p.a.turner outsider art

One of my favorite artists, Ben Toleman, pen and ink

2012-01-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

I love pen and ink drawings. There's just something magic about them, don't you think?
And my favorite pen and ink artist has to be Mr. Ben Toleman. There's a link to his blog over on the right and I encourage you to check out his work. I first became aware of him a couple years ago I think it was, when I saw a video of him drawing.
It is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I showed it to my little grandson over Christmas when I was visiting to encourage and inspire him in his budding artwork.
I'd like to show you what art is when it's magic.
Hope you enjoy these videos.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. Amazing artist isn't he?

"It's Getting Dark" another new graphite drawing!

2012-01-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, I really like this little drawing. She reminds my of one of my little sisters, back when we were just kids.
This is done on a nice hot press water color paper, it's 5x7".

I just listed her on ETSY and you can check her out here.
I have several more pictures I'm working on too and will post about them soon as they're done.

"It Fell with a Sound Like Screaming" New graphite Drawing p.a.turner

2012-01-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

I finally finished this graphite piece last night and wanted to put it up to show you.
It's called "It Fell with a Sound Like Screaming"

Sometimes I'm not sure what to think of these particular drawings. They are so very different from my other pictures. One reason being they come about backwards. LOL
I start with a blank paper covered with graphite powder and "find" the picture that's in there. LOL
Mr. Nelson calls them "undrawings". I think that is a good way to describe them.
When I start one, there's no telling what will come out.
They create themselves as I go along with my gooey eraser looking for them.
Be sure to click on the image so you can see it close up. It's really quite detailed actually.
I'll write more about the process and all maybe later if anyone is interested in hearing about it, I just wanted to show you what one looks like.

A Word about Graphite Crayons!

2012-01-08T00:16:00.000-08:00

I love it!
Recently, we made a trip to town to see Mr. Nelson at the gallery (here's Nelson's blog, go pester him and make him post!) and Becky at Artopia. I bought one of these graphite crayons at Becky's suggestion and took it home and fell in love with it! You draw with it and it is water soluble and so I can use the paint brush to make washes and soften lines and all that good arty stuff.
Here's a picture, you can get them at Dick Blick but if you are in the Johnson City area, do yourself a favor and go see Becky and Christine at Artopia!

Anyway, when we got home I couldn't wait to try it and had some of that textured acrylic painting paper, (also bought at Artopia) and went to work playing with the crayon.
Here's what I drew.

A little graphite doom for ya.
The sky background was just lightly hatched in and when water was added I got a nice gray wash there.
The hair on the front figure and other darker areas were drawn more heavily and when water was added it got nice and dark and almost paintlike. I love it.
Now the crayon is a fattie and will have to be sharpened I think. I don't know if Becky has a sharpener for it but if not I can use a pocket knife to sharpen it.
Oh, and here's one where I used the crayon to outline areas and then went back in with watercolor pencils and added color.

I called this one "Particles Penetrate the Bunkers". Thinking of all those folks out there hoping their bunkers will protect them from the doom.
Both pieces were sprayed with workable fixatif I got from...you guessed it! Artopia! And it really brings out the colors and helps protect your work from smudging and evil art ruining stuff like that. I highly recommend it!
Anyway, hope you all have had a nice weekend so far. I'll be back again with updates about more new work.

New Work in 2012

2012-01-05T03:46:00.000-08:00

Sorry for not posting more on this blog but I've been pretty tied up with the End of Empire News blog for the past year. This year, I hope to be able to post more here about the new work I'm doing and the big show later this year at Nelson's Gallery in Johnson City.
I'll keep you posted on that as time goes by and it takes shape, but for now I wanted to show you the new things I've been doing and putting up in my shop on Etsy.

Here recently, I've been working a lot with pen and colored inks. I love the way they look and the colors are like jewels! They take a bit of time to do actually, not nearly as fast as acrylic paintings but, I like the different look, kind of like a storybook illustration I think.
Here's one I did recently, see what you think. It's not listed for sale anywhere yet but I may put it on Etsy later.

This is called, "They can't get in, and You can't get out"
It pretty much sums up what fear can do to a person.
It's a bit of self exploration really. See the person's shadow on the ground to the right? Notice how small and confining the world becomes when trapped inside your own fears?
I like this little drawing a lot actually.

Howdy!

2011-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in this blog in a while. I've been working for hours everyday on the Breaking News blog,
End of Empire News. It takes a lot of time to put together but I'm really enjoying it.
The news coming out of the middle east is terrifying, especially what's being done to the protesters in Libya and Bahrain. I watched the protests from Egypt on Aljazeera for days.
Sometimes I had to turn it off though as it was just too overwhelming to watch.
The weather here has warmed considerably and I've been working outside the past couple days getting the greenhouse up and running. I planted pepper and tomato seeds today and have heat ready in case it turns off really cold again. Our neighbor is putting in two new plots for the garden and this afternoon we all decided about what to plant in them. Looks like we're going with potatoes and dried beans for the most part. Looking for some protein and calories.
I really would like to encourage anyone reading this to take some time and inventory your food supply.
see what you're low on and stock up soon.
I've also started painting some small pieces for Ebay too. Trying to raise a little money to do some work around here so wish me luck with my auctions.
here's a link to my auctions I have up now.

Where We Seem to Be Headed

2011-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

If you don't read anything else this week, take the time to read these two articles.
MyBudget360: How the financial elite have dismantled the American middle class
and
The Arch Druid Report: The Onset of Catabolic Collapse

I just finished reading these two articles and must say that they pretty well sum up where we are headed as a country.
We are going to be living in a country more and more like Victorian England, with monstrously rich and privileged minority and a monstrously deprived "everybody else". The myth of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps could blessedly be coming to an end for a lot of people, at least now they'll be better able to make rational decisions about their lives than they were before when the believed they too could become part of the elite!
People are going to get angry and pissed off too, but, thanks to the main stream media look for the targets to be anyone from brown people to people that don't go to church, to anyone on social security or government aid like food stamps, or of course gays.
The real villians of this country's demise will as always creep by under the radar unnoticed and unmolested by people's anger. There are a few people out there ringing the bell, like the two articles I linked to but, more and more people like that will be called paranoid and eventually painted to look like that Laughner fellow that shot the congresswoman. Recent news articles about 'paranoiacs' are sowing the seeds for future crack downs on people speaking up about what the elites are up to.

