JIT and some thoughts on Technology

     As you can see we got a little sprinkling of snow this morning and we are in a little bit of a lull at the moment, we do have more on the way though. I ponder a few thoughts as I sit here next to a nice warm fire with a hot cup of coffee. In this day in age with our wonderful technology you would think that weather events would only be of the most minor intrusions to our lives, guess again. Case in point, Mr. Weather man comes on the information dissemination device and informs you that some type of weather event has decided to come visit your area and it might get nasty. What is one of the first things you notice happens?  it's the run on the grocery store for supplies, water, bread, milk, pretty much the basics. You also notice that the store looks pretty empty within a very short period of time depending on the severity of the coming event. We no longer have the “back room” of a grocery store, what you see on the shelves is pretty much it now.

      Most business models now follow the JIT or Just In Time delivery system. This model which is highly computerized determines what products have been sold in say a 24 to 48 hr period of time and generates a list of replacement items to be sent to the store Just before the product is completely sold out.  Now again this business model saves everyone time and money and works great when everything is normal but when things are not normal you have a big problem. If you take almost any system and push it beyond it’s means you are likely to see a failure and JIT delivery is no different. Do you really want to be one of the hordes of people dashing out to the store to pick up the basics? You shouldn’t have to.

     There is a simple and easy way to avoid this problem and that is to have a few days worth of supplies that can be easily prepared with minimal effort and no I am not talking of having any expensive freeze dried or any other high dollar food, those are for completely different situations, here we are talking about short term 2 to 3 days situations. One reason why I stress easy to make options it to take into account the possibility of power failure, water failure, gas failure or any combination of the above. It will do you no good to have foods that you can’t cook due to utility failure so keep in mind that simple is better, it may not be gourmet but you won’t go hungry either.

     Our technology can be a wonderful thing and it makes some things easier with respect to quality of life and other aspects but it can and does fail with regularity and most people are far too overly reliant on it and that’s where the problems begin.

     Now if you are feeling adventurous try this for a weekend, shut off your electricity by way of your main breaker, shut your water off, shut your phone off, that pretty much covers your utilities. Now try to live with what you have without cheating and you will see what I mean about how dependent we are on our technology.

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The Middle East, The Economy, Oil and Food

     To say that this month has been interesting would be an understatement, World wide events have been shocking, bloody and historic and it is not yet over. Egypt seems to have been the spark that has fanned the fire to a half dozen countries through out the middle east, fighting in the middle east is nothing new, The area has been fought over for as long as anyone can remember.  Current fighting seems to revolve around the removal of long standing dictators and an eye on some form of freedom.  Now I will never begrudge anyone or any group wanting to break away from a long term repressive dictatorship but there will be consequences. The question arises, who will take over, what will be different, how will my life be better or worse and will I be trading one dictator for another?  Leadership will eventually change that's a fact and more often than not the face changes but policy stays the same, there may be a change here and there for appeasement  but for the most part real change is slow to implement and in fact many people are scared of change due to the unknown. I wish them the best of luck.

     100 years ago no one would have batted an eye if the middle east decided to tear itself apart, that changed with the discovery of oil in Persia in 1908 and Saudi Arabia in 1938. Those two events would shape how the economies of the world grew and developed and it is more vital to the world economy now then ever. Like it or not, want it or not the world economy now revolves around what happens in any one country, we are in a sense interconnected like never before. Long ago when Man and Woman lived, worked and died within the range of 20 miles very little outside of that circle was a concern or even known about for that matter, global events were not an issue, that has changed for better and worse.


     The events of the middle east are on the radar of many countries due to the fact of trade  routes and yes oil. Oil is the life blood of many developed countries and without it they shut down it's just that simple. I remember and see on occasion those that protest with their signs that read "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" well whether you agree with the concept or not we are and will be for the foreseeable future an oil driven world and for those who want to do without you need to keep in mind that Oil is a part of everything we eat, wear live in and pretty much touch, you would be hard pressed to find an item that is not tied to oil either directly or indirectly. One of the largest areas we can tie oil to is our food supply, we as a whole no longer live in a farming type community, we have gone urban and dependent upon large commercial farming techniques to supply us. Long gone are the days of mule drawn plows, they have given way to half million dollar tractor systems that yes, run on fuel. That same fuel is now also used to truck and ship the food we eat on average over a thousand miles. There is no way we can go back to the old ways and sustain the population levels we have, some say we can not sustain what we have anyway but that's another article.

    In closing is is without doubt that we live in perilous and ever changing times, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Also with our constantly shrinking and inter-connected world it seems that even far distant events have an impact upon us. Now more then ever it would be very wise to take steps in order to lessen the effects of these world wide events upon yourself and your family.

Prepology    
Please feel free to re post or quote with proper attribution.

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Looks like Food pricing will stay high (not that I expected any different)

     With world demand, floods, fire and other natural disasters taking there toll on the worlds food supply pricing and shortages will remain high. Other controversial  factors such as Ethanol lend to the problem as well as recently remarked by former President Clinton.

"We have to become energy independent but we don't want to do it at the expense of food riots," Clinton said in the keynote address.

For a further in depth article check out this one: 
U.S. crop boom not enough to rebuild thin supplies
Yahoo/Reuters

Some of my Previous articles on the subject:
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/us-farmers-are-being-called-upon-to-put.html
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/energy-food-and-chinese-economy-article.html
http://prepology.blogspot.com/2011/01/food-shortages-article.html
 http://prepology.blogspot.com/2010/12/wheat-grain-missingagain.html

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Note To Self: Buy Spares

    The phrase " Two is One and One is None" came to haunt me the other day when in my haste I broke the gas cap to the STIHL chainsaw I was using. Needless to say I was a little concerned that I might run out of wood at night all because there was no spare. I will cut myself a little slack here because the chainsaw was not mine but still it is one of those moments where an expletive comes in. Well, long and short of it and a 40 mile round trip and $6 later we have a new cap and a running chainsaw and another spare ordered.


      A good lesson to also take away here is that we are very dependent, actually we take for granted that we can usually run off too the store to buy replacement X but what if we couldn't do that for any number of reasons? Why not have a few vital spares kept at home, there really is not a bad reason not to, yes cost might be an issue but consider this, do you think it will be any cheaper in the future? And if you know you are going to be using it some time in the future why not get ahead? Granted I know you can not have a spare for every little thing but It might be worthwhile to for the important things because you just never know.


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My new Affiliate Intro

    Ladies and gentlemen I have added another Preparedness Affiliate to the site, it is always good to shop around so it you have a moment please give them a whirl, They are currently having a food storage sale so again see if then have anything to offer.






Also one thing of interest and it is free as well it their Emergency Preparedness Guide Book, This is a real basic book this a free download in PDF format or it is a free paper book with an order. This book or PDF is neutral enough to pass down to someone who might  be a little skittish on the subject of Preparedness so please check it out.





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