos and believe me, once you start watching some of them then others pop up for you to visit.  Some are very good and some... are not.  ;)

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