A Nation in Trouble and the Solution

A few of the posts I've written lately have discussed being self reliant.  I've done this because I see bad times upon us coming very quickly.  There are things happening that are causing our freedoms to be removed and the people of the country aren't responding in a strong show of displeasure about it.  The latest is the NDAA.  Do an internet search and read the new law.  Basically it removes certain portions of the Bill of Rights.  See below:

Couple this with the Patriot act and the Bill of Rights is gutted.  Not shown in the picture above should also have the Article I crossed out as well.  Every presidency, every change of congress, every terrorist attack or natural disaster some new act, regulation or policy comes along and removes our freedom.  In towns all over the nation people are being recorded on public rights of ways while driving.  This is done, because the local government has measured the average speed of the thorough fare and found it to be higher than the posted speed limit.  The cameras get put in with a pre-suposition that everyone driving on that road is speeding, therefore we as a people are not 'innocent until proven guilty' we are guilty and have to prove innocence.

 I told you in a previous blog post that the beans bullets and band aids need to be taken care of.  The above is partially why I think that.  But it goes deeper than that.  I was only a few decades ago that ever house had a small kitchen garden and food got 'put up' or canned.  Today if you talk about preserving your own food you're either a freak or an oddity.  It wasn't long ago that credit was shunned, today if you don't have credit card debt or store credit debt your a freak and not 'keeping up with the Jones's' is considered stupid.

Couple all of this with expensive oil, a weak dollar that is getting weaker, a stock market that is completely divorced from the economy and a real unemployment that is in the neighborhood of 16% and that spells disaster.  This can be averted though.  It means getting back to God and trusting in Him for His Salvation.  It means getting back to the Constitution of the United States and being thankful for all God has blessed us with.  It means remembering the Rules of Civility as written by George Washington.  It means loving one another as Jesus Christ first loved us.  We are not the center of the universe Jesus Christ is!!

1 John 4:7-10
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Things We Remember

I remember as a kid in Colorado doing many things.  I remember cutting firewood on a local farmers property.  I remember the many camping trips we went on and following my dad around camp.  I remember playing with friends while my parents were at work... The lady who used to babysit my parents continue to be great friends of my parents even separated by 800 miles.  I remember winter days and coming inside from playing in the snow and either drinking hot cocoa or this sugary spicy drink that as a kid I thought was great.  Looking at the ingredients I'm not sure I'd like it today, but I remember my mom putting the dry ingredients together and I remember the jar sitting in the cabinet.  The recipe for the drink is below, maybe next winter when the wind is blowing and it's cold outside we will give this recipe a try.

1 C. Instant Tea
1 1/2 C. Tang
1 C. Sugar
1 pkg. Lemonade Cool-Aid (without sugar)
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix together.  Use 3 spoonfuls per mug, add steaming hot water.

Saturdays Progress, Feeling it Sunday

Saturday we got up early and went to town to have the tires on the truck checked out... Luckily it wasn't a second weekend of a lot of money exiting my bank account.  They just had to balance and rotate the tires.  While I was there I had them do an oil change, it's one last thing I have to do. 

Once we got home we spent the remainder of the day outside doing pretty mundane things like turning the compost pile, cleaning the goat pen and using the droppings to start a new pile.  We also took the walls off the goat shed for the summer.  It would be too hot in there if we left the walls up.  I also sprinkled diatomaceous earth throughout the pen and goat shed in hopes of cutting down on the flies.  I kind of plan on sprinkling it throughout the pen for the next several weeks.  Hopefully it will work.

I'm kind of tired today and have been all day.  We did a side job this morning (landscaping maintenance) and tonight it's off to church.  I'm not looking forward to driving into town during the week, but it pays the bills.

Bullets, Beans and Band Aids

I've been hearing a lot about the new show Doomsday Preppers on one of the cable networks.  I don't have cable, so it's not something I can watch.  I did get to watch one episode, my wife and I were at my parents house, they have cable.  The episode we watched was the one where the guy blew his thumb off.  I wasn't overly impressed.  It seems to me that the producers put the people in a bad light, but also the people themselves seemed to be operating out of fear not out of rational, objective thought, nor out of much prayer to God and guidance by the Holy Spirit.  It could just be that in the time given this part of the story could not be communicated properly, however, that's my take on that one episode of the show.  If the show ever goes to Netflix I'll watch more of it and make a more informed decision. 

Let's talk a bit about the prepper movement, there are people who are prepping for the fringe fears... A polar shift, alien infiltration, full scale invasion by a foreign power... the list goes on.  These things could happen, I suppose, but will they?  Objectively, not likely.

Let's mention some other things that I think are much more likely to happen: slow economic slide followed by hyper-inflation (think Greece), infrastructure  collapse due to disrepair, a government that slowly moves away from the Constitution and changes the way it operates through executive orders and appointment of czars and administrations that make policy through non-legislative rules (think IRS, EPA, FEMA, Federal Reserve).

Does this make me a conspiracy theorist?  Maybe, however, I also know that I have the responsibility to care for my family and those around me.  I know that the media is telling me that times are getting better  all the while the month is getting longer and the money's getting shorter.  I know there are more rules, laws, policies, and statutes than is covered by the Constitution of the United States.  Objectively if we look at our country and the economy we see issues, problems.  I'm not saying it's going to get worse, because I don't know the future.  I am saying we need to prepare for the future, whether it be good or bad.  My wife and family and I are on a journey of learning skills like organic gardening, small livestock for food, cooking with alternative solar, re-purposing things for garden/agricultural work and use, food storage and cooking from scratch.  If things get worse we will have the skills to survive.  If things don't get worse, then we're just 'living a green life style'.

