This is a new format post as I described back on March 30th < Changing the website format ! >. The article below is more current events & opinion article as it applies to prepping vs a solely prepper article. Do not read the article if you are not interested in my view/opinion of current events and how they apply to prepping.
Click the above link to view the current events / opinion article.
This article will only make sense if you have read the Introduction < click here to read >
So the first question I posed was “What are our top priorities, in order, to prepare for this situation?”
There is a very simple way to set priorities when it comes to preparedness. Actually, not just the “preparing” part, but how to respond to such emergencies as well. There is a tried-and-true method…not just some Internet “expert’s” BS. The system I am referring to is L.I.P.S. Yup, it works every single time, it is that good of a system.
There is a significant need for being able to set priorities preparing for or in high-stress situations which most emergencies, disasters, and grid-down are. Without being able to set priorities consistently and correctly, any task is almost certainly doomed to failure. Priorities are also based on a mutual foundation that the entire family has agreed to. The need for your family to share a common set of priorities is paramount for cohesiveness, consistency, and ability to cooperate effectively.
L.I.P.S. stand for –
Let’s restate/summarize L.I.P.S. this way –
The #1 priority is to protect people from death, injury, and sickness.
The #2 priority is to not make a bad situation worse.
The #3 priority is not to destroy resources you don’t have to.
The #4 priority is to restore the situation back to normal.
So now we know how to set priorities, but what about making that apply to what we can realistically expect in the kind of scenario we listed in the Introduction article. Well, there is a proven reliable way to approach that as well. There are 7 Common Risks/Threats that exist in each and every disaster, emergency, and especially during “grid-down”, they are:
Not only are they an accurate listing of issues/threats to deal with, they are are listed in priority order as well. You might doubt or question their priority order…please hold off on that judgment until you’ve read through the following.
Violence –
The risk of violence is always present in any emergency situation. There is always someone that is ready, willing, able, and depraved enough to take your stuff and/or hurt you or your family. The reason why this is the #1 item…Risk Mitigation principles. The severity, and potential finality, of the end result. Meaning, in a matter of seconds your stuff could be taken and/or your life ended. A year’s worth of food storage is worthless if someone steals it or kills your family over it. You must be able to prevent violence from happening to you and your family.
Problem: If you can’t defend yourself, your family, and your stuff…anyone can come along and take everything you hold dear in this life.
Solution: Properly arm yourself with the correct weapons and have adequate training on how to use them to defend yourself and your family.
Injury or Sickness –
Once again, the risk of injury or sickness is always present in any emergency situation. Think of any emergency…now, think of all the ways you can get injured or sick during that emergency. The outcome to your family can be devastating without the ability to prevent, or properly care for minor and intermediate injuries and sickness. A simple infected cut on your finger could lead to sepsis and that can lead to death if not prevented and/or treated. Same could be true for something as simple as diarrhea.
Problem: Without the ability to prevent and treat injuries and sickness, you and/or family members can become incapacitated…or worse.
Solution: Acquire enough medical supplies and training to be able to treat minor and intermediate wounds and injuries. Learn how to avoid and treat sickness during emergencies.
Communications (lack of or poor) –
Here is something interesting…in every single wildfire emergency that had a serious injury or fatality…communications was a problem, or nonexistent.
There are two side of communications, I call them hardware and software. The hardware are the gadgets; cell phones, radios, batteries, antennas, etc. The software are the skills, knowledge, process, plan, and implementation of communicating. Both are equally important.
Problem: Without the ability to communicate you cannot coordinate your emergency response with your family. That lack of, or poor, communications can leave you exposed to every single aspect of what can/could go wrong.
Solution: Acquire sufficient communications equipment and training to use it effectively. Develop a plan on how and when to communicate.
Organization (lack of or poor) –
At first glance this may sound a bit silly, but trust me…it isn’t the least bit silly. If you and your family aren’t organized you will be wandering around trying to figure out who should do what…at the worst possible moment. Further, if you wait until the emergency occurs to set into place the organization…you will be more likely to fail.
Also, I am not talking about organization in terms of lists, plans, maps, etc. I am talking about “who” does “what”. Who will be the leader, who will handle logistics, who will handle defense, who will do the cooking, etc. If you are fortunate enough to be part of a larger group such as your church’s congregation or any other group, this becomes even more important. Having a way to organize a group of any size is vital to successfully overcoming any emergency. Fortunately you don’t have to invent the solution…it is already there for you.
