I have been canning so many "meals in a jar" that I am running out of places to store them. I even have boxes of tomatoes under my bed. So Poppy  dug out the ole tool belt and built shelves in my closets. I don't need all those clothes anyway.

My "surviving hard times" advice is to begin going to someplace like "aldi's" and start buying extra canned foods every week. And catch the weekly sales and take advantage of them. No one knows what the price of food will be in the future. Think a little further down the road and have more than a weeks supply of food in the pantry at a time.

And make you a pantry of your own somewhere. We are getting ready to go into winter weather and I am remembering last winters ice storm and how the power went out. Grocery shelves were stripped bare in no time.

Take stock of what you have on hand. If you would lose power tonight and had to live on what you have in your house for a week, how would you do? Got any flashlights? Got any batteries for those flashlights? Matches? Candles? Heavy blankets? Electric ones won't work.

Keep a emergency kit in your car. I like to keep a heavy blanket, flashlight, and a candle in a can in mine. Which reminds me. Your local Red Cross has kits that you can buy just for that purpose. And the money goes to a good cause!! Check it out. But most important of all GET PREPARED!!!