I am sick. It may be lethal, only time will tell. So I can't blog too much.
But I have been thinking, as the markets plummet (I lost $20!) and everyone starts freaking out about loading up the Model T and driving to Califor-ni-A where you can just pick an orange off of a tree, about food storage.
I have a friend who firmly believes that weaponry is an essential part of food storage. Because the mobs may attack you for your wheat. The other day she was admiring another family's massive collection of water bottles and fruit snacks and Hellman's and said "Don't let the neighbors know about your food storage!!"
I do not agree with this.
If someone comes to my house, knocks on the door, and says "my babies are starving" I am going to crack open an MRE and share with them. Done deal. The oil in the lamps is a metaphor for testimony and a life-well-lived--literally unable to be shared among friends. Rice-a-roni and freeze-dried carrots CAN be shared, just like the ants did with the grasshopper in the Disney version.
I was trying to envision a situation when I would feel comfortable stockpiling arms and defending my home and family from marauding hordes, and the only thing I came up with was: zombie attacks.
But, as W pointed out, a) there are not likely to be zombies in the last days and, 2) to truly render a zombie ineffective you have to decapitate it and remove the brain. Guns are not really helpful against zombies.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Share Wheat, Not Winchesters
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22 comments:
I'm going to have to agree with you on this. And for that reason, if I ever live in EP, I will feel no need to have my own food storage.
I am stockpiling beer and cigarettes. So the people with the guns will want to trade stuff with me.
And dontcha love the mini Tabasco sauce bottles in the MRE's?
I completely agree, none of it belongs to me it all belongs to the Lord. I will do with it what he see's fit.
My hubby has a great food storage plan. He says he is only going to store chocolate, and TP because everyone will want to trade with him. He later added tampons to the list, he figures they will be a hot commodity.
"The oil in the lamps is a metaphor for testimony and a life-well-lived--literally unable to be shared among friends. Rice-a-roni and freeze-dried carrots CAN be shared"
Yes! Where were you when I was defending the sharing of food storage against the gun-toters at ... that other blog I write for ... (there were only a couple, but they made me crazy!).
Dalene, I was too busy ironing my husband's white shirt.
Sue and Monica--that is GENIUS.
And Sherry, as long as you don't mind the constipation that comes from prolonged MRE use, you can be our grasshopper.
Hi, I found your blog when I was googling food storage and yours came up since you mentioned it.
That is a really great post, thank you for sharing. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in storing food that you think it's just for YOU, but sometimes the Lord will use us to bless others in this way, too.
Thanks again!
Hannah @
http://safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/
So we need to be stockpiling sabers. That'll keep the zombies away... and I hear they don't like fire? or was that just a movie Will Smith was in?
ps. I agree with you - if anyone needs any diced tomatoes ...I have a ton. ;-)
pps. I realized I have neglected to stockpile chocolate and tampons. It's on my to do list.
This describes my brother in law. He has a mountain of food storage (not so bad) and also Guns and Ammo and a bunker under ground. With fuel. He and his neighbor (all of them are in my ward-entertainment at its best!) practice night maneuvers dressed in camo in the middle of the night.
Cuh-razyyy!
after i eat all of my mom's food storage I'm coming to squat at your house
and b. that's HILARIOUS. you should run out there with flares in the middle of the night to spice things up. wait, or don't.
I loved this post, but I have to confess about being a little torn on this.
I don't believe in stockpiling guns, ammo, or weapons by any means, but ... I do live in Californ-i-A. A friend from our ward recently told me that she was at Target buying several very large packages of TP just after our last earthquake. The clerk actually said "I don't worry about saving up stuff. If we ever have the big one, I'm just going to grab a gun and go find me a Mormon."
I know this isn't the norm, but the attitude is out there, and sometimes offering to share with desperate people just isn't enough: my husband has seen that sort of thing in prisons here and in war zones on the other side of the world.
Stockpiling is too much for me, but since my husband is a law enforcement officer and he already has the weapon, well ... I figure I should know how to handle it safely and be prepared to use it if the need ever arises.
Undefined, welcome! At least, living in California you can point them in the direction of one of the kajillion other Mo's out there. Misdirection is always good!
b, when I come to visit I am spending the night at your house to watch that. Maybe we can get W to pretend to cross the border or something just to spice it up?
KK, I will trade you the Nub for a bag of pita chips.
And I totally read the safely gathered in blog, so it is totally meant to be, hannah!
