Hippies, Tree Huggers, and Preppers

 

    Here where I live in rural Iowa, my neighbors are very conservative.  I consider myself (Using a phrase from a fellow by the name of Gerald Celente) to be a "Political Atheist".  I don't believe in the concepts of Liberal, and Conservative.  I don't associate myself with being a "Republican" or "Democrat".  In fact I've come to believe that these divisions are really a "Construct".  I've come to feel that this is a ruse, a con job, a misrepresentation.  Over the decades, the government here in the good old U.S. of A., has drifted from one side to another... Each side taking it's turn, and trumpeting it's virtues.  All the while nothing really changes!

     We still keep sending our young people off to wars, in places we don't belong.  Our personal freedoms keep being eroded.  Our financial future (And our children's,) is placed in ever greater harm. And the rich get richer at our expense.  Liberal versus Conservative, doesn't seem to change a damn thing, neither side does anything to change the big stuff that really matters.  Taxes keep climbing, people still go homeless and hungry, and they can't even deliver a letter to my mail box without going broke.  What I see in the ballot box is an illusion, one side pitted against the other, all designed to make us believe we have a choice!  It's astounding to me how people like Rush Limbaugh, or on the other side Piers Morgan, can get rich by perpetuating what to me is a transparent hoax.

     I don't like to call myself a "Doomsday Prepper" either, because it's a moniker that pigeon holes me into a stereotype.  It's a name that conjures up someone crawling into a hole in the ground with their arsenal of weapons, and Meals Ready to Eat.... Waiting for a comet to smash into the Planet and kill us all.  We ARE living in troubling times, that's for sure.  The handwriting IS on the wall.  We're living in a dual economy, while a few very rich folks are doing quite well, the rest of us see our lives slipping between our fingers.  While those Republicans and Democrats put their thumbs under their suspenders, stick out their chests like a crowing rooster and proclaim that they've crafted a recovery.... For most of us, our lives are turning to crap.  There's no end in site either, our Country is sliding towards "Third World" status before our very eyes.

   As I read the alternative news, I get the sense of a mind bogglingly surreal world.  How pork prices at the grocery store will soon skyrocket because pigs in those huge pork factories here in the Midwest, are being fed sardines from the coast of Chile, and those fish populations are over depleted now.   I read how tennis shoe parts are shipped to China to be put together there, then shipped back here to adorn our Teenager's feet. (And the "Emma-Maersk" container ship consumes three thousand six hundred gallons of fuel.... PER HOUR!!!.)  This is how insane our world has become.  I don't look at this from a stand point saving the "Mother Planet" mind you... I see mis-management of our resources, to the point of our own self destruction.

     The ""Hippies"" on the supposed "Left" have been holding hands around the camp fire and telling us this has been going on for decades.  Of course they're right.  More importantly, it's the efforts of some of these other groups that we should be studying as someone who's concerned about the future.  Most people who look at the future with a "Preparedness mindset" consider themselves to be "Right leaning", we're interested in preserving our Second amendment rights for example.  We shouldn't automatically dismiss others however, because they don't agree with us on certain concepts.  The goal here is to "Survive and thrive" in a very uncertain future.  We should in our preparations, seek out common ground with those that we otherwise wouldn't have much to do with.   If you believe for example as I do, that the best hedge against the future, is moving towards a self sustaining lifestyle (Rather than "Prepper", I've decided that I should be calling myself a "Preparing Homesteader",) there are lessons to be learned in the workings of what used to be called a "Hippy Commune."  What's now called an "Intentional Community", is really after all, a self sustaining compound.  Studying how these folks have made it work, getting tips and tricks about their "Off Grid" lifestyle, can help us weather a future where the Grid might not be available.

     Others might be interested... And have been investing great efforts at "Reducing their Carbon Footprint".  You might think this to be a bunch of baloney, but doesn't this really mean being able to live with less dependence on a failing society.  Those who are into "Permaculture", talk about things like "Sharing the abundance", the exact opposite of a "Doomsday Prepper's" efforts at what's called "OPSEC".  On the other hand, a "Permaculture Food Forest Garden", is a perfect "Zombie camouflaged" way to produce food.

     I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if we set aside our Conservative, VS. Liberal differences, find common ground, and start having a dialogue with folks that we might otherwise look upon with disdain... We might just be able to learn from one another.  I think that you would find that those other folks have as much trepidation about the future as you do after all!

THE FADING OF OUR HUMANITY

Mud?  No problem!!!

