It seems the one thing you can always count on following an event like last week’s nasty spring blizzard, is the next day the grocery stores and gas stations will be super busy.
We are all so very used to being able to go to the grocery store at will that not being able to do so, even for one day, leaves some people in need of the necessities. And it isn’t only regular everyday people who are dependent on our modern ability to bring oranges from Florida, Cilantro from Italy and Rice from Japan to our kitchen tables nearly instantly, but cities are also seemingly complacent about the supplies they have on hand.
For example, it has been reported that one super-sized city in the US would run out of the chemicals it needs to clean its water within days if no transports were available to bring in new supplies.
Because we can easily store our fruits and vegetables in the fridge or buy them fresh from the grocery store tomorrow, the art of canning has become more of a fun pastime than a necessity.
But our fridge’s, like nearly everything else we use, run on electricity.
Many residents of Letbhridge got a dose of how it feels to be without power for a few days following last week’s storm. Thankfully it wasn’t accompanied by freezing temperatures.
And though we have laptops and cell phones, even these items need to be recharged eventually.
What would we do if we, like so many other areas of the world in the last months, were struck by a natural disaster that left us without all these modern conveniences for several weeks? How would we survive if travel was difficult, if not impossible, and we had no power nor any clean water to drink?
Perhaps our forefathers, those who survived the Dirty Thirties, used a lot of wisdom in the choices they made within their homes.
Most of us had grandma’s who insisted on canning every fall, ensuring their root cellar was lined with jars of everything from jams to string beans, and many with bins of potatoes as well.  Those old folks also generally had barrels at each eave of their house, collecting rain water they used for everything from watering gardens to washing hair.
Funnily enough, the national news recently reported there is a new idea for Vancouver residents to lower water usage - that’s right, they are being encouraged to use rain barrels (with screens to protect from mosquitos) to collect water. Wow, what a wonderful brand new idea, kind of like recycling (hey grandma, where did you buy the material for those quilts?) or collecting peelings, coffee grounds and eggshells to enrich the soil of next year’s garden.
We have been very lucky so far, but one day something could happen that more than inconveniences us for a few hours - it could actually mean relying on what we have on hand to survive for a bit longer than that. Perhaps we should consider preparing for that day now instead of saying ‘I wish I would have....’ when that day is upon us.