The World, Economy and the Farm

I have often been ridiculed by my peers for not being "herd mentality". I have always preferred to stand alone in what I chose to do, right or wrong. I hate being one in a crowd, I hate crowds. I have never been one to "keep up with the Jones",LOL, I never liked them anyway. This attitude has actually kept me out of trouble more times than not. It has proven beyond a doubt that I chose correctly when we were out of work with no income and we were still eating. There is really something to be said for food on the table when all else fails.

It is hard for me to understand why more people can not see what is happening in our country. The MSM spews lies daily and it seems like no one even notices. I offer these tidbits of news as examples of how pitiful it is now- Mass delusion-american style
10 signs the US is becoming a third world country
18 signs America is rotting

If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. We have given up our frugal upbringing to be pampered by fast food and instant gratification and given away any chance we have at survival. We have lost the art of self reliance. We have become a nation full of people that would rather pay to have it done for them instead of just doing it for themselves. We are even incapable of entertaining ourselves without television or video games. We have drown ourselves in revolving credit and ridiculous percentage rates we can never dream of paying for, leaving us to choose between making the monthly house payment or feeding our kids. In order to survive into the future, we must change ourselves. The world as we have known it is gone. It's not coming back any time soon.

I have taken steps to ensure my own sustainability. I have eliminated all the credit cards and took the time to learn to do as much as I can for myself. Every day, I strive to learn something else that I can use to take care of myself and my family. My plan isn't perfect and not even close to being complete but I keep at it. I keep trying to get others around me to think a little more frugally and do what I can to help them do for themselves instead of having others do it.

Sharing ideas and thoughts with others is a good thing. there's lots of talk out there about the end of the world as we know it. Survivalists have their own views, so do preppers, there's even several different religious views on the subject. Even some scientists and NASA have put their 2 cents in lately. Me, I'm just a simple homesteader. I think if the economy collapses, I will be able to feed myself just fine. If civilization comes to end, at least I won't have to worry about paying my property taxes or inflated insurance premiums!

As I mentioned before, we are truly doomed to repeat history since we are unable to learn from it. We can not continue to buy everything from others and produce nothing for ourselves. You can not keep importing goods when you have nothing to export. Spending money you can not replace is simply not sustainable. To me, this concept is as plain as the nose on my face. Why is it so hard for others to see? This article isn't exactly how I look at it but it's decent enough. Where are the jobs?

Tomorrow is Constitution Day in America. In Ohio, government has banned (tried to anyway) the Andover Tea Party group from having a rally in town square to celebrate our Constitution because they claim the group has "political affiliation". Well, duh. Lawsuit has been filed, ruling should come today. I liked this article named Government using anti-terrorism laws to
crush dissent.

I found this little tidbit as well yesterday. Corn syrup producers change name to "corn sugar" as awareness over health concerns grow. The first 2 ingredients in the cheap blackberry jam that Dollar General sells around here is corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. This stuff is poison folks, it is in every single prepackaged food item on the grocery shelf. Here's a quote from a book written in the 1940's by Ed and Carolyn Robinson named "The have More Plan". Thanks to Melissa for sharing this wonderful book on her blog. Chapter 13 is called "the importance of raising part of your familys food". {The health of millions of Americans would be far better if every family raised part of the food it eats.} The chapter goes on to talk about the lack of vitamins and minerals of store bought foods and so on. It is a great book written 70 years ago and it applies very well to the world around us right now.

Too much produce?

I found this tidbit of news yesterday and saved it to read when I got home. Boy, did it ever fire me up! I wanted to run right back to the park and make another blog post! Alas, I had to wait until this afternoon to get to the internet connection and my fired up attitude was dampened by finding my favorite cat run over. Poor Mozart, now I have 3 tiny kittens to look after.

Anyway, here's the story, County Sues Farmer;too many crops. I find this whole thing to be absolutely ridiculous. How is this even possible in America? Every single person around him needs to immediately turn their lawns into gardens and grow fruits and vegetables in protest of this idiotic county and their harassment of this man.

On a side note, here's a piece of good news... The 1099 insurrection.