Problem: If your family or group is not organized to meet the needs of the group you are far more prone to problems of all kinds, especially violence, injury, and sickness.
Solution: Learn and adopt the Incident Command System.
Dehydration –
This topic is virtually self-explanatory. You must have a source of purified water to survive. Water storage and ability to produce safe potable water is vital. Without it, you go from being disoriented to sick to dead in a relatively short period of time.
Problem: You can last 3 – 5 days without water before you will die. Drinking contaminated water assures you and/or your family of an agonizing death.
Solution: Have an initial supply of transportable water storage. Have the ability to purify sufficient quantities of highly contaminated water into potable (safe) water.
Exposure –
Another example of self-explanatory. You need the ability to protect you and your family against exposure to the elements. This applies to your body and to your shelter.
Problem: Hypothermia and hyperthermia can kill…and do so rather quickly in some cases.
Solution: Acquire sufficient and proper clothing for each person in your family. Strengthen your home to be your best shelter. Consider acquiring basic shelter capability such as a tent.
Starvation –
Why is this the last item? Because a person can last 7 – 10 days without food and not be in too bad of shape for the first few days. This is a slower form of becoming disabled and/or dead. However, this is a strange item because it is usually the first thing people prepare for when in reality it should be the last when considering emergencies.
Problem: Without sufficient food/nourishment intake you and your family will starve to death within 7 – 10 days.
Solution: Acquire 30 – 90 days worth of common pantry items that your family eats every day. Acquire an initial 30 – 90 day supply of easily transportable, lightweight food such as freeze dried food. Acquire a long-term supply of food storage capable of providing basic nourishment to you and your family. Acquire three growing seasons worth of heirloom (non-hybrid) garden seed sufficient for your family.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
Come Unto Him !In today’s world burning all around us, it is more important than ever to trust in Him. We don’t know all the details, but we can trust in His plan. He does win in the end.
April 1, 2026 Originally written & edited January 10th - 17th, 2026. I didn't publish this series then because it was not finished and current events overrode this project, or at least I thought they did. I am resurrecting the series due to its timeliness and applicability. If you want to read the article that motivated me to bring this series back to life you can < click here >.
January 17th, 2026…
I was thinking this past week about this coming year, 2026. So much came to mind. Last month my wife and I reviewed our emergency fund and where that money was and how it was performing. We made huge changes based on our vision of the future. Going forward here on the glamstead I have been refining my “To Do” list for 2026, paying particular attention to the first 4 months. Lot’s going on to say the least.
Last Thursday was very rewarding…I pruned the peach trees and the cherry trees. Oh, and my “fruit cocktail” tree. The fig tree won’t need pruning, so all that is left are the 5 apple trees. Bummer is, 3 of the 5 are showing no signs of producing. They were given to us by a neighbor in 2021. They were planting an orchard and had the trees left over; they thought we would appreciate them. Funny part…we have no idea what variety they are. If they don’t produce blossoms this year, they get replaced next year.
Last week I moved the blackberry bushes. They had gone absolutely bonkers! They were taking over the area where we also have raspberries. And my wife didn’t like all the “clutter” of the bushes…safe haven for snakes. On top of all that…they grew so tall that they started shading one of our solar arrays. We now have 13 blackberry bushes in a much better area…and a few starts to give away to neighbors.
Sorry, I got sidetracked. What is Project ‘26?
As I mentioned earlier…I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last couple of months about everything going on. Multiple times I’ve written about people/nations and what they were doing just before there were serious problems in their countries (i.e. Germans in the early 1930’s). Kinda like…if they had known, what would they have done to prepare for it, or what would they have done differently? So the idea popped into my head…Project ‘26.
But, to properly carry out Project ‘26 I had to come up with a “problem” to correctly come up with the “solution”. So here is the imaginary problem we are going to use, the fantasy scenario. Yes, somehow we magically know what is going to 
happen. Could be reading Book of Revelation, having a dream, listening to a Prophet leading your church, visiting a great website, or whatever else you want to come up with…you just know the following will happen in 2026:
So here is what we’re going to do…We are asking ourselves three questions:
What this project ISN’T is an actual “to do” list…unless you feel prompted to do so. Meaning, this isn’t really a project to make you buy, build, move, or perform any task other than answer the questions. Now, that being said, if you feel inspired or prompted to do anything on the list, or all of the list, then by all means do so.
