Tuesday Downtown

Well, here I am, sitting on a bench outside the local health food joint, connected to the internet! Thanks to a pal, I now have a wi-fi close to home that i can use when ever I need to! how cool is that! They're closed today because of the town working on the water lines so I am outside, on a bench, playing on the computer. Passersby think I'm nuts. Oh well! LOL

First things first, no, I have not made a batch of soap. I need to tho, I am down to 2 bars here so in the next day or 2 I will whip up a batch of soap. I will be about a week or so before it will be ready to go Kati, hang in there! Good stuff isn't it? Also, I will get the blog search box installed right after this post for you.

So, here's some pictures like I promised. Things are really growing like mad around here and the nasty storm that rolled thru last night around 7pm dumped 3" of rain on us in an hour! Yay rah, more weeds and skeeters. At least it's cooled off by a few degrees. yesterday was about unbearable but today it's not too bad. Nice breeze to blow the humidity away. I also took a picture of the container tomatoes but they have grown so much and look so wild and spread out, you can't really tell what's what in the picture so I passed on adding it. The dang things have gone completely ignorant, over growing the support cage by almost double already and over flowing onto the porch and the other containers i have close to it. I guess next year i will know to use that compost soil a little more sparingly!

Oh, I almost forgot, sorry Unk! The hot pepper spray that repels the bugs- a spray bottle with some powdered chili pepper(a heaping tablespoon), a drop of any kind of dish soap( I use ajax) and fill it up with water. Dont shake it up or it's all bubbles. It works on all kinds of bugs, even aphids and the horn worms hate it too.

It's production time

We've finally made it to eating fresh for the year. The garden is finally producing for us. I'm pretty darn pleased with the tire garden plants. What an easy way to go. So much less back breaking work, the weeding is easier and that water stays where it should be instead of soaking into the ground where plant roots aren't. We've even got our first pumpkin growing! Should be a bumper crop for us, plenty of pumpkin to can up for pie filling. I love pumpkin pie, I would bake and eat a pumpkin pie every week if I could. I'm also pretty excited about the zucchinis. last year we only got one round of fruits and the plants died one by one. The plants in the tires are huge and healthy.

Lazy Day

Not a whole bunch going on around the farm. I'm standing on pins and needles waiting for the corn to sprout. It's always agony waiting for those little green shoots. Are they dead? Will they sprout or not? Lots of little showers the last few days. It gets dark, a bit of a sprinkle and it's gone. The cold overnight temperatures have been a bit hard on everything and I lost all but 4 of my Roma tomatoes. Guess I'm going to have to punt on that one, 4 plants is not enough to harvest for a years worth of food.

I'm just a little worried, the tomatoes and cuccs have been flowering for a week now and apparently are not being pollinated. So, yesterday I started hand pollinating the flowers. I have not seen a single bee yet this year.

The 6 strawberry plants that lived thru the transplant and the cats have really sprouted out. The whole tub is full of leaders and all of the have new berry starts on them. This type of strawberry seems pretty aggressive. The way they are going, I will have to make a row bed just for them by mid summer. Later this season, I should be swamped with berries. I like that idea!

The sweet peppers have put flowers on, none have opened yet but they will very soon. I have my q-tips ready for hand pollination. At $3.49 for 4 small peppers at the market, I can't wait for them to produce for me. Eating dehydrated peppers is okay but nothing beats home grown fresh bell peppers.

Speaking of $3.49 for 4 small peppers, checking the prices of fresh fruits and veges at the local market can give you a pretty good idea of how much money you can save yourself by growing those things for yourself. It also helps give you a good idea of what the price is if you have extra you might want to sell. Specialty items like watermelons and cantaloupes are usually pretty high priced at the market. $2.49 for a small cantaloupe, $5-8 for a medium sized watermelon. Both these fruits grow quickly and are easy to maintain. I will have pictures of both these vines growing here soon.

I've hilled my second round on the potatoes and they actually need another tire added already. They're looking pretty good, I hope they're making potatoes in all that dirt!

We had to round up the banty chicks that were hatched last week. Something was killing them. Out of 8 chicks, we have 3 left and they are now residing in the storage house brooder tank. So far so good.........

