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!!!

GET THE PICTURE????

US oil refineries are already at almost full capscity

Largest oil refineries in the U.S.

They produce  30.29%  of  U.S. Gasoline

A number of large hurricanes expected?

Ethanol comprises approx 9% of all Unleaded gasoline in the country

78% of the lower 48 states are now experiencing drought conditions

Corn harvests are now expected to be 17% below what they were just 1 month ago.... As the situation worsens!

Gas.... Food..... It's going to be an interesting fall season!!!