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Having just come back from Asia, I'm concerned but not worried.
It is a little stressful to be running low on sleep, feeling somewhat discombobulated (which B1 points out always happens after I get home from a holiday), and watching myself for every snuffle, sneeze, and tickle in the throat.
We haven't bought toilet paper. We have a subscription to Who Gives A Crap and while they're showing 'out of stock' they've apparently calculated how much they'll need to fill their susbcriptions for the next couple of months and adjusted listed stock accordingly.
I've bought ingredients for soup, bolognaise, and casseroles. Mostly mince, sausages, root vegies. Things that can be cooked and tucked in the freezer for easy reheat.
We have plenty of green things in the garden thanks to the rain and heat weather cycles in Sydney lately. I have strings of garlic from last season as well as bought ones, and even some onions from the garden which I dug up about 6 weeks ago. There's plenty of honey swapped from friends' beehives, fruit supplies from spring (not as many as I'd like but eh), and dried corn from last season, when I had heaps of cobs but wasn't sure if they were pure-pollinated, so I didn't want to use them for seed.
There's already flour, noodles, rice, lentils, beans, and chickpeas - none of which I had to buy because they're pantry staples.
And if I want tomatoes, there's no shortage of those growing in friends' gardens right now.
The things I 'stocked up' on (by which I mean, I bought one, instead of having none around) were panadol, expectorant, and cold-and-flu tablets. Even if nobody catches the COVID-19 strain, it's going to be a rough season of flu, cold, and misery and it's best to be prepared, IMO.
That's the consumption preparedness. Well, except for having something to store water in. Should probably pick something up at Bunnings tonight.
For power loss, fuel shortage, or water limitations, though, we'll be stuck. We're not in a place to prep for those yet. A wood fireplace would probably do the trick for warming/cooking, but then you need to cut and cure wood, and manage the smoke, etc. And I moved the bikes over to a friends' house so they wouldn't be left rusting over at my place, so it might come down to public transport (not terrible around here) and two feet (again, doable).
The truth is that we'd survive, even if I hadn't gone out for stuff. But that's because I think I already have a preparedness mentality in permaculture: easing back on the things that I'm reliant on which are provided by the state or by companies. And yes, that's a level of financial and physical privilege that many others don't have.
And this is where community comes in. More than just 'fortress' preparedness is the connection with community and the 'people care' and 'fair share' aspects of permaculture: it's not just us on the line, but our small communities, however they may fall.
Pandemic: A Permaculture Perspective - written on the cusp of things becoming dire, but with concerns about the effects of climate change in mind, and with a bushfire summer behind us and a stormy autumn ahead.
Oh, and the work seems to be coming through.
Better take a nap while I still can...
It is a little stressful to be running low on sleep, feeling somewhat discombobulated (which B1 points out always happens after I get home from a holiday), and watching myself for every snuffle, sneeze, and tickle in the throat.
We haven't bought toilet paper. We have a subscription to Who Gives A Crap and while they're showing 'out of stock' they've apparently calculated how much they'll need to fill their susbcriptions for the next couple of months and adjusted listed stock accordingly.
I've bought ingredients for soup, bolognaise, and casseroles. Mostly mince, sausages, root vegies. Things that can be cooked and tucked in the freezer for easy reheat.
We have plenty of green things in the garden thanks to the rain and heat weather cycles in Sydney lately. I have strings of garlic from last season as well as bought ones, and even some onions from the garden which I dug up about 6 weeks ago. There's plenty of honey swapped from friends' beehives, fruit supplies from spring (not as many as I'd like but eh), and dried corn from last season, when I had heaps of cobs but wasn't sure if they were pure-pollinated, so I didn't want to use them for seed.
There's already flour, noodles, rice, lentils, beans, and chickpeas - none of which I had to buy because they're pantry staples.
And if I want tomatoes, there's no shortage of those growing in friends' gardens right now.
The things I 'stocked up' on (by which I mean, I bought one, instead of having none around) were panadol, expectorant, and cold-and-flu tablets. Even if nobody catches the COVID-19 strain, it's going to be a rough season of flu, cold, and misery and it's best to be prepared, IMO.
That's the consumption preparedness. Well, except for having something to store water in. Should probably pick something up at Bunnings tonight.
For power loss, fuel shortage, or water limitations, though, we'll be stuck. We're not in a place to prep for those yet. A wood fireplace would probably do the trick for warming/cooking, but then you need to cut and cure wood, and manage the smoke, etc. And I moved the bikes over to a friends' house so they wouldn't be left rusting over at my place, so it might come down to public transport (not terrible around here) and two feet (again, doable).
The truth is that we'd survive, even if I hadn't gone out for stuff. But that's because I think I already have a preparedness mentality in permaculture: easing back on the things that I'm reliant on which are provided by the state or by companies. And yes, that's a level of financial and physical privilege that many others don't have.
And this is where community comes in. More than just 'fortress' preparedness is the connection with community and the 'people care' and 'fair share' aspects of permaculture: it's not just us on the line, but our small communities, however they may fall.
Pandemic: A Permaculture Perspective - written on the cusp of things becoming dire, but with concerns about the effects of climate change in mind, and with a bushfire summer behind us and a stormy autumn ahead.
Oh, and the work seems to be coming through.
Better take a nap while I still can...
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