An update on the small disasters around the farm... I got all the carpet yanked out of the closet and all the water mopped up the best I could. We're adjusting to the whole no hot water thing as quick as we can. As for the door, the window screens and the leaking fuel tank on the truck, they are all still waiting. What else can ya do? Deal with what you've got and go on.....

The Berries

Today I feel like a yo-yo, up, down, left, right, 35mph wind but at least it's warmed up again.

I'm slowly getting all the water mopped up. It already smells like mold. That figures.

Today is another simple day around the farm. I'm doing the usual, tending critters, baking bread, got some chili going and a couple of rabbits in the stew pot. Some cake cooling on the counter. Nothing new broke today.

I still found a little time to cut another sidewall off a tire I picked up from the local mechanic for the zucchinis. I got it filled and the seedlings planted in it. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to put the pumpkins out, I don't want them getting beat to death by the 35mph wind we have today. I still need to put the melons out, both the hot peppers and both types of cherry tomato. I haven't decided where yet. The new round of beans has sprouted, I will probably till their spot and plant them tomorrow as well.

It's almost time to hill the potatoes, again! They are really growing quickly, much faster than when they are in the ground. Must be the well draining, rich compost mix soil. I'm pretty pleased with it, so pleased I haven't even hit them with the home made fertilizer mix yet. No need if they are growing so quickly without it.

Off to finish the rabbit stew......

Beating the Rain

ARG! The lightning is crashing all around the farm this afternoon. Severe storm and tornado warnings all around us. I still managed to get another container tub filled with dirt and the rest of those beefsteak tomatoes planted in it. I also got a row tilled up for the Roma tomatoes and the multi colored sweet peppers planted. I moved over to the sweet corn patch, tilled up 5 rows 60' long and got 4 and 1/2 planted before the clouds opened up and poured rain on me. So, I've missed out on the last hour or so I could have been planting. I did manage to get 4 used big truck tires picked up from the local auto shop for the pumpkin plantings and the mechanic gave me a free standing fire place! It's in great shape and I'm thrilled to have it.

Now the seedling shelves are emptying out. I still have the 2 types of cherry tomatoes needing out, the pumpkins, the gourds, the zuccs, the 2 kinds of hot peppers, the peas and the new bean seedlings to replace the ones that got pounded by last weeks storm. I also need to start another row of radish and another carrot row. I did finally get the celery seed to sprout but they are very tiny still so it looks like another couple of weeks before they will be ready.

Picture Day on the Farm

ARG! Would ya look at those beans? The rain just beat them to death. Not sure if they can be saved, I've started another round of seed to replace them.

The flogging rooster that got dropped here from a neighbor is caught. The daughter cornered him last night while I was mucking stalls out. That is one mean rooster. His wings are clipped, I don't know why, chickens don't fly worth a hoot anyway, and his spurs have been cut off but the son of a gun still has claws and he's flogged me for the last time. I tried to knock his head off the other day, one good whack is all I got on him and the tree branch broke. All it did was knock some feathers off him and he ran around for a while with his head sideways. Now, he's what's for dinner. I will gladly butcher him sometime today.

Here's updated pictures of the container garden stuff. Look how much the peppers and tomatoes have grown! They all have flower nubs on them and I should be harvesting from them in the next couple of weeks. I am very ready
for it too.




























Now, what kind of a farm post would it be without the bunny pictures????

Sitting on Go for Planting

Over the weekend, I got a little busy. I didn't take pictures right away because that daughter of mine left for the weekend and helped herself to my camera. Nothing new, she thinks everything in the house is hers. All's well tho, all that got missed was the transplant shock, LOL.

The empty tub I set up last week got some beefsteak tomatoes in it along with the next tub and the third one got some Chocolate Beauty sweet peppers.

Another good thing from the weekend- new rabbit kits! So far so good, the doe is a first time Momma and it seems like she's doing okay since the kits are still alive this morning.

I am a little disappointed this morning, I had a Barred Rock hen go broody last weekend. yesterday, I found her gone from the nest she was one. She's moved to another nest! So, I have about 20 eggs that are no good now since she sat them for a week. The new nest she has chosen to sit on probably has a dozen eggs in it from the days worth of hens laying. Might even be a duck egg or 2 in it.