I will be doing the exercise as well. And, just to make it interesting, I will post my responses on-line as I work through it. You can follow along for a good laugh or use it as a guide for your own exercise.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
Woke up this morning to Day #2 of rain…YEA!!! About noon yesterday it started raining, rained off and on the rest of the day and into the evening. We sure needed that rain! This morning it started up again about 4am; little after 8am now and still raining. I can’t begin to tell you how badly we need it around here. My wife and I couldn’t remember the last time it rained or snowed…sad. Since I can’t get any outside work done I figured I would write a bit…maybe give you an update on the glamstead. Yesterday afternoon I worked some on “Project ‘26”…I will post the first installment tomorrow if all goes well.
When I got up and moving around this morning it was 66degrees in the house…a bit chilly, especially for my wife. Time to build a fire in the wood burner. Oh, wait…didn’t have to build a fire…just turned on the mini-split and poof…heat came on. Nice! What a tremendous improvement to our lives here on the glamstead. Did I mention that for 10 days we used the AC function of the mini-split? Dang, you can hang meat in the great room when running the air conditioning. Sweet!
If you’ve been around awhile you know a little about me and strawberries. First off, I love ‘em! Second, I’ve had a terrible time growing them. Well, not exactly true…I’ve grown wonderful plants…virtually no strawberries. All my fault. I simply didn’t know enough to do it right in this high desert environment. Here I am about 4, maybe 5, years into it and I think I have finally figured it out.
Last year I finally gave up on the Sequoia variety…just not the right variety for our area. With some research on my own and talking with the wonderful folks at Grow Your Own Food Nursery (Modesto, CA) I think I am dialed in. I found them on Etsy and do business with them through that website. On Etsy they are Grow Your Own Food Shop (GrowYourOwnFoodShop). Last year I tried a few plants each of Eversweet and Albion varieties from them…both did 
excellent. Here is the fun part…
Last week I ordered 25 bare root plants of each, and 20 live plants of Eversweet!! I also changed my plans for my strawberry patch.
Originally, about 5 years ago, we tried planting in the ground…FAIL! (bad soil) Then I witch to raised beds for the patch…FAIL! (improper fertilizing and wrong plant variety) Then, last year when our test plants did well I planned on 3 beds for the patch. Then early this spring I decided on 4 beds; 2 beds for each variety. Well, a couple days ago when I was doing my chores…5 beds…1/2 of our south garden. Why a patch so big? Because we love strawberries and once established, they are relatively low maintenance. They also produce fruit rich in Vitamin C…important in a prepper food scenario.
The beds are prepared, soil worked & fertilized, and pH tested. I am going a little more acidic, down to the 6.5 point. I just added a little pelleted sulfur product and a water soluble acidfier product. Bingo!…the right pH. I also added a generous amount of a 4-4-4 organic fertilizer as well. Beds are ready!
Here is where I kinda failed again…
Live strawberry plants aren’t cheap…could be as much as $5 per plant ordered online. I wanted about – 30 – 40 plants total. Simply too much money in these tough economic times in my opinion. I decided to go “bare root”, took that cost down to about $1.25 per plant. Nice! I did my research, found a fair price from what appeared to be a reputable vendor on Etsy. Before I ordered I asked them about shipping times…”2 – 3 days max, usually ship immediately” was their response. It took them 8 days to ship. Along the way they said they shipped, when they didn’t. And I contacted them kinda sternly…their response was terrible…it was my fault…my expectations were off. Ah, no. But, too late to cancel I had already ordered 20 bare root of each and they finally shipped before I was ready to cancel.
In the mean time I went back to the original company I had worked with last year, GrowYourOwnFoodShop, and asked them if they still had plants…they did…at $5 per plant. I apologized to them but I just didn’t have the extra money for the plants. Within 2 hours then sent me a private offer that was amazing in price for 20 live Eversweet plants. I couldn’t say no. They are quality people with high quality plants, and super great to work with. I highly recommend them!!
