Dependency

I’ve read that our nationwide grocery stores operate on a 3 day food supply.

That means that they have a constant inflow of new food deliveries that only supply the stores with enough food to sell over a 3 day period.

That thought scares a lot of people (though this article is a very well-reasoned dismissal of those fears and worth your time). It’s a tiny little bit nerve-wracking for me, if only in the context of the fact that I lived in Houston during Hurricane Ike and saw the store shelves nearly emptied the day before the hurricane hit.

This is one reason why I prefer to keep at least a couple of weeks worth of food and supplies in my house at all times.

But unless you’re a dedicated “end of the world as we know it” Prepper, you’re likely to be dependent on others for most of your needs.

Whether that means you are dependent on a grocery store, a local farmer, a local rancher, or your own backyard garden is irrelevant.

In the end, we’re all dependent on something outside of our control for our survival.

Heady stuff, in my opinion.

I had this brought home recently with two jarring developments.

As of right now, Zac has 6 safe foods. Specially raised goat milk and chicken eggs are two of them. I don’t think it is exaggerating to say a steady supply of his safe foods is imperative to his survival.

Last week, on my birthday, we had to do a goat milk run. Our wonderful goat milk lady had some news for us; her out-of-state daughter is having a baby – the first grandbaby for Miss Lois! That’s wonderful for her, and I’m thrilled for both of them.

However, Lois intends (as all good Mothers and Grandmothers should) to be present for the birth, and to stay for a couple of weeks afterwards to help out. All in all, she’ll be out of town for about a month.

She can’t find anyone to milk her goats while she’s gone, so she’s left with no choice but to dry up her girls by the middle of July.

So from July until next spring (when the goats have more babies and therefore more milk), I have lost my supplier of one of Zac’s only foods.

The second development came from my Dad. He’s been raising chickens on special corn and soy free feed so Zac can have the eggs.

A few weeks ago, one of his chickens became broody and decided to sit on her eggs. That’s great, because they’ll have more chicks! It’s lousy because it leaves him one layer short for the time being. (The chicks hatched last Saturday – 7 new chicks! Yay, Ethel!)

That didn’t deter us too much; it’s normal for a chicken to hatch her eggs, after all. What did  deter us is what happened next.

Last week two of his free-range chickens didn’t come home to roost at bedtime. Some animal, probably a fox or coyote, ate the birds.

With Ethel happily sitting on her eggs, that left Dad 3 birds short for egg production.

Since Daddy had 6 layers, being 3 short meant a 50% reduction in egg production.

Instead of 3 dozen a week, he’s only getting 1.5 dozen eggs a week.

I’ve been rationing eggs. I no longer eat eggs, as it is far more important for Zac to have eggs to eat.

Dependency isn’t exactly a new concept for us: even in my garden I see signs of it. I mentioned how DE stopped bugs from eating my plants; varmints, however, have taken up the slack.

I have almost no collard greens or Swiss chard to use, as apparently it has become in-ground rabbit food.

(Strangely, the carrots have been left alone…so what’s with that stereotype?)

Back in January, when bad weather ripped through the nation, our regular monthly delivery of quinoa was delayed.

By two weeks.

We ran out of quinoa. Darrel and I desperately ran all over town, scavenging boxes of quinoa wherever we could find them, and at whatever price we could find them.

So what’s the point of pointing out our dependency? Is there really anything that can be done about it? Aren’t we all sort of at the mercy of others?

Well, yes…and no.

Yes, we are all dependent on others in many ways, but there are  ways to seize some control.

It’s all about problem solving.

With the quinoa, I’ve since bought an extra case every few months so that we won’t run out and be desperate if a shipment is 2 weeks late again.

With the eggs, I plan to revisit some earlier reading I’ve done on ways to save eggs long term. I know I’ve read that you can freeze eggs, though I don’t remember the particulars, and I’m sure I’ve read something about another way to preserve fresh eggs without freezing that I should probably search out again.

Then, when egg production is back up high, I can set aside a few eggs per week so that if Daddy suddenly loses a few layers and production drops, I won’t have to worry about how we’re going to keep Zac in eggs during that time.

With the garden, I need to seriously look into the suggestion posed by my friend Ruth and seek an electric fence to keep critters out of my veggies.

Goat milk is a two-pronged approach. In addition to trying to find new suppliers of goat milk so that I can buy from two sources (hedging my bets against one of them running out or drying up), I’m also going to start buying more than we currently need and freezing it.

I’ve read that you can freeze goat milk for up to 6 months with only a slight diminishment in taste.

This is doubly important because, raw milk noob that I am, I didn’t realize that most goat milk providers do NOT have a year round supply of goat milk to sell!

So even if Miss Lois were not drying her girls up in July, we would still be faced with the unpleasant winter months where her goats would not be producing milk at all.

Ack!

Buying an extra gallon of two per week and freezing it in small jars will take up a lot of space in my freezers, but it will ensure that Zac and Jed can continue to drink goat milk throughout the dry months.

Speaking of goat milk, I’ve got a few leads on potential new suppliers, but nothing lined up yet.

Anyone know of a raw goat milk supplier in northwest Arkansas or southern Missouri that barely grains (or doesn’t grain) their goats? I’d sure appreciate the info!

Being dependent isn’t entirely a bad thing; it simply means that you must know the potential problems that may appear in your particular dependent relationship, and create a backup plan for how to solve those problems.

I didn’t know the “no milk in winter” thing about the goat milk. I didn’t anticipate that Daddy’s chickens would get broody or eaten. I didn’t think UPS would screw up our delivery for two weeks. I didn’t realize my veggies would be so tempting to critters.

Now, though, I DO know.

So now I can make plans for how to best provide for my children within the limitations of our dependencies.

Where and on whom are you dependent? What’s your plan for how to address any problems in supply?