self-sufficiency

How I’m Preparing For An Uncertain Future

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

Firstly, I must apologise for not writing on here for a while. There are a few reasons for that which I’ll briefly explain and if you’re still following me here, thank you for sticking around! This blog was the first thing I ever set up to share my writing on, and it’s still hugely important to me, so rest assured, it’s not going anywhere!

In all honestly, my head has been in such a spin lately that it’s been hard to write. At all.

I haven’t written anything on Medium for a while either, despite having so much whirling in my head. I just about manage to write and post my weekly round-ups on Substack – probably because they are quite short and quick to write and follow a sort of template.

I cannot allow myself to write too much fiction at the moment because I am still in the middle of the endless editing…. More on that next week, but I am getting there and Black Hare Valley Book 2: 1966 is edging closer to publication, I promise!

Last year was a tricky one for me creatively. I started to struggle a bit with my day job as a creative writing tutor for children. I’ve had to make a lot of changes there to make it work, and I’m pleased to say that they do seem to be paying off. Again, that’s probably another topic for another day! But the burn-out stretched itself to writing on Medium and my blog. I kept thinking of things to write and then not writing them, which is very unlike me. I definitely lost a bit of confidence and I’m not entirely sure why.

One thing that has been on my mind a lot though is preparedness.

And that mindset and accompanying concerns has led me to writing this post. I am really hoping writing it kickstarts my creativity again when it comes to regular blogging and essay writing!

Firstly, what is preparedness and what does it mean to me?

Preparedness for me simply means planning ahead to make life easier for future me. It really is as simple as that and I think I’ve been doing that for a while now. For example, making two batches of cookies and freezing one batch so future me has some back-up snacks! Baking two loaves, instead of one, and chucking one in the freezer in case we run out of bread and forget to pick some up. Stuff like that.

But in recent months the desire to be more prepared for an uncertain future has really spiralled in me and taken over my life. I wouldn’t call myself a doomsday prepper – far from it – but I do think we are living in unprecedented times which call for us to change our thinking and our habits.

El Nino, climate change related disasters, wildfires and floods, extreme heat, war and conflict, cyber attacks and rogue AI are all here, right now.

Food prices are never going to go down again unless we change the entire system.

I can’t change the world but I can do everything possible for me and my family, and hopefully in time, my community. Preparing for the worst is not fear-mongering, it is simply thinking of future you and making sure everything is okay for them.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Vegetable plot/fruit trees/fruit bushes: I planted two apples, a pear, two plums and various fruit bushes when we moved here nearly 17 years ago and I am so glad I did! Though the apple harvest this year has been disappointing, I have managed to grow and preserve fruit from the garden and that feels very reassuring! I am now pretty good at keeping the plot producing year round and currently have just as much growing out there as I did in the summer. I have just added a brand new extension to the plot which will be potatoes and I have plans to extend the plot up the side of the garden to grow even more. I have grown and harvested oats for the first time and I’m planting wheat again soon.

Keeping ducks and chickens: I’m lucky that I have the space to do this and I have recently added to the brood. Two ducklings were born last month and are being raised by their lovely mum, and the chicks we raised in the spring are now adult and laying eggs. Currently I have six ducks and eight chickens. I keep males too so that I can always have more! I have plans for a few more chickens and then I’d like to start selling eggs locally.

Making my own compost: I have one main compost heap and another smaller one that is central in a ‘key-hole’ raised bed. I did still have to buy in compost this year but a lot less than usual, and with all the duck and chicken poo fertilising the land, I am very lucky!

No waste: Or at least, as little as possible! Food scraps go to the hens and ducks or into the compost, or to make things like apple cider vinegar and stock! Egg shells are washed and stored and eventually baked and whizzed into grit that gets added back into their food. It all goes around in a very satisfying circle.

Water collection and storage: We recently bought a second water butt and I would like to get a third in time. I also have another small container that collects rainwater. I also bought two of those water filtration straws to keep as an emergency. I’ve got a small amount of stored bottle water too and I’ve water bath canned some water in jars which can last for decades.

Preserving food: This is a new area for me and I’m really enjoying it! Obviously I have always frozen excess food, but this year I also started drying, canning and pickling! The only thing I haven’t tried yet is fermenting. (Unless you count the cider vinegar) What constantly goes through my head is it’s all very well growing food, but we also have to build up a store cupboard and preserve things for Winter. Just like the old days, I guess.