We are headed into a society that is more fearful, (and rightly so) sicker, more poisoned, malnourished and without hope. We're headed into a world that will be running low on food, water, energy, resources. Count on it. We're headed into a world where it will become common to see starving children and dying people on the streets.
I know, I know, I hear you saying, "Well we just need to DO something!"
There is nothing we can do that they will not Un-Do.
For every calorie of energy you conserve, 'they' will use 2.
For every truth you manage to speak, they will mask it with lies.
There's just not going to be any stopping this train wreck until it is finished wrecking.
The best advice I can give you is to see this trend for what it is and make preparations for the coming reality. Learn some basic skills, get the hell out of debt, find a way now to live with less and save all you can. Invest in life sustaining things like food, water and shelter. It's good to have some precious metals, silver especially, but, don't count on it later. What you need is some way to harvest rainwater or a clean source of water and you need food. A way to produce as much as you can. You most likely will not be able to produce all the food you will need but, the more you grow for yourself, the less you will have to buy.
So, if you will begin now to work towards living with less you'll be ahead of the game. Use this time wisely.

oh, and just one more thing, they will NEVER outlaw guns. What would we turn on one another with?
Despite what happened in AZ, the elites have no fear that we will turn on them, they know that they will always be able to get us to go after one another. We are pathetically predictable aren't we?

Announcing my new Breaking News Blog!

2010-12-22T14:11:00.000-08:00

Matt Savinar Recently decided to stop posting his Breaking News page on his site and that left people in the forums a bit at a loss for someplace to go and find current news stories of interest to Peak Oil people.
I have started a blog with news to act as a bit of a stop gap for now. It is my intention to keep it going unless it is of no benefit and folks aren't interested.
Right now, I'm having a ball putting it together and am hopeful that folks will make use of it.
I don't do commentary, just post the items.
Here is a link to the new blog, let me know what you think!

http://endofempirenews.blogspot.com/

I'll put up a link on the side here somewhere too.
Anyway, hope this proves to be helpful. Take care out there in all the snow and ice!

love you girls,
mom

60 Min. Segment on 401Ks

2010-12-19T06:34:00.000-08:00

Wanted to share this video with you. It's a 60 Min. segment on what has happened to people's 401K savings.
Its heartbreaking.

I guess this is another reason why the rich keep getting richer huh?

A new improved way to think about a nuclear attack!

2010-12-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

I've been utterly pissed off about this for 2 days and decided to write something about it before I blow a gasket.
Evidently, now, a nuclear attack is just totally survivable! Hell, you wouldn't even have to stay home with your family, you should go on into work and 'git 'er done!'
Oh, and if you just stay put in your house or car, why, you'll be A-OK!
Jesus God!
You know what? as a nation, I think we've gone off the rails, we're totally ignorant if we listen to this nonsense.
I'm sure, that some people would survive a nuclear attack. I'm sure that eventually, given about 900 years or so, the area where the attack occurs would be alright.
But for God's sake, there is no way in hell that a nuclear attack in this country whether by terrorists or made up terrorists, is ever going to be anything than an utter nightmare.
Here's a link to the article in USA today about the drills they had in LA.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-04-13-nuke-plans_N.htm

One challenge he says, will be to persuade survivors to stay indoors, shielded from dangerous radiation until they're given the all-clear or told to evacuate. "In all likelihood, families will be separated," he says. "It's going to be scary to sit tight, though it's the right thing to do."

Families are separated and it's going to be a CHALLENGE to sit tight? A CHALLENGE?
Try utter impossibility.
I know for a fact, that if something like that happened and I was away from my husband or if my girls still were little and lived at home, if I were away from them, I doubt they'd be able to stop me from trying to get to them and I suspect I speak for thousands and thousands of people when I say that too.
No, I don't think the Gov. knows what the hell it's doing on this one for sure.

There was another article about this in the New York Times yesterday or the day before too.
Same thing.
Obama also said that if it happens, the gov. wouldn't be there to help till probably 72 hrs. after the blast.
What a comfort that is.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm about sick of all the crap here lately.
Sick of the manipulation, and the mind games, sick of being lied to and talked down to like we're all stupid and they have to dumb everything down.
Americans need to wake the hell up, and be quick about it too.

I just did a Google news search for nuclear attack to see if I could find that other article.
just go look. http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=0z&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=nuclear+attack&oq=nuclear
heck, evidently they're talking about it in Sydney Australia too.

People, we are in serious doo doo.
Does this not seem like it just came out of left field to you?
It does to me.
Oh, and don't fall for the old "terrorist did it in the library with a suitcase nuke" ploy either.
There ain't not such thing as a suitcase nuke.
One more time for the hearing impaired.
No such thing as a suitcase nuke.

Google that and see for yourself.
the smallest one is the size of a locker.
they can't be just carried around like a suitcase and left sitting willy nilly on a crowded street or someplace either.
Closest thing to something like that would be a regular homemade explosive with...hell, I don't know what, watch dials that glow in the dark or something, added to it.
Anyway, just wanted to vent my spleen a bit over this nonsense a little bit.
whew! that's better.
be safe girls.
love you,
mom

p.s. here is a link to the Planning Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation
It's a pdf file you can read to give you some info on what to do in case the worst happens.
You can right click and save link as, if you have windows.

Cold Weather Coming!

2010-12-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Waiting on the snow to begin here. The temp is approaching freezing, it has rained off and on all night and at one point I heard sleet hitting the tin roof.
We're supposed to get up to 6" but the worst part will be the cold and the wind.
10- zero wind chills are COLD!
Husband is packed with blankets and pillows in the car in case he gets stranded at work tonight.
I have kerosene and food and all that.
Hopefully the power will stay on and I'll have heat.
I have maybe a gallon of kerosene but it will last a couple days in this 'sad iron' stove that I got last year.

I picked this one up cheap on eBay and if you get a chance to buy one, I highly recommend it.
You can cook on top of it and, still buy wicks and the mica windows for them if the one you get is
missing it.
Here's a good site to do business with for these stove, and lamp wicks and wicks for kerosene cook stove too.
Mike Stairs Wick Shop

You'll want to keep this up away from kids or pets, on a table and I have a porcelain pan underneath it as well.
Good luck to anyone facing this coming storm! Stay safe, and stay warm!
Just wanted to add, the stove in the photo is over all about 11" high and about 6" wide, so it's not really big, They used to heat their irons on these back in the day! LOL

Jobs Report. Bad, Really Bad

2010-12-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

Listening to Bloomberg Radio this morning. The jobs report has come in worse than anyone had predicted. The lady reporter talking said that the numbers, we lower than even the most pessimistic estimates. 39,000 jobs created.
That's pretty damned bad.
government and factory jobs took a hit as well this time.
Here's the report from Forbes.
Unemployment numbers Rise.
Merry Christmas.