And, yes, sabers. Or machetes. They just need to be de-headed. Fire will keep them away, but won't kill them. Interestingly (or sadly) enough, there are whole websites DEVOTED to zombie escape plans. Maybe I should photo copy some of that info off for the next preparedness fair?
I'm kinda down with undefined on this one. I'm all about sharing, but if/when the mob violence starts I want my family safe.
That being said, I refuse to own a gun, 007 will just have to use his black belt and nunchucks to enforce order on the crowd receiving our bottled water and corn soup.
For me, owning an accessible gun (as opposed to one you keep at a gun club or something off-site) comes down to having the absolute knowledge that you are able to kill someone. Not wound, not wing, not simply shoot, but kill. If I can't fully commit to killing someone, then I am too dangerous to own an accessible gun. I would spend far too much time weighing my options, and then get myself shot or something.
I am not against guns or defense or anything, I just know that I am not capable of making that split-second decision. Just easier to hand over the Annie's MacnCheese.
OK, just so everyone's clear, one of my favorite discussion topics is a zombie apocalypse. That being said, I know all the "churchy" stuff, so I know there won't really be any zombies. BUT still tons of fun.
Anyhoo... I was thinking about this post this morning on the way in to work, and thinking about undefined's post, and thinking, you know, I will definitely share my food (particularly the gross MRE dishes) but there may come a time when I have to look out for me and mine. I will absolutely not sacrifice my family for someone else's. And if it comes down to needing an active defense, well, there you go.
On the zombie front, Yen is right. Decapitation is the order of the day. Or you can shoot them with a gun of a sufficiently large caliber to blow off their heads (This is my boomstick!). I also found a web page dedicated to surviving the upcoming zombie apocalypse-- and if there are no zombies, it's still about survival. Check it out at www.zombiehunters.org
Joe freaked me out when he insisted there WOULD be zombies. He's a jerk.
Everyone is welcome to our stuff, we don't care.
But, when it comes to zombies, I'll just throw my record collection at them.
Man Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Shaun of the Dead references in the same posts!!! You guys rock.
There was a law professor I heard on the radio the other day talking about making laws and he said that one of the first things he tells lawyers their first year, is that they should only make laws they are willing to kill for. The inference was that police carry guns to enforce the law. If someone refuses to obey a law the ultimate conclusion of resistance is deadly force.
I only bring this up because it means that if people come to claim our food I don't know if I could exercise deadly force on them. Well unless I can use a cricket bat that is.
Az - I'm coming over today...and I want croissants!
I have a light saber, and i know how to use it.
I'm not scared of your iPhone with light saber sound. Fool me once!
Which inspired me more? Your post or the comments section? Hard to say. Love, love, love this thread.
I am going to stock up on quinoa and Aveda shampoo.
Great post! Come be my neighbor, not bc I will take your food but bc I need your normalocity in my life. Your fully-commit-to-killing-someone comment is dead-on...
get it?
But seriously, I agree.
So that leaves the greater question, did you, or did you not like Shawn of the Dead (aka, greatest Zombie movie EVER)...
I have a gun. We have friends that are in New Orleans, and things got pretty messy for a few days. Not everything you heard was true, but there were people that needed to defend themselves. I have no problem sharing my food, but I will not allow someone to use force or violence to create a situation that I am not happy with... you know?
I will barter Diet Coke with the other Mormons that forget to put it in their storage...
LOVE THIS POST :)
First off - God Bless Queen Scarlett for pointing out that I have been neglecting the stockpiling of THE two most important things I will need during the apocalypse (whether zombie-related or not) ... they're gonna think I have MAJOR PMS on my next trip to Wal-Mart, LOL.
Secondly - I would probably not pick up a gun to defend a shelf of #10 cans of freeze dried diced potatoes - but I might for IMPORTANT things - like chocolate and tampons ;) I mean really, once 'the whoop comes down' there will be all kinds of options for food .. like hunting, gardening, ... looting? ... but really, where will I get my Lindt 75% cocoa content bars and my ob's?
But seriously, we have guns in the house only because we got them when we lived in the boonies of WA. To call the police where we were living would have been totally pointless (unless all you were hoping for was that someone find your lifeless corpse before the wild animals did), plus we had varmints like cougars and bears prowling around - literally right outside the house on a couple occasions. When I was going to be left for a few weeks on my own my dad insisted I learn to fire the shotgun - I did - and that was enough for me! I did it, I CAN do it, and now I'm done ... unless someone is coming between me and my chocolate ;)
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