So it looks as if we will have 150sq’ of raised bed strawberry patch…with 8 plants from last year, 20 live plants this year, and 50 bare root plants (20 of each variety) as well. Nearly 80 plants pumping out incredible strawberries!!!
I am also not going to cultivate any sister plants from runners this year. I will snip all the runners this year letting all the energy go to the plants. I will also pinch blossoms off the new plants for a couple of weeks to let the plants get really well established. Yes, they are “everbearing” plants…yum!
If it wasn’t raining I would include a picture of what the beds look like now. I will keep you updated.
The orchard looks amazing! The blossoms have come and gone…we now have leaves and some tiny fruit forming. The apricots are the size of marbles, the rest…tiny BB’s.
The 3 “gifted” apple trees that I’ve mentioned before show no sign of blossoms at all. Next season they will be replaced with either “fruit cocktail” trees or apricots. We have enough cherry trees (4) and enough peach trees (3) and enough multi-variety apple trees (2). I might do another Desert King Fig, but we’ll see how the one from last year does this year before making my final decision.
I finished all the pine straw (pine needles and pine cones) ground cover in the orchard. Now there is no exposed dirt in the orchard. Should keep the ground cooler, a little more moist, and control the weeds a bit. All of which will be better for the trees.
If the peach trees produce fruit like the blossoms indicate…oh BOY!!! We will be in peach city this year.
All the trees are now set-up on irrigation with timers…saves me a huge amount of time & attention. We water the trees twice a week, about 60 gallons each tree over 90 minutes, each watering. One of the problems around here are folks whose fruit trees don’t do well or simply die. When I talk with them they just aren’t watering their tree right. The main mistakes:
Dang!! If you would have told me that the transplanted lilacs would be doing this well…I would not have believed you. Out of the 20 transplants…18 are doing great, 2 look dead. But, I still have some down at the old mobile home, I will transplant some replacements next winter.
Now, am I hoping for too much to see them blossoms this year?
Had a large bare spot out next to the new lilacs…got it planted. I actually laid down seed at the end of February after having worked the ground with the rotor-tiller and adding in some soil conditioner, some compost/mulch, a bit of gypsum, a little fertilizer, and some cow patties. Normally the grass seed would have just laid dormant until it warmed up. But we had a very warm spring so not only did it come up…it looks great!
And for the record…I love to mow grass with a walk-behind mower. My sister-in-law says it is the mid-west boy in me coming out.
Ooooopppppssssss…I didn’t know to cut back the lavender when it went dormant last winter. A month ago when everything else started coming alive, the lavender looked gray and dead. Well, I trimmed it back and green is now coming on. Next winter it gets cut back properly.
Last year we had a friend give us some gorgeous orange lilies. They looked fragile but were supposed to be perennials. Got em in the ground and the bright orange was an incredible splash of color here in the high desert. They died over the winter…I mean DIED back to dead, dead gray plant matter. Well, the plants are now green, 4” tall, and double the bunch size of last year!
The salvia didn’t make it. Don’t know why. I have my eye on a replacement plant that is tall, strange looking, and very colorful. I’ll keep you posted.
Blackberries got transplanted…13 plants of them. I had my doubts about how well they would survive…rather, if they would survive. All 13 are showing green!!! And a great thing…I was able to give away about 10 blackberry starts to 3 different families. Yup, in addition to about 30 raspberry starter plants given away when I was done thinning them.
I am trying very hard this year to help neighbors improve their ability to grow their own food.
Okay, maybe not a “forest”. But as you come up our 750’ driveway, you get just about to the house there are pine trees on both sides of the drive for about 150’. Some of the trees are only about 12” tall…but about 7 are 3’ tall (+/-).
I am running waterline now to set them up on irrigation and timers. That is a huge and backbreaking project. But, it will be worth it in the long run. I have before/after pictures…I will get them posted. After the irrigation is in, I will spread a couple of inches of pine straw over the ground to improve the soil and make it look way prettier as well. There is even some buffalo grass that is thriving among the trees. I will make sure it also gets watered regularly.
That’s about it for now. I gotta get back to working on the “Project ‘26” series. Look for it, I think you will like it and maybe get some good info out of it…maybe even some motivation.
