TROUBLES, BUBBLES, AND CONSTERNATION

Things are looking bad, and at the same time they are looking good. Food and fuel are going nuts. But there ain't no inflation you understand. The estimates are that this is going to continue for at least two years. I don't know how they expect it to be healed in two years but who am I to question the "experts?" I do know that I feel a quaking in the earth like something is about to be shook down. And folks that don't have the survival disease are starting to feel the same way. And that scares me even more.

Folks are having trouble with their mates. Mayberry in particular. This poor fella is about at his wits end. He is yoked with an unbeliever. And the unbeliever comes from a lineage of unbelievers. Ouch. So, people come to the point that they must decide whether or not to prep and survive, or keep the ship afloat in a sea of burning fuel. As for me, I will prep until my last breath. I ain't giving up for any mo-fo! The poop is about to hit the propeller and we had better be ready. We have been lied to and tricked. We have been fed distorted information. We have had important facts hid from our view for reasons of national security. And I say NO MORE!

I will be in that garden today planting beans. Then I will get on the corn. Tomatoes will go in last as they will be sensitive to any cold spells that might come though. And I have a thought to present to you. DON'T PLANT A GARDEN, BUT RATHER PLANT CROPS! What good is a ten foot row of beans gonna do you? You need three hundred pounds, or even more, of beans to make it thought the Winter. What you grow can feed you. What you don't grow can cause you to grow hungry.

I am going to plant beans that are "shell outs". Shell outs are beans that are not in their pods when cooked. These are the beans we normally think of when fixing a bean supper. Kidney beans, Navy beans, Pinto beans, Great Northern beans, Black beans and so on and so forth. You can eat about a pound of these beans a day with not too much of a problem. And that is per person! Got a mate? Another 300 pounds! Got kids? Another 300 pounds each if they are growing, active kids. And what you don't grow you will have to buy at some outrageous price from folks who run corporate stores. And you might be burning $7 a gallon gasoline to make the run to the store to buy said beans. Like Dragon said, "Today is the best day to prepare!" Another thing the Dragon says is to spend your money the day you get it because it won't be worth as much the day after. Dragon's a hard ass but I believe this stuff as if my life depended on it and it very well might.

So keep the figures of what you eat, or can eat, in your mind when you go to buy seed. You ain't growing your Summer salad garden, you might be growing the food that will sustain you until next years crop comes in. This is the bottom line for preppers. You ain't gonna grow anymore until next year so what do you need? I have Googled this and not found out the pounds per acre of common shell out beans. So much to do and so much to learn and so little time. But I will not be intellectually bored! Nothing concentrates a man's mind as much as facing starvation or death. Man! That will get the old brain to functioning right now! If somebody out there can get the data on pounds per acre yield for most beans I would sure use it to inform the rest of the world. What part of the world that gives a damn.

And I am new to this kind of thinking. I have never before under these parameters. And who has? But because I haven't done it before doesn't mean I can't learn and experience it. So I gotta get my butt out there and get busy planting my beans. Then the corn. Some of my friends tell me that I will will have no trouble finding Dolomite limestone for soaking my corn. I hope this is true.

As to having a mate that will not go along with the program, well, there are some hard asses out there who will not give up on survivalism no matter what the marital price. I would be one of them but I am lucky in that my mate is a dedicated prepper. Everyone has their own route to travel and that is a cliche and I know it. But we are coming down to the wire and it is time to get on the bus or off the bus. Every ship has to have a Captain. A family unit is a ship. All decisons are freely argueable and discussable. We ain't talking jail or detention camp here. But the Captain has to give the final orders and the crew has to accept them or jump ship. Simple as that.