Now is the time for Silence

2010-12-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

I think of the time now that has passed. The last couple years spent in preparing for the end, watching the news, waiting. It has been hard on the people that have warned for years now that things were about to change, to fall apart, to go over the cliff.
They have been right about what was coming, but what was coming managed to move slowly enough to remain still yet, unnoticed by many people.
I am constantly amazed at people who still believe that 'business as usual' is just around the corner, that the 'days of wine and roses' are mere moments away.
Many of the people that have now spent years trying to awaken the sleeping, so to speak, many of those early messengers have now decided the time has come to stop warning people. To now let the chips fall where they may. They have done their best and it's now time to be silent and perhaps invisible as well.

The time may soon be coming where it would be dangerous to them and their families to advertise their preparedness to the outside world. Myself, I have about stopped speaking of these things to people other than here or on the forums where I'm a member. Now I keep my preparedness to myself and if you who might be reading this are a person who has taken the time and effort necessary to build up food and water supplies or learned to garden and preserve foods or developed any other number of skills that would be helpful to have in the difficult days ahead, if you are doing these things, it may be time for you to be quiet about it as well.

We are in the middle of the collapse of modern civilization, it is failing in layers, in bits and pieces that fall away in flakes day by day. That is why there are still a large number of people who, although they realize that something is going on, that things are bad in some places, they still believe that all will be well and back to the way things were in just a little while. These are the people that will be a danger to you and your family in the days ahead. These are the people that once they have exhausted their limited supply of food or water or other essential things will think to themselves, "Hey, remember that woman that was talking about storing food? That was talking about all this years ago? Where is her house?"
If you are that person who tried to warn and educate your family and friends, people at work, or church, or school...now is the time for silence.

Bank of America is Destroying My Credit

2010-10-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

sorry about the crappy formatting but Daniel got this pic on the way home and I thought it spoke volumes about what people are feeling and thinking right now about the financial situation.

Update

2010-08-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, summer is almost over. These 90+ degree days have worn me out and slowed down every thing we had planned to do this summer.
It has been so miserable.
At least it's not as bad as the poor people in Russia are suffering through right now.
Record heat not seen there in 1000 years, and monstrous fires have caused people in Moscow to
flee the city and look for someplace where they can breathe.
The mortality rate in Moscow has doubled to over 700 deaths per day.

Like I said, at least it's not that bad here.
The garden did pretty good this year, we are really going to try and put in a big fall garden and grow cabbages and things in the cooler weather. Looking forward to it.
We had the best visit ever with my grandson this summer and it was heartbreaking to send the little guy back home.
I know his ma missed him though and was so glad to have him back.
Supposed to be working towards a show in Sept at the art gallery, but it's been too hot and I've just had so much going on I haven't been able to get my work done.
I'll figure out something though. I have a lot of pieces to take anyway. Not like I won't have anything.
I did a big picture on the front of the gallery too. I'll try and put up a photo of it after while.

I've been using twitter recently and trying to tweet the news that I find that seems important. There a widget on the right where you can see the latest posts.
I made enough money at the art show earlier this summer to buy a domain name and will have a website up and running soon where you can go see the latest pieces!
will be back later to add photo.
until then,
I love you girls,
mom

p.s.
here is a photo of the front of the gallery. The painting is almost all done except the strip of black trim that I put up a few days after this was taken.

What Happened at Seed Saver's Exchange

2010-06-11T02:18:00.001-07:00

Seed Saver’s Exchange, Svalgard, and the USDA
by Kent Whealy, co-founder of Seed Savers Exchange

The following is an excerpt from a July 2009 letter sent by the founder
of Seed Saver’s Exchange to SSE members. In its 2009 Catalog of Heirloom
Seeds, Books and Gifts, SSE called itself "a non-profit membership
organization dedicated to conserving and promoting heirloom vegetables,
fruits, herbs and flowers…These include our members’ family
heirlooms…and [26,000 endangered] traditional varieties from around the
world." This letter demonstrates that its original purpose has been
usurped. Those with a different motive have, by slow infiltration and
financial contributions, taken over one of humanities greatest
collection of treasures— seeds.

Nearly three decades ago, I incorporated the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE)
as a nonprofit corporation, the only legal structure in the U.S.
designed to live on beyond its founder, which I knew would be essential
for maintaining its long-term genetic preservation projects. For 33
years I worked to create and fund SSE and the Heritage Farm and Twin
Valleys Ancient White Park cattle herd. All of my writings and photos,
every book I've ever published, every business opportunity and land deal
that ever came my way, I selflessly gave to Seed Savers. I put
substantial and highly functional facilities into place, along with an
increasingly solid staff, because I knew the transition from my
leadership would be difficult.

SSE's greatest treasure is its seed collection of 26,000 rare vegetable
varieties, being permanently maintained at Heritage Farm, which
represents the legacy and combined efforts of more than 3,500 of SSE's
Listed Members who generously contributed their families' heirloom seeds
to SSE's collection during the last three decades. As stated in SSE's
Articles of Incorporation, SSE's seed collection was developed as a
permanent backup for our members' efforts (so that they could get their
seeds back if ever lost), and over the years it has become the best
collection of heirloom food crops in the world, truly a Peoples Seed
Bank, like all of the collections of traditional seeds being maintained
by villages of indigenous farmers throughout the world.

I remember two decades ago when trust in Seed Savers had grown to the
point that Native Americans began offering their sacred seeds through
SSE's Yearbooks. In 2005 Gary Nabhan, one of our advisors, was able to
give back samples of all of the Hopi varieties to the Hopi in a ceremony
that was the largest repatriation of native seeds in history. I had
anticipated repatriating most of the Native American varieties in SSE's
collection to their respective tribes, about 140 Indian varieties from
40 different sovereign nations.

But Amy Goldman [the new head of the board of directors] doesn't share
my reverence and respect for SSE's seed collection. Her unilateral
actions have now made possible the patenting of 485 varieties that
[under her leadership] SSE deposited at Svalbard's official opening in
February 2008. [Svalbard, a giant arctic "Doomsday Seed Vault" located
in northern Norway, was built by the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations
and Agribusiness giants Syngenta and Monsanto – the largest patent owner
in the world of genetically modified seed. It is operated by gene bank
NorGen (See I.O. 12/07 and 10/08).]