As I talk with friends and neighbors…none of them are liking what they are seeing in the US or the world right now. All of them are hurting financially to some degree. Some are really hurting like the elderly couple I spoke about in an earlier article. Debi, here on the website, also shared how she is coping. We too are impacted. But, we keep working our plan the best we can, preparing for the future…preparing for different potential options.
It could be easy to get very depressed concerned about where we are headed as a country, as a people…I get that. At the same time we still have each other, we have Christ, we have hope regardless of what man is doing.
An elderly neighbor lost his wife of 68 years last Friday. It has devastated him…to the breaking point. He and I have had several long deep conversations about the gospel and the future. There is a future…whatever it may bring. We can prepare ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually to the best of our ability…then place the rest in God’s hands…let Jesus carry the rest of the burden after all we can do.
Folks, in my lifetime of 7 decades I’ve never seen our country or the world in such terrible circumstances. And I don’t know how much worse it will get. But I can tell you this…we can make it through it, whatever it is. God wins in the end…and we are His children. He lives, He loves us, He will not abandon us. He knows what He is doing and what is happening. We just have to work at bending our will to His…and then trusting Him with the final outcome. I guess I am just asking for us to have faith. I honestly love you guys…it may sound like a cliché, but I mean it.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
This is a new format post as I described yesterday < Changing the website format ! >. The article below is more current events / opinion article as it applies to prepping vs a solely prepper article. Do not read the article if you are not interested in my view/opinion of current events and how they apply to prepping.
Click the above link to view the current events / opinion article.
I’ve decided to change the format of this website. Awhile back I got this comment from yardmaster : “How is this related to emergency preparedness information for disasters and grid-down ???” It got me to thinking. My immediate response was “Situational Awareness”, which it is. However, yardmaster made a point…people are expecting preparedness information and I gave them an earful of current events with some politics mixed it…all of which was my opinion containing clear facts. Hardly fair on my part.
Now, last evening I wrote an article that is 6 pages in a word document, 2700 words…and I am not done editing it yet. I was troubled when I was done, and it woke me up this morning about 4am. I wasn’t comfortable just posting the article…but yet, I thought I really needed to. Then it dawned on me…only a few people are going to read the entire thing and place value on what I had to say. I think the majority of the folks who come to the site wouldn’t even read it…most who did read some or all of it would object to my take on current events and their significance regardless of its facts and evidence.
I was working outside this morning, fixing a water line extension and patching in some grass in the yard, when it hit me…two categories…a major change in the website format.
First – there will be the main objective which won’t change…”Emergency preparedness information for disasters and grid-down | Serious emergency, disaster and grid-down preparedness and prepper information.”
Second – I will create a new category called “Patriot”. That category will be my opinion/view of current events and political issues facing preppers. However, they won’t be posted articles as in the past…not even a traditional post at all. I will simply create a post called something like “Patriot: 03/30/2026”. I will probably include some kind of meme and then only a link. The article will will actually be a PDF file and to read it you will have to click on the link to display and/or download the PDF file.
So I figure…people who only want to see articles on prepping, gardening, homesteading, etc. will see the article in their email and on the site. But, those who want a deep read on something important in the world such as a current event or a political issue AND want that info to come from me they can see it if they, and only if, they want to.
There will be an occasional exception…something so important, something with such potential impact on the US, the world, our families, or our safety I will post it in a very short format. Here is an example from my research last night:
To read “Patriot” articles you might have missed there will be a Patriot “Category” listed on the left-hand side of the screen.
Let me know what you think…I am hoping it makes the site more useful and palatable to more people. And still give me an opportunity to provide useful information to those who seek it plus an opportunity for me to vent.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
Caution: Sarcasm Alert !
I looked over our small emergency fund that is about 60% in stock based mutual funds. I wrote a little bit about it here < click here > By the time I was done looking over the results since the Donnie-Iran War I wasn’t thrilled. It lost a bunch of value since the war broke out. So I was thinking…if we lost value (i.e. value) what about all investors in general, how much value have they lost.
So I did my research and found out how much value each major stock exchange loses for each percentage drop in its index. I looked at the DOW, the S&P, and the Nasdaq. Investors have lost a combined total of slightly over $3,000,000,000,000. Yeah, that’s 3trillion dollar loss of value to investors due directly to the war. Nice, about $130billion loss per day on average.