Speaking of ducks, the old house trailer we pulled into the back field is finally burnt. We pulled it back there 5 years ago because it was in the way for where we wanted to build the new barn. While it was burning, a critter crawled out from under it. The critter was quite singed from the huge fire so we put it down. I'm not really sure exactly what it was, it could have been a fox. That would explain what happened to 5 of my ducks thru the winter and where the missing chickens and eggs went. What ever the poor creature was, it's gone now so maybe I can manage to raise a few chicks and ducklings.

I've also got an experiment going. Last year, i read a blog/website where the lady insisted you can store cheese long term by simply waxing it. I actually got into an argument over it because I know that it does not work. So, I set out to find a way to store cheese long term so folks don't have to keep a chemical replacement for cheese (velveeta) or some sort of powdered excuse for cheese. 8 more days and it will be 30 days of a chunk of cheese sitting at room temperature. It's a piece of my homestead cheese, no chemicals or preservatives in it. I'll update on it on the 20th of this month....................

Brrrrr!

So far this week down here in southern Illinois, we've seen some brisk mornings. The over night temperatures are still in the low to mid 40's with this morning being a cozy 41! A dandy storm blew thru here around 6pm yesterday with some freaky lightning crashing all around the farm and 3/4" of cold rain.

Remember back in the winter months when I was all excited about container growing? Well, I've set 2 tubs up to show how easy it is for even the suburban folks to have some food growing even when they can't have an in ground garden. These tubs are cattle mineral buckets. I would estimate them as being around a 20 gallon tub. I have filled them with a combination of our lousy clay dirt and some 4 or 5 yr old composted manures from the pile. I also added a 3 gallon bucket of creek sand and about the same in bunny berries. Mixed it all up, a little at a time in the wheel barrow and filled the tubs. The empty tub is going to get beefsteak tomatoes planted in it when the overnight temperatures get warmer. The other has the strawberries i received from my neighbor. They still look a little root shocked in the picture but this morning, they are perked up nice and one plant is flowering.

As the weather becomes increasingly warmer, i will be whipping up a couple quick cattle panel arbors and planter boxes for the 2 types of cherry tomatoes to climb on. The arbors will make it easy for me to pick the tomatoes and allow the plants to maximize the sunlight. Plus, it looks cool, LOL.

My kitchen is about over run with seedlings with more sprouting every day. I'm so excited about this years gardens.........

New Grow Shelves

Today was one of those weird kind of days where nothing quite feels right and you've got a few things to do but they all inter mingle with each other so nothing gets done right all at once. I was going to cook up some new things but the kitchen was dirty from me not being home yesterday evening so I started on that first. Then, the kittens kept messing around the window sills where the seedlings were so I decided to fix that. Of course, the scrap wood was over in the storage house so I took off to get that and found a big mess from the hubby and son. so, I had to clean that up first. Okay, now to the seedling/kitten problem. I got my scraps cut into what I wanted and the battery on the cordless drill is not taking a charge. The hunt for a screw driver is on. Tools never stay where they are supposed to here, I have a hubby and a son that NEVER put anything back. I finally found one and got the shelves put together. I loaded up my first planter and set it with Danvers half long carrots. I stretched my plastic wrap and put it on the shelf. Wasn't 5 minutes and a kitten decided to lay on it! So, I had to hunt down the extra wire I saved from the chicken project to keep those darn kittens out of my planters.

I finally got it set up enough to hopefully keep them off my plants and even set a few seed bags that haven't sprouted yet in there too.

Not sure I have enough scrap to get another one made right now and my daughter came home with tickets to a play at the college. Cabaret is on for this evening!

Thoughts on Self Sustained Living

The weather is going back and forth here, making my poor back ache. I'm not feeling real spunky today so I've been just hibernating and thinking.