A year later, SSE deposited 936 more varieties, along with statements by
SSE's board that additional batches of seeds will be deposited annually
until samples of SSE's entire collection are stored in Svalbard (all
26,000 varieties). SSE's deposits in Svalbard probably include some of
those Native American seeds and, given the defiance of SSE's board,
legal action will probably be required to get those seeds returned.

Amy Goldman has purchased SSE's highly questionable relationship with
Svalbard by means of SSE's seed collection and a $1 million grant that
the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, her mother’s foundation, just made
to the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is the entity that oversees
and regulates Svalbard. It is headed by Cary Fowler – also on the SSE
board of directors – and is backed by corporate donors Seminis and
DuPont/Pioneer (two of the gene giants he used to fight so hard against).

Amy Goldman

Amy Goldman is on the board of the New York Botanical Garden, a group
that has traditionally ignored the FAO Treaty, (International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the U.N.'s Food and
Agriculture Organization), and adheres instead to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) treaty because it endorses "national
sovereignty" over seeds, recognizes the intellectual property rights of
indigenous farmers and attempts to provide revenue sharing. The FAO
Treaty claims to be "in harmony with the CBD treaty" but doesn't even
recognize "country of origin." The U.S. hasn't signed the FAO Treaty
yet, but has refused to ratify the CBD treaty; and the USDA is already
making extensive deposits in Svalbard, including many Mexican varieties
from the USDA's seed collection. Many developing countries who do not
accept the FAO Treaty have seen samples from their countries placed in
Svalbard without their permission (right now there are 79,404 Mexican
varieties in Svalbard even though Mexico hasn't signed the FAO Treaty).
Indeed, the real purpose of Svalbard, far from being just safe storage,
is to allow national seed banks and the CGIAR [Consultive Group on
International Agriculture Research] institutes who hold samples from
other countries to place those samples in Svalbard under the FAO Treaty
without national permission. Derivatives of samples can then be patented
without knowledge or permission of the country of origin, which is a
real kick in the teeth for farmers in developing countries. Since my
termination, I have been contacted by several people who have told me
that it is not an uncommon occurrence for the founder of a nonprofit
organization to be thrown out, especially when it is extremely
successful (either financially successful or has a great reputation with
lots of media involved). Each described situations they had been through
or witnessed, and warned that board members interested in using an
organization for their own personal agendas will patiently wait in the
background for years until an opportunity presents itself, and then will
make their moves. Looking back that is exactly what Amy Goldman did,
attending board meeting after board meeting, occasionally writing a
large check from the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, while she placed
people on SSE's board who were financially beholden to her.

During the last decade she used her position as one of SSE's funders to
demand access to SSE's assets for her own personal use. She has used
SSE's staff inappropriately to do research for her books during work
hours, and has demanded preferential access to SSE's rarest seeds which
have provided many of the photos for her books. When she alienated me
and lost my support, her future publishing depended on taking over SSE
and forcing me out.

Cary Fowler

Back in 1979 I worked with Cary Fowler, co-author of Shattering: Food,
Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity, published in 1990 to oppose
"UPOV legislation" in the U.S. (Geneva-based plant variety protection
legislation with its Common Catalogue that has outlawed and caused the
extinction of thousands of food varieties as each successive country
joined the European Union). He and I first met at Gary Nabhan's "Seed
Banks Serving People" conference in Tucson in 1981. I have watched Cary
Fowler's career for more than 30 years, all the way from the Frank
Porter Graham Center in North Carolina to the United Nations in Rome.
That path has apparently required abandoning some of his former ideals,
such as championing the rights of indigenous farmers.

In turn, Cary Fowler has watched for 26 years as I put together the best
collection of heirloom food crops in the world, so it is despicable that
he never said one word to me about putting SSE's seeds into his
"doomsday vault." Right now Cary Fowler is moving heaven and earth to
place as many seed collections as possible under the control of the FAO
Treaty. But despite all of his rhetoric about protecting genetic
resources and needing to get past the contentiousness of the Seed Wars a
decade ago, this is still just legally legitimized biopiracy. By putting
SSE's seeds into Svalbard and under control of the FAO Treaty, Amy
Goldman and SSE's board have broken the trust of thousands of SSE's
members who have sent samples to SSE's collection believing that their
families' heirloom seeds would always be maintained and protected from
misuse and patenting. SSE's secret arrangement with Svalbard is the most
serious threat that Seed Savers has ever faced!

Svalbard’s Trojan horse publicity is designed to focus the public's
attention strictly on the Svalbard seed vault and its claims of saving
the world's food production from climate change and nuclear catastrophe,
with never any mention of the FAO Treaty whose real purpose is to
facilitate access to the world's genetic resources for breeding purposes
and patenting.

SSE’s actions a violation of law

There are serious questions concerning whether or not Amy Goldman and
SSE's board have the legal right to turn over the assets of a U.S.
nonprofit to the control of a United Nations treaty. So far SSE's board
has refused to make public the documents signed with Cary Fowler, and
they have lied to SSE's members through their publications and website
about the true nature of Svalbard and the obligations the treaty places
on SSE. All depositors are required to sign the Svalbard Depositors
Agreement that links those deposits to the FAO Treaty, Article 7 of
which states, "The Depositor agrees to make available from their own
stocks samples of accessions of the deposited plant genetic resources
and associated available non-confidential information to other natural
or legal persons in accordance with the following terms and conditions:
.. . ." The agreement goes on to dictate that "original samples" (other
seeds of those varieties stored in the seed vaults at Heritage Farm) are
also covered by the FAO Treaty. By signing the treaty, Seed Savers
cannot refuse any requests for seeds of those deposited varieties
(Monsanto and others now can, as a right, request those varieties from
SSE's own seed vaults at Heritage Farm, splice in GMOs, then patent and
sell the seed). Indeed, a 1.1% tax on patents from "derivatives" of the
varieties in Svalbard is the main way the FAO Treaty will generate funding.

The entire Svalrard agreement was done behind the scenes in
conversations with Amy Goldman, probably because they both knew I would
oppose such efforts. Svalbard has never been a necessary step for SSE -
duplicate samples of SSE's seed collection are already stored in an
underground seed vault at Heritage Farm as insurance against fire and
tornadoes, plus another set of duplicate samples is in "black box
storage" at the National Seed Storage Lab in Fort Collins, Colorado.
(Black box storage means the seeds are only being stored against
catastrophic loss and that the samples, which still belong entirely to
SSE, can be returned at any time upon request.)