     I ran across a posting on Facebook recently about how some new clothing that the Military has invented, actually cleans itself.  (Check out the article here)  Supposedly it won't even get stained by pouring motor oil on it.  This miracle of modern military technology is apparently achieved by applying  chemicals to the fabric resulting in what the scientists are calling an  “Omniphobic coating.”  (Don't worry... it usually takes about 20 years for skin cancer to begin showing up)  They've even figured out how to keep them from getting stinky from your smelly arm pits by putting "Antimicrobial additives" into the coating (My always skeptical mind is telling me this means some kind of pesticide).  The headline of this article touts how this revolutionary new coating on our future"Oceania" uniforms, will somehow free us from drudgery because they will forever more... Be free of the horror of having to be laundered!!!   

     Besides the idea of going about our daily lives with chemical soup draped over our bodies, there's something else at work here.  Something almost sinister.  Something slowly robbing us of our humanity.  I read a story the other night on the new internet radio show that I'm hosting, (APN Radio - "They were Preppers"). This story (Taking a Magical Journey) tells of a trip that a young boy took with his parents, right around the year 1900... in of all things - A covered wagon!  In great detail, it describes the sights and sounds, and even smells of that experience.  

     It's a miracle of "Mysterious ways" to me how in my life there's often a convergence of experiences.  I'm blessed with being dragged along, blindly, and stupidly, to certain realizations.  I was working on my house the other day, and a small life and death struggle caught my eye.  A very large ant had gotten caught in a spider's web, by just the very tip of her abdomen.  While the Spider circled around, looking for a window of opportunity to strike, (The Spider was only about the size of the Ant) the Ant was able to spin around on her attached hiney always keeping her powerful pincers facing the  spider in a 360 degree dance of survival.  It was a marvelous natural spectacle to watch!  Now this was on that "Back side" of my home, where I hardly ever go, except to mow the grass once a week.  Had I not been working there at that time... Of all times... I would have missed this little microcosm, of Nature's wonder.  (The, Ant got away by the way).

My Cellphone got missed somehow in the pocket cleaning ritual this week, and unfortunately it went into the washing machine (Speaking of laundry).  No effort at "Blow drying", burying in rice, or leaving on the dash board could save it.  So I was without a phone for several days, while "Fedex" brought my new phone (It was insured).  I was amazed at how much simpler my life was without having a "Pocket Master" demanding my attention.

Clothes that wash themselves, rides in covered wagons, the life and death struggle of insects, and the "Horror" of no texting, all coming together within the space of a few days in my life.  "Mysterious ways" indeed!  The "Man Upstairs" usually  has to wack me over the head with a two by four several times, before a dim light bulb starts glowing in my brain.  

We Homo Sapiens spend an awful lot of our efforts attempting to construct a technological cocoon around ourselves.   As you prepare for an uncertain future... Are you thinking in terms of the stereotype that a television show would have you believe?  Are you letting go of the concept that you should be spending all your time trying to preserve the technological conveniences that you've become addicted to???  In the future, we may not have these things, but is it all that bad of a thing after all?  Maybe........ Just maybe, we may find that living without the  drapery of our technological mastery over nature, we can find a happier life enjoying the things we're missing.  Instead of zipping down the highway at warp speed, the future may force us to slow down to a horse's speed, (Or our own), but noticing so much more along the way.  Maybe, without our faces locked on that phone, fingers texting as fast as possible, we can take time to ponder a honey bee, gathering nectar in all its glory, or laugh at a couple of hens quarreling over a juicy grasshopper.  The effortless gliding of a hawk, as she sails the wind, The feeling you get when you hug a loved one who's been away for a few days.  These are the things we're missing in our modern world.  An "SHTF" world may re-introduce us to a happier life after all!   

A FOOD STORAGE PLAN FOR REALITY

How many times have you seen on TV "Prepper" shows or on a blog page, someone carefully storing away their beans and rice in "Mylar Bags" and those "Food Safe Buckets"?   I've never had much understanding of this methodology or way of storing food for my family.  If the World goes to Hell in a Hand Basket tomorrow, you would certainly consume all your carefully stored supplies long before a twenty year "Shelf Life" expires.

More to the point, what if "SHTF" lasts twenty years???  Unless you're extremely wealthy you couldn't afford twenty years worth of food storage, and unless you have a warehouse to store it in, you don't have the space necessary.  I recently did some browsing on the website of a popular freeze dried food company, and they were selling the stuff at seven thousand dollars for one person for a year!!!  Who can afford that?  If you have a family of four, that's twenty eight thousand bucks.  And have you ever eaten that crap?

My wife and I have made it our mission instead to create for ourselves as much of a self sustaining life that's possible here on our one acre, and yes we do have some food storage, but we don't have any intentions of storing twenty years worth.  Here are a few tips for trying to create a food storage plan for yourself  that won't break the bank, and still provide palatable meals for your family even if "SHTF" lasts decades.

