thriving versus surviving

I was introduced to this way of thinking about food storage about a year ago: If you had to live for an extended period of time (say a few months) only on the resources you currently possess would you survive or would you thrive?

I knew without even looking at my currently-in-my-possession resources that it would be pure survival, baby.

So I've set about changing that. For food storage I got some ideas and some help from a friend of mine and started purchasing some freeze-dried products like vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and other things to go along with my beans, wheat, rice, and oats. I've been getting them from a company called Shelf Reliance, and the cool part is that freeze-dried food (cool part, freeze-dried, hahaha. I crack myself up) has a longer shelf-life (approx. 25 years!) than dehydrated food. So even when I don't use it up super quickly by incorporating it into our daily menus, it's still good.

I'm not necessarily promoting Shelf Reliance, because I'm sure there are other companies that are just as good, but this place has a program called "Q" that lets you buy a little bit every month on an ongoing basis. They will figure out what to send you, or you can figure it out yourself, and something comes to your house once a month. I've been participating in the online program for a few months now, and my available resources are beginning to grow.

(I've had so much fun looking at all the items they have available that it's ridiculous. It's like shopping without have to get dressed and find your shoes.)

So, if tough times come, or natural disasters, or economic crises, or whatever, I am prepared to thrive. I have brownie mix in my food storage, people. You can see it in the picture, over on the right.