People in Washington and Alaska have told us they've already had an unusually wet year. I don't think a winter garden would work very well here either, we get subzero weather. Although, people also say they've left carrots in the ground through the winter and dug them as they've needed them.

My dad told me that the first thing they did when they moved anyplace (when he was a child), was to dig a root cellar. We're planning on doing that for food storage. A friend of our's has a climate controlled cellar that he built into a hill.

My grandmother taught me how to can foods, and I put away alot of food that way every year. It may not be the best method because of killing enzymes, but if a person is hungry and there is no access to a grocery store, home canned foods sure hit the spot.

We also have buckets with the little packs you put in them to seal stuff for long term storage. If you have an LDS (Mormon) food processing facility in your area, people can go there and can their own foods in the sealed cans too, and also buy supplies there. That's where we got the little packets for putting in the long term storage buckets.

Grains are supposed to last for years when they are sealed in the buckets. Beans, rice etc would also be good sealed in them.

People in the city are not able to see what the "olden days" were like, but it's interesting to come across these old stage stops and imagine what it would have been like to have lived there.

The one we came across today while out and about in the hills, is still in good shape.

I'll put it in another post.