Why We Stockpile

Doesn’t time fly? We are now into March and the year is already getting away from me. I had things that I wanted to have started by now but life has gotten in the way, but they are on the list so I will get around to them.

The rain is still hanging around and everything is sodden, no mowing can be done but cooking can be, so have done a bit of that.

Before the rain started back we were getting some lovely sunsets.

Now the rain is back it is all mostly grey and the creek is running high a lot of the time.

We have started replacing the door handles on the kitchen cupboards. We have been trying to decide what to replace them with for a while and decided to go with plain black, which looks better than plain white. Such a simple decision after all, it is a wonder it took so long :D

My plan for this week (despite it being half over) is to organise my kitchen cupboards a bit better. I am following a food stockpile challenge on the Simple Savings site and really need some organisation. I do always have a stockpile, however it is unorganised, I don’t really know what I have, and there are things that don’t have dates on them. One of the things I have recently started doing it putting the date of purchase on everything that doesn’t have a date on it, like tinned food, at least then I know how long it has been sitting there and it is also easier to rotate.
So now I am going through the cupboards, checking everything and make a separate space for a stockpile. It is good to follow a plan, even though I am much organised in other areas of my life, this is one of the areas I am not.

It is important that we have a stockpile of food, water, first aid, toilet paper and toothpaste etc, despite what others think about it. Some people think we are crazy, though we actually don’t tell many what we do (of course this is going out into cyber space for all to read, so now everyone, potentially, could know :D ). We have lived in the Top End for, I think, 16 years, firstly in the Northern Territory and now in Far North Queensland, and flooding and cyclones are always around. We have been lucky in that we haven’t been overly affected by these, missing out by only timing, or a smaller category cyclone, or by just a short distance on the map, it is really only luck.

Of course there are other reasons to be prepared, like job loss (we also have done that one, not for long luckily), bank computer glitches (that is a new one but not one we have been affected by, yet), rising prices (electricity is the big one this year I think, though of course food is also the other at the moment), crazy weather, and you could probably add your own thing to the list of what you want to be prepared for.

After the recent Cyclone Yasi, my very lovely partner in crime and life has told some mates that he is proud of his crazy wife, as we were quite prepared and apart from a few last minute small things, we were all good. We also didn’t have to go crazy at the stupidmarket buying trolley loads of food like I saw many others doing.

We have been cut off from town (when we lived in town) by flooding on the roads, and there have been blackouts, loads of rain and cyclones, it is the price we pay for living in a fantastic part of the world. And we are prepared to pay that so we can live the life we want, have great weather (mostly), grow a garden all year round, have like-minded friends who get us and accept us (I dyed my hair red with henna the other day and all have accepted it wonderfully :D ) and sometimes we get to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef, can’t ask for more.

So I had best go and do some organising and admiring of the new door handles (part of the organising, makes me feel better having a nicer looking kitchen), and I also better do some more cooking. I am having lunch with friends tomorrow so I think I will make a banana cake, I have a great recipe, actually, better make two, one to take and one for us :D