1.   A reasonable goal to try and achieve is 18 months worth of stored food.  This is based on  a program of trying to produce your own food over the long term and 18 months will get your family from one good year of production... on through Winter... and a full "Bad Year" of drought or other natural disaster that might ruin your production... Then back to eating fresh from the garden that next Summer. (Consuming and rotating through our stored food as we go.)

2.   Which brings me to the next pillar of our food storage plan.... Storage takes a back seat to production!  Learn how to garden NOW.  Before something bad happens to our world, and you find yourself up a creek without a paddle.  Grow and produce everything you possibly can given your circumstances, then concentrate on the "Inputs" that you can't possibly produce on your own, like salt, or corn starch.  It's amazing with a little research what you can make at home.  I've made my own ketchup, molasses, maple syrup, and even "cooked up" a few bowls of my own version of "Wheaties" before.

3.   Use your resources to set yourself up, for the long term.  Rather than spend that seven thousand Dollars on one years worth of freeze dried food, invest in home canning supplies, a good smoker or maybe a solar food dehydrator.  Having these things in place, and knowing how to use them, will serve you better than empty food storage buckets twenty years down the road.

4.   Don't get discouraged by the challenge of your task.  The numbers can be overwhelming, and your family's nutritional needs in an "SHTF" scenario can be tricky to figure out, so start small and set "Incremental" goals.  You might try and store a month's supply at first, then set your goal at 3, months, 6 months etc., but... Keep in mind in your long range planning that you'll need to store a pretty large amount of food.

(I calculated the numbers in the chart above using a number of different sources, and

used several different methods.  It's not designed to scare you, but you should

always keep in mind that the task of storing your own food is quite a challenge so...

GET BUSY!!!)

5.   Don't let ""Expert"" opinions guide you down the wrong path for your own family.  By all means, do your homework, and build upon the work of others, but don't take someone else's opinion literally (Including mine).  For example, the Church of Latter Day Saints, an organization which has been "Into" food storage for hundreds of years recommends that you would have to store 900 lbs of wheat (Family of 4, kids over 7 yrs old, 18 months) http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm  In contrast, I only listed 243 lbs in the chart above.  I just don't see how anybody could eat that much wheat.  Calculated from my bread baking recipe it would mean that the "Mormons" plan on  eating nearly 4 loaves per person per week.  Heck, with that much fiber, I wouldn't get anything done except sitting on the toilet.  (Too much info., I know, but realistic none the less.)  

6.   Don't lock yourself into one method of food storage!  In my chart above, I calculated that you would need over 3700 pints of fruits and veggies (Based on USDA guidelines, and "Padded" some to accommodate additional requirements in an "SHTF" scenario 

http://yourhealthybody.jillianmichaels.com/daily-requirements-fruit-vegetable-products-2642.html) .

The thing that you have to remember is, that you can get your food from lots of different storage options.  First of course is eating fresh foods, right from the garden.  Then might come dehydrating your fruits and veggies.  How about a root cellar?  You can store hundreds of pounds worth of food there with a lot less work.  In contrast, storing all your fruits and veggies in pint canning jars, would require over 49,000 canning jar lids in a 20 year long "SHTF" scenario.

( http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/basement-root-cellar-zm0z04zsie.aspx#axzz2gYmnhUPn )

Meats can be smoked, salt cured or even "Jerked".  Fruits can be dried, Heck, some veggies like carrots can simply be left in the ground with a nice "Blankie" of straw or leaves.... Ready to harvest all Winter long!  And yes, some things like beans and rice can be stored in buckets.  

7.    DO NOT RELY ON YOUR FOOD STORAGE AS A HEDGE AGAINST GAINING A LEARNING CURVE, OR "STARTING UP"!!!  I can't tell you how many times someone has told me that their stored food is for IF something happens, and that it will give them time to get their food production "Up and running".  Look I planted my first garden in 1973!!!  I'm still learning!!!  Each year I learn new techniques, and ways to trim more labor off of my gardening chores. There are lots of new techniques these days, and yes... some of them work quite well.  

Imagine the world has gone to Hell in a Hand Basket, and you have to heat with wood.  Try to visualize cutting, chopping, splitting, and hauling from the woods something like ten cords of wood every year.  Oh, and you have to do this without fossil fuels.  No chain saw, log splitter, or vehicle to haul in.  You have to do this all by hand, by axe, hand saws, and carrying it all on your back!  Now tell me you'll have time to "Learn" to produce all your food, "Learn" to can, dehydrate, smoke, and otherwise preserve that food so that you won't starve the next winter.  The time to learn and do is now... BEFORE you have to watch your children slowly starve to death!!!

