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["roxann" <roxann AT ancientearthwisdom.com>]

My oldest son got the flu for the first time in his life earlier this year 
and it quickly progressed to pneumonia. He went to the doctor after it became 
pneumonia, but it was before all the swine flu hype. I am beginning to wonder 
now if perhaps he had it. He's 22 and rarely ever gets sick. None of the rest 
of us in the house caught it; we basically just stayed away, lol. I brought 
him food (when he could eat) and drink, and meds in his room and he just 
stayed in there because he was too miserable to go anywhere else. He works 
for Tyson, where a lot of his coworkers also got the same flu...many of them 
are from Mexico. 

For our preparedness, I have an herbal tincture mix that I use for 
anti-everything. It has whatever was in season throughout last year when I 
made it; lemon balm, elderberry, echinacea, spicebush, prunella, and yarrow, 
i think. At this point in time, if travel were restricted we would get pretty 
hungry living off acorns, blackberries and waiting for persimmons to ripen. 
My food stores are some slim because I haven't had time for a garden this 
year. The neighbors have been generous, but if they were pressed, I'm sure 
they'd cover their own needs before handing out the surplus. 

The industry on which my employment is based is fairly secure and would go on 
even during the worst lock-downs most likely. We sample/analyze wastewater 
for the production plants around NW Arkansas and even if the plants were shut 
down they'd still need their rainwater and outgoing ditches, and other 
compliance samples tested to make sure no releases are happening. We also 
work for the sewer plants for most of the cities...folks aren't going to stop 
flushing toilets during a lockdown unless the water is cut off, too. 

Roxann, NW AR
http://blog.ancientearthwisdom.com (Ozark Musings from the homestead)