LOL, can you see the smoke coming from my ears? It is and the thoughts and ideas are rolling... I am the complete opposite of normal folks that are consumer based. Folks that buy everything they need, all the basic necessities of life-food, water, light, heat, etc. I have built my life around the idea that I can produce all those things for myself. That whole concept is made easier by living on a farm. But, living other places can be just as good as living on a farm too. Granted, you can't raise a steer in your backyard, but you can still keep rabbits and a few chickens. You can still grow a good portion of what you eat. That qualifies you as a homesteader no matter where you live. Homesteading used to be a term that was reserved for our more adventurous ancestors. Those people that braved the wilds of the west and created a life way outside the confines of the cities in the east. Some made it and some didn't. Now, we have the luxury of hindsight and modern appliances to help us homestead. The very definition of homesteading now is one that works to produce at least some of their needs, especially food. So, planting a garden, even if it's all in containers makes us homesteaders. Absolutely everyone can become a little more self sustained by just taking the time to grow a little food. Neat, huh?

The government says that 37.2 million people are receiving food stamps. Did you know that the food stamp program covers the purchase of garden seeds? Anyone receiving food stamps can buy seeds with them. It's a program to combat hunger so that makes sense. So, why don't more people grow their own food?

I'm a big fan of tomatoes. I use a ton of tomatoes when I cook. Tomatoes are full of nutrients and anti oxidants and there's hundreds of delicious recipes you can whip up with them. From tasty Italian style dishes to beef stew. Just one 5 gallon bucket with 3 tomato plants in it can provide a good amount of tomatoes to feed you. That same 5 gallon bucket can easily hold pepper plants, cucumber plants and a wide variety of other tasty veges. I've even grown cantaloupes, watermelon and pumpkins out of 5 gallon buckets.

Think outside the box and don't let a city setting hold you back from being a homesteader. Work with the space you have and grow a little food for yourself. Save a little money and eat healthier, you'll be glad you did!

Daily critter patrol

Look what I found this morning during morning chores. A new set of kittens, i think they are Shadows kittens. Like I need any more to add to the list of kittens I need to give away. Cats are an important part of farm life. Whithout them i would be over run with mice from all the grains i grow and store here. But, one must draw the line somewhere! I have at least 10 kittens that need new homes if anyone wants a kitten.....

One of my new does kindled this morning. She did not pull a single mouthful of hair. She's got 15 kits in the box, all are freezing to death. There's nothing I can do about it either. Maybe her sister will do better, she should kindle any moment.

The black and white cat is Mop. She's the only long haired kitten we've ever had here. She was in a litter of 4 and the only long haired one of the bunch. She got stepped on by a horse about a month ago and her tail was mashed. if you notice in the picture, she now has a stub for a tail. The dead tail finally fell off her this morning and she is a different cat in both looks and personality. She's happy to be rid of the dead tail, laying there purring like a chainsaw........

I found one of my young banty hens defending a nest of eggs this morning. I'll keep an eye on her to make sure she's really gone broody and if so, I'll set her up for a little cat and puppy protection for her and the nest. I might get some new banty chicks now!

Well off to shovel some compost for my indoor winter gardens. I need to get it inside and warming up so I can get seedlings started before the really cold weather makes them not want to germinate..........

New Goals for Self Sustained Living

Way back when I first started blogging, I wrote a post supporting container growing and how it can benefit just about everyone. This is one of my favorite pictures, it shows that even an apartment dweller with very limited space can grow some of their own food. Even if it's just a couple meals a week, that is better than not at all! You can put plants in just about any empty container allowing enough room for the root system of the plant. Things like tomatoes need more room than a bunch of carrots, even garlic and onions can be container grown.

I have personally grown dwarf bananas, tobacco, coffee, cantalopes, tomatoes, carrots, shallots, garlic, radish, cauliflower, lettuce, sweet peppers, cucumber and tons of herbs thru the winter in my kitchen windows.

I have and still use things such as ice cream buckets to grow plants in. anything that will hold dirt and water is fair game here! I prefer 3 and 5 gallon buckets as they are easier to handle, stack well for storage and are just plain easy to get around here. For bigger containers, I like the cattle tubs(big buckets mineral mix for cows come in) as the cattle pastures are full of them. It seems farmers can pack those heavy things out to the field but have a hard time picking up the empties! So, I always ask to get them and no one has ever said no to me. A couple of holes punched along the bottom edge for drainage, we don't want rotted roots, and some compost mix and the plants. Works out pretty good! After a few weeks of good growth, it's time for a little fertilizer. You'll want to keep on top of that, especially if you have heavy feeders such as tomato plants. The more you feed a tomato, the better your harvest. If you think your plants are getting too tall, do just like you would in a regular garden and pinch the top suckers off so the plant bushes out more than it grows up.