When first confronted with my letter to SSE's members expressing my
concerns about Svalbard, SSE issued a defensive statement (posted in
SSE's chat room, but then pulled a day later) claiming the seeds in
Svalbard belong entirely to SSE and cannot be distributed, patenting
cannot occur, SSE can get its seeds back upon request, and SSE has the
signed contracts stating all that. While it is true that the samples of
seeds actually stored in Svalbard can't be distributed, it is the
linking of those deposits to the FAO Treaty that facilitates the
distribution and patenting. A more extensive letter was later posted on
the SSE website defending SSE's relationship with Svalbard and claiming
there is no linkage between Svalbard's Depositors Agreement and the FAO
Treaty, which is an outright lie. That letter goes on to argue that
Monsanto has had the legal ability to obtain and genetically modify our
heirloom varieties ever since Heritage Farm started distributing
portions of SSE's seed collection through the yearbook. Well, there is a
huge difference between obtaining a few varieties from SSE's yearbooks
and these deliberate actions by SSE's board that will gradually open up
SSE's entire seed collection to Monsanto and similar players. If it's
written into the treaty, it will eventually happen, exactly the same way
that the rights of farmers to save their own seeds have gradually been
made illegal by similar treaties.

Neil Hamilton

Amy Goldman has continually overreached her power as the Chair of SSE's
Board, and Neil Hamilton is responsible for enabling her abuse. Amy
Goldman did not have the right to usurp the duties of SSE's Executive
Director (which she did repeatedly before I was fired), but with Neil
Hamilton's legal advice and guidance they rewrote SSE's Bylaws to give
her that power.

Neil Hamilton has proven to be an opportunistic, self-serving, deceitful
little man. A decade ago he was involved in a similar transformation of
the National Gardening Association in Burlington, Vermont, during which
NGA's "electronic assets" (all articles and photos from its past
publications) were sold for $3 million and the organization's focus was
changed from garden research to children’s gardens. Neil Hamilton has
used tactics learned at NGA to enable Amy Goldman's takeover of Seed
Savers. And although each of SSE's board members is supposed to annually
sign a Conflict of Interest Statement to identify any self-serving
financial relationships that board members have with SSE, the financial
relationship between Amy Goldman and Neil Hamilton ($70,000 by the
Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust given during 2007 to Drake University
where Neil Hamilton is head of the Agricultural Law Center) has never
been disclosed.

Neil Hamilton is a social climbing politico, throwing garden parties in
Des Moines for his buddy Tom Vilsack, then widely known in Iowa as the
Hog Lot Governor (for blocking DNR regulation of all facilities with
less than 4,000 hogs) and also named Governor of the Year in 2002 by
"BIO" (Biotechnology Industry Organization) for his enthusiastic
approval of open air tests of "pharma crops" (pharmaceuticals produced
in our food supply). Tom Vilsack, the Obama Administration's new
Secretary of Agriculture despite more than 100,000 letters of protest,
recently came back from the G8 financial summit vowing to do much more
than the Bush administration to force genetically modified foods down
the world's throat. And Neil Hamilton is right in there as Chair of the
National Genetic Resources Program, a USDA committee composed mainly of
agricultural industry leaders who advise the Secretary of Agriculture.

For more than a decade SSE's publications have reprinted articles to
keep our members informed about the battle over genetically modified
foods, because Terminator technology is the antithesis of SSE's efforts
to make our families' heirloom seeds freely available to other
gardeners. (Terminator technology was originally developed as a
taxpayer-funded USDA joint project for genetically engineered seeds to
kill their own embryos with the stated goal of preventing 1.4 billion
peasant farmers from saving the seeds their families depend on for
food). USDA and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) continue to block
the labeling of genetically modified foods in grocery stores throughout
the U.S. Using the citizens of the U.S. as guinea pigs for Monsanto's
genetically modified food crops is unconscionable, but deliberately
breaking the chain of the seed after 12,000 years to genetically prevent
seed saving by peasant farmers is really sick- it's anti-farmer,
antinature and anti-life. Instead of the usual 12- 20 pages of articles
about GMOs, SSE's latest issue contains only one article and soon there
will be none. That will leave SSE's members in the dark about these
vital issues, while also silencing a strong critic of agricultural
biotechnology at the far end of the spectrum from Neil Hamilton, Tom
Vilsack and the USDA's misguided policies.

The future of SSE

I now believe that Amy Goldman and SSE's board never intended for there
to be any transition, because they don't intend to carry on with my
projects. The four board members who voted to terminate me: Amy Goldman,
Neil Hamilton, Deborah Madison and Rob Johnston Jr. have lied to SSE's
advisors, members, funders and donors, maliciously attacked those who
disagree with their actions, and created a wall of secrecy that would
make any funder think twice. SSE's long-term funders (some have been
supporters every year since 1982) were reportedly "horrified" by the
board's actions. The brutal way I was terminated and the subsequent lies
by SSE's board in defense of their actions have destroyed the trust of
SSE's members.

I am deeply concerned that the files from my former office will be
destroyed as Amy Goldman systematically attempts to write me out of
SSE's history. I was terminated without any warning and separated from
my writings and photos. Since I never maintained a personal office at
home, the entire history of the 33 years I guided Seed Savers was in
file cabinets and on my computer in my office at Heritage Farm. Since
last July I have been trying to regain access to and usage of my files.
I have only been asking SSE's board for "non-exclusive usage" - not
ownership, just permission to reprint my writings and photos that have
already appeared in SSE's publications, and to be able to copy portions
of my former files, costing SSE nothing. Without any reasonable
justification, SSE's board has refused. To gain even partial access to
my writings, speeches and photos would have required signing away my
voice, which I will never do.

Nothing will change until Amy Goldman is removed completely from SSE's
board, along with all those financially beholden to her and all others
who would use SSE for their own personal agendas. That most certainly
includes Neil Hamilton, who has facilitated and empowered this entire
debacle. The good news is that all of this is reversible — Svalbard
depositors can annul the agreement and recover their seeds. Someone
whose seeds are in SSE's collection (Native American or SSE member)
needs to act and will have my full support - indeed, deserves all of our
support - in making that legal challenge.

