THE GARDEN AND THE WAR

Wow! I have actual, honest-to-God shell-outs from the garden. Horticulture Beans, commonly called Cranberry Beans, are sitting in a large bowl on our kitchen table. I reckon they are a gardening icon for a while! I estimate from the row we shelled that I got at least 3 pound of beans for the row. With 36 rows planted I should get me some production. And that is what I wanted-PRODUCTION. I can put these beans up for eating preps or I can use them for seed next year. Fantastic. Nothing like open pollinated seed to give you a real boost in life.



Another thing I like is that I already have my investment back, as far as buying the first seed is concerned. I have more seed than I originally planted. I can double this years crop with what I have now. This is the numbers game us greedy gardeners get into when we have a crop come in. The numbers are meaningless until the whole crop is in and stored. Then the numbers have some meaning. But this harvest should give the Handmaiden and I about 14 five gallon buckets worth of non-perishable food if we have to have it, counting what we already have. That is Rice and Pinto Beans and Black Beans and now Cranberry Beans Of course there are some Great Northern and some Navy Beans tossed in there too but not much. And I just happen to love beans and rice. Especially with some fat pork cooked in with the beans for that down home flavor.



There is no canning to do with these beans. No jars and lids and cookers and all of that jazz. Just bag 'em up and store 'em. Just the way it was done before Ball Brothers up in Muncie, Indiana, introduced their new canning technology. I haven't totally beat the system yet. I still have to buy plastic bags and I had to buy my big 35 gallon storage cans. We haven't evolved to the point where we can have huge storage pots made of clay in our homes, like the Chinese use. But something will turn up and we will be rolling along right smartly in our quest to beat the system. And I do love to beat the system.



I really like to rip the system off! I like buying their non-hybrid seed and saving it. Then I have control of the means of food production. China Mart cannot hold me up or deny me food if I grow my own. I don't have to worry about their prices and I don't have to worry about availability. I just have to go to the storage and get what I need. And what I get when I go to my storage is clean, ORGANIC food. At least with my Cranberry Beans. No herbicides or pesticides or commercial fertilizer. No frankenfood out of a gene lab to out into my own personal system. Check and see what that costs on the market! I don't know but I would imagine that a lot of people who were buying organic food at their supermarket sorta dropped out of the race when this economy fell on it's ass. But I have always admonished folks to get out of town and grow good clean food and live healthy.



The Riverwalker has got site for Texas Preppers to converge on and get to know each other and to keep each other abreast of the latest news that could affect them all. I haven't got all the details on that as yet but I will be lookin' for 'em. I think there ought to be an Indiana Preppers network also. There are some people in this state who are on the trail of surviving and they just might be damn good people to know. I mean, they are prepping and they live in Indiana so they might very well be worth knowing! I am a believer in group survival and what ever brings people together for good is to be looked on with favor. We will be having a convention here in October and I might just invite the whole prepper world to show up. Just pack the place out with survivalists. It would be a good way to meet each other and compare notes. I'll just see about that. Nothing like sitting down with a group of friends. It's good for the soul. We shall see. Wouldn't it be just too damn bad if is gasoline went to $2 a gallon and people could afford to travel a bit and attend a meeting. We'll see!

THE WAR

The news is big tonight with the slaughter in Ossteria of the Georgians. Dragon has some videos of his feelings about the conflict, and all other conflicts. And the DEATH MARCH goes on down through the ages of man. The killing and the maiming. The waste of hard earned money and depleting fuel. The Bankers and the Munition Makers get rich. It is really a perfect scam. Your tax dollars are taken and war materials are purchased. Then the war material is blown up. Then more material is needed to be bought and so more tax money is used. The wealth of a nation, the blood of a people, is squandered on the fields of war. The young and the hungry get recruited. But everyone pays a price.

45 years ago I would have fought quite willingly. I would have believed the propaganda. I would have believed in our just cause. But no more. I know better. I like my garden better than I like a goddamn war. The food I grow in my garden will keep people fed and nourished. The war machine will only make them dead.

But there will come a day when this shit will stop. It has to stop. Won't happen in my lifetime or yours but it will happen. Just do your best to stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net