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Don't worry, folks, I'm not gonna preach a sermon... well, maybe I am... at least a little... and whether you are a Bible believer or not... you might get a little sumpthin sumpthin out of this little analogy...
This thought has been weighing heavily on my mind... "I've been feeling a little Noah-esque lately." (sometimes I feel a little "Chicken Little" or "Little Red Hen" as well)... but let's get back to Noah...
Good ol' Noah... he could see the winds of change coming way before it started gettin' cloudy (honestly, unlike Noah, the clouds had already begun rolling in a little before I could see, so Noah had a "one up" on me!)
Noah noticed that the world was gettin' ready to experience some serious changes... the weather was gettin' crazy... there were earthquakes where there never had been earthquakes before, mega-storms, sinkholes, animals dying for no apparent reason... the people around him were busy busy busy... having a good time... spending money like it was going out of style, without a thought about what might happen tomorrow... doctors were prescribing all sorts of medication so these busy people could cope with their super busy, speed-of-light lives.
When Noah tried to talk to his friends and family, they didn't want to hear it... they preferred to talk about the latest "Dancing With the Stars" show, or which celebrity just got married for the umpteenth time... They patted Noah on the head, and said, "Dear, sweet Noah... why are you so concerned? Life is good... live it up."
So Noah began to prepare for the days ahead... he learned to can, he learned to dehydrate food, he started saving seeds for planting... he began stockpiling food... and natural medicines (he could so clearly see that the current medical community didn't want to heal, they only wanted the people dependent on their newest medicines)... and he set about finding a way to make his family safe and secure... he started building an ark! An ARK?
"Oh, dear, sweet man... it's never rained before, there's not a cloud in the sky... why would you want to build an ark? Besides, we have police officers and firemen and Homeland Security to keep us safe, you don't have to take this on yourself... we have people for that. And why would you want to stock up all this food and medicine? Why do you think we have markets? and doctors? Silly man."
Noah shook his head and quietly continued his preparations... he tried to teach his friends and family some of the skills he was learning, but they wanted no part of it... they were busy with soccer and work and church, they had no time for these archaic skills... they could much more easily stop off at a drive-through on their way between ballgames and church services. They were polite to Noah when he offered... but their eyes sort of glazed over and inside they chuckled a bit at Noah and his old-fashioned ideas.
A hundred or so years later, the clouds began to form in the sky... and Noah's family and friends said to each other... "Hmmm... Noah may just have something here... but no, it can't be true, it's never happened before, it won't happen... and if it does, we have people who take care of those things... we have a king... he will keep us safe from harm... let's enjoy ourselves and our possessions... and maybe go shopping..."
Ten years later, Noah's family and friends decided that Noah might be a little over the top, but he might have a point... they told him, "Noah, it seems there ARE changes in the world, it IS getting cloudy out there, but I'm sure it's nothing... and if things get bad we have people for that... they will take care of us. C'mon Noah... lighten up, let's watch the latest movie and forget about the world for a little while."
Noah kept on preparing... and began to gather animals together... he enjoyed fresh eggs and milk... and fresh, grassfed meat.
His friends and family said to him... "You're a smart man, Noah... you know how to do so many things... we don't think anything bad is going to happen, but if it does... we'll know where to go! But for now, we need a vacation to some exotic isle... and a new smartphone... and a bigger TV... and dinner out!"
His Christian friends and family told him, "God will take care of us, there's no need for us to be concerned about the future, God will not let harm come to US, we are HIS people!" Noah replied, "God WILL take care of us, but He wants us to do OUR part."
Ten years later... it began to rain...
Then it began to storm...
There was thunder... and lightning like the world had never seen...
Rain fell in buckets...
The earth burst open and water gushed up...
And Noah's friends and family came knocking at the door of the ark... but it was locked... by the hand of God...
I'm sure Noah stood helplessly just inside that locked door, listening to the ones he loved pounding and shouting frantically... and bawled like a baby, wishing he could help his friends and family... but it was too late...
God kept him warm and safe and dry and well-fed because he had listened... and had done his part.
Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:8
as she went to milk early every morning and at sundown each evening. She pieced quilts by hand, and made everything, down to their underwear.
, but wouldn't wash the men's 
in it for fear of breaking it... as much as she did for herself and made do with so little, it always amazed me that she sent the denim work clothes out to be laundered... every week the laundry truck came by and picked up the work clothes and delivered them later on hangers, cleaned and pressed.
were the ones that grew in Granny's front yard. She taught us grandchildren a great game with those apples... she would sharpen a flexible stick for us to push into the apples that were laying on the ground in the yard, then like an old fashioned sling, we would sling those apples down through the pasture below. We thought it was a grand game and never realized until years later, that she was getting us to clear her yard of old apples (she wouldn't let us throw the ones still on the tree, sly woman that she was!)
filled with green beans, and corn, and pickles and tomatoes, and soup and fruit, jellies and jams, and all manner of food from the previous year's harvest. There were salted sides of pork-- bacon, ham and fatback, and rows of pottery 
lined up on the packed dirt floor, each filled with pickled beans, pickled corn, 
, 
cucumbers, chow-chow and more.
" in Granny's jelly. She cooked the fruit and strained it, then cooked the juice for hours and hours, steaming up her kitchen with the wonderful smell of blackberry juice. When the fruit juice had cooked down and thickened enough to suit her, she would pour the dark purple goodness into sterilized jars and top them with lids to seal up to enjoy the next winter with home 
on one of her delicious "cat-head" biscuits. When it got too hot in the kitchen, we were allowed to go out onto the screened back porch and get a drink of water from the bucket that had been drawn up from the well earlier that morning... we used an old tin ladle to drink from, all of us kids taking turns drinking from the same ladle... a coke couldn't have tasted any better than that cool fresh water out of a tin dipper. And later on that evening we would have a homemade blackberry cobbler made with what was left of the juicy berries we had helped Granny pick that morning.
, rushing home from work in the evenings to can a "run" of green beans or tomatoes or spending Saturdays in the summer putting things up. But we generally worked alone, and "many hands making light work" slipped away. We began to only can vegetables we felt were way better home canned rather than "store bought." Eventually, we made a few batches of jam or jelly, freezing as much produce as we could instead of canning it. And little by little I, personally stopped canning and chose to eat the inferior quality but more convenient store bought canned foods. But the memories of long, hot days laughing, talking and working with the women of my family lingered. I miss those days.
, has nothing to do with canning or food preservation, but is about an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) that hits the United States, throwing our country back to life without electricity, transportation, or communication in an instant... and how the general population reacts and struggles to survive being suddenly transported to a world like it was in the 1800s. This book made me stop and think long and hard about remembering and cherishing the skills possessed by my ancestors... the ability to survive without the comforts and conveniences our generation has become so accustomed to. I want to keep those simple homemaking skills alive and to pass them on to the younger generations. I may never lose my comforts and conveniences but I want to know that should I need to, I would know how to survive and even thrive in a world without the luxuries I have grown to depend on. And I have found on my journey to "
" that I truly enjoy the skills I am now honing, and I am finding that quality is indeed better than convenience.