What I've had to go through has been vicious and is indefensible. I have
been completely shut out of the organization and genetic preservation
projects that I love so deeply and have been treated like some sort of
criminal who is a danger to our organization. All of us love and have
worked so hard for the beautiful idea that is Seed Savers and it is
inconceivable that the Seed Savers Exchange should now be treated so
lightly and with such disrespect. I am deeply grateful for the help and
support that all of you have shared so selflessly, especially your
families' seeds. My 33 years with Seed Savers has been a truly
fascinating journey, filled with joy and deep satisfaction. I sincerely
thank all of you for that.

More than likely this will be my final communication with all of you. In
closing, I want to acknowledge the deep sorrow that so many people
across the country are feeling right now. My greatest fear is that our
Listed Members will start to pull back and turn away from SSE but that
will only make things worse. Please do everything you can to make sure
that our annual seed exchange continues and thrives, because selfless
seed sharing has created opportunities for gardeners everywhere. If
SSE’s seed exchange dwindles down, then three decades of work by more
than 3,500 Listed Members will indeed have been destroyed. Please don't
let that happen. There is too much at stake to let self-serving personal
agendas and misguided decisions ruin everything that all of us have
worked so hard to accomplish. Please continue to support and participate
and stand by Seed Savers. All of this can still be turned around. No lie
lives forever.

screen shots

2010-06-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

just caught these pictures from the BP feed. it's from the one that has had the green screen not recording screen all evening. It popped on for a few seconds and I happened to be watching.

My New Big Painting!

2010-05-29T01:34:00.001-07:00

Hey girls, check it out!!!
that's me, your mom, working on the big Painting at Nelson's! LOL

here it is finished. (except for trim on top which will get finished Thursday if I can get a taller ladder.)

I am hopeful that the picture will spark some conversation about coming events and what, if anything people can do to prepare themselves and their families. The changes coming are going to be terrifying to some folks. Those who aren't prepared to "roll with the punches" so to speak. People who have their entire lives invested in the current system, they will have the hardest time.

there are two scriptures in the painting, I know you can't see them clearly in the photos, but around the angel's halo, it is Rev. 18:2 "Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and is become the habitation of devils..."
that's a part of the scripture but gets the point across.
at the bottom is Rev. 16: And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

that one is for the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
(Keep your eye on that situation girls, it is a game changer for sure.)

anyway, this next weekend is the Blue Plum art show and with any luck I might get to go Sat. Neighbor said she'd take me. I have quite a few drawings and paintings to show so I kind of need to be there. LOL I'll go Sat. anyway.
well, take care girls, you know I love you.

mom

Tragedy in the Gulf

2010-05-29T01:02:00.000-07:00

thanks for the clip Robert!

100 Things to Disappear First

2010-04-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

This was posted in our forum over at LATOC and if you don't read anything else today on preparation, read this list.
I'm going to assume you girls have your food stocked, and hopefully some way to filter at least some rainwater, but I was reading this list and had and Ah Ha moment. There are so many things that a person would need in an emergency collapse type situation besides some stored food.
anyway, thanks to the forum member for this list!
Here's the site where it originates. 100 Items to Disappear First
Also, make sure to read Kunstler's latest rant. Good work Jim!

100 Items to Disappear First

1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy...target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
3. Portable Toilets
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 - 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
10. Rice - Beans - Wheat
11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY - note - food grade if for drinking.
14. Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won't heat a room.)
15. Grain Grinder (Non-electric)
16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.
17. Survival Guide Book.
18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
22. Vitamins
23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
31. Milk - Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
34. Coleman's Pump Repair Kit
35. Tuna Fish (in oil)
36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
37. First aid kits
38. Batteries (all sizes...buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
41. Flour, yeast & salt
42. Matches. {"Strike Anywhere" preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, "No. 76 Dietz" Lanterns
47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels)
49. Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
51. Fishing supplies/tools
52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
53. Duct Tape
54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
55. Candles
56. Laundry Detergent (liquid)
57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags
58. Garden tools & supplies
59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
64. Bicycles...Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
67. Board Games, Cards, Dice
68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)
74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
76. Reading glasses
77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
78. "Survival-in-a-Can"
79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens
80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
85. Lumber (all types)
86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
87. Cots & Inflatable mattress's
88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
89. Lantern Hangers
90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts
91. Teas
92. Coffee
93. Cigarettes
94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
95. Paraffin wax
96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
97. Chewing gum/candies
98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
100. Goats/chickens

From a Sarajevo War Survivor:
Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war - death of parents and
friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing cold, fear, sniper attacks.

1. Stockpiling helps. but you never no how long trouble will last, so locate
near renewable food sources.
2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden.
3. After awhile, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war
quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold's.
4. If you had to go without one utility, lose electricity - it's the easiest to
do without (unless you're in a very nice climate with no need for heat.)
5. Canned foods are awesome, especially if their contents are tasty without
heating. One of the best things to stockpile is canned gravy - it makes a lot of
the dry unappetizing things you find to eat in war somewhat edible. Only needs
enough heat to "warm", not to cook. It's cheap too, especially if you buy it in
bulk.
6. Bring some books - escapist ones like romance or mysteries become more
valuable as the war continues. Sure, it's great to have a lot of survival
guides, but you'll figure most of that out on your own anyway - trust me, you'll
have a lot of time on your hands.
7. The feeling that you're human can fade pretty fast. I can't tell you how many
people I knew who would have traded a much needed meal for just a little bit of
toothpaste, rouge, soap or cologne. Not much point in fighting if you have to
lose your humanity. These things are morale-builders like nothing else.
8. Slow burning candles and matches, matches, matches

Urban Farming Video

2010-04-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

These videos really shows what you can do when you set your mind to it and, look for creative ways to accomplish things.
the second video, they produce 6000 lbs/year of food on 1/10th of an acre.
think about it.

Amazing Chemtrail Video, Must Watch!

2010-03-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

This is quite possibly the best chemtrail video I have ever seen. Absolutely.
It is shot from a plane by a pilot.
Just watch this. It will open your eyes.

Disclose.tv Video Shot by pilot flying Along side several Chem Video

20 ways to kill the Beast!

2010-03-06T21:04:00.000-08:00

Girls, please read this list. There are some real gems here!
This was linked in the forum and I'm copying it here and will give a link to the site where it came from.
If everyone just picked a few of these to do, and stuck to it and did them persistently, it would make a big difference.

here's the link. It's from oftwominds.com
Thanks also to Zappalives over at LATOC forum for posting this.

