SURVIVING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

I read peoples thoughts on living in the country and I wonder what they know and why they think what they do. Living in the country can be a lonely life. You have to go to town to party and whoop it up. Not much going on in the woods or the cattle fields. That's why a mate is so important. It is very beneficial to have someone around who is supportive of your endeavor. It is a great thing to have someone around who shares a survivalist triumph that most folks won't understand.

But it gets real quiet out there most nights. No much traffic. No neon lights or lines of traffic. No rock and roll blasting out across the terrain. Not many people to talk to in any sort of regular fashion. Folks go to bed early in the country. Most of them work hard and they are tired and need their rest.

Jobs are scarce in the country. If you can't make it farming then you have to look for employment or start a business, though farming is a business, for sure. Folks living in the country don't always have a lot of disposable income. They take care of the taxes and the land payment and take care of the car or truck and that about cleans them out except for food and utilities. Those that have cattle and chickens and hogs can eat pretty good and others have to buy their food from the store. Oops. We just ran across a very interesting note here in our treatise on country living. If you can grow food you can eat cheaper than folks who must buy at the store. Well I'll be damned. There is a financial reward for having your own land and growing what you eat.

But farmers are the most hard headed people on the planet. They do what Daddy did and they do it every year, just like clockwork. They will change only under duress. And the reason they are like this is because Daddy had a formula that would allow themn to keep the farm and live out from under the lash of a boss in a factory. They kept a certain measure of individual freedom living like their parents did. You have to pay those rotten taxes but you have a property line that you can tell others to stay off of. It's your dirt and you can control it, if you pay the taxes. If you don't pay the taxes then the Sheriff holds a sale of your land on the Courthouse steps and someone else gets the chance to run the farm. If you had a bad crop year or the market falls on it's ass and what you DID grow ain't worth a damn as far as money is concerned, well, you better have a nest egg to tide you over for another year. Country living is a serious business for all concerned.

A diversified crop base will do wonders for making your farm pay for itself. You get into niche markets and supply them regularly. With all the poison food going around the world these days it is not surprising to see the blssoming of hundreds of Farmers Markets in towns and cities. People just want to eat clean food and they are willing to pay a little bit more for that option in their life. Can't say as I blame them for that attitude. I like home grown organic food myself. Keeps my immune system at it's peak.

You can get into lots of different crops to make a little extra money. You can put in Blueberrys and sell them. People like them. They aren't hard to grow, though they aren't foolproof. Strawberries are amazing money makers but they are labor intensive. A couple of acres of Strawberries is damn near a full time job. Tomatoes sell well to the general public. Everybody like a good ripe tomato. Especially after about three seasons of eating the cardboard tasting ones you get in the stores in the off seasons. And you can grow thousands of pounds of tomatoes on an acre of land. Cattle won't bother your tomatoes. The plant is of the Nightshade family and even a dumb old cow knows not to eat Nightshade. Smae with Potatoes. Nightshade.

There are many crops you can grow for money and keep you out of the Corn and Soybeans cycle that most American farmers are locked into. But that Farmers Market is your best shot at beating Big Ag. You might think about growing herbs for medicine or seasoning. Keep the plants close to home so the critters can be kept away by your dog.

These are some of the thoughts you might entertain when looking to move out of the city and into the country. It is not an easy life and there are drawbacks if you can't suffer the quiet and isolation. But the rewards as to survival can be astounding. Just be prepared to defend your livelihood when times get tough. Starving city people and Freebooters will be just as hungry as you. Maybe more so.

Get ready and stay alive!

Michael
mboone@rtccom.net