Hmmmm-small rant

ARG! If I read one more BS news story about how our country is bouncing back from recession, I'm going to just vomit all over the computer! Well, maybe not, the keyboard is already hanging on by a thread but you know what I mean. I see more and more people paying for their goods with the welfare program link card and the people using my local church food pantry have doubled. The same paycheck that used to allow us to pay our bills and save a little bit each week for farm equipment and things we would like to have to improve our self sustaining situation no longer covers even our simple bills. Things such as mortgage(we still owe on our farm), the electric bill which should be lower without a stove and a hot water tank but it instead keeps going up, the property taxes on the farm that used to be worth 4 times what it is now(funny, the tax bill hasn't decreased) and our biggest expense - fuel to get to work. It's very depressing to go week to week and have nothing left. What's even more depressing is thinking about how much we would NOT have to buy food. Thank God I grow so much here. Now, I know everyone around me has all these same bills. So, how is it they can go to McDonalds a couple times a week, buy new vehicles, clothes and all the latest hot cell phones? Is everyone around me living on credit cards?

How can this country come up out of recession and the job market come back when the jobs are continually outsourced to other countries? What happened to our industrial base? It's gone, that's what happened to it. Most of what we consume now is produced and imported from another country. This is not sustainable and this very thing has brought several great empires thru history to their knees.

What do we do about this? On a large scale, there isn't anything we can do about it. On an individual basis we can stop buying imported goods and start doing more for ourselves. Grow food, raise our own meat, use wind, solar or water to power our homes, what ever we can use. Our government is NOT going to fix this, they can't even see the forest for the trees. They are too busy blaming everyone else around them for what is wrong here when they should be blaming themselves. Our government keeps thinking they can cure all our problems by throwing money at them. What happens when there's no more money(worthless paper) to throw? It is obvious that we have not learned from history so we are certainly doomed to repeat it.

I don't like being the working poor but it seems I don't have much choice in the matter anymore. So, I will continue to do the best I can with what I have and expand my garden spot in the spring. Perhaps I can trade some of what I grow to help ease the tightening noose I feel around my neck. At least I'll be eating well!

Whew, I feel a little better now. What do you think about that killer kitten? hardly big enough to fit in the palm of my hand but she sure whipped that wood shrew!

Self Sustaining Food-tomatoes

ARG, my backspace button has decided to not function and I have written this post 4 times now. Every time I misspell a word, I end up having to start over! I read at several forum boards across the internet, mostly at the APN where we are all trying to help each other become more self sufficient. I have noticed a trend that disturbs me. People do not seem that interested in gardening or working on learning how to produce their own food. It seems to be the norm to continue to stock up on store bought items. Now, I don't have anything against that, to me it's all good if a person is stocking up store bought food. Everyone has to eat so it's all a good thing. The problem comes in when you think about how store bought food will sooner or later be consumed. It's not a sustainable source.

I promised to talk a bit about growing tomatoes so let's do that now. Tomatoes are easier to grow than people think. All you need is a 5 gallon bucket, some rich soil, good drainage and at least 8 hours of sunlight a day. Don't forget the fertilizer, tomatoes are heavy feeders and need some help thru the fruiting season. Tomatoes can tolerate a pH level as low as 5.5 but prefer closer to neutral (7). There are plenty of heirloom tomatoes available in either plant form or seed form. The bushy types of plants (determinate) or the vining types(indeterminate). Don't forget about those wonderful cherry tomatoes, they are great for fresh eating and will produce tons of fruits thru the season. Tomatoes do the best when they are supplied with even moisture. Not too wet tho, tomatoes hate wet roots but if they lack water, they simply do not produce or your fruits will have blossom end rot. You will know you lack moisture if your fruits have black spots on the bottoms. Even moisture also prevents the fruits from cracking from a sudden, heavy rain. Indeterminate plants that vine out will need to be supported in some way. You could always just let them sprawl but the plants tend to do better, contract less disease and are easier to harvest from if they are tied to a trellis or a stake. tomato plants can very quickly grow upwards of 5' so be prepared with a tall and well anchored stake or trellis to support them. Pinching off side suckers that grow off the main branch next to leaf stems will help you to keep you tomato plat growing up instead of out. Tomatoes prefer weather between 55F and 90F, above or below can cause poor fruiting.