The key is to develop a program of food storage NOW.  Creating a sustainable long term production, and storage "System", should give you the ability to feed your family over the long term... Ten, or even twenty years.  Not just a couple of years worth of food that you can barely get past your taste buds in your "Doomsday Bunker"!!!  You should be experimenting, learning, and finding out what works best for your family, and in your climate, Before "The end of the World as we know it" happens!!!!

Letting Go

Imagine it's the end of the world as we know it. SHTF (The S&*t's done hit the fan), everything you have come to know about the world we live in has been turned upside down. You always knew things were going to get bad... Hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst. Well now it's the worst! The shelves at the local grocery store are empty, and eerily quiet. The pumps at the local convenience mart are no longer working.  You've seen your neighbors do things you thought they weren't capable of, just trying to keep their children fed.  Hell, you've done things you aren't proud of yourself trying to protect the well being of your own family.

 You tried to be prepared... Before all this happened, but you couldn't have imagined just how hard it would be.  Every day from the time the Sun peeks it's golden crescent over the Eastern Horizon till the moment you can no longer see what you are doing at night, you toil and work just trying to survive.  You wake up each morning almost dreading the day ahead, seven days a week your muscles ache.  Even when you are sick and not feeling well, you must get up and do it again, and again, day after day.  You spend your time stumbling through an effort to grow food for your family, caring for your animals, milking, collecting eggs, cutting chopping and hauling firewood to stay warm, trudging through the woods in search of over hunted deer to shoot.  It seems like the list gets longer each day, smoking meat, making soap, mending fence, fixing the roof. 

Day in and day out.... Sun up, Sun down, on and on, and on into the future.  You almost wish the Grim Reaper will come for you, and end your suffering. 

Where I live here in Iowa, there's a very interesting view from the picture window in my living room.  It's a commanding view of a "Yin and Yang" situation.  You see there's a farm right across the street from me. Right now it waves gently in the breeze, with acre after acre of corn ripening in the Sun.  Each year the Farmer can be seen perched high atop that big green John Deere Tractor, tilling, fertilizing, planting.  It's a miracle of modern conventional farming.  For me, this unfolding melodrama has come to epitomize everything that's gone wrong in our world.  Giant Corporations, manipulation, corrupting, shaping our political landscape in order to make a buck.  Everything from the GMO seeds that the Farmer plants, to the diesel fuel in his tractor, reflects a world gone crazy.  I see topsoil blowing away in the wind, and along with it our future survival. I also have a view from that window of something else.  Something almost magical to me.  Right across the fence from those neatly plowed rows of corn and cancerous soybeans, is an area of native forest.  It's one of the reasons we moved here in the first place.  It wraps around the back of that farm field, and connects to a thousand acres of State game preserve... A thousand acres of firewood for the taking in that future SHTF world.  I've done some hiking in those woods.  I've marveled at how dense they are. Teeming with wildlife, every plant, animal, fungus, and insect living in Mother Nature's harmony.  No one plows it, no one fertilizes it, no tractors are needed.... It just grows, putting that corn field to shame in it's abundance.

Everywhere mankind has gone, we have asserted our "Mastery" over Nature.  We burn the forests, and plow them up, bending Nature to our will.  In the process we create destruction in our wake.  The Great Dust  Bowl of the 1930's is a great example of this.  We tried to bend Nature to our will, and in the process created over fifteen million acres of dust.  Even the Bible tells us the tale of our hubris.  Exodus talks of the Jewish People finding "The Land of Milk and Honey".  How could the Bible refer to such abundance, while if you visit the Middle East today all that you find is sand, and desert?  We Humans did that.  Overgrazing, the Plow, and our mis-management destroyed the land.  We're just now learning how ingenious Native Americans were at "Cultivating" Mother Nature's abundance.  These "Heathens" had thousands of miles of trails carved through the wilderness, and along every path they had nurtured food and medicinal plants to provide a Garden of Eden for themselves.  They observed how Nature worked and simply copied it's interactions to provide for themselves.

I recently ran across a posting here on the Internet, where someone had posted pictures of how He had constructed a bunch of Grape Trellises.  Being the outspoken person that I am, I commented on the posting... "Why not just let those grapes climb up a fruit tree, like Nature had designed them to do?"  WOW... OMFG.

You would have thought I had suggesting painting your Butt purple with pink polka dots, and wearing a thong to the Mall!!!!  I was quickly reminded by a number of "Experts" that a grape vine is capable of tearing limbs off of the mightiest oak.  That they would kill a tree in time.  These were so called "Preppers" by the way.  People who are supposed to be thinking outside the box when it comes to the future.

