Goals

I may have mentioned I'm a planner. I like lists. I need them to keep me on track. That's the general purpose of this blog is to keep me on track and focused.

The other night my husband and I were having a talk and he said he felt like I didn't have a specific, attainable goal in mind with all the prep talk. (Also, this stuff is such a downer)

So I really thought about achievable goals and I am going to list them here.

1. Organize pantry - be brutal.
No more cake mix that I might make some day. No more cans of food that someone gave me when they were moving and I have just held on to them. No more stocking up on stuff with a quickly approaching expiration date.

I want to have 6-12 months of storage on hand but I want to rotate it out so it doesn't get stale. This means gutting what I currently have and organizing it in a way that will make rotation easier. Husband says he will help.

2. Learn to cook.
Okay, I already KNOW how to cook. On a stove. With electricity and a can opener. I don't always know how to make things from scratch. In the event of prolonged electricity loss I need to know how to create things from scratch over an alternative fuel source.

This means I will learn how to boil water and cook food at a minimum on our outdoor grill and preferable over an open fire. I made need a camping Dutch Oven. (Psst -makes a great post Mother's Day gift)

Also this little item would make a great wedding anniversary gift sweetie. Just sayin'.

3. Learn to grow
I do not have any worries about my onions. It looks like we will have 6 good sized ones when the garden is done. And I have 3 pinkish looking strawberries so far and 1 sugar snap pea pod. My cucumbers however, are suffering and I still haven't planted my tomatoes. I tried to harden them off and they started to turn yellowy brown.

I would like to work more on my herb garden as well. To that end we are pulling out (or having pulled out) the massive Juniper bushes in my front yard and putting in a butterfly/herb garden. And maybe some lettuce.

4. Learn to save.
Even if my garden does NOT produce huge quantities of food this year I plan to learn how to save what we like to eat so that when it DOES get going I can save it all.

To this end I'm getting canning supplies and am determined to learn how to can tomato sauce this year as well as some of of fruit preserving. And applesauce although truthfully, I've canned applesauce before. That wasn't so bad.

5. Relax.
I need to make a massage appointment. You know, for my health.