I Need Another Freezer

We just purchased and filled a freezer. Yesterday I received a call from a neighbour asking if I'm still interested in purchasing her lamb.

I drive by their farm everyday when I go to work and it always admire it because looks so peaceful and bucolic. Everthing in order and clean with sheep roaming the fields. I have never seen the owners, until one day this past summer. Of course I had to stop and tell them how much I love driving by and looking at their place (I'm just too friendly sometimes). It turns out they are an older Finnish couple and they actually know a friend of mine as the Finnish community here is not very big.

I asked what they do with the sheep - do they raise them for meat or fibre? It turned out that they butcher and sell the lambs in the fall. Well, we love to eat lamb! I gave them my business card and said we would be interested in buying one when they butcher. So, I got the call yesterday as I said. I will be getting 35lbs of lamb cut and wrapped for $3.70 a pound. Now I'm in a panic because our freezer is already full to the top! We stocked with a meat pack from the butcher because I hadn't heard from the couple and I thought they had already butchered as they said they would be doing it in the fall (I guess technically it is still fall). But we definately want their lamb because we can see they have been well cared for, are local and from what my friend tells me, organically raised.

Husband says not to worry that we will buy another small freezer. That way we can use it for our future meat rabbits, chicken and garden bounty. If we it's not full we will just unplug it until we need it again.

Stock Up the Pantry

I went shopping to stock up our pantry. I'm lucky, as when we built the house we put in a special little room/closet to use as a pantry. I'm still waiting for Husband to put up 2 more shelves, but otherwise it is useable and pretty full.

When I got home Son helped me bring in the groceries and exclaimed "Mom, are you insane? Do you realise that we have 5 bags of flour?" Yes, of course I know that... flour has increased in price from $5.99 for a 10lb bag to $11.99 - and I remember seeing in one store that it was '1 bag per customer'.

So I'm all stocked up with necessities - flour, sugar, beans, rice, canned fruit and veggies, canned mushrooms, canned soups, peanut butter, canned fish, old fashioned oats, pasta, and the like.

The one thing I still have to store is water. We quickly found out that when the power goes off so does the well pump. Unfortunately, our tanks only hold so much. I have some large water bottles that will be filled in stored in the crawlspace (just in case).

Now, I'm really not a hoarder but I feel that one should be prepared in the event of an emergency. I haven't done it until now... the terrible hurricanes and earthquakes in other countries have shown how awful it is for those not ready. On top that Husband works with the Provincial Emergency program and I know that the world is far overdue for a pandemic.