A Penny Saved...

Back in the day, people then known as survivalists used to talk about the things that were critical to survival. "God, gold & guns" was the motto. I never considered myself a survivalist, and I still don't. I thought of myself as a "homesteader", someone looking for a rural, self-sufficient lifestyle. We always had goats and chickens, sometimes pigs and other livestock. There are many folks - survivalists, homesteaders, and those who are now called "preppers" - who maintain this lifestyle and love it. We loved it - it's a good life. But it's also hard work, and when there are no children to share the load, it is sometimes grueling work. Neither my husband nor I have the strength or vitality that we did 20 years ago, and last year, we let all the livestock go. But still we keep a pantry. We don't do it out of fear. We do it out of love for our families. We do it so that if things get bad for whatever reason, food, warmth and shelter will be available for those we care about.

For us, and for most people in our families, buying gold is just not an option. But we can create a hedge around us by storing food, essential items that make life easier or more pleasant and some forms of precious metals (PMs). We like silver - junk coins and 1 oz rounds - because it is more affordable. Today, we saw a great video on something even more plausible for the average family - copper pennies and regular nickels.

Though it is illegal to melt down U.S. coins at this time, the value of copper in each penny is 3¢. That means every penny made between 1909 and 1982 is worth 3 times it's face value in copper. This makes having pennies with those dates a very inexpensive and "do-able" hedge against hyperinflation or dollar devaluation. Who among us doesn't have a penny jar?

The Self-Sufficient Gardener blog

Don't we gardeners just love to dream about spring? I know I do, especially when there's snow on the ground! We didn't get as much snow as part of Virginia even 15 miles north of us, but we got enough to remind us that it is, really winter!

I found this great website this morning, full of good articles and helpful links. I especially liked the "Planting Calendar/Calculator. This neat little tool gives you all the dates to start indoor and outdoor planting according to your last frost date. Very handy! I am forever forgetting what to plant when - maybe this will help!

There is also a nice set of plans on this site for a fluorescent light rack for starting plants. We set outs on a table, which uses a lot of space. Maybe I have (yet another) project to keep my poor husband occupied over the winter!

Are you wondering how much to plant? If you are trying to grow a garden just for fun, it's not too important a question. But if you are trying to offset food costs or become more self-sufficient, how much to plant becomes a very important question. Lauren Ware, over at smallfarm.about.com has a great atricle to get you started, along with links to planning charts, gardening articles and more.

Have fun planning on this wintry day and stay warm!

Thinking About Spring

Spring is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. On days like today, when it is cold and dreary, I love to start planning my garden for the coming spring.

You know, I always tell everyone that they should keep a pantry. But the reality is that you cannot store enough food to feed your family forever. The pantry was the stop-gap measure between the abundance of fall and the starvation time of winter when nothing could grown. The pantry is the bandaid  used until the wound heals, be that wound from winter, job-loss, economic collapse or Lord knows what else. It was never intended to carry you forever.

So if the pantry is not suppossed to take care of you indefinately, it stands to reason that it should be able to care for you until you learn alternative ideas for food growing and processing, herbal medicine, etc. With that being said, this is a very good time to start thinking about planning your garden.

I buy seeds every year, but I also save seeds from plants I have grown the previous year. I seldom grow anything - flowers or vegetables - that  is a hybrid. I make a real efforr to grow only open-pollinated seeds, so that I can save the seeds from theose plants for the next years gardens.  Hybrid seeds are "one time growers " - open pollinated seeds can be saved and grown year after year.

Seeds have become quite expensive over the past couple of years, and they will continue to do so. I buy some from catalogs, but I buy a lot of seeds locally. I am especially fond of buying open pollinated seeds at the end of the season, when the seeds are 1/2 off or less. Seeds are dated for 1 year, but they actually are fine to grow for a long time after that with some basic care. You can just put the extra seed packets in a ziploc and freeze them and they will last several years. I would not spend any money at all on the "survival seed kits" you might see on the internet. You can easily buy all the seeds you need for a nice, simple, basic vegetable garden with some extra flowers for $20 or less, if you pay attention to prices.

Before you start buying seeds, think about how much room you have to plant. Will you plant in the ground  or in raised beds or containers? What kinds of vegetables do you like? Tomaotes, cucumbers, beans, corn, peas are all good staple vegetables and are very easy to grow. Will you be supplementing your food bill or will you want to grow enough to help fill your pantry?

There are a lot of really great older books available that are very helpful in discovering how to set up a garden. One of the most helpful books I've ever read is an very old book, originally published in the 1940's entitled "The Have More Plan". This great old book has really stood the test of time, ushering thousands of beginning gardeners and homesteaders into the basics of self-sufficiency. I have created a link on the right side of this gae where you can click and download a free copy. So download it, print it out if you'd like, and get ready for some fun reading. Have a great day!

National Sanctity of Life Day - Sunday Jan. 16th, 2011

This coming Sunday is National Sanctity of Life Day. How sad is it that we have to actually designate a day to consider the sanctity of life? According to Wikipedia,
"In a January 13, 1984 proclamation, President Ronald Reagan designated January 22, 1984 as the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case that legalized abortions in the United States.[1]

Reagan issued the proclamation annually thereafter, designating Sanctity of Human Life Day to be the third Sunday in January, which represents the closest Sunday to the original January 22 date. His successor, George H. W. Bush, continued the annual proclamation throughout his presidency. Bush's successor, Bill Clinton, discontinued the practice throughout his eight years in office, but Bush's son and Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, resumed the proclamation, and did so every year of his presidency."

The great American statesman, Daniel Webster understood how important it is to us both personally and as a country to guard against haphazardly disregarding basic, decency and human values when in 1852, he warned,

"If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

Mr. Webster was not talking about pro-life choices - indeed, such a concept would have reprehensible for he and his colleagues to even consider. Yet we, as individuals and as a nation consider it daily.

In the United States, roughly 3550 abortions are performed  PER DAY. That is equivalent to 148 children per hour, 2 or 3 children per minute.. Honestly, look at your son, daughter, grandchild or even favorite niece, nephoew or adorable baby in the stroller at the park  ~ can you look that child in the eye and still claim that abortion is a better choice?





This is commmon decency, folks. Let's put an end to the selfishness of abortion and work together to help women find better and more humane alternatives.