About a year ago I began to discover that there are people doing serious work, rediscovering what the Native Americans knew.  They were observing the Forest, like the one near my home, and studying it's ways.  Figuring out how to use Nature's wisdom to provide for their families in a crisis.  They had invented something called a "Food Forest Garden".  Using the layers and interactions they found in a natural forest, they were mimicking the abundant growth in the forest to create a massively productive food growing system with at least seven layers of plants growing in relative harmony to make food and medicine.  It didn't LOOK like a garden (A good thing when considering Zombie Hoards coming to take your food)... It flew in the face of everything I ever knew about gardening.  Once planted, it was supposed to be left alone to do it's own thing, like a natural forest.  You didn't till the ground, fertilize, plant, or tend to it.  You just harvested.  How could this be?  The process of running a tiller, making straight rows, thinning, weeding (Oh how I hate weeding) were extensions of the word garden right?  I had to let go of my predispositions.  I had to understand  that it didn't matter if a grape vine breaks a limb off of a tree.  That's just free firewood.  I had to realize that grapes were designed to climb a tree in the forest.  I learned that there are wild grapes that do just that... Yet as a whole the forest keeps thriving.  That there were hundreds of perennial veggies, with names like "Sea Kale" and "Mashua" that could grow, and produce year after year in these systems. Without adding to my post SHTF drudgery!  WOW!  Imagine planting a garden now, and once the world collapses not having to do anything to it for the rest of your life, but pick your food.  A carefully designed ecosystem of it's own.  Trees growing, propagating new baby trees, (And yes dying).  Plants growing food for my family without my interference.  And not a grape trellis in sight!

Some resources for further studying "Food Forest Gardens";

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Garden-Survival-camouflaged-ebook/dp/B00ATUEG5G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379692165&sr=8-1&keywords=secret+garden+of+survival

http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/32461-surviving-the-coming-crises

http://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Second-PermacultureReclaiming-ebook/dp/B005GLMASS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379692524&sr=8-1&keywords=gias+garden

How much food storage?

I've been "Preparing" for an uncertain future for a pretty long time, and over the years it's always been a puzzle to me why some people spend a whole lot of time carefully packing their beans and rice away in Mylar bags.  They dutifully add oxygen absorbers and seal everything away in buckets ready and waiting for the SHTF (S&^t to hit the fan).  Whenever I see someone who's just starting out... Asking on Facebook or somewhere for advice on what to do, the first thing people tell them is to start stockpiling food.

There seems to be a prevailing theory among "Preppers" that this is the thing to do.  The National Geographic TV show (Doomsday Preppers) tells us that we MUST have at least a years supply of freeze dried rice cakes hidden away, in a buried shipping container somewhere!  At the end of each segment on the TV show, they do an "Evaluation" of the people's "Preps".  While there is some mention of a "Re supply plan", these people (And the public) are told that without this mountain of beans, rice, and  "MRE's" that they only have a few months to live.

What strikes me as so odd.... Is that folks will go to great lengths to make sure that these supplies have the "Shelf life" of a Twinkie soaking in formaldehyde.  The last time I looked, the grocery stores were still open, and seed companies were still shipping packets of Mother Nature's little miracles, so why go to so much trouble with "Shelf life"?

Like most folks, my Wife and I started out quite some time ago, buying a few extra canned goods here and there.  We made a list of what we normally eat, emptied out the spare bedroom, built shelves, and filled them with a six months supply of stuff to shove down our Pie Holes.  Now We're not independently wealthy, and I actually had to sell my prized motorcycle to be able to get six months worth of food put away (Yes I cried).  Since then, we simply have been keeping track of how many cans of green beans we ate, and replacing (attempting to rotate) them as we went along.

If you go to the online website of a very popular food storage company, you'll find that they are selling a package with enough of their freeze dried food to feed a family of four, for a year.  The price of this epicurean bounty is $7000.00........ Holy Dollar signs Batman!!!!  Most of us are just trying to get by until our next Payday, and can't usually rub two Nickles together.   This bothered me quite a bit.  Here the so called "TV Experts" are telling us that if we don't have all this food hidden away like a Squirrel in a hollow tree, that we are DOOMED!  If we could find a way to squeeze thousands of Dollars out of the budget, we'd only have enough food to last us a year anyway.  What if the end of the World as we know it lasts longer than a couple of years?  The rest of our natural lives?  Forever????

