MOTHER NATURE AND HARD TIMES

It's a chilly, gray morning here in the hills of southern Indiana. Fall is two weeks away and it has been Fall for a few days now. No temperature above 80. Nights are in the 50's. I wonder what Fall will be like? Probably cold and wet and susceptible to snow. Still no sunspots. We'll make it, I think. I'll just keep shelling beans and stashing food. I have another promise of a wood stove coming soon. It will be nice to keep the water pipes from freezing. Winter is different than Summer in that you can always put on more clothes. In the Summer you can only take so many clothes off and then you got to get your skinning knife out to get anymore covering removed. We have plenty of warm blankets and a great love of sleeping in the cold. Ain't never had the heat on in our bedroom. Don't like it. Blankets do me and the Handmaiden just fine. And it makes for good fellowship at night. Nothing like a warm female when the temperature drops. She swears that I am the heat source in the family but I have had doubts of that on occasion. The weather outside is drizzling rain and I am wearing a light jacket on the porch. The leaves are turning slowly and are nothing as yet. In a month it will be a riot of color and in a month and half they will be gone. Mother nature has to strip off every Fall and expose herself for what she really is, a stingy whore. Everything she gives you she eventually takes back.

Nature is full of killers. Here in these parts we have Rattlesnakes, Water moccasins, and our old friend the Copperhead. And they can kill you! Then you look at the pests we have to deal with. We have mosquitoes, chiggers, and a few kinds of ticks. Bothersome and sometimes painful, along with disease carrying like the ticks. Also painful, and dangerous if you are too sensitive, is the stinging corp we are endowed with. Bumble bees, Honey bees, Yellow jackets, Wasps and Hornets. We have our fair share of Sweat bees too. But nothing puts a hurt on you quite like a Japanese Hornet. You will bellow when they nail you. They hurt like hell! And this is just what we have locally. You can go to the South and meet up with some really bad hombres. Fire ants come to mind here.

There are animals in Nature that can give you trouble. Wolves, bears, mountain lions, etc. They can kill you and eat you if you mess up in your security.

The weather that Nature presents to us can be damaging and dangerous. Ask the Midwesterners about tornadoes. Ask the people on the southern coasts about hurricanes. Ask people in the mountains about about snow blizzards and possibly avalanches. Ask people in the desert about drought and heat. Ask farmers about the times the weather pattern gets screwy and there is not rain for the crops.

Mother Nature is a stingy whore. She can give abundantly and then she takes every bit of it back. And knowing this you can see why I am perturbed about the coming cold Winter. Life on this planet is a lot more delicate than we are led to believe. We have had 200 years of good farm crops in this country and that can change. And Americans are not used to doing without. They have been going to the super market for generations now and if the food ain't there they don't know what to do. They are helpless. They will wave cash and credit cards and expect their wishes to be fulfilled as usual. And it might not work one of these days and Americans will have to quickly get used to the idea of going hungry.

I have talked and pleaded on many occasions for people to get the hell out of the cities. They are death traps. They will be the places of famines and disease. They will be hungry. Get out of there! Get out in the country and get you some land to grow food and the right seed to replenish it. Don't invest in frankenfood seeds. Get non-hybrid seeds and learn how to save them for your next years crop. I am doing it right now. I am taking the best of my bean crop and saving it for seed. The biggest, healthiest seed I can find while I am shelling out. As soon as my non-hybrid corn comes done I will do the same with it, God willing. We will be adding to our seed supply as time passes. We will be getting seed that can sustain us for years into the future, for we know not how long certain devastation will stay upon us.

Some writers say to get out of town and buy some land and do it no matter what. I guess I will have to join that assembly. I have to find out if this Texas Preppers Network is a working scheme or if it is just a fart in the wind. I hope to God it is working. The individualist is toast in the days ahead. The banks are failing. The mortgage firms are failing. The stock market is failing. Oil is over $100 a barrel. Everyone calls for lower taxes but they keep inching up. It is going to be hard, my friends! Life can become a real bitch. I am fortunate that God brought me to this valley when I was a young man and I could help build it. And I thank him for it all the time. And you have heard from God on this matter and you better do something. Pray and seek guidance all the time. Look at the signs! Don't pay any attention to the media. They lie like a coat of floor wax. You must open your eyes and see what is going on around you. You must come to grips with reality.

Please stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net