20 Resilient Responses for Troubled Times
(Bob Waldrop, March 2010)

1. Close your ears to the lies of politicians and corporations. Turn off your television and ignore advertising. The purpose of the bail-out is not to help Main Street. Congress will not get a clue. The government will make the situation worse. Politicians will distract you from important actions that are necessary to save your family and community from this crisis. Look to the "side-stream" media for news and info.

2. Nurture blessings and hope in your own life and in the life of your community. Promote solidarity & cooperation. Don't give in to despair, don't feel sorry for yourself. Beware of the tendency to resort to bad habits when under stress. With positive action, you gain control over your life & reduce your vulnerabilities. Trust yourself, respect others & all creation. Understand our inter-dependence with each other & the natural world.

3. Work together with your neighbors to increase the safety, security, health, and well-being of your family and community. While there is danger in the present situation, there is also opportunity for us to make a better life, a world with more justice, peace, equity, and sustainability. If we want truth, wisdom, justice, and beauty, then the best thing to do is to practice truth, wisdom, justice, and beauty in our own lives and neighborhoods. Eventually we will get good at it.

4. Observe, evaluate, design, act. Pay attention to events and circumstances. Watch the weather and your local climate and ecology. Carefully discern the signs of these times politics, economics, cult, culture, community, Plan your response -- design your adaptation to changes in your situation with careful thought about necessities, risks, challenges, resources, hazards, & opportunities.

5. The borrower is the slave of the lender. Cut up your credit cards! Pay off your debts. Sell financial assets if you have them to clear your liabilities. In the 1930s, 85% of the property in some areas was foreclosed upon by banks. Debt-free housing is important for survival!

6. Increase the size of your household. Combining smaller households to make larger households has great financial and resiliency benefits for small families and individuals living alone. Co-housing can be a useful response to troubled economic times. People can downsize from large single family homes two families can buy a duplex together. Or an existing home could be duplexed. If your kids need to move home, welcome them. Perhaps you should plan for this and encourage family to move home.

7. Live beneath your means. Divide your expenses into three categories necessaries, "nice but not necessary", and everything else. Keep track of your spending. Focus on necessities, cut back on "nice but not necessary", and eliminate "everything else".

8. Don't leave anyone behind for the wolves to devour. Everyone is responsible for strengthening the voluntary social safety net Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul conferences, Catholic Charities, the Red Cross, local food banks, etc. What goes around, comes around.

9. Go car free, if possible. It is much cheaper to take the bus or to rent a car or take a taxi occasionally than to own a car. If you can't go car-free, walk, carpool, ride a bicycle, or take public transportation more, drive less.

10. Stop buying new stuff. Reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, make it over, make do, do without. Shop the "after market" (flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops). If you buy stuff because of emotional needs, get counseling. You can't spend your way to prosperity, so don't try. Your life will not improve if you buy more stuff. Your kids will not be smarter if they wear designer clothes. If you buy advertised products, you will have less money, more stress, & increased risk of economic calamity.

11. Support locally owned businesses. When you spend money, keep it as local as possible. Join or start a local food coop, keep your money in a credit union. Think and act globally, but shop locally.

12. Invest in extreme energy conservation. Protect yourself from energy price increases & shortages. Super insulate your house, use insulated interior shutters on windows, get free heat from the sun in the winter. See www.energyconservationinfo.org for many ideas and details.

13. Go coop! Develop a part-time, low-capital business in your local economy that can perhaps grow in time to become a full-time job. The ultimate job security is "owning" your job yourself, or in cooperation with others. Learn about worker-owned cooperatives, and talk with friends, family, and neighbors about using the cooperative business structure to build household and community economic security and resiliency.

14. Teach your kids frugality and financial management. Allowances should always be connected to work. Offer them incentives to save their money instead of spending it.

15. Grow as much food as you can. Growing food is like growing money in your back yard. Landscape your yard with fruit & nut trees & berry bushes. Cook your meals from basic ingredients. Buy food from local farmers. Keep some of your savings as food; always have several months of basic food staples on hand to insulate yourself from the mood swings of supermarket pricing and the risks of sudden emergencies and crises (more is better than less!). Store what you eat, and eat what you store.

16. Save some money each month. Unexpected expenses run up your credit cards or send you to a pawn shop or pay day loan. Save some money each month but get your money out of banks & the stock markets and into a credit union. If you have money to invest, put it to work in your local community. Be a responsible steward, don't feed the parasites on Wall Street.

17. Plan for catastrophe design for resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to successfully deal with challenges & problems. Murphy's Law is often triumphant during economic crises: If something can go wrong, it will. So plan on that, and act now to mitigate your vulnerabilities design your response. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Every important function (e.g. food, soil fertility, shelter, household energy, water, etc.) should have back-ups more than one "system' should support each critical need.

18. Don't procrastinate. If you are in an untenable financial situation, go ahead & declare bankruptcy, sooner rather than later. If you think it is likely that you will lose your home, don't throw good money after the bad. Don't wait for a food crisis to stock up on food and plant a garden. Don't wait for problems with the water supply to install a rainwater harvesting system. Be honest with yourself and your household about your circumstances. Never forget that procrastination is the thief of time.

19. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Investing time, work, and design in a household plan for incremental changes over time will greatly reduce the amount of stress, risk, and emotional trouble in your life. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Do what is necessary; never do anything for only one reason. Every project should have more than one purpose. Often, the problem contains the solution.

20. Start big projects that will save the world, or at least, your little corner of it. Times of crisis are times of change. If we don't get there the firstest with the mostest, someone else will, and we may not like what happens thereafter. When people ask questions, be there with answers and positive suggestions for productive activities that promote justice, solidarity, economic security, and community resilience.

a p e r m a c u l t u r e a p p r o a c h t o t h e c o m m o n g o o d
www.bobwaldrop.net

c a r e f o r p e o p l e + c a r e f o r c r e a t i o n
+ c a r e f o r t h e f u t u r e

The Creditor and the Plastic Duck Junkie

2010-02-08T10:39:00.001-08:00

I really encourage you girls to watch this short video. It beautifully and simply explains how things work in the world pertaining to China and finances.
The US is currently in hock up to our eyeballs to China. It's something to think about.
Thanks to metaforge at LATOC forum for posting this video.

The Government is Warning us to Get Prepared

2010-02-03T23:13:00.000-08:00

When even the US Gov. warns us through PSAs to be prepared, to have a bug out bag handy, to have a plan in case of disaster, then you know something is up.
I don't know whether to be happy they are saying something about it or be scared!
Thanks to moabmic at LATOC for posting this in the forum.
My husband and I wondered if it might be a response to what happened in Haiti but this was posted to YouTube Oct.9,2009.