Well, I started burning up brain cells over this problem faster than a Wino that suddenly got his hands on a case of Tequila.  I started to develop my own strategy.  I realized that the only way to provide for my family over the long term, ten, twenty years, was to place my emphasis on food production, rather than storage.  Sure it's a good idea, to have some food put away especially if there's a Natural Disaster, or say you get "Laid off" from your job for a while.  I'm not really putting down the food storage companies either, I've purchased some of their products as I could afford them, and will continue to do so.  I've developed a different strategy for my family though, that concentrates on self sustainability.  If we spend more of our time, figuring out how to be self sustaining, we'll be a lot better off fifteen years down the road.... Long after our stored food is consumed.  Unless you own a warehouse, you couldn't store up twenty years worth of food anyway.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is don't put "All your eggs in the food storage basket".  Don't put your long term survival in the hands of "TV Experts" either.  If you could come up with seven grand to spend on "Preps", would it be wise to put away six months worth of food (Not coincidentally enough to get you through a Winter), and spend your other $3500 on long term production???

I've spent an awful lot of my time, as a result thinking about how I can achieve self sustainability as a result of my deranged musings.  I've studied alternative methods of gardening, trying to reduce the amount of time food production would consume (SHTF seems like Sun up to Sun down drudgery just to stay alive and warm to me).  How to store the foods that I produce as well.  Here's a short list of concepts that you could start with. Google up (Or whatever search engine you use), some of these topics, and decide if any of them make sense in your long term future planning.

1. Square Foot Gardening.
2. Back to Eden Gardening.
3. Permaculture techniques.
4. Food Forest Gardening.
5. Home Canning.
6. Solar Dehydrators.
7. Root Cellar.
8. A Greenhouse.
9. Cold Frames.
10. Rain Gutter Grow Systems.
11. Polycultures.
12. Ovo - Lacto Vegetarianism.
13. Reusable canning lids.
14. An Ice House.
15. Building a Smoker.
16. Salt Curing.
17. Hydroponics.
18. Aquaponics.
19. No till gardening.
20. Lasagna Gardening.
21. Hugelculture.
22. Mittleider garden.
23. Raising Chickens, Goats, a Milk Cow.
24. Composting.
25. Vermiculture.
26. Black Soldier Flies.
27. Heirloom Seeds.

That should be enough to get you started.  If our world goes to heck on us, twenty years down the road, you might be pretty happy that you had considered some of these food production topics, and even experimented with them.  They might just be the ticket, to keep your family fed in troubling times even long after your stored food is long gone.  As always keep your chin up and remember.... We'll get through this!

When you can't afford or get "Mucinex"

I ran across a "Blog Page" this morning where someone was predicting the End of the World, and lamenting how you will be suffering because you won't even be able to find the most rudimentary over the counter medicines at your local pharmacy.  They went on to suggest a bunch of herbal remedies, as substitutes to prescription, and over the counter drugs.  It became painfully obvious to me that they hadn't really done their homework.  I love how people like to do a little research here on the internet... Declare themselves an expert, spew forth a bunch of crap, and the so called "Enlightened" follow their advice without question. (Who are the "Sheeple" and who aren't?)  

Well... I'm not predicting the end of days just yet.  I try to shy away from dire doomsday predictions of anarchy and mayhem.  I will say however that every time I go to the grocery store, it's painfully obvious, that despite what the talking heads on CNN are telling us, the Economy just isn't getting any better.  Some 47 million Americans are on food stamps.  Millions upon millions of us are either unemployed, have given up looking for a decent job, or trying to make do with a part time paycheck.  Will the Economy crash?  Will it slide off into a "Depression" that might make the 1930's look like kindergarten?  Will Doomsday happen?  These are things that YOU have to decide for yourself, but I can tell you that (Even today)... Far too many Americans are having to make decisions about whether to buy their monthly prescriptions ---- or food to eat.

OK, so what if you lose your job, or prices climb to the point that you just can't afford to shell out 15 bucks for a box of "Mucinex"?  What if there ARE shortages of such things?  Are we immune here in America to this?  What if a Middle Eastern political event makes oil become really expensive, and the price of everything that has to be shipped into the Country gets too expensive for most of us to afford? 

The so called "Expert" on this blog page was suggesting a bunch of herbal remedies, and some of them made sense to me, but he (She) also listed some pretty exotic stuff that also has to be shipped from far away places.  If you find yourself not able afford a bottle of Ibuprofen, then how in the Hell are you going to be able to get your hands on Curcumin which comes all the way from India?  (One of the suggested alternative cures for arthritis and other inflammatory disorders).  I'm no doctor, by the way so do your own homework, and ask a real expert before using any herbal medications.  It just seems to me that instead of following the advice of some "Yahoo" on the internet, we should be doing our own homework, and finding solutions we can really use.  Folklore says for example that a tea made from willow bark has some pretty powerful pain relieving, and anti inflammatory properties, and it doesn't have to come all the way from India!!! Even Cinnamon, which was suggested as a cure for high cholesterol might get pretty expensive in the future.  It comes from a tree that grows in places like Sumatra, and Ethiopia, after all.  (I doubt that if I'm worrying about where my next meal is coming from, that I'll be concerned about my cholesterol anyway!)  The German equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration has approved Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) for use to treat Urinary tract problems, and as an external treatment for minor wounds.  Now that's something I can use, I've got the stuff growing in my front yard!!!  I don't have to go out and buy Tea Tree Oil, which this "Expert" suggested you stock up a bunch of...  For it's antibacterial properties.  After all if I'm able to afford to set aside a case of something, I'll be buying up Neosporin.  (Tea Tree Oil comes from Australia by the way.)

