We live in a wonderfully rural area along the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, we live within 1/3rd of a tank of gas from wretched urban areas. This means that when there were EXTRA problems in the cities, shortages & etc, our one county storre was stripped nearly bare by people who don't live here, but know about this area. During the Battles of Toilet Paper Hill, shelves went VERY LOW for red meat, eggs, bacon, coffee and of course the 'paper products'. OTOH, soda pop, sugary pseudo-foods & etc. were plentiful. We habitually maintain a stock of several pounds of tea, coffee and pipe tobacco at the house, much of the coffee is stored as green, whole beans in sealed, nitrogen filled bags (or so they say). Roasting your own coffee in an iron skillet, then grinding it makes the BEST coffee we and our friends have ever had. Once we gind it, it never has opportunity to go stale or rancid. We eat a lot of red meat by most standards and the 'gristle, bones, cartelidge and non-eaten portions are put into the slow cooker for at least one day, to make the most dellicious, nutritious broth you could ever taste: don't wast the meat/fat. The thick soups &etc. made from this get rave reviews and provide energy from what some would consider a waste product, which they pay someone to haul away.
>>>====> Thankfully, for years we habitually buy 2-3 extra cans of meat, tuna, sausage &etc. as habit from years ago, and this has kept us in good form here at the cottage. In survival; high quality fats and proteins are top priority (aged Scotch and English pipe tobacco are 'technically' somewhere after that , but only slightly behind ;-)
Shelves here have shown the classic signs of rapid inflation: smaller packages, or LESS in each package, of the 'normal size. Stock on shelves shows signs of the lack of supply: more spread-out/less densly packed than two years ago, to give the illusion of plenty. Red meat has roughly doubled in price and our former days filled with 'butcher's special' sales are gone. We are the LAST store on the delivery route, so at any moment, we might simply not receive deliveries, and that has happened a bit, but not habitually.
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The mounted solar & battery system here is modestly sized (130 W panel / 120 A/hr battery) , but intended primarily for recharging lights, and to power the ham and scanner radios. Situational Awareness is your friend. I have various portable solar power systems, intended for rapid evacuation; not essential, but convienent. If we were to increase the system to operate freezers & etc. it would then become a major expence for our needs. Would we LIKE refrigeration during power outtage? Yes, we would, but then again, I would LIKE to be independently wealthy, and that's not in the forseeable future for us ;-) Ahead of electrical capacity for refrigeration would be electricity to pump water from the deep well. OTOH, We have an unused, shallow 'grandfather well' a few hundred feet from the cottage, requiring only to remove the cap to use a rope and bucket for water. No electricity required, and Amish approved.
