MANY TOPICS

Thursday morning temperature is minus 1 degree. A bit nippy. But we are staying warm and that is what counts. I have some good preps in my stash and we will eat pretty much no matter what happens. It is such a good feeling to know that you have some things covered. You don't have to worry and fret and stew over possible problems. Prepping is such a positive thing. It brings confidence and calmness into your life. I was reading Abraham's Blog at http://hotdogjam.wordpress.com/ this morning and he had a real nice article about his wood stove. Lots of good pictures to go along with it. Wood stoves are the main thing if you live out in the country. Our electricity can go out at any time and the repair trucks are most generally quite a ways off from this neck of the woods. But if all you have to do is throw some more wood in the stove and you get to keep warm, you experience a feeling of triumph and gladness. Nothing quite like winning.

Ahhh...Someone, I can't remember who it was, had an excellent post of about the people surviving in Gaza City. After you get down to almost the end of the article you see a notation that the people who have canned goods are way ahead of the game. They are eating and staying alive under some very harsh circumstances. We can learn from these survivors in Gaza City. They say they have little or no firearms among the people. I didn't think much of that. But maybe that is a circumstance specific to their location. I know I would be ready to send members of the IDF on their way to hell at all times. Fucking Nazis! And I know that there are a lot of people out there who are pro-Israel and I can't help that. They learned a lot from their master Adolf Hitler and they are applying those lessons quite efficiently. I am for the Semitic people and Palestinians happen to be Semitic people. Israel happens to be an Anti-Semitic people. And the bastards use anti-Semitism charges to hurl at anyone who would speak against them. Well, I will speak against them so hurl away, vermin. The people of this country are so befuddled and misinformed by their clergy it is absolutely pathetic.

I got my interview for Food Stamps over and done with. Not too bad at all. The ladies on the phone did not act like they were giving away THEIR money and I appreciated that. It was rather business like as a matter of fact. I found out that two people living within the confines of my income can get up to $1900 worth of income a month and still get the Food Stamps. My wife makes about $70 a month for doing some book work for a landscaper so we have about $900 a month to go before our Food Stamp money is imperiled. But that Food Stamp money coupled with my Social Security raise this month is gonna be sweet. My bills are not getting any bigger so we will breathe a bit easier as long as the free money is coming in. And the free money should hold up until the garden is due to be harvested. At least I hope it does. But we will make it on our little bit of income as long as we can and I think we can go a long time if the garden doesn't get eaten by critters or insects.

I have gotten some emails from people who do not blog or comment. People you never hear from. But they are out there and they are reading and learning and prepping. There seems to be a certain amount of marriages out there consisting of a man who wants to prep and a woman who doesn't want to prep, or vice versa. I got asked what I would say to the person who DIDN'T want to prep. I would do two things. I would give a guided tour of the news concerning our financial distress and I would talk about how people buy insurance for everything else so why not get insurance for food and protection? You have to approach these things in a calm and reasonable manner. Have all of your thoughts ready to go with the proof to back them. But don't attack! Reason with your mate. Do it in the spirit of being partners in life and not adversaries who happen to sleep together.

I got an email from Charli Gribble last night that was very interesting and I will share it with you.

Were you aware that there is now milk that comes in a carton that will last 6 mo.? You can get it a wallyworld.........either reg. milk, 2% milk or skim......I do not use much milk other than in cooking, so this is worth it to me. A box of 8 pks of powered milk lasted me over 3 years (still have 1 pk left) but this is drinkable, right from the carton.

Charli

I mentioned it to Mike Kemp and he said that they have had this milk in Jamaica for over ten years. It is Gamma rayed and takes a long time to go bad. Probably a good idea for those in the tropics without refrigeration. Strange science, but that is nothing new to the American scene these days. You should check out the science of foreign relations or the science of economics we have in play at the moment. Ugly.

Stay alive.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net