I read a comment from a reader who had to give up his wife. She absolutely would not leave the Matrix. And he was dedicated to survivalism and would not change. Too far apart for anything to be worked out. So they split. And he found another wife. And she is a country girl who can shoot a gun and prep like crazy. When he wrote his comment she had just come home with 60 more pounds of beans for their stash. Likes to camp out and all that stuff. Good match there. Equally yoked. They can find some happiness and some sense of accomplishment together. Hard to beat. So hang on to what you have as long as it is reasonable to do so. But as the days go by it will be less hard to find someone to share the enjoyment of eating good food and sleeping in a paid-for bed on paid-for ground. Debt can kill you if you still hold to the concept of paying the bills for a busted dream. And most of you never intended to default on any loans or such as that. But the cards won't win the hand, so fold 'em. And we must get the idea of winning in our minds. What ever it takes to live we must do. No failures allowed! Flip the losers the bird and crank the ship of state around toward another heading. WIN! Your life may depend on it. Like someone wrote this morning or yesterday, it's just us and always has been just us. Survivalism talks and bullshit walks. Bullshit is for putting on the garden in the fall so it can rot and enrich the soil. Or it can go into a compost pile and help break down other things. But the survivalist is the guy with his hands on the controls. He gets to make the decision.

And remember most assuredly, you are not guilty of any crime in the economic collapse of this country. So don't feel guilty. You are merely a victim of your teachers. The government, the media, the corporate world, the religious world, etc. You have been brain-washed and now maybe are seeing the light. Jingle mail is a step in the right direction!

So break out! Grow food like there was no other choice. Get like minded people to be with you. Get armed. Get out of town. Even if you did grow a substantial garden in town you have a good chance of it being stolen or confiscated. The deck is stacked against you around lots of people. They will have the weight of numbers. Do not donate to their cause. Their cause is what got us into this mess to begin with! Charity must be bestowed from a position of security, not from weakness. You can have extra seed to give away and extra food to help someone out, but if they won't get to work and produce then don't worry about them. Charity begins at home.

We may be on the brink of a new creation in this world and it's systems. Like the Dragon says, keep your nose in the wind and your eye on the ridgeline. It's just us! Get that through your head!

I damn near forgot that today is the primary election in Indiana. Looks like it has to be Ron Paul. Hillary and Barack are so damned anti-gun that I can't stand them. I ain't giving up the guns! No way!

Warren Buffet has said that this economic hardship we are about to suffer will last about two years. Well, who says, based on what data? And what is the sign and the consequences of relief? Just busting out with a statement like that goes against everything I have learned. Are we all going to be living the Life of Reilly after the two years? Warren Buffet is going senile.

On the garden scene, again, my seed supply did not have the Pinto beans I thought I had. Severe bummer. So the Handmaiden is in town buying bean seed. Any kind of bean seed that will produce a shell out. To hell with all that canning! Ain't gonna have lids and rings after the system falls anyhow. I will supply myself with enough ammo to make it a while but I'll be damned if I try to recreate the known culture of America via prepping. The Handmaiden also found a store that is selling field corn NON-HYBRID. They sell it in bulk for $9 a pound. I'm getting a half pound and may give some of that away. A half pound is a lot of seed!

So here I sit, half a day gone and nothing in the ground as yet. But the fence is up and the solar charger is a real ass-kicker. You want a strong jolt when trying to repel cattle. We will have to put up a sign that says to keep kids away from the garden. Plaster the damn sign all over the place.

I had a run-in with Kemp this morning over the phone. And I have been having run-ins with him for 15 years! But he is on this trip of checking the soil temperature before I plant and if it ain't up to snuff then don't plant. The soil temp in these parts is 56 degrees and no sign of it falling, only rising. The farmers are planting their corn and beans like regular and that is what the seed guy told me to do. If the guys who make their living doing it are lanting now then I can too. Kemp is raisig hell about this but I have no answer for him other than what the farmers are doing. And they are planting.

Gardening is a trip. Nothing ever goes right but the food gets grown. The Handmaiden came home with HORTICULTURE beans from the feed and seed store. Now there ain't no self respecting hillbilly ever ate a bowl of HORTICULTURE beans. Not to be left in the dark I opened them and they damn sure look like Pinto Beans to me. I'll probably find out that they have no nutritional value or some thing equally scaborous but that is life out on the farm. I got my good corn and I will get my ass down to the garden and get it in. Wish me luck and stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net