The Slow Road by Jerry D. Young Read Free Book Online Page A

firewood he and Alvin cut every year was consigned for use in the smoker.
    The smoker didn’t get used at all that winter, though Millie and Jasper were able to get a few trays of fruits dried in the dehydrator. The next year both additions got as much use as the canning kitchen. Jasper bought a heavy duty manual meat grinder and ground up the entire deer he took during hunting season and made jerky strips out of it with a kit from Cabela’s.
    Without any really expensive projects going, Millie and Jasper had the money to buy a whole hog and a half of a beef which they processed by jerking, canning, curing, and smoking, with Jasper making sure he did his share of the work.
    The entire electrical system in the US was getting old and overloaded. Millie and Jasper began to find themselves out of power on a fairly regular basis. They shopped and shopped for a small generator, but just could not find one with the capability they wanted for a price they were willing to pay.
    They spent more than one night in the shelter when the power was out during a one-hundred-plus degree heat wave. With the thick walls of the shelter the temperature stayed below seventy even during the sustained heat.
    With the nearly unlimited irrigation water they had available their garden and orchard thrived even with the high temps. Millie bought a second canner that summer and several more cases of jars, with the additional money they had available from her new side business at the consignment shop, since the money wasn’t going to big projects.
    She had run across a home business idea on-line and fell in love with the idea. She talked to Jasper about it and they saved up for three months to purchase a #10 can lid sealing machine, along with a case of cans, and some blank computer labels from the website. The business was packaging small gifts in the cans and selling them. A person could select items at the consignment shop to put in the can, or bring their own items to be canned.
    Millie also sewed items to can for pre-made gifts. The business wasn’t all that lucrative until the sealer was paid for, but after that it was gravy. And the side benefit was that Millie and Jasper began dry canning much of the food they dehydrated and jerked, using oxygen absorbers in the cans for long term storage. They didn’t bother with the fancy computer generated self stick labels for their own canning, just marking the contents and date of the canning directly on the cans with an indelible marker.
    They were also finally able to make a couple of double payments on the mortgage, though it was for only two months. They went into 2008 in the best physical shape they’d either ever been in, and also the best shape financially. They didn’t have much of a savings, but they were able to set aside a small emergency stash of cash for just-in-case emergencies.
    They were producing most of their own food, buying only staples at the store. Millie had always wanted to buy in bulk to save money, but had never been able to do so. They always seemed to need a little of a lot of things all the time.
    But now, with food put by, Millie began grocery shopping only once a month, for the staples they needed. She had been buying the powdered whole milk that Jasper liked from a long term storage food source and after talking it over with Jasper; they invested in a Country Living grain mill and bought a #10 can of hard red winter wheat for Millie to start experimenting with.
    She had baked bread from time to time using commercial flour, but they usually bought the seven-grain wheat bread both of them liked. It took a while and another can of the wheat for Millie to get the hang of making the whole wheat bread in the outdoor kitchen wood fired oven. But they finally switched over completely to the homemade bread from home ground flour. They bought a six-gallon Super Pail of the wheat for immediate use, and another for storage.
    Millie baked once a week, and with the nutrition of the