THE SITUATION

I am feeeling pretty good about today. Thanks to the Handmaidens efforts, we have 12more rows in the garden pretty well couquered of weeds. That makes 18 that are up to snuff. Let's see, out of 51 rows of corn and beans that leaves just 33 to go. Damn good if you ask me. I headed in to this weekend with NO hoeing done. Tomorrow morning should see my ass down there slaving away and adding to the total of weed free rows. If it don't rain. We have had such a huge amount of rain. I think I mentioned that we are only 75% of the way through our planting this year in Indiana and the farmers are in the fields. And this is with the best in technology. Farmers don't work in the fields like they used to do. They go in with Round-UP Ready seed and drill it in to the dirt and let it go!. Fertilizer goes in right with the seed. The seed is fed by the fertilizer. Then the Farmer goes over the field with Round Up herbicide and that's it. Or else he goes over the field with the Round Up before he plants it. Don't quite remember and don't know that I want to remember. The soil is essentially used to hold up the plant. The fertilizer is the food the plant feeds upon. I don't like this way of farming. Pisses me off. When I was a kid the farmers went in and plowed and then disced their field. Then they planted, putting a little fertilizer in with the seed to help it along. After the crop got up and going, the farmers would go out in the field with their cultivators and go through and uproot the weeds. That pretty much took care of things until harvest time. After harvest the farmer was back in the field with his planter again. He planted Winter Wheat for his second crop. This Wheat was not harvested but was plowed under as "green manure" in the Spring. But it held the soil together during the months of inactivety between Summer harvest and Spring planting. And plowing it under made good nutrients available to the next crop of plants. It would be cost prohibitive to farm in such a way in today's world. All that machine work with a machine burning fossil fuels. All that fossil fuel based fertilizer. But that was how it was done 50 years ago. Up where I was from the land was very flat and rich. A lot of farmers were just hired hands who lived in the farmhouse and raised their families. They did all kinds of things to make it. Drove school buses and what not. A little bit better dirt and a lot better people.

A week ago there was a big article in the corporate media about a farmer who was going back to using mules to farm. His sons helped him farm and they could do the work with the mules. Pretty nice set-up. No fuel. I think they raise cattle and thus need only get in their hay and some little corn. The rest comes from the cattle grazing and feeding themselves. And I like this. And I thihk we will be getting back to this kind of life on our farms. And farms will be geting small again because the price of fuel will make them too expensive for one man. And the farmer will get HIS food from the farm. Multitasking as done in the mid 1800's. You like good country ham, you raise a few hogs. You like chicken for Sunday dinner and eggs in the morning for breakfast, then you have a chicken coop and you keep it going. You might rustle up some sheep so your wife can make some good warm Winter clothing. You won't be out in the fields much in the Winter but you will still have chores to do. What people we have will move out of the cities and back to a rural existance. They will come together like in the old days, small villages with Elders around for advising. It will be a new experience for a lot of people in this country to see respect shown to the Elders. Not much of that goes on anymore.

This country bought into the Youth Cult thing about 50 years ago and has never looked back. They might start looking back pretty soon because the future ain't so bright and wholesome as they had it planned. I was talking to a young man, half my age, this evening. We both thought about a time that is coming when the economoy will be more like the 1850's than the 2008 we have now. We needd to do a few things like get some horses trained and such as that, but we were both assured that we could make it. We have large flowing springs. Can you imagine the blessing of free, pure water? How many in the system can speak of that? How many would have water they could even drink if the lights went out. How many could bathe? How many could wash their dishes and their clothes? How many could flush a toilet? I can get gravity feed for water to my home. I can get water to my toilet. I can get water to the tap. A wonderful thing. We have fields for crops and animal herds. We can have cattle and goats and sheep. Meat and milk at the ready! How many in Nu Yawk Sity can make statements like this? How many would even be able to deal with it if they had it? Not many.

But if we can get the horse thing going and be able to haul our products and do our tilling of the soil, we can live a decent life. It will be quite a change for some of us. A lot of people have never lived without technology and have never studied about how it is done. But it sure as hell has been done. If it had not been done we would not be here right now. And neither would anybody else. I am gardening my ass off. I am geting a little help, believe it or not. People are getting interested in living. I actually heard a modern young man say he would enjoy the 1850's lifestyle. We have a lot of things to solve but I have no doubt that it can be done. And I know many of you reading this can solve some of those problems too. You just need to consolidate your efforts. Hell, there are enough preppers in Texas to start three or four settlements right now! If they ever get it together they could make it really easy. Many hands make light work. And get a man with a Shepherds heart to head it up. A man who has a pair. A man who realizes the need to work. A man who won't flinch from the defense of his people. No sissies. No girlie men. But a man who cares for the people and their welfare. Hold his hands up and support him. He will be under a lot of pressure. The world will be a different place in a few years. A much different place. Gather in a people who accept this change, who can live with it, who will work with it. This is how you can stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net