Keeping a store cupboard: I only started this fairly recently and it has already been a life-saver a few times. We don’t have a huge budget and cannot afford to rush to the shops to stockpile food, water and medicines if the worst happened, so I started small and slow. If I didn’t need a bag of pasta, I would buy one anyway. Old me would look at the cupboards and make a shopping list based on what we didn’t have. Now I do that, but I also add things to the list that we do have. That’s how I’ve slowly built up my supply. I pay particular attention to dried food such as oats, pasta, rice, noodles, tinned fruit, vegetables and meat, and preserving ingredients such as salt, sugar and vinegar. Recently one of our daughter’s left home to start her adult life and had no money for food due to paying out deposits and so on, but I was able to give her plenty of things from the cupboards to get her started and it didn’t leave us short at all. Last week we didn’t have much money, but we didn’t need it because the cupboards are all so full. This week, payments came in, so I went shopping and replaced everything we had used to get it back to the same level. Incidentally, I do the same with the car now. I keep it at half a tank full of petrol at all times.

Being prepared for emergencies: The local wildfires this summer were far too close for comfort and finally prompted me to put together a get-up-and-go-bag. This is a work in progress but so far consists of: a first aid kit, hand sanitiser, wet wipes, bottled water, crackers and chocolate spread, biscuits, cereal bars, dog food and fork, torch, wet weather gear, lighter, waterproof matches, small amount of cash, toothpaste and toothbrushes and important documents in a waterproof wallet (including written down phone numbers.) I have a separate ‘breakdown’ bag for the car, which makes me feel much better as we do tend to a lot of long road trips in our old car… Waterproofs, small first aid kit, wet wipes, hand sanitiser, dog food, torch, cash, cereal bars, waterproof matches, lighter, blanket and warm hats. And for the lounge in case of power outages (which we get a lot of around here anyway) the ‘blackout box’ which is also a work in progress and so far has: candles, tealights and small glass jars to place in, phone numbers, a lighter, waterproof matches and a radio.

There are more things I want to add to both bags and the box but I feel all three will make life easier and less stressful in the event of an emergency of prolonged power cut. I felt better as soon as they were done.

Thinking and planning ahead: It is sometimes hard to think about the future when the world is in so much turmoil but we can’t give up, can we? I think gardening is all about hope for the future which is one of the reasons it is so good for us mentally and physically. Growing a garden proves you have faith in a tomorrow and are actively planning for it. Planting grains such as wheat and oats is a bit experimental for me at the moment but I would love to eventually grow my own chicken food! And of course, my own porridge oats and flour. I am also growing lots and lots of beans, and in particular drying beans, such as kidney, butter and cannelinni. My plan is to have jars and jars of dried beans, as they last up to 30 years! I am also drying and saving beans and seeds to plant again next year. We will get more water storage at some point and as I said, the food we grow will only continue to increase as we gradually let it take over the whole garden!

I totally appreciate that not everyone can prepare to this extent. Not everyone can have ducks, chickens and fruit trees, and not everyone has enough space to grow grains, or vegetables. But everyone has a windowsill and you can very easily grow herbs that you could maybe swap locally for other food. You can grow lots of things on a balcony or in a small garden. People also need to unite together and target their local councils to open up spaces for community growing. This is something I would love to get involved in…

As for stocking up, again, I know not everyone has the budget to do this, but what I would implore lower budget households to do, is just buy one extra thing each week, one bag of pasta, rice or beans that you don’t actually need. That’s how you slowly build up supplies.

What do you think? Am I nuts? Or are you feeling and thinking the same? Have you made any changes to your household to become more resilient? Do you think the governments need to be doing more? Or would that just make people panic?

Growing Our Own Food Feels More Important Than Ever

~ ChanAtkins ~ Leave a comment

Plus learning to forage and preserve…

recent additions, Egg and Shumpert enjoying the garden – image is mine

I’ve always been into growing my own food, but mostly it has been for fun. When I was a kid we grew runner beans, pumpkins, tomatoes and lettuces and my grandfather grew peas, marrows, potatoes and more. Their generation, and to a lesser extent, my mother’s generation, were used to growing their own. They didn’t grow everything they needed, but they grew what they could with what they had. With the rise of the supermarket that trend has diminished greatly and children growing up now are unlikely to even know where food comes from, let alone know how to grow it themselves.

I never wanted that for my kids and I have always grown something. Bags of potatoes are so easy, for example, as are lettuces and beans. Over the years my vegetable plot has grown bigger and bigger and I soon added chickens and ducks, fruit trees and fruit bushes to the mix. I’ve had my successes and my failures, but failing has never mattered that much before. It’s been frustrating, yes. There are always weeds, pests and the weather to battle with when trying to grow produce, but failing hasn’t bothered me too much and I have always learnt something in the process.