Then I was thinking about Pentagon Pete (PP) asking mom and dad for a raise in his allowance for more killing and destroying. So PP asks for $200billion more dollars for bombs and bullets to destroy more stuff around the middle-east and
kill more people in Iran…hopefully not more young school girls. I decided to run some of those numbers…
As of March 21st, the war has cost the US about $100billion dollars in the lead up to the war and an additional $20billion per week for three weeks of actual warfare. That comes to about $160billion dollars to date. $160billion that the US government didn’t have to spend…and was added to the national debt. Which debt generations of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be paying interest on…about $8 – $9billion per year for 30 years…or longer. On Mach 19th Department of War Hegseth requested an additional $200billion in war funding. That too will be added to the national debt and create another $10billion 
per year in interest that our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be paying interest on for 30 years…or longer.
To date, the direct cost of the war is about $900billion in principle and interest over the next 30 years…nearly $3,000 per man, woman, child, and infant in the United States.
Let’s talk food…The price of fertilizer that farmers use to grow food to feed us is up 25% since the war was started. Fuel in our area is up 46%…you know, the stuff that tractors need to plant crops. But I’m sure those cost increases won’t show up in the grocery stores…nah.
FedEx and UPS have both announced increases in fuel surcharges since the war. But I’m sure that won’t drive the cost of everything up.
But flying will be much cheaper…right? Ah, no. Major airlines have all announced ticket price increases…anywhere from $50 – $300 per flight. But, don’t worry…in addition to ticket price increases some major airlines such as United are just canceling flights period…like 5% of all flights. May not sound like much but that means about 150 fewer flights a day just for United. What does this mean in real terms? For United alone…$11billion in added expense just for jet fuel this year.
In personal terms…last night a couple came over for dinner. She work about 1-hour away, 4 days a week. Calculating the miles to/from work, vehicle MPG, number of days worked per month, and 46% spike in fuel costs locally…yeah, it comes out to more than $100 per month for gas since the war started. Yeah…she is wondering why they voted America First.
So tell me again…How do all these horrific numbers economic numbers Make America Great Again…or put American First? The US economy takes a hit of trillions and trillions of dollars…yup…Make America Great Again!!
Oh, and these are just the numbers since the BiBi-Donnie War started. Since Jan 2025…yeah, all the economic numbers are worse…and getting worse.
But not to worry…this is just the first 14 months of this new MAGA / AF adventure…we still have 34 more months to go. Should be an interesting ride. Hope you are preparing for it.
Dang it…back in 2024 I started my own cryptocurrency company and my family made billions by now. And then last year and this year I had my golf club company go into the drone manufacturing business and about to sell 100’s of millions of dollars worth of drones to the government. Oh wait…that wasn’t my family…some other family business beat me to it…
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
So there I was Friday night…out to dinner with my wife celebrating 21 years together, wedded bliss. Yeah, hard to believe that someone would put up with me for 21 whole years. I guess she has weak points as well 😉
I made the comment how excited I was. She smiled sweetly…and I realized I had just stepped in it.
I quickly made a short, heartfelt comment about being with her for so long and still excited about it. Whew! Crisis averted.
Then I went on to mention for the third time that day that I was also excited about having ordered the 50 bare root strawberry plants earlier in the day and that they should be in by Friday. I was pumped!
Yup, we have 25 Eversweet and 25 Albion bare root strawberry plants headed our way (see picture above). I am so psyched ! ! ! The couple of plants we tried last year did really well, now I am ready for a patch of em. We really can’t afford buying that many potted plants (almost $150) so we are going bare root. They should do just fine….I will keep you updated.
But, there is more…it’s spring…
The purple plum is absolutely gorgeous this year! Last year we had 2 very windy days just as the blossoms hit and they were gone before we could enjoy them. Not this year…beautiful !
And then there are the fruit trees in the orchard going nuts…even this newest peach tree in its second year…
Then there is the oldest peach tree…it’s fourth year…
Here are the lilacs I mentioned that I transplanted from bushes I dug up that had been completely neglected for almost 25 years. Here is one of them…
And I am totally excited about all the seedlings coming along for the garden. Several varieties of tomatoes, butter nut squash, two varieties of cantaloupe, and watermelon. 60 pots of them, some 75 plants in total. Of course only about 1/3 for us, the rest are for others to enjoy in their own gardens growing their own food.
