A Monday in April

Look what's for breakfast! Yes, that is a real wood fire. I am still cooking on the smoker grill, I'm not even close to having the permanent cooking area started, let alone finished. All is well tho, the smoker grill works just fine. It's just not what I had in mind.

Sunday brought a frost with it, I had all the seedlings covered and they seem to be doing fine. the cucumbers don't look as good as I'd like them to but they'll come around. The ducks didn't mind, they were swimming and quacking like usual. They've also wiped out my lettuce and done my carrots about in. I will replant this weekend when I have the screen row covers built. I put a few scrap pieces of chicken wire over the potato tires and it's working well. Even the cats aren't playing on the tires anymore.

I watched a film piece from the History Channel yesterday morning. A friend from APN suggested it to me. I'm glad i watched it, thanks Raven! The film is named "After Armageddon". It is a hypothetical presentation of the fall of society from a global disaster. It is presented on youtube in 9 parts. I loaded a couple at a time so i could watch it without stopping. I found it to be extremely interesting. I also found my own thoughts on the matter of city living vs rural living to be about dead on as far as what is going to happen, etc. Over all, it has spurred me to continue on my journey of living more and more self sustained and increasing the output of this little piece of land.

I started my potato experiment on Sunday as well. I dehydrated 8lbs of potato slices like Scifichick said to do and they turned out great. I managed to fit 7lbs worth of them into a half gallon Ball jar. I'm really excited about it, it looks to be a great way to save my potatoes from the rot I get during the winter. With dehydrating them, i won't lose one single potato! How cool is that? Thanks again Scifi, for showing me the light on the taters.

Well, I'm off to do some tilling and planting......

Spike in "Suburban Survivalists"

A nice article I found this morning, written by Gillian Flaccus, a writer for the Associated Press.

Crisis Spurs spike in "Suburban Survivalists"

Gillian writes about how every day people are starting to wake up when it comes to the shape out country is really in economically. How ordinary people that would never think like a "survivalist" are now stocking up on the basics, thinking of taking care of themselves and their families.

From the article:
"From teachers to real estate agents, these budding emergency gurus say the dismal economy has made them prepare for financial collapse as if it were an oncoming Category 5 hurricane. They worry about rampant inflation, runs on banks, bare grocery shelves and widespread power failures that could make taps run dry."

"These people snapping up everything from water purification tablets to thermal blankets shatter the survivalist stereotype: they are mostly urban professionals with mortgages, SUVs, solid jobs and a twinge of embarrassment about their newfound hobby."

Nobody should ever be embarrassed by wanting to take care of themselves and their families. This country was founded by people that took care of themselves and even talked to and helped their neighbors. Somewhere along the way we lost that. We need it back now more than ever.

From the article:

"I don't want to be a slave to anybody," he said. "The more systems you're dependent on, the more likely things are going to go bad for you."

That's a philosophy shared by Vincent Springer, a newcomer to emergency preparedness from the Chicago area.

Springer, a high school social studies teacher, says he's most worried about energy shortages and an economic breakdown that could paralyze the just-in-time supply chain that grocery stores rely on."

Well done Gillian Flaccus, well done.

more Inland hurricane

Nothing has been said on MSM about this at all. The rest of the world hasn't got a clue about how bad this storm has hit us. I know what New Orleans felt like now for sure. 155mph winds were recorded by the anamometer(reads wind/air speed) before it blew off the pole. Widespread damage from trees falling, homes an businesses smashed, etc. I guess the ice storm we had this past winter didn't teach people anything, thousands were caught unprepared. This is something I just don't understand. For us here, it's business as usual more or less. I of course still don't have the brick grill and oven built, it's rained too much this spring for that. But, a nice smoker/charcoal grill has been my stove and it's worked out pretty well. Now if the wind would quit, I'd be more happy with it.

Thankfully the gardens aren't real tall with growth, they weren't damaged much. I did have part of a tree fall in my corn patch. It'll need replanted. The chicken house was untouched but I noticed yesterday my corn crib is gone and my thresher is ruined. Both can be easily replaced as I built them both myself.

We're under another storm warning for today and tonite, another bad one headed our way. Just what we need is more rain on already saturated ground and soaking storm damaged homes and businesses. I'm sure a storm will slow the power guys down in their efforts as well.