Keep an eye on the moisture level and you'll do so well, you'll wonder why you haven't been container gardening all along.

There's plants that have been bred specifically for container growing such as the tom thumb series of tomatoes and peppers but even regular garden varieties will grow in containers. it's harder to control plants such as cherry tomatoes since they vine all over the place so stick with the bush variety of whatever plant you choose to grow and the plant will do much better for you without extra labor intensive attention.

Now, go find a bucket and plant something for those windows!

Back to the routine

Well, after some minor troubles and some aggravation, here I am, back online with a laptop I intend to give my college kid very soon. A bit of a bumpy ride but we made it.

Some sad news on the farm this morning, Moo cow gave up on me. This morning at sun-up, she wasn't with me any more. I was really surprised, I thought she was doing so well. guess I was wrong because she passed sometime in the night.

Today is the day I had written down on the calendar to put nesting boxes in with rabbits. With that done, I hope to see some new baby bunnies by the holiday. The weather has turned a bit cooler than it's been, hope that doesn't throw the momma bunnies off track.

Now that we're in a bit of a better situation for the time being, some of those projects around, here are going to get done! I'm relieved, a few sleepless nights thinking on how I was going to get them done. No worries now.....

I'm already getting seed catalogs, my all time favorite one just came in the mail today. My seed savers exchange catalog. I can get into so much trouble looking thru that little book, all the plants I'd like to try out. Makes me itch for spring and it's not Thanksgiving yet, shame on me. I'm trying to keep my mind where it should be but looking at all those seeds makes it so hard.
I'm going to gear a few more things toward container growing this next season just to see what I can get to prosper in a bucket. I'm also thinking on a new home made fertilize mix to try. Now that I have goats I want to try my old mix compared to a mix with the goat in it to see if i can improve plant production. Hehehe my own little science experiment.

Oh, I almost forgot...... I picked up 5 gallons of fresh milk yesterday and made a couple wheels of cheese with it. Not sure I like the milk tho, the colby cheese seems a bit mushier than it should be. It cooked up right but it just doesn't seem right. I won't know for sure until it dries a rind and I cut it but it seems a bit soft. I also made a batch of cheddar but it doesn't come out of the press for a few more hours. I'm anxious to see how it looks. I'm not feeling like the milk qualtiy is as good as I used to hget, different feed and all.

I've got 9 young roos lined up for the cook pot for tomorrows supper. All are from this past springs hatches. They're starting to do a little bit of fighting and they're chasing the hens quite a bit. I'm worried it might be affecting my egg production numbers so they gotta go. I'm thinking chicken and dumplings sounds pretty good!

My favorite part of self sustained living

Yep, you guessed it, I'm talking about growing coffee! I'm a coffee drinker, every day and multiple pots. When I was younger, I did like most people, bought coffee in a tin can or now they come in plastic tubs. I never knew that the coffee inside was such poor quality until I had a cup of fresh ground real coffee. That hooked me. I was forever on the hunt for good quality coffee beans. Then I learned I could grow my own. Oh, Heaven now! Life just became so much better! I planted my beans and tried to wait patiently for them to sprout(it takes a looooong time compared to garden vege seeds) pampered them, primped over them, meticulously fertilized them and then the miracle happened... the plant flowered! Then the beans started to form and I've got home grown coffee! Year after year, pampering them, gently cleaning the leaves, more meticulous fertilizing and more beans. I'm a very happy camper. Of course, learning to roast had it's good and bad batches until I got it mastered and had consistent results to my satisfaction. It's a learning curve like any new skill. I'm glad I went on the adventure.

As I talked about before, I had to start new coffee plants this year due to a couple of bad(very bad) kittens dirty little misdeeds. The plants are doing well and are just about ready to be seperated into their buckets to continue growing into coffee producers. I may even start another round of seed.

