FOOD STORAGE when THE GRID GOES DOWN!

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I still recall one of the earliest "readers" from second grade with a story called, "Enough is Enough" about an old grandfather living off grid with basics he's contented with but whose family gifts him a new home with new appliances. At the old place, he kept his milk, butter and eggs cool in a bucket in the well but in the new place it's a refrigerator. Long story, short, all the new appliances go on the fritz or create some kind of extra work or frustration and finally, because his life was more peaceful and content living the old way, he returns to the homestead because, he says, there he had everything that was sufficient for life, and “enough is enough”. The moral being that nobody needs more than “enough”. Funny how truths never age, hmm?

Tip: You can also bury a "dead" old deep freezer in the ground. That way, you really don't have to insulate it, since it already is insulated but, of course, if you want too, you can add sand or something of the likes between the freezer and the dirt. Cover the top of it with a layer of straw and on top of that, some sort of lid, board or whatever you have and then layer that with straw again. Get crates of some sort that you can easily lift out from the depth of the freezer, so you don't accidentally fall head first into it... Yep, I've done that... LOL There are many things you can do to keep your food items cooler. For now, during the winter I do have a big deep freezer that sits outside on my back porch. Being that it gets really cold over here during the winter months, it's basically turned off since the outside temps keep it cold/frozen enough. Way back when I was between the age of 15 - 19, I lived totally off grid in an old cabin out in the forest. I learned A LOT. You need to be able to think outside of the box and if something doesn't work, take a step back, look at whatever from a different angle and go at it again. Nothing is impossible. Improbable yes but impossible, no... Just know that if you get used to "roughing it" and you upgrade anything to be of a more on grid comfort, it's damn difficult to go back to roughing it. Same as if you're used to living on a very tight budget and manage to raise your income, it's difficult to go back to not having as much. We ARE creatures of comfort and find it very easy to upgrade. It's the down grading that is what is most difficult. Get used to downgrading now as if/when things really go south, it will make your head spin and result in having a more difficult time both surviving and being able to think about how to do something. I'm currently 62 yrs. old, semi off grid with some of the comforts of electricity but, I also grow, forage, harvest and preserve my food for long term storage and know that I could survive without the comforts of society, even if I also know that it will suck, BIG TIME!!

If you have power but it occasionally goes down, keep old milk bottles filled with water/ice in the back of the freezer compartment of your refrigerator. When the power goes out, move them to the refrigerator section. As they melt, they'll give you about another day of cooling and keep the food from spoiling.

When I was a little girl, my town had an ice house. Ice would be harvested in the winter in large blocks, covered in saw dust and kept in a warehouse. The ice would "keep" all year until next winter. In the city, people had window boxes that they would use in the wintertime. These boxes would be hung outside your window where you could keep your food cold. Ice would be delivered by the "ice man" up to your apartment where it was put in your ice box. My grand father worked for the railroad, so all during the depression they had money. He bought my grandmother one of the first commercially available electric refrigerators. That refrigerator ran until the 1970s, and my dad used it to store his beer, lol. My mother spent her summers in the Pennsylvania countryside with her grandparents who had a root cellar. They would make their own kraut from the garden and her grand dad would make his own wine. The cellar had a dirt floor, and they climbed down there on a ladder. Anyway, that cellar kept things cool. The house was made of rock, so all during the hot summer it stayed cool. Folks knew how to made do with the natural things that God provided even up through "modern" times of the early to mid 20th Century. In the South, people had root cellars, spring houses and "sleeping" porches for when the house got so hot, they'd go out on the screened porch to sleep.

This is the kind of information I need. I really appreciate hearing it from a woman who has actually LIVED it. You are a special gift sent to us at just the right time. Thank you!

You had me at "you don't have to be a slave to the system"

I grew up without electricity most of the time. We did have wells. A lot of jars in the 50s, like syrup jars, had bails. Mama put everything that needed to be kept cool in one of those jars and fastened the lid on as tight as she could get it. She had lengths of clothes line tied off securely; didn't want a jar to get loose. Those jars were lowered to the bottom of the well and pulled up as needed.

We're on grid in NH. Several years ago, we had a snowstorm and power outage over Thanksgiving that lasted four days. I had no way to cook the fresh turkey, so we buried it in a snowbank, and went into town to for Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant, well-known for their holiday buffet. It was surprisingly excellent (for not being Thanksgiving dinner from my kitchen! - but no left-overs) Four days later I fixed a wonderful (second) Thanksgiving dinner and the turkey was perfect. Thank you snowbank!

Mom will be 80 next month, when she was a little girl, she had an ice box in the creek for things that needed refrigeration. I've been looking forward to vlog! Great tips.

THANK YOU STACY!!!! LOVE THESE VIDS HELPING US WITH WHAT IS COMING SO WE CAN SURVIVE!!! I WATCH THEM OVER AND OVER AND PICK UP SOMETHING DIFFERENT EVERYTIME!!! Much love to you all and many blessings! Lord help us with what is coming!! Ordering a wild food edible book asap! 💗 love y’all!!! Thank you for caring!!!

The beauty is that people will come back to connect with what is important in life.

Living in AZ, and having an orange tree in your yard, means I can squeeze fresh orange juicer to freeze. Another advantage of frozen orange juice, it helps to fill the freeze. I full freezer will stay colder longer if there is an outage, and you can pull a bottle out and have fresh orange juice.

Love your video! Planted lots of veggies and fruit this year and bought a pressure canner today. Very nervous 😬 but my mom is going to teach me how to can. Your right ! Learn as much as we can now

I have 2 3.5 cubic ft freezers. I can power them on a Jackery 1000, while charging a second one using the two portable solar panels. I want to protect my grassfed/ grassfinished meats!

You both have a great channel!! Kee up the great job! Love you all even if I don’t know you! I am a brother in Christ! Got saved April 27, 1986. Lawton Oklahoma while serving in the US Army!!!❤🙏

I use the outside in the winter as well to keep food cool. When it gets cold I will put food in a cooler on our balcony 🙂 It works really well at Christmas time when I'm doing my Christmas baking and and prepping and need additional storage.

We had an old box freezer, last year we dug a hole & insulated around the sides to make if fit better, but buried it in a shaded area on our property. We painted the top green & added moss to it to camouflage it.

Listening to you while I hang up my laundry to dry. I live in a small city, but I am trying to walk the walk as best as I can until we can get an acreage. My garden is twice the size as last year and things are looking good! Thanks for all the information!

So true!! I'm almost 62 and I've been watching Videos, reading, researching, writing down instructions, recipes etc for Canning, gardening and making all natural medicinal concoctions.. along with planting my garden and many other things.. there is so much good information out there.. find a Few that you like and Trust and Get Busy People!! Be Blessed!! Thanks Stacy!