Just starting out....

    October 2008 and at Disney World when my phone starts going off. Clients cancelling Christmas Parties because of what was going on outside of the "Happiest Place on Earth" and it was anything but magical. Second time in the decade where we are faced with a different reality...First 9/11/01 and now this. I wasn't in the country for Y2K...but maybe...just maybe that was a dress rehearsal for the years to come.

    Always a fan the Little House books, and loved reading about The Great Depression...surviving what life hands you whether you are the first to move across a land that is not settled yet or losing everything and starting over. I looked at all of this as a challenge to my years of reading these stories of Resilience and creativity. In truth...nothing happened. My business didn't go under...people still got married and still hired caterers although they were a little more careful with how their money was being spent. But I did start thinking about prepping at that point and started to purchased some cans of freeze dried food, rice and beans...I mean isn't that where everyone starts? One Simple Question changed Everything..."What happens when this  food runs out?"
"BOING"   What does happen when this food runs out? I mean...The Great Depression lasted 10+ years...I couldn't possibly store and prepare for that sort of a time period. 
    I have always loved gardening and the last 15years had been producing some of our food. Always Tomatoes. I had canned in the past but never a massive amount. And my pickles always were a fail and likened to be like "Aunt Bea's Turpentine Pickles" from the Andy Griffith Show. 
  Well, we recovered by 2011 and I was working and earning a living, so even though I knew we could not sustain this "recovery" with so many issues in play, I lived like we could. Every once in awhile thinking we should probably move towards being more self sufficient. But I was busy with my business and that wasn't slowing down. Like Scarlett O'hara...I was going to think about it tomorrow.
   Well this past year I have closed my business and "retired"...too young for Social Security but done for the most part with the Rat Race. I started to thinking of the fact that retirement age wasn't in the very far distant and what did I need to do to live successfully during those years where neither I nor my husband was pulling an income. I wish I thought of this earlier...LOL...but paying off our house so we had no mortgage. Hmmm...Living Cheaply...AND...being Self Sufficient. Thus the Journey begins to HomeStead and Prep for the years to come...and I figure I was "HomeStrepping" from here on out.