What got me on this kick to talk about coffee was because of dp over at the New Kentucky Homestead. dp posted about roasting and brewing whole "green" coffee beans. He's also posted a couple great links to buy coffee beans. The post is awesome, he takes you step by step thru his process along with how he brews in his Aeropress. I use a french press quite a bit, very similar to what he's got. Check it out, you'll like it and maybe it will make you want to buy some beans and try roasting yourself some! You'll be hooked if you do, you'll never go back to coffee in a can.

Coffee growing progress

I know, it's been a while since I talked about my favorite thing-coffee plants. Coffee has got to be the very most trying plant a gardener can start. Not because it's hard to do, but because it takes sooooo long to see results. Here they are, 8 of the 9 I started. The 9th could still yet pop up.

This round is for replacement plants for the old coffee plants my winter round of kittens so graciously killed for me. I stated them in one of those cheapie plastic food containers and just kept the soil moist with a daily spritzing from a water bottle. I kept the container on a shelf offset from the windows so it was not in direct sunlight. I did not cover the container, just kept it moist. It took 68 days for the first bean to sprout up.

As they grow, I will post updates on the progress.....

unemployment musings- economic survival

Like a fool, I clicked on this story and read it this morning. From Ordering Steak and Lobster, to serving it It's a wall street journal story so I knew it would ruffle my feathers a little, but still I clicked on it. Here's a fellow that was making 200k a year on wall street, complaining about having to take a job beneath him to feed his family. 25k a year is still 480 a week. That's double the $224 a week average paycheck around here! This fellow is upset because he used to eat in the same restaurant and spend $200 on a bottle of wine. Now he serves it.

Why is it that living frugal seems like such a bad or dirty thing? I eat steak all the time! Of course, I prepare it for myself instead of paying someone else to do it for me. It comes from the cow I fed out right here on the farm with food I grew, no chemicals or antibiotics and it doesn't hang in a meat locker for 6 months. Even if I took it to a butcher, it would still cost me less than $2 a pound for the whole cow. I live frugal but that doesn't mean my home is messy or run down. The things I use on my farm every day are well kept and maintained. The grass is mowed and my mailbox looks just like theirs.

Consumerism is a mindset just like frugality is. Just because you have money to spend, that doesn't mean you need to spend it on things you simply don't need! I splurge a little, I spend money each pay on a couple packs of chocolate and I buy the good toilet paper. LOL nothing worse than wiping with sand paper! hehehehe some things you just have to have.

Let's face it folks, the Obama Stimulus package isn't helping us little people. At least 3 million jobs (read that figure in a news article a week or so ago) have already been lost and there's nothing being created to replace those jobs. The DOW can go up all it wants, it's not making any jobs either. The more frugal we think, the better we will make it thru this poor economic trend. Even in a small city backyard, enough food can be grown to cut your grocery bill substantially. Why pay $2.50 for a cantalope you can grow? A $1 a can for name brand diced tomatoes or green beans. These vegeatables grow easily even in a 5 gallon bucket! Instead of buying the latest ipod or cell phone, buy a bag of fertilizer and some potting soil and grow yourself some money. It is growing money, everything you produce yourself is money in your pocket you didn't have to spend!



PS- it's raining here, again!!!!!!!

Growing Thyme

This post is another request from a reader. I don't know tons about Thyme but I have had moderate success with it and have learned a bit about it's growing habits. Hope this helps you out HM....

Of all the herbs, I like Thyme the best. I like it because it holds it's flavor well in cooking and it blends great with other things like garlic, tomatoes and my favorite oil, olive. It also goes well with cheese, eggs, meat marinades and bread. Thyme weathers the winter well with a little bit of straw around it for protection. Thyme likes to be almost neglected, the more you tend it and mess with it, the worse it does. Thyme prefers to be drier than everything else and grows well dry. Damp soils make mold and rot the roots. It also likes poor soil to the richer potting soils or nutrient heavy composted garden soil. A full sun lover, it thrives in containers in sunny windows. The only pest I have in southern Illinois is those tiny little red ants. They seem to like the Thyme and nest in and around the plants occasionally killing them off. I suspect some root disturbance or maybe they are eating the plant.