That’s changed now and I wonder how many other hobby growers are feeling the same? I wonder how many people who grew food for fun are now buckling down and upping their game? Planting more than ever and worrying more than ever that some of it will fail…

Recent world events have seen oil prices soar and before long that will impact food prices. People were already struggling with the rising cost of living, so it’s scary to think how much of an impact this is going to have. In recent years, I’ve hugely resented the cost I pay at the checkout and I’ve made an effort to use the supermarkets less and less. I get a weekly organic vegetable box from the wonderful Riverford and I have armed myself with knowledge in the form of books. Yes, I Google things from time to time, but there is something very grounding and safe about actually owning the books…

My be-prepared-for-anything books so far are as follow:

The Self-Sufficient(ish) Bible – by Andy and Dave Hamilton

The Forager’s Calendar – by John Wright

Living on One Acre or Less – by Sally Morgan

A Modern Herbal – by Alys Fowler

The Good Housekeeping Complete Book of Preserving

That should do it! I also really want a drill and the skills to knock up animal shelters and fences, but all in good time!

My aim is to keep adding to my skills and my knowledge, even if I don’t need to use the things I’m learning. At the moment, for example, I’m discovering that many of the weeds and herbs that grow in my garden have huge health benefits. I’ve been making refreshing tonics from cleavers, or goosegrass as it’s also known, and warming teas from rosemary and nettle infusions. I aim to try dandelion next – apparently you can consume every part of this amazing plant, even the roots!

I’ve stopped buying stock and instead make my own by saving vegetable scraps and peelings. I also freeze apple cores and peelings and when I have enough I make my own apple cider vinegar. I’ve learnt how to make a natural cleaner from vinegar and pines cut from the Christmas tree. I bake my own bread, cakes, wraps and pizzas at the weekend. It’s all little bits, and I still shop at the supermarket more than I want to, but it’s a process and I am enjoying it. It feels like reclaiming something we have all lost.

And as for the garden, it’s slowly awakening from its winter slumber. The fruit trees have all blossomed and the plum tree already has tiny green plums growing! I took tons of cuttings from my redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes last year and they’re all now in the ground and doing well. I’ve got potatoes, onions, leeks, parsnips and beetroot in the ground and peas, beans, lettuces, tomatoes and peppers all starting off inside.

It sounds a lot but it does not feel like enough! Not by a long shot. I’ve got some wheat I plan to plant in one bed as I’d love to try and mill my own flour. I have a small packet of oat seeds to try as well.

I am sure there will be many, many failures along the way but it really does feel imperative that I grow more than usual, that it succeeds as much as possible – just in case!

I now have two weeks off work for Easter and plan to be outside as much as possible, planting more seeds, transplanting seedlings, making more raised beds and filling with compost. I’ll be exhausted but perhaps I will sleep better at night.

The Tree Of Rebels and Disconnection From Nature

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

So it’s finally here! The day has finally arrived! Sometimes when in the middle of writing and rewriting and crafting a book, publication day can feel like an impossibility. Something so far in the future it feels like it will never happen. The Tree Of Rebels felt like an impossible thing more than once. This was a very tough book to write and one I had a constant love/hate relationship with. It’s very different from my other books and I wrote it with an audience in mind, something I’d never done before.

As I’ve mentioned before, the seed of this book was sown while scrolling through Facebook one day. I’d kept seeing these petitions to sign to stop Monsanto patenting seeds. I didn’t understand a lot of it, but what I did read and digest alarmed me and got the cogs turning in my head. I’ve often thought about nature and who owns it. Have you ever walked through the woods or across a field, only to be stopped by a fence and a Private Property sign? Have you ever stood on a high hill and looked down at the landscape and realised how restricted our movements actually are? How the paths and roads have been laid out for you and how signs and fences stop us roaming as we once did?

The more I thought about large corporations owning seeds and nature and having that control over the food chain, the more I imagined a frightening dystopian world where growing your own food is banned. This might seem like a far fetched idea right now, but for some people this is already becoming a reality. Believe it or not, there are places in America where people are not allowed to have backyard gardens or chickens. Where people can be arrested for attempting to gather rainwater. The frightening future is already on its way…

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Distrustful of GMO’s, hormones in meat, anti-biotics in milk and pesticides on fruit and vegetable, more and more people are turning to growing their own food. Self-sufficiency is becoming popular again, and you can’t deny this is a form of rebellion, of taking back control. It’s vital for our planet too. The meat and dairy industry is literally killing the earth.

