Read Online Countdown to Armageddon by Darrell Maloney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Darrell Maloney
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Walmart to shop.
Joyce didn’t shop the way most people do, though. She took the rear seats out of her Honda CRV and left them in her garage. When she pulled into the Walmart parking lot she had the intention of filling every square inch.
Her first few visits were hit and miss until she developed a system. Then she got it down to a science.
The first two trips in and out of the store were for canned goods. She’d determined that two full carts of canned goods did a pretty good job of covering the floor space of her vehicle.
Then she went back inside for two more carts full of other foods that had a very long shelf life. Dry beans and pasta, rice and spaghetti, Ramen noodles. Some canned goods, like Vienna sausages and canned ham, had shelf lives of four years. So did the canned spaghetti sauce, and it was high in calories, which was another plus. She also stocked up on sugar and flour and baking goods, and dry milk and seasonings.
These goods went on top of the canned goods. If there was still space, she went back in for more supplies. Bags of charcoal, pillows and blankets, coats and linens. And whatever else she thought they’d need for the long term.
She was always cautious not to buy anything which had to be refrigerated. That would come later. The first project on her list of things to do was to build a food supply at the compound, that would get them through their first few months if the EMPs hit in the fall. They reasoned that if the power went out in the late summer or fall, it would be April before they could plant subsistence crops. And late the following summer before they could be harvested. The Walmart food was to keep them alive in the interim.
And if they had time to grow their crops and put them aside before the power went out? Well, that was okay too. As Joyce told Scott, having too much food was much better than not having enough. If they didn’t need the Walmart food initially, they could eat it later on before it expired, canning their home grown crops for later use.
After two months of shopping at Walmart, Joyce had filled up one of the extra bedrooms with canned and dry foods, sorted and marked with their expiration dates. They were arranged so that the items expiring first were located on the top and front of each stack. That would ensure nothing spoiled before it was eaten.
Once the dry stock was assembled, Joyce went on to her second project. She’d helped her grandmother and then her mother can fruits and vegetables when she was a little girl growing up in Lubbock. She remembered it as being fun.
She found out that from an adult’s perspective, especially when canning on a large scale, it was actually a lot of work.
But she still enjoyed it.
And she learned that she could can not just fruits and vegetables, but also cooked meats and boiled eggs as well. So for an additional three months, she continued her frequent visits to Walmart. Only this time the back of her SUV held eight large coolers. She filled some of them with whole chickens, prime ribs, beef and pork roasts, and various sausages. Others were filled with a wide variety of fresh produce.
She went to Walmart twice a week now, and two days a week she spent at the compound, baking and canning her haul from the previous day. After three months she had literally hundreds of quart jars of anything and everything. When the space she’d set aside in the basement was finally full, she said she’d finally had enough and vowed never to can anything again.
Of course she knew better. If Scott was right about the solar storms and the EMPs, she’d spend the rest of her life in the compound. During the warm weather months they’d be growing and harvesting crops. And she’d be canning a good portion of the crops for the winter months. But for now she was just tired of it.
Her third project
Joyce didn’t shop the way most people do, though. She took the rear seats out of her Honda CRV and left them in her garage. When she pulled into the Walmart parking lot she had the intention of filling every square inch.
Her first few visits were hit and miss until she developed a system. Then she got it down to a science.
The first two trips in and out of the store were for canned goods. She’d determined that two full carts of canned goods did a pretty good job of covering the floor space of her vehicle.
Then she went back inside for two more carts full of other foods that had a very long shelf life. Dry beans and pasta, rice and spaghetti, Ramen noodles. Some canned goods, like Vienna sausages and canned ham, had shelf lives of four years. So did the canned spaghetti sauce, and it was high in calories, which was another plus. She also stocked up on sugar and flour and baking goods, and dry milk and seasonings.
These goods went on top of the canned goods. If there was still space, she went back in for more supplies. Bags of charcoal, pillows and blankets, coats and linens. And whatever else she thought they’d need for the long term.
She was always cautious not to buy anything which had to be refrigerated. That would come later. The first project on her list of things to do was to build a food supply at the compound, that would get them through their first few months if the EMPs hit in the fall. They reasoned that if the power went out in the late summer or fall, it would be April before they could plant subsistence crops. And late the following summer before they could be harvested. The Walmart food was to keep them alive in the interim.
And if they had time to grow their crops and put them aside before the power went out? Well, that was okay too. As Joyce told Scott, having too much food was much better than not having enough. If they didn’t need the Walmart food initially, they could eat it later on before it expired, canning their home grown crops for later use.
After two months of shopping at Walmart, Joyce had filled up one of the extra bedrooms with canned and dry foods, sorted and marked with their expiration dates. They were arranged so that the items expiring first were located on the top and front of each stack. That would ensure nothing spoiled before it was eaten.
Once the dry stock was assembled, Joyce went on to her second project. She’d helped her grandmother and then her mother can fruits and vegetables when she was a little girl growing up in Lubbock. She remembered it as being fun.
She found out that from an adult’s perspective, especially when canning on a large scale, it was actually a lot of work.
But she still enjoyed it.
And she learned that she could can not just fruits and vegetables, but also cooked meats and boiled eggs as well. So for an additional three months, she continued her frequent visits to Walmart. Only this time the back of her SUV held eight large coolers. She filled some of them with whole chickens, prime ribs, beef and pork roasts, and various sausages. Others were filled with a wide variety of fresh produce.
She went to Walmart twice a week now, and two days a week she spent at the compound, baking and canning her haul from the previous day. After three months she had literally hundreds of quart jars of anything and everything. When the space she’d set aside in the basement was finally full, she said she’d finally had enough and vowed never to can anything again.
Of course she knew better. If Scott was right about the solar storms and the EMPs, she’d spend the rest of her life in the compound. During the warm weather months they’d be growing and harvesting crops. And she’d be canning a good portion of the crops for the winter months. But for now she was just tired of it.
Her third project
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