So yeah, I was excited Friday…and I am excited today walking around looking it all over and taking the pictures. I hope you too are excited about the new growing season that is upon us.
2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved No reproduction or other use of this content without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed. I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website. See Content Use Policy for more information.
I had the opportunity to get to know some elderly folks lately who are in their 70’s and how their life is financially right now. It was sad for them…but encouraging for preppers in a way.
For about 5 years they were paying their bills but little left over to do anything significant with.
Let me explain…
So what’s the problem? They simply can’t get by anymore. Their living expenses have now surpassed their social security checks. It has gotten to the point where they are now eating their food storage…and not replacing it…as of the first of March.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food rose by 3.1% from December 2024 to December 2025. Common grocery items have risen between 7 – 30% in the last year. But there’s more that was affecting them they said. To check it out I ran some numbers…
The picture for them became pretty clear…they are hurting. Their financial situation might not be dire but it is tenuous. I asked them why did they start eating their food storage. They explained to me that they had acquired a couple of years worth of food storage over the years, a pretty well-rounded food storage overall. They had designated it in groupings for “emergencies, disasters, and grid-down”. Yup, they follow my website. They told me they had hit an “emergency” point…they simply were running out of money at the end of the moth. While it was not a huge amount, they felt that eating some of their food storage would “ease the pain” financially…leaving them another $100 or so more at the end of the month.
They had already started frequenting a local food bank when there was free bread available. And occasionally they were getting free meals at a local senior citizen center.
The more they talked the more upset – depressed – angry – stressed – disappointed – I got. Here are a couple of elderly folks, worked their whole life, paid into the system, played by the rules, supported their government (local, state, and federal), did everything that was asked of them…and here they are…eating their food storage.
Now, I commend them for taking proactive steps prior to their food storage usage. I also praise them for having food storage to use. Where would they be without it? Well, I did some more research…there are 50million people in the US that are “food insecure”…about 13% of US families can’t afford a reasonable amount of food for a decent diet.
Then I decided to look at the US poverty stats. The poverty level in the US is about $1,330 per month. Guess how many US citizens live at or below the poverty level? 11% of the US population. So I decided to double that amount of monthly income…$2,600 per month…to see what happened. Guess how many families live on $2,600 per month or less? Approximately 30% of US families!!! Think about that for a minute…could you live on $2,600 per month for your family?
I was…am…sick to my stomach over this. Especially, this couple whom I know personally, eating their food storage to keep their heads above water financially. Then again…the numbers are all showing that the economics in the US are bad, have been bad, and are getting worse…really worse. And to make things even worse…the longer the war goes on the worse it could get exponentially…or collapse altogether.
Here is what I am going to ask of you…
First off, let me explain something, two years ago we were helping feed 3 related families here locally. We provided them large amounts of fresh produce and fruit from our glamstead. Their need was brought to our attention and we responded. However, we found out in the fall that their situation was not nearly as bad as was represented to us. A family member was a retired professional and was able to provide all the financial assistance needed…they didn’t need our food. We kinda got suckered a little bit…lesson learned.
So last year we donated all our extra produce to a local senior center that provides meals to seniors and food boxes to the elderly. It went directly to those in need and was gratefully accepted. We will do the same this year.
Additionally, this year we provided raspberry and blackberry starts to several families in our immediate area. I also started way more seedlings that what we intend to plant in our raised beds, there will be about 4 or 5 dozen extra vegetable plants that we will give away so people can grow their own food. Also, any additional produce and fruit will go to the senior center again.
The request…I am asking you to do something similar if you at all can:
There are large number of families, including those with children, that need help…serious help, real help. We live in terrible economic times but some of us are blessed…some with extra money, some with excess orchard and garden produce, some with time. Please donate whatever you can to whomever you can.
The government is not coming to save anyone. We must rely on and save each other.
1 Corinthians 13 : 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Please, please…people need your help…people need your love…people need your charity. Have faith…help them.
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A.H. Trimble - Emergency preparedness information for disasters and grid-down 