Dystopian future in mind, I already knew I wanted to write a young adult book. The protagonist, 13-year-old Lissie had been evolving in my imagination for some time, and now she finally had a place to play and grow. The book undoubtedly evolved into something more than I had envisioned. It’s not just about seeds or a post-apocalyptic future, it’s about rebellion, questioning the status quo, defying your parents and searching for the truth, no matter who it hurts. All classic issues in the complicated journey of growing up.

But one of the main messages I hope people pick up from this book if they do indeed pick up any is the consequences of becoming disconnected from nature.

I’ve always been a bit of a dreamer. A head in the clouds type of girl. I love nothing more than a walk down the lane, to the river, or across the fields, the common, or the woods. Something special happens to us when we are in nature, when we walk barefoot upon the earth, when we touch trees, smell leaves and view flowers and wild animals. Sometimes I think I might be a bit odd. I have very strong urges to touch and hug trees. They call to me, they really do. Once I lay my hand on the trunk of an ancient Oak, I find it very hard to pull away. I can’t get over the fact they are helping me to breathe! They are eating pollution. Without them, we would all die. The same goes for the humble bee and other vital pollinators. We simply cannot afford to ignore nature. We are nature. And I truly worry that many of us have forgotten.

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Where I live is very beautiful, but I fear that others do not see it. When they race their cars down the narrow lane and hurl their rubbish into the bushes, I fear they never linger long enough to see the beauty and majesty of the trees. I fear they have no clue that they would die if the trees were not there. I’m fascinated by the unseen lives of birds, insects, and animals. I’ll stare at birds in the sky, watching their flight, hearing their cry, wondering where they are going and where they live and what they do. I want to know. I want to be part of their world. Sometimes I feel like I am trespassing. Especially come dusk when the bats start circling and the owls start hooting. This is their time, not mine. How they must despise us, I often think.

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I think the thing we are often missing is gratitude and wonder. I am in awe of nature which makes me want to protect and nurture it. Sadly, others just don’t see it at all. In truth, this means they do not see themselves. They are disconnected from it, therefore they don’t care about it or appreciate it. If you don’t care about something, or see the value in it, you’re not going to go out of your way to protect it, are you?

In Lissie’s world, the people are taken care of. They are housed and fed and educated and worked. There is no war or violence. They have returned to traditional ways, fearful of the technological world that enabled war and destruction to almost wipe out the entire human race. But in order to keep them contained, the people are separate from nature. Food is grown and delivered to them. Animals are raised in domes . Unwanted plants are circled and torn up. Wild animals are feared and killed. They know very little of the natural world. And this is all sold to them as the perfect world. A society without war and hunger and homelessness. A safe, sheltered, catered for life. It’s Lissie who resists this version of life and strives to find out more about the outside world. A true rebel, spurred on by the dying words of her Great-Grandmother, she seeks the truth. What happened to the Old World? Who destroyed it and why?

Please feel free to leave a comment! What are your fears for the future? Do you enjoy reading post-apocalyptic or dystopian books, and if so why? How do you feel about the issues of humans becoming disconnected from nature? What can we do about any of it? I would love to hear your thoughts!

 

When Fear Drives Fiction

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

So, I’m reading George Orwell’s 1984 for the first time and wondering if what deterred me from it for so long was fear of fear. By that I mean there is already so much to be afraid of in this world, why would I want to give myself more? I’m currently writing from a place of fear and uncertainty and it’s pretty obvious that I’m not the only human feeling like that right now. And I mean on a daily basis. It’s like that Monday morning stomach lurch, except it happens every morning. It’s like the heavy sluggish twisting guts you get before an exam, before a driving test, before you do anything you’re scared to do. Except it never goes away. It’s there all of the time. Weighing me down, wringing me out, making me pause to catch my breath. It’s like that too; like I can’t breathe properly, like there is a deep and shaking level of fear rising up to the surface, and if I am quick I can take a breath and send it back down again. Deal with it another day. Move on quickly into the light.

And there is light. It’s vital to remember that. There is light and love everywhere, and I hope you’ve got as much as I have in my life. When I feel too bad, when the sinking feeling starts to drag me down, I buck myself up and busy myself with the things I love. My beautiful children. Loud music. My garden full of flowers, vegetables and animals. Writing and books.

I’m examining the world right now and wondering if life imitates art, or if it is in fact the other way around. Does art reflect the world we have already created? Or does it project our fears for the future based on what’s going on around us right now? George Orwell must have been pretty terrified, that’s all I can think. Big Brother. Thought police. Uniforms and Two Minutes Of Hate. Chilling stuff. Which all feels rather apt and grim at the moment.

