MORE SHAKING IN THE EARTH

It's Tuesay morning and oil is almost $130 a barrel on the world market. It has raised 9 times in the last 11 trading sessions. We be messed up! Everything in this country is going up in price except the price you have to pay to hoe your garden. Don't hack your leg while you are hoeing or you will shoot all your hard earned profit paying medical bills. Bummer.

I am getting more seed this afternoon. The handmaiden is picking me up a whole pound of the Golden Bantam opened pollinated corn. The cost will be $9. Go check that against the price of one of our online seed dealers who get $3 a packet for a fraction of an ounce. You folks who are like me and have to do it on the cheap will be able to relate to the price difference. Go figure your 1/10 of an dounce for $3 and then figure figure 16 ounces to a pound and you have a tremendous cost for seed. I'll do this $9 a pouund stuff and see how it comes out. The ground is bought and paid for and the water system is free. God gave us the water and his charge is very minimal. I am also getting another pound of Horticulture beans. If you can't relate to Horticulture beans then you might think about Cranberry beans. The Handmaidne has eaten them and says they are delicious.

It is still hard to talk to people about an economic meltdown in this country. It has been so long since anything like that happened that people cannot relate to it. It is outside their life experience. So I intend to grow enough basic food to keep lots of people going. 90% of the people you talk to are sheep, and God called them HIS. What can you do about that? NOTHING! You live with it. And for those with certain predispositions, you make plans for the sheep to graze. Simple as that.

I have 4 packets of organic, non-hybrid sweet corn. I am going to give them to a neighbor and he is going to plant them down at our valley garden spot. And just talking about it got him to thinking about 'coons getting in and eating all the corn. Another garden guard in the making. That makes three I have located! If something is worth having then it is worth pulling security on it. We have all these guns and flashlights of every description. Surely we can come up with the means to protect our gardens! Every survivalist I know has 47 guns and a half million rounds of ammo. Well, maybe that is an exageration, but we do have guns and we ain't at war so we may as well guard our crops. This survival thing can keep a guy busy. Men and women who do this stuff and work full time are deserving of a lot of respect. It is an honor to serve you. You will be the mothers and fathers of a new people that inhabit this country. And we used to joke about people who practiced birth control, we called them PARENTS. It can still happen, you know.

I still have NOT come up with a plan to make a huge compost pile. At four inches of compost to the acre I will need 1613 cubic yards of compost. A sizeable amount. At two inches deep I will need half that amount. Still a big pile of compost! And if I want to enrich it with fish emulsion and calcium and seaweed extract the cost will be a little steeper. But the soil will be good and soil grows crops. Gardeners should concentrate on growing good soil and let the plants grow on their own. Seeds know what to do. It's the soil that makes the diffference. And most folks don't get that but it is true and must be adhered to or problems are going to occur down the line. I am thinking I will get a machete and finagle some moldy round bales of hay and chop them up and make my compost. It's gonna be a big pile!

But that big pile of compost is survival. Sure, you can rape the soil for a year or two but then you start paying the price. And in an emergency situation I would say go ahead and loot and plunder your soil. Just try to not use chemical fertilizers on it if you can escape it. Fish emulsion and seaweed extract will do just as well as chemical shit and it won't screw of your soil's fertility or support the oil indutry.

I had toughts this morning on preppers getting some well deserved rest from their labors. All work and no play makes Jack and Jill kind of dull and lustless. Not a good thing. Jack and Jill neeed a break once in a while. So I have thought it out and my conclusions follow herein.

We rest in the dead of Winter. Ain't much to do. The crops are all in and the firewood for the season is cut and stacked. You have chores in the morning to feed the stock that you have Wintering over and the woman can go gather eggs. You might kill some chickens or rabbits every now and then. But most of the years work is done and time should be enjoyed. You ought to have plenty of reading and studying to do. Hobbies will need looked after. Maybe a bit of reloading for the man of the house and some sewing for the woman. Or vice versa. I could care less. There should be plenty of home brew and maybe some brandy to while away the the afternoons if desired. Canned and dried goodies can be brought out for the pleasure of everyone. Maybe a good week of deer hunting would spark some interest, or whatever game is availale in your area. Do your serious stuff in the Fall when you dry everything and store it. But let your Winter be for rest and recuperation. You have worked hard and the time off from the routine will be a welcome break. A lot of guys I know like to trap in the Winter. And it will get to be more popular as it is discovered that trapping will produce more meat than firearms. Lots of guys like trappiong more than farm work. We are talking about genetic inclinations here. Winter is the time to do it. Better pelts in the Winter.

Some of the talk we have is along the lines of "Small is better." One of the brothers is talking about buying a very small tractor and geting small implements to go along with it. The Yuppies just about bought out the supply of small tractos in the 90's. 30 and 40 horsepower tractors were high dollar machines as the Yuppies took advantage of farm credits on their property taxes. Huge savings. So the Yups bought 20 acre plots of ground and got themselves a crop they could sell and say they were farming. We called it hobby farming but the Yups were making $10,000 a year lowering their tax bill. It's called an exemption and it's so that farmers can live and stay in business. Farmers can't afford to pay land taxes on McMansions for their whole farm. It would be ridiculous. And any agricultural product can get your exemption for you. You want to raise horses? Go right to it. Sell a foal every year and you earn your exemption. Your daughters Bay Mare can save you a fortune if you play your cards right. And it is done every day and is prefectly legal and well thought of. Being survivalists we must do what we can to keep the
expenses down.
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This just in from Breitbart.

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - High gas prices have driven a Warren County farmer and his sons to hitch a tractor rake to a pair of mules to gather hay from their fields. T.R. Raymond bought Dolly and Molly at the Dixon mule sale last year. Son Danny Raymond trained them and also modified the tractor rake so the mules could pull it.
T.R. Raymond says the mules are slower than a petroleum-powered tractor, but there are benefits.

"This fuel's so high, you can't afford it," he said. "We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That's the truth."

And Danny Raymond says he just likes using the mules around the farm.

"We've been using them quite a bit," he said.

Brother Robert Raymond added, "It's the way of the future."
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I will go now and wish you great success in staying alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net