Stocking Up

America's economic goose is cooked.

Between the warnings from Glenn Beck and articles like this, I've finally accepted the fact that a US economic collapse is not only possible, but probable. During the Carter administration, Similar fears were commonplace, and many of us prepared by storing enough food and supplies to weather several months of chaos. Thanks to the leadership of Ronald Reagan, those supplies weren't needed then, but the situation today looks far worse than the Carter dabacle, so it's time to prepare for survival again.

Over the past several weeks, I've been adding more and more survival items to our shopping list, such as camping gear, lanterns, fuel, ammunition, etc. I also enlarged the size of our tiny garden so we can at least grow some of our food.

This morning, I ordered a three month supply of freeze dried meals to supplement our pantry and freezer stock. Along with the food, I bought a 72 hour emergency survival kit that contains all the little things you tend to forget when stocking up. One of the neat items in the kit is an AM/FM radio/flashlight/lantern that is powered by household AC, solar cells, crank generator, or batteries. It even has the capability to charge a cell phone and flashlight batteries.

The food is advertised to store safely for 30 years, so even if we don't use any, someone will have a supply available long after we're gone. I hope none of these things will have to be used, but as Glenn Beck says, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.