THINGS TO DO TODAY

It was only 52 or 53 degrees when I woke up this morning. I like it like that. Only going to get into the 70's today. I like that too! The Handmaiden has breakfast started and I am planning on a trip to the garden again. I have another gallon of bug spray for my beans and I ain't gonna be able to use it all up at the dinner table so I better get it to the bean plants. Can't let it go to waste. After I spray the beans I am going to feed my corn with fish emulsion. I want that corn to grow healthy and productive. I grow garden with survival preps in mind. It is more like a crop to me than a salad bar. But I know that the weather that produces the salad bar will fade away and become hostile and cold. I know that I will want to go on eating in this colder climate that is coming. So I grow garden to take care of this. And you never know who will show up for dinner! Could be a mess of folks looking for meal and a place to park their camping trailer. Hope they come fairly well stocked! But we will do the best we can with what we have. I have Swami Abdul ordering me 50 pound bags of rice which I am to buy at the rate of one per month. I will get some idea of who else in the area is prepping by who buys the big bags the same as I. I will use my spy network at the store to tell me who it is. New owner, familiar help. They will tell you everything. And people at the stores are becoming friendlier. The customer is once again afforded a little respect. Piss off the customer and you might lose enough business to warrant a lay-off at the store.

I still think the reports of economic activity are bullshit in this nation. People being laid off all the time. New businesses are coming in but they don't hire many people. Just supply companies and whatnot. No real kick to the local economy. Just another guy or two to join the local Chamber of Commerce. Nothing special at all. My estimation is that the media is holding this country together. I don't run a TV but I can get on corporate media via the internet and I see the same old silly ads I always did. Shop! Spend! Buy! Consume! Go back for more! Seems like the steel hearted monster is running it's business on a loop that just keeps playing over and over and over. But I think the real reason for all the propaganda is the banks. If people knew what the hell was going on with banking and the currency they would go grab their money and run way as fast as they could. Not that they would have much if they DID grab all their money, but it would be a comfort for a while. And they could still buy TANGIBLES with it for a while. Don't ever forget those TANGIBLES. They are things you can hold in your hand. Like guns and ammo. Food with a long shelf life. Seed. Medical supplies. Tools of all descriptions, most generally non-electric. Wood burning stoves. Tarps and tents and blankets and clothing and good footgear and on and on. You never get done prepping for survival. You only call a halt to the game when the SHTF, and then only for a while. Survival doesn't end with the arrival of hard times. That's when the real stuff gets going. But then you will have cooperation from more sources than you could ever believe! All the negative folks who fell for the propaganda of the media will suddenly become strong supporters. Funny how that works. Suddenly there are hands to weed the garden. There are folks who will contribute to your compost pile. There are folks who will take a turn at watching things at night and during the day. The threat of hunger and deprivation will cause folks to get on the bandwagon. Let them find out that they are eating while the rest of the country starves and they will remember that lesson. The Handmaiden and I have been working in our garden for folks who haven't gotten the message as yet. Most people are still planting three or four tomato plantss and calling it a garden. "But friend! What are you going to can or store for the Winter?" Well, they don't have much of an answer at that point except to profess a belief that they will be able to buy what they need or that Jesus will protect them and help them. Jesus is going to be awfully busy in the times ahead.

The non-preppers always say they have a couple months of food supply. And I silently say "Bullshit!" These people have no idea how much food it will take to make it through a stressful period of time. They have no idea how many calories it will take to maintain a man or a woman under duress. NOT A CLUE! They are walking through life with no idea of what it takes to sustain it. And while you might scoff at these poor wretches and make remarks about not helping them when times get tough, you will anyway. You can't help it. But I have a plan! When the day comes that the SHTF I will put on a Feast Of The People. I will lay out the food by the cauldron full! Everybody eat their fill! Come one, come all! But there will be a small matter of me getting to preach my little survival sermon before the meal. Yes, I know this is done in every mission house in existance but it has merit and I will use it. I will use my precious preaching time to focus on the basic elements of Food, Fuel, and Security. I will talk about getting wood cut for cooking and heat. I will talk about shutting off the water to building without heat so that busted pipes don't cause ruin to our dwellings. I will talk about a group effort in getting the meals out to everyone and especially the kids. I will talk about guard duty and the possibility of Freebooters. I will talk to them about how to handle people who come fucking around. If they want to join up then they get fed and put to work like the rest of us. If they don't work then neither shall they eat. And then they get their asses down the road to the society that begat them. A job for every man and every man for a job. It's called cooperation. You must have a program for survival and it must be followed as long as it is viable. It's also called, "We gotta make it!"

There will be mumbling and grumbling at first. Believe me. I've been there. But after people see the benefit of the Harmoney of Survival they will go along with the program quite willingly, cause it feeds them and their kids and whoever. I feel the guard duty can be cut back about 50% after the first month or so. Keep you eyes and ears open to what is going on and pay close attention. But the scumbags will have to make a move pretty quick or else starve, so that will be the guideline. You never let up on security but you don't have to have all-balls-to-the-wall guard duty after a while. At least I don't think you will. This just has to be watched and evaluated. You do your best with what you have to work with.

The garden will be the main thrust of your labor in the growing season. That will be the source of your food for the 9 months after the garden is finished. And non-hybrid seed will be known for it's benefits after this. You like a certain food? Then you better get ready to save some seed from it. A foraging group will be nice during the growing months. I personally eat a ton of free greens all Summer. The Handmaiden sees to their accumulation. I value that quite a bit. All those good nutrients running around in your blood stream will help your immune system a lot and that will keep you healthy. Have people learn their wild plants! Free food and good food. Seems strange to have to say that. I thought everyone knew! But they don't know and they won't learn until life hits them square in the mouth with the truth.

Be everything as it may, I am off to the garden and my spraying. The bug juice for the beans and the fish emulsion for the corn. Got it all covered as far as I know. Wish me good fortune and I do the same to you.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net