alrighty then

i don’t even know where to start. i have a feeling that most of the people who read here realize that the world situation stinks right now. there really isn’t any denying the uneasy feeling most of us have in the pits of our stomachs waiting for that other shoe to drop. and yet, we still hop in our cars and go to the grocery store, secure in the knowledge that it is our right as americans to have food on our shelves. uh huh. what most folks don’t know is that there is currently a wheat shortage and a rice shortage worldwide due to blight, drought and hurricanes. most of the poorer countries raise crops for export to western countries- whatever is left- they get to eat. so, what does that mean? it means that millions of people are starving because almost everyone exports food in order to import it these days. yeah, doesn’t make sense to me either. and, it means, at the very least here in america, we are going to see food prices rise right along with gas and utilities and everything else. the era of cheap food is over.

and, it isn’t simply because of an actual shortage of food. rising fuel prices make the entire operation of food an expensive business. immediately, we think trucks and their big diesel engines- but i have learned that there is so very much more to the food industry. and, make no mistake- it is an industry. they don’t call it agribusiness for nothin’. fertilizers and pesticides and livestock feed, oh my! the cost is rising to produce all of those things due to the higher price of oil- but what most folks don’t realize is- it costs a lot of money to mine things too- and much of what we depend on in our daily lives- comes from underground. got an ‘fyi’ from a fellow blogger whose buddy works in the chemical industry (yep- our whole country is one big industry) and gave her the head’s up that potash, which apparently is one of 3 ingredients farmers use in their fields, is in tight supply and high demand. but wait! there’s more- caustic soda prices are on a high too- you guessed it- supply and demand again. what the hell is caustic soda?

“Hoard food, peeps. This is going to get really ugly in a few months. Literally everything you put in your mouths is processed by factories that clean and sanitize with either KOH or Caustic. There isn’t a pipe, conveyor, floor, holding tank, process line, etc that puts, meat, veggies, fruit, dairy or processed/packaged food into the food chain that will not be affected by this.”

so, everything we eat or drink comes via being sanitized and cleaned with a product that is in tight supply and high demand. and we hop into our cars and head to the supermart.

i guess you can probably tell that i am not a fan of grocery shopping. in fact, i would rather stab both eyes out with a spoon than go most days. everything about it sucks. so, in light that i am a rather crabby pessimist, i have decided to grow my own. my goal is to be as self sufficient as i can be so that i don’t have to give the corporates any more money and i only have to visit the store for toilet paper (i won’t go without that until the bitter end) and toothpaste. to that end, i have been researching and experimenting for a couple of years. hubby and recently purchased a home that has storage space and yard space in order to grow fruits, veggies and flowers. i haven’t had much time to devote to breaking ground this summer- mostly tomatoes- but i intend to intensively research a variety of topics- and i urge folks to really think about self sufficiency.

my thought is- prepare for the worst and hope for the best- and i don’t trust anyone. it sounds terrible, i know, but human nature being what it is- folks ultimately look out for themselves. i have tried to think of worst case scenarios and am planning my spread accordingly- and since it is really not on par with the size of the ponderosa- it is requiring some thought. i will give you a bullet list of topics i am currently researching- and please feel free to email me with questions as to links- or hey, google away- it’s what i did in the first place

composting

no till gardening

seed saving

root cellaring without a cellar

square foot gardening

preserving without canning, freezing methods

canning, freezing

companion gardening

natural pest control

4 season harvesting

water catchment

i am also thinking about personal security. not to scare anyone, but crime tends to go up when times get tough. folks who are ill prepared or ill equipped will take what you have- make no mistake. camouflage and defense are considerations we must take into account. here in america, we have pretty much always lived in relative safety. but if the current fools in office continue playing with fire and war- it is a real possibility that we could see war here in my lifetime- and yours. it is something to think about. right now, people in iraq and afghanistan are starving. people in pakistan are walking a thin line- and we know that there have been famines in africa for years. the world is seeing food riots- and it will only be so long before we fatties aren’t looked at as fair game.

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a little light reading for the weekend

i am up to my eyeballs in boxes and packing and moving stuff- but i still have internet and my morning cuppa i like to read through my google reader when i get the chance- i have been mostly skipping newsy blogs because i don’t have time to read the same crap different day. one blog i always read is survival acres blog. many folks don’t really fully know how bad things are in the world- and wouldn’t want to believe it even if they did. the admin over there seems to have the finger on the pulse of the scientific community and other industries- and his writings often confirm my own independent research. now, it isn’t a nice fuzzy place to visit- it is stark truth with no candy coating. i believe that people have doomed ourselves- knowingly or not. an accident still has consequences- although the event itself was not planned.

my own view of the world mirrors much of what admin speaks about and he recently posted a post that said- prepare for the future but for heaven’s sake- live your life too! i intend to store food and grow my own- but i want to enjoy what i can as well. we all still only have one life to live and this is our only shot. we inherited a raw deal- but we can still make the most of what we have and live to the fullest. so- please take a moment to read this latest post- it’s a bit long but it explains his position- which is very close to my own with much more detail. survival acres blog

“Right now, the United States is very actively aligning itself for more resource wars, which is a direct response to the things I’ve just said. The rhetoric leveled against various countries is a barely disguised attempt to demonize these resource rich regions, ultimately for the benefit of American corporations and rich and wealthy “foreigners”. America will launch more wars, as will other nations like China and Russia as the world plunges into deeper and deeper resource shortages. They will do this because they believe they have no other choice for their survival. This will create a world of global conflict, which is what we already have today.

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Why I will grow a garden and why you should too

Garden? We’re much to busy, all of us, protesting and ranting and agonizing over the destruction of this democracy. But hear me out. If corporate control of government is one of the problems, one of the solutions is to opt out of participating in that slow motion disaster, and rebel, if only a little bit, by stepping back from the real horror of factory food.

Few of us still live on enough land to accomplish wholesale self support by feeding ourselves. But even city dwellers can, in the planting of a windowsill garden or the renting of a small community garden space, manage to produce something for sustenance. City dwellers can, too, seek out local provisions of food. You might be surprised how many small market gardeners and mini farmers are producing groceries right close to where you live. If you think the farmer’s market is for restaurateurs and gourmands, you’re missing out on a growing and active movement of people who are eating locally grown foods for health, for national security, as an act of patriotism and rebellion.

Disgusting does not begin to describe the shameful state of American grocery store food, most of which comes to us by way of processing plants or production farms in China, Thailand and Chile. Although we’ve never, in this land, had a strong food tradition like France or Italy, like Mexico or Jamaica or just about any other country on earth, we at least tended to cook and eat at home up until the last 20-30 years. Consider that the issue here is far more than quality and taste, though those are factors for many of us.

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