The point I'm trying to make here is that we should all look before we take that "Leap of faith", accepting the advice of some "Billy Bob Blogger", who hasn't thought things through.  Sure there's a chance that you might not be able to afford, or find a lot of common medications in the future, even if it's just because your income is too limited for some reason.  I just think we should be using our "Noggins" and finding things we can really use, like Mullein... A common weed found in vacant lots all over America.  It has lot's of medical uses such as an "Expectorant".   Wow! --- I don't need "Mucinex" after all........

Hidey Ho All!


Here it is, 4 in the morning, and I've been having a discussion with someone online, that got my coffee boiling, so I decided it was time to do some ranting.  The Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey who is without a doubt hanging from the puppet strings of the big agriculture companies as it is, recently hired a Dude by the name of Mike Naig, as his "Deputy Secretary".  Northey is quoted as saying that Naigs "background and experience make him a natural fit for the Department.”    His experience?  Years of being the "Manager of State and local affairs" for Monsanto Corporation.

 I live in a State that operates by proxy... It's actions dictated to it by corporate agriculture.

It's not that the corporations, running our society aren't piloted by real people that gets me going, or that those folks aren't held accountable, but that "We the People" have allowed them to weave such an intricate web around our lives.   It is WE who have allowed these corporations to become legal "Persons" without consequence. It is WE who have allowed them to firmly grasp our political process by the genitals, and drive our society into the proverbial dirt.   We send our young off to die in far away lands, to fight imaginary wars on terror, and the result is only profit for the Military Industrial Complex, and the Oil Giants.

 WE allow the big Pharmaceutical Companies to take over our health, and wonder why we're so sick.  Our retirement and savings are being gambled away at the Wall Street Casino (Along with our Grandchildren's future,) yet WE don't even whimper.  There are no jobs, or decent employment left for most of us except flipping hamburgers, and passing out shopping carts to eager shoppers...   Sunday afternoon at Wal-Mart... Pushing our carts from isle to isle, oblivious to the fact that we're cattle.   Mindlessly walking down the "Chute" towards the butchering room at a processing plant.

And yes...... WE have allowed our food to become "Soylent Green"!!!

It's not that I'm a "Conspiracy Theorist" mind you,  I don't personally believe that some secret group of fat old white men is meeting in clandestine places, and scheming to "Take over the world".   Rather, our World, and it's troubles are guided simply by greed.  This is a simple motive, born out of emotion, and WE all succumbed to it.  We can't exactly blame the Corporations themselves either.  WE allowed them to be created in such a way that they resemble a shark.  Take the "Great White".   It's only purpose in life is to eat, and have babies.   Corporations are structured in our modern world with that same single mindedness.  They only exist to make money...  To cater to greed.

We've become nothing more than a parasitic infection, eating our way through the bowels of the host planet that we call home.

At the end of every (Almost) video I've ever posted over on Youtube, I've included the phrase "We'll get through this".  That's because I still have hope for us.  We have no other choice, but to wake up.  The alternative is unimaginable.   WE must change our world, starting with OURSELVES.   I associate myself somewhat with those who have developed a "Preparedness mindset", because I see where we are headed. I want to buffer my family's fall.   A drug addict must reach a very low point, before they can begin to get "Clean", and crawl out of that addiction "Hole".  We're headed to a very dark hole before we can begin making changes, but there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.

WE MUST, however begin to change our world starting with ourselves.  We have to examine the very building blocks of how we view our lives.  We have to begin turning our backs on the dysfunctional system that we created, and take a different path.  Even a lot of "Doomsday Preppers" still can't see the forest for the trees, they're supposed to be enlightened to our dark future, yet everything you see about them is buy something, and squirrel it away in a bunker somewhere.  Our world view is buy, buy, buy.... as an alternative to doing.  We're still feeding the sharks.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas A. Edison

The old cliche about "He who dies with the most toys" is Bullshit. When you are on your death bed, only three things will matter. Did you treat people well, were you happy, and did you leave the world a better place.

