PREPS AND GENETICS

A lot of computer problems making the rounds this weekend. Bustednuckles and the Hermit have been in the shit all weekend but have finally prevailed and are running normal again. The Hermit was hit with a virus that would not let him hook up to any site that had a cure for his problem. Now that is a real problem. My thought was to go to a 'portal' and get on a site through it and get your downloadable cures thataway. But whatever idea they had, they are both up and running and I say welcome back.

My man on the East coast has enough freeze dried canned food to feed his family for quite a while. He has been prepping for some time and is starting to make some headway. We made some headway yesterday with 50 cent a pound Old Fashioned Oats, steel cut like I like them. We are under the impression that the Amish bulk store cuts their own oats. I got my order in for 10 pounds of non-hybrid corn seed yesterday. I think 10 pounds of seed will feed a lot of people and a lot of people will need fed. A lot of people will need to work in the garden this year too! I ain't running a welfare program here. I'm kinda Biblical about that and consider the words, "He that won't work neither shall he eat." to be the guiding principle. Of course, we will look after the halt and the lame and the little kids. But you would be surprised at how much the lame can be of help in weighing and tabulating the yield of the garden. If they can sit in the shade and write down the figures in a half way readable manner you get your records. And records are good. Records take the fantasy out of gardening and turn it into something real. The wife also got a big ol' pint jar of of local honey for a good price. An excellent price. And it will inoculate you against all those damn pollens and stuff that can be so irritating for a lot of folks. I just went up and looked at the jar of honey and it is bigger than a pint. But besides all the medical benefits of having local honey, I now have good sweetener for my Oats in the morning.

I learned a curious thing yesterday. The Amishman who we deal with uses both hybrid and non-hybrid seed corn. The only thing I can think of is price. He knows damn well that the non-hybrid will not give him reliable seed for the future but he must use it for money saving. I just hope his corns don't cross pollinate out in the field. That could be a bummer. Another bummer is the garden you want to put in during the Spring of 2010. You will get the seed you want this year but the next year you might up up a certain creek without a paddle. All signs point to a BIG shortage of non-hybrid seed. I was talking to Big John Lipscomb about this earlier last week. He agrees with the forecast. He is doing what he can to increase his suppliers. He is also buying seed from those of us who grow with his seeds. I am certainly not against selling seed to Big John. I would be against selling him the seed and you not keeping some for yourself, though. Big John could become a hub for a lot of commerce in the area of growing food. He is not a rip-off or a cheat. He believes in survival. He could become a dispatcher of all kinds of goods for us to eat and live. Something to keep in mind. What bothers me in making plans like this is the proclamation of Martial Law that will shut down the Internet and maybe the phone lines. We take so much for granted in the way of modern communications and it can be SHUT DOWN. And then what will we do? I think we will experience what used to be called 'root hog or die'. Not a pleasant system to contemplate. We gotta work on that one. Sho 'nuff.

Maybe, just maybe, we won't get into worrying about communications too much because we will doing everything on a local basis. I am a proponent of Bartertown and I believe it to be the way of the future. Bartertown will be your market. It will be your newspaper. It will be where you will meet people you can make deals with and prosper the whole area.

We also have the problem with the gene pool. If you stay in a tightly knit group and don't bring in any new blood you can get into trouble. I have driven through Amish country in southern Pennsylvania. Way back where most folks never go to investigate. And it is a very common occurrence to see an Amish child sitting out it's days in front of a window. It does not have the mental hook-up to do anything. And this is essentially a matter of in-breeding. Hell, there ain't but about a dozen families across the Amish population in the whole state. They all wear glasses and there is a child sitting in a rocker at most farm houses. And whatever time of day you pass by the child will be there. Where the Amish are missing it is their doctrine of not allowing non-Amish to breed with their young. They basically are people who live off the grid and speak German. They do not use modern machinery to make their living. They plow and harvest with the use of horse and mules instead of tractors. They are a vigorous people and are not noted for laziness. The big issue with the survivablilty of the Amish is their very limited gene pool. And the Hutterites up North are gonna get into the same problem. I visited a village of them back about 1990 and everyone in the village had the same last name, Wipf. And that is not a misspelling. Wipf. These people need their gene pool to be rejuvenated. They need fresh blood. They all wear glasses as it is!

But maybe these problems will be solved in the future. Maybe when things get down to the local level again there will be a blossoming of intellect that will rescue these people. Just some more things we have to watch for as we try to stay alive. Carry on!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net