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As a last word, those in the country might find some use and much pleasure from a saddle horse.

FOOD

The first priority is storage security. That knocks out freezer food. A power failure and you are finished. That leaves you canned foods and dried foods. This problem is as old as the world.

North American Indians picked wild berries in the summer, smashed and mixed them with buffalo fat, bound the whole mass up in a buffalo stomach, tied with a sinew from a buffalo leg. That was pemmican, on which they could survive during long, severe winters.

In Africa, natives dry meat from freshly killed game animals on great racks in the direct sun. The volume is greatly reduced, but the nourishment remains. This is concentrated food.

On an Alberta homestead we lived forty miles from a railroad. Our only form of transportation was by horseback or lumber wagon on an often snowbound prairie trail in temperatures that might reach thirty below, a twelve-hour trip one way and always the danger of a killing blizzard. You didn't count on getting to town.

We lived on salted sowbelly and beans and the vegetables and fruit my mother had canned, supplemented by dried apricots, raisins, and such. Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper to a few hundred-pound sacks of flour and you didn't need much more. We had our own cow, but today you have powdered milk and bottles of vegetable oil for fat.

So food survival is not all that difficult and nothing to be afraid of. The only thing to be afraid of is not having it when the time comes that it's really required Of course you can go as elaborate as you like. Our position here is that we are preparing for 3 to 6 months. My suggestion to those whose surplus cash is limited is to make a start on three months. Draw up a list. Start out. Add as you go. When you have completed three months, begin to add the next three months.

I am not going into this problem at length, but here are the essentials of a simple and pragmatic plan.

CANNED FOODS

Their drawback is that they have limited shelf life, but in all cases it exceeds six months. The trouble is we don't know when the emergency will come. What if it doesn't happen for a year, two or more? Easily overcome. On your shelves you have three or six months' supply ranging from coffee through canned peaches and beans. Each week you do your shopping as usual. At the one end of the line you remove the stored can for use and add the new can at the starting end of the line. The line is always moving forward. You are always using food that is three months old, but is absolutely as good as if you had bought it yesterday. The key to this program is making sure that you always use the old cans. At any point in time you have a new three to six month supply in good condition.

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