I’m writing to you from a post Brexit Britain. I hate the word Brexit. To me it sums up the dumbing down we’ve been subject to for so long now. Let’s join two words together and make a new one so we don’t have to say too many words! Now I don’t care how you voted, and I’m not going to talk here about my vote, or the whole situation in any real depth. I personally feel that there were good reasons to stay and to leave, but that as usual the government and the media focused on immigration and fed us lies, and what an ugly divisive country this now looks as a result. Let me say again, if you voted to leave, I respect that vote and your reasons for it, and I’m not going to talk about what might happen next. What saddens me most right now is the applause and delight demonstrated by far-right groups across the globe. Whether you like it or not, there are many people out there using this situation to legitimise racism and xenophobia, and that makes my heart sink. I thought we had come so much further than that, but it feels like we are slipping backwards all the time.

It feels like we are now adrift, with no one stepping in to guide us through this unchartered territory. The Labour party and the Conservatives are in turmoil. Everything feels weird and unsafe. I can’t help but wonder what future writing will evolve from this tumultuous time in politics. And that’s the only way to get through it, I feel. Write about it.

My next two books certainly reflect a lot of my current fears, thought I don’t think I was entirely conscious of it to begin with. The Tree Of Rebels was conceived one day when I signed an online petition to prevent Monsanto patenting seeds. I didn’t really know too much about the case, but some very concerned friends of mine deemed it a very serious issue, so I signed it and hoped for the best. It got me thinking though. What if a company could patent seeds? All the seeds? What if they could then, bit by bit, own nature? What if in the future, growing your own food was banned? Surely a government with complete control over nature, would have complete control over its people. The idea made me wonder further; how would this society operate without total rebellion? Well, the people would need to be thankful for what they were given, and what makes people thankful? Perceiving life to be better now than it was then. A story driven by wonder and what if’s…but ultimately fear. I’m a keen gardener myself. I worry so much about the state of the world, so I’m trying to become more self-sufficient, just in case. The thought of someone telling me it’s now illegal to grown my fruit and vegetables or raise my chickens and ducks is terrifying. The thought of a giant and powerful company with extremely dubious ethics essentially owning nature appalls me. So I wrote about it.

Writing helps me make sense of the world. Or at least it is my desperate attempt to. I guess we all have our fears. Things that keep us awake at night. I’ve felt for a while that the world and all it’s people are heading towards some kind of tipping point. Is the world now worse than it has ever been? I scroll through my Facebook feed to witness a never-ending roll call of human misery, animal abuse, environmental damage and worse than all of that; apathy. I feel sick to my stomach, as well as helpless, cynical and angry. Are these the most selfish times we’ve seen? The most brutal? Maybe it is all too easy to look back on the past too fondly. I’m guilty of this myself. I become convinced that the 1980’s and 90’s were a wonderful, simple time. Surely it was all lovely then, wasn’t it? Well no, actually. It’s just that I was a kid and totally unaware.

Fear and dismay drive fiction. We create stories we are frightened of as a way of warning ourselves and others. Helplessness spawns words and worlds and sometimes, if we are lucky, solutions. At least it makes us feel better, anyway. Elliot Pie was born of this frustration with the modern world and the way it is all heading. Elliot is 12 and he wants to do something to help his mother, who is refusing to leave the house after a number of hard knocks. How can he convince her the world is not a bad place filled with bad people?

It’s been quite a task for a writer currently so disillusioned and afraid. But I had to go back and look at it all through a child’s eyes. Elliot doesn’t want to give up on the world yet, or on life. He feels like the adults in his life have all written it off for him before he’s even had a chance to work it out for himself.

Like Elliot, and for my own children, I have to cling onto a dangerous and painful amount of hope. I stand by the very few politicians who have decent intentions. I hope the powers that be don’t prevent them trying to change things. I hope that people are not too apathetic, too far gone, too addicted to reality TV and pointless celebs to fight back before it is all too late. I hope George Orwell was wrong. I hope Elliot Pie is right.

In the meantime, my advice to anyone feeling like I am right now, is to do what you can to ensure love wins. Whatever that means, in whatever way you can, make spreading love and tolerance part of everything you do. This morning I woke up feeling more positive than usual. I decided on the school run journey that I would be kinder than normal, and I let out as many waiting cars as I could. It was actually sad how many of the drivers looked genuinely surprised and thankful. I played some invigorating, uplifting music, told my kids I loved them, and decided that if the two little rabbits in the adoption centre of the pet shop were still waiting for a home, then I would get them. I’d had my eye on them for a while, and once I’d learnt their history (four years of neglect) it was a done deal. I know it’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit of love counts. And at least I changed the world for them.

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