The only other trouble I ever have with Thyme is when the soil is too wet like it is now with all the rain we've had this past week. Sometimes it makes it, sometimes it doesn't. Thankfully, Thyme starts easily from seed, just sprinkle it on some soil and barely cover it. Lightly mist the soil and sprouts in about a week if kept in a warm, sunny spot.

Hope this covers growing Thyme... happy gardening!

Self Sustained Living = Survival

I read something this morning that disturbed me a little. No, it wasn't something about the new Swine Flu(Mexican Flu), it was on the economy and spending trends for the first Q of the year. The title of the article is Economy Shrinks 6.1% in 1Q. The article goes on to state that people have spent money on big-ticket "durable" goods, including cars, furniture and household appliances led the increase. That spending rose at a 9.4 pace, the most in a year. Consumers also boosted spending on clothing, shoes, recreation services, medical care, gasoline and other energy products. But not on food, where spending dipped slightly.

Not on food? This article tells me people continue to be oblivious to the obvious. I guess 12.1% unemployment isn't worrying those that still have jobs for now. Those people aren't worried about eating, they can still pay to eat out every night.

The report still has dire warnings on overall economic performance. When will we (our government) admit that the billions of tax payer dollars they spent did nothing to help us? The gov keeps saying "just wait, it'll be good", how long are we supposed to be deceived by this? Have any of the unemployed found gainful employment yet? I'm not talking about a job that pays substantially less than what you used to make so you can get by...

Living self sustained will help you live healthier and happier. It takes some work but it's worth it. I have the option of having a bit of land. I can bale hay for my large animals but for my family and my small animals, I grow what we need on a spot roughly equal to a standard Chicago suburban back yard. The spot I grow feed in for the large animals is about a 1/2 acre. So there's no reason why anyone can't feed themselves in the city. Whatever you spend on food each week will be money you can save for things such as your house payment.

This is not hard to do. This is actually quite simple. The containers can be purchased for less than the price of a movie ticket. You can even use water caught from the downspout from your gutters. Set it in a sunny spot, keep it watered and eat. Even your backyard chickens will appreciate them, they'll gladly eat them too!

Every day worries

Evey single day I can find some piece of MSM that worries me about the future. I give up, I'm not reading any more news stories. I just won't be up on all the "current events". Let's face it folks, we're in a tight spot. Jobs are not going to magically appear just because the President says "have faith" or "the recession is over" or some other pile of cow offal he thinks we're going to believe. Things are NOT going to improve, the jobless rate continues to increase. Everything we all are currently buying with our hard earned, taxed to death dollars is going to continue to cost us more and more.

So, what do I plan to do to combat these things? What I always do, grow my own food! We just suffered, and I mean suffered(rods in my back told me so) thru a nice little cold spell with a bit of freezing rain. No worries tho, I've got all my warm weather plants going good indoors in the sunny kitchen windows. The cold weather stuff didn't even notice. Onions and garlic are still going strong, still waiting on the lettuce(seed might be bad). If the lettuce doesn't pop up by the end of the week, I'll replant some.

I've still got a good supply of food I grew last year in the pantry so I'm not real upset over when I'll get produce so that leaves me some time to enjoy the plants growing. I am out of onions and potatoes tho.....

It's time to decide which way you want to go. Do you want to continue to try to buy all your food and possibly not have enough because of prices or shortages due to world drought(read your almanac) or will you grow your own? You're running out of time to decide...


Stay safe and keep prepping!

Quiet Days

Look what I got! The Arthur livestock sale on Monday, this pair of Alpine/Nubian babies. Came from the same Amish milking farm, different nannies.

A wicked storm rolled thru here last night and ruined the nice weather. yesterday it was 70 degrees, now it's 34. It should warm up right on time for me to get taters, onions and my garlic sets put out.

In the ziploc bag seed sprouters, I have tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and various herbs all sprouted. This weekend I will start broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and zuccs. I'll probably start another round of coffee since the first ones molded on me from temp changes in the house.

Stay safe and keep prepping!