Regardless, I urge everyone to examine the world, the news, the economy, and the government in a very objective way, then pray, seek guidance from God.  The guidance you receive may be do do nothing, it may be to start buying extra canned goods when you go shopping.... Act on whatever guidance you receive.

God Bless.

An Interesting Look at the World Today

They don't know me and I don't know them, but I'm really liking the blog linked below and I feel a connection with the family, because they seem to be a lot like my family just further down the preparedness journey.


Paratus Familia Blog: Upside-down Land: Sir Knight and I were discussing the state of the nation and noticed a disturbing trend.  Now, rather than living in the land of the free an...

Around the Homestead

Yesterday it was cold and rainy.  We even got some sleet and hail.  I was still taking pain pills from the oral surgery I had on Friday so I stayed home from work.  While I was working, my wife and son went and put up some pallets for a compost bin as our current one is cooking pretty good and we want it to break down as quickly as possible.  They did a pretty good job of it too.

Today my wife and my son also made survival cookies filled with apple preserves.  We believe that Jake should be able to cook so this was a good exercise in baking.  Really the cookies are oatmeal cookies, and they really are filled with apple preserves... and boy did they come out great!!!

The Homestead

My family and I live on an acre of property in the middle of the desert.  We have 2 goats, 2 dogs, 16 chickens, a traditional garden about the size of the garden my grandma had in Colorado, and a container garden.  This year we're going to can or dry as much as we possibly can. 

We have started seeds in the house, 3 different types of tomatos, 2 different types of sweet peppers, 2 different kinds of hot peppers, we are planting corn, both pole beans and bush beans, winter squash, yellow crook neck squash, zucchini, cucumbers for salad and pickling, and luffa.  We also have some blackberry plants, and we are planting raspberries,we currently have 3 apple trees and plan on a couple of more, and will continue developing our small property to feed our family.  Lastly we also have 3 grape plants and are adding more. 

Now why am I explaining all this you ask?  My goal if we stay on this property is to expand the gardens, the number of fruit trees and bushes and animals to the point that we get most of our food from our own hands and have little to no reliance on stores.  Again, why you ask?  In answer I will say I'm like a boy scout and I believe in always being prepared.  This means having some food stored in case I can't afford to buy food, and knowing how to feed myself and my family without stores and through hunting and foraging.

You see I believe our economy is currently in a long slow slide and eventually we are going to see hyper-inflation.  The barter economy is there, but not for food and staples.  I could be completely wrong about this and I am fully aware and agree that God is in control of history.  I also know that He instructed Joseph to put back for seven years of famine. 

My suggestion, to you:  Pray about what you should do and if you feel led to put back some food then do so.

Just my rambling of the day.

National Defense Resources Preparedness

Yesterday I found an executive order that on the face of it and based on the title doesn't look so bad.  Then I read the executive order.  It lays a foundation where the government controls everything, it is martial law for peace time.  Couple this executive order with the NDAA and we have a foundation for this administration to do anything it wants.  We have to draw a line somewhere, and a society that does not respect personal private property will fall, will fail.

I urge all of the people reading this blog to read the executive order and to then contact their senator and congressman.  This is important...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness

The Weekend

I was all set to work from home yesterday.  The gateway to work was down and I had a dental appointment later in the day so I took the day off.  I ended up going to the dentist, finding out that my insurance didn't cover an extraction, nor did it cover a bone graft that needed to be done after the extraction.  The tooth had to come out because it cracked and split so it was not salvageable with a root call/crown procedure.  The dentist told me that it would be a twenty minute procedure.  Three hours later I walked out of the dentists office one less tooth, a lot less money and a mouth full of blood.  I also had 3 prescriptions and instructions to take it easy and do nothing strenuous for the next 3 days.  Which totally bites, because on the way home from dentists office I stopped and got a yard of compost for the garden.  Of course I stupidly told my wife what the dentist said, so she and the kids let me do nothing strenuous...  It sucks being treated like an invalid.

Today was a gorgeous day and I wasn't allowed to do anything.  Tomorrow, is supposed to be cold and rainy and besides, I'm being watched like a hawk when I get anywhere near a door.... Oh well, I guess this weekend is the weekend of planning.

Chomping at the Bit

It's now mid March and today the sun is out, the leaf's are coming out and and I can't plant.  This weekend the weather forecast is cold and rainy.  Maybe Tuesday afternoon we'll be able to plant.  We're going to try a three sisters type planting in one corner of the garden with corn, pole beans and squash planted close.  A quarter of the garden will be tomato's another quarter will be bell peppers, we are also going to have a lot of bush beans. 

We had winter stuff in the garden broccoli, onions, spinach, lettuce, that's all coming out and we are going to plant.  Most of the herbs over wintered pretty well and are growing now that the weather is warming.  The grapes are leafing out and so are the elderberry bushes.

Anyway I'm ready to get to planting and canning and producing.  I'm tired of the winter activities...

Pockets and Eggs

Today my wife and I were outside taking inventory of fencing material and garden items and discussing what to plant where.  While we were out there we checked and got one egg from the single chicken that is currently laying.  My son came out and since we had more to look at my wife gave the egg to my son, who promptly put it in his front pocket.  About two hours later he found the egg, broken.  I laughed... it was hilarious to see the reaction on his face when he pulled this slimy mess out of his pocket... CLASSIC!!

Quote of the Day

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."  - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957