 Start thinking about how to change our world in your own little way.   Plant a garden... Monsanto can sit and spin!  Learn skills that you can pass along.  Don't tell your friends, and neighbors that the world is ending, but rather point out that it's already in the crapper.  Ask how you can help them cope.  Find ways to turn your back on our failed system, and then DO THEM!!!    Take your money out of the banks... Wall St can F$#k themselves!  And as for the so called "Central Bankers"... They control your life through your dependence on the Dollar nipple.   Learn to barter, and tell them to piss off!  Go to your City Council meeting, and DEMAND that they let people keep backyard chickens.... Tell Tyson to stuff it. Do some exercise, eat better, and tell Pfizer to kiss your healthier A$$.

Don't spend all your time worrying about what the corporate "Minions" in Washington DC are doing either. They're desperate to maintain control of your life yes, but they're also so inept that they can't see the foundations of they're world crumbling underneath them.  They invaded Afghanistan twelve years ago (An area smaller than Texas,) and have done everything you might be afraid of there.   Foreign troops (NATO) The Army in the streets, Mercenaries (Blackwater), Drones, Concentration camps (Abu Ghraib.)  They've poured money, military might, clandestine manipulation, bombs and bullets into a virtual colander, and still..... Even still... The Taliban control most of the landscape.

They're bungling fools, who can't deliver a letter to your mailbox efficiently. Nothing they have ever tried to do, except take your money has EVER worked out. No Federal program has EVER done what it set out to do.... EVER!!!

Don't live your life in fear of these Losers! They are going to fail.

Together, we CAN change the world, one inch at a time. We CAN make a better place for our Children, and Grandchildren. Together, (One step at a time) we CAN "Get through this"!

“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
Bill Mollison

LAST PLANTING DATES FOR FALL CROPS.

When to start seeds

Should Homesteaders be concerned about GMO's?

Hidey Ho Friends!
I ran across a posting on Facebook today, where the discussion was centered, around whether a lot of the information we've been seeing lately about genetically modified organisms is true, or just a bunch of hype.  The question was whether folks had been noticing lower fertility rates in chicken eggs coming from hens on conventional feed.

We'll I've got a duck sitting right now, I'll let you know if she hatches out any goslings.  I'm using pretty much the same feed as I always have, and I've had chickens hatch out eggs before.  That being said  The feed contains alfalfa, which means way more GMO's now than even just last year.  Should we be concerned about the health of both ourselves, and our animals on these conventional feeds?

Well health reasons notwithstanding we've committed at our place to getting ourselves and our animals off of GMO's, if only for political reasons.  ""That unnamed Corporation"" (Wouldn't want to get sued) is killing off the small farmer, using underhanded techniques and obviously has less than  scrupulous dealings with Washington DC.  I simply refuse to support a company that doesn't have the public's interest at heart.  (I know, I know,,,, I shouldn't be able to buy anything from anybody then, lol).  We are working on it however!!!

We don't keep any money in the bank, and only use a local credit union when there's banking that we absolutely have to do.  We avoid Wal-Mart like the plague.  We don't impulse buy, and shop local whenever possible.  I'm working on replacing store bought grain with home grown oats, barley, and wheat.  We're also experimenting with Mangle beets (A historic fodder crop that can grow 10 lb tubers!).  We've been playing with techniques for sprouting grains to stretch them out, and get more bang for the buck.  We've also found a local source of all grass fed beef, and started buying pork raised on only organic non GMO feed.

I've got some aussie willow branches sprouting roots in a bucket hoping to eventually plant a goat / chicken """Food Forest""" of willow and hybrid poplar.  Both of which are really nutritious fodder for goats.  Goats actually prefer browse over grazing.  The higher off of the ground they are eating... The less problems you'll have with worms, Coccidiosis, and liver flukes.   I'm hoping that using these techniques will make us more resilient to shortages (Can you say drought - Boys and Girls) and price fluctuations.  You can buy a bag of organic barley seed for about the price of a bag of layer pellets anyhow, so why not grow your own?

We're finding here in our household... That the more self reliant we become, the more we can engage in what I call "Checking out of the system", the happier we find ourselves.  We're not relying on someone far away to provide what we need, and the peace of mind that brings to our hearts is almost magical!

I've done a lot of reading about GMO's and their possible health risks, but that issue for me becomes inconsequential when viewed under the concept of simply doing what I think is right.  Doing what I think I owe to those I leave behind!  None of us "Small People" (As the CEO of BP called us during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill fiasco), has a chance on our own of making much change in our world, but we can do our own small part... in our own small way.  Our actions together can make a difference though, and what I'm finding out is that it's not so inconvenient after all.  Having the peace of mind that comes from being self reliant, and maybe living a healthier life are some pretty good side benefits!!!