Friday, August 25, 2017

Prepping and the Weather

All our lives we have heard how the weather and the skies affect us.  More babies are born during a full moon because of the moon's affect on water -- all water.  Humidity messes with our hair and gives us headaches.  Cold weather causes us to want to hibernate and hot weather makes us sluggish.

In the past several days two major weather events have messed with us -- our minds and our bodies.  The first was, of course, the eclipse.  We only had a partial showing here in Fort Worth but it felt strange and looked strange -- an unusual cast on everything outside.  Supposedly wildlife could behave differently but I didn't have any wildlife around to try to judge that.  It did get very quiet and still and there was just a creepy vibe.  I was actually glad when it was over even though I harbor no superstition about such events.



The latest event is Hurricane Harvey churning around in the Gulf of Mexico threatening the Texas coast.  It has already caused mandatory evacuations and boosted the sales of plywood and duct tape.  My poor sister in law is having to move everything upstairs from a low level storage building and garage.  Fortunately they have one of those beachy houses up on stilts since they live right on the beach in Galveston.  I hope they are ok.



Now, this weather isn't going to reach us, in any big way, here in North Texas.  However, from my years of living in South Texas, in San Antonio, and having experienced a number of hurricanes, my first instinct was to go to the grocery store and stock up. 

Back in the day when I had kids and cooked a lot, I always had a fully stocked pantry.  Now, as years have passed and it is just the two of us, we eat out more than we should and I shop less than I should.  However, I decided yesterday was the day to go recreate my pantry.  The problem is, however, that I used to buy lots of canned goods and now we eat more organically so I was a bit stuck on what I would buy -- fresh doesn't last long it seems.

As I looked at my pitiful, existing pantry I realized that most of the canned goods I buy are organic, GMO-free, bpa free and there is generally a good variety.  So, I decided I could actually have my pantry of old with my new mindset.

So off I went and I am feeling very comfortable with my stash.  I figured out a long time ago not to buy stuff that I don't really use so I stuck to what I know we will eat -- I only forgot a couple of things -- and this is the final result with the new and improved pantry.





I should have wiped down the shelves but I haven't done that yet. working more toward getting stuff re-arranged.  I haven't tackled the bottom yet because that is where my husband-the-hoarder keeps every paper grocery bag that comes into this house.  I don't know what he is saving them for but he is diligent.  Grrr.

So, anyway, I have managed to purge a lot of out of date things and I realize that I really need to visit my pantry more often.  My goal is to cook more and I am doing that and maybe now it will be more enjoyable with a more concise pantry.

Thank you Mr. Hurricane Harvey.

2 comments:

Pom Pom said...

Your pantry looks good. I need to clean out the fridge. Harvey sounds scary.

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I think Harvey is scary. I have never been on the coast when one came in but living in San Antonio we got the brunt of many hurricanes. One year, when we were anticipating just that, the storm changed course and hit Dallas in a big way. I don't think that is going to happen this time but it was a really good excuse to fix the food closet!

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