Trailer Homesteading

2010-02-01T03:58:00.000-08:00

How to Homestead in a Travel Trailer

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Can't obtain a mortgage? Don't want to pay rent? Like the rural life? You can set up your own homestead, start building equity in a property, and lead a fulfilling yet inexpensive life as a travel trailer homesteader. To get started in travel trailer homesteading, and assuming you already have transportation, preferably a pickup truck, follow the steps below.
Note: For the purposes of this article, 'homestead', 'homesteading', 'homesteader', etc. is used based on the following definition...
Main Entry: home·stead
Pronunciation: 'hOm-"sted, -stid
Function: noun
1 a : the home and adjoining land with any buildings that is occupied usually by a family as its principal residence. (snip)
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
per http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Homestead?db=*

Steps

Purchase a piece of "junk land," from 1/4 to 1 acre or more if you can afford it. Almost every state has land that is longer than a one-hour drive from an urban area and without utilities. These are priced much cheaper than other properties. Prices of from $1,000 to $5,000 per lot are still possible to find in such areas. Check Craigslist, eBay, the local newspapers, and the local free advertising tabloids. Avoid realtors if possible, since they will take a cut from any sales. If you don't have the cash to buy a lot outright, look for phrases such as, "owner will hold," meaning that the owner will agree to finance the property. If you go this route, though, don't expect the absolute lowest price. Ensure that the land is not in a floodplain and that the title is clear. Examine the mineral and logging rights and any easements for access. Check to assure there are no outstanding native/indiginous tribal land claims.
Check the same advertising sources as above to find a used travel trailer. You should be able to find a serviceable travel trailer for under $5,000, especially if you search during the off-season. Consider dealers. They will mark up the price of a used trailer but will sometimes add value by making repairs and issuing a warranty. Sometimes you can negotiate with the owner or dealer to tow the trailer to your site as part of the deal. If not, rent a truck or hire a service to do it if you can't yourself. Add the trailer to your auto insurance policy temporarily so you are covered during the move.
Clear enough land, if necessary, to site the travel trailer. Do not site on a hilltop or saddle, if possible, to avoid cold temperatures due to swirling winds, danger from fires which can engulf all sides of a hill at once, and often poor soil. Similarly, do not site in a valley with poor drainage and stagnant air. Siting on a gentle slope or on flat land is usually optimal. Site the trailer with the majority of windows and the door facing south for passive heating in winter and cooling in summer.
Skirt the bottom of the trailer well with impervious material, all-around, to block wind and cold. Alternatively, consider digging a trench and backing the trailer down into it so that the wheels are below ground level and the door is at ground level. (This may present an issue, however, when it rains or snows. Check the drainage.)
Winterize your trailer by improving the insulation of the floor, walls, windows, door(s), and ceiling. Insulate tubular vessels and pipes. Consider painting the exterior with one of the new ceramic insulating paints based on technology developed by NASA for the Space Shuttle, which can increase the "R" value of your wall insulation by 9 units or more. Eventually, you might want to erect a "carport" overhead (see How to Construct an Inexpensive Shelter) to prevent damage and noise from rain and also snow buildup on the trailer roof. (It will reflect the hot summer sun, too!)
- Advanced winterizing includes attaching an inexpensive home-built wood/PVC and plastic greenhouse to the south side of the trailer to capture heat from the winter sun and direct it into the trailer. Storing the heat of the sun with black-painted 55-gallon drums filled with water will heat your trailer at night as the stored heat is released through a window or vent. A greenhouse floor of heat-storing gravel, rocks, or concrete slab will behave similarly. Finally, the water in the drums will also function as an emergency water supply as well as aid in extinguishing fires.
'Summerize' your trailer by erecting a "shade house" -- an open, wooden or wire, trellis structure attached to the north side of the trailer. Grow climbing and/or creeping vines, such as grape vines on the "roof" and the "walls" for shade, food, and beauty. Cool air will enter the shade house and flow through the north windows into the trailer. You can surround the trailer with such vines on -- or a few inches away from -- the surface (to prevent possible longterm damage to the exterior). Studies show that such "living walls" can repel up to 70% of the heat from the sun during the summer and prevent up to 30% of heat loss from inside during the winter.
Grow as much of your own food as possible. If your soil is poor, grow in containers or improve the soil with compost and mulch or sheet mulch it well with any available free or low-cost natural materials. Potatoes can grow almost anywhere, such as in a contractor's bag full of hay, straw, or finished compost. Tomatoes can grow from hanging baskets. Your greenhouse will supply you with fresh produce throughout the winter. Alternatively, some seed companies feature cold-hardy seeds that also tolerate reduced sunlight as another way to lengthen the growing season.
Water. There are several ways to supply water in rural areas. Rainwater catchment strategies abound. Or for well drilling, consider the inexpensive do-it-yourself driven-point well technique. Additionally, in remote and arid regions there are often inexpensive water delivery services. You'll need to set up a plastic cistern or a more expensive metal or concrete tank and conserve water to benefit.
- Washing clothes. Save them up and do them at the laundromat in town when you do your shopping. Or, do it the old red-knuckles way on a washboard and tub. An improvement is the inexpensive 'Yukon plunger' -- basically a metal cone with a furrowed interior and wooden handle which looks like a common drain plunger on steroids. With an up-and-down motion it churns the clothes under pressure driving the soapy water or rinse water into and out of the fabric.

Tips

Consider harvesting rainwater, setting up a solar electrical system, and using a homemade compost toilet.
When purchasing land, ensure that there is access to public-utility water and electricity if necessary or desired.
Check building and zoning restrictions. Ensure that a title search is done.
Safely set up a propane heater and block off unused sections of the trailer for extra warmth during winter as well as economy.

Warnings

For security, light up your access road, keep a cell phone with you, let others know where you are, and consider purchasing a weapon.
Ensure that your local government doesn't have development plans for your land or adjacent lands.
Make sure the soil is safe. Test the soil for chemicals before you buy the property. If you dig a well, make sure it is also tested.

Related wikiHows

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Homestead in a Travel Trailer. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Painting At the Gallery

2010-01-26T23:26:00.001-08:00

Hey, Mr. Nelson at the gallery has a facebook page for the gallery and he put up one of my pictures! yeah.
here is the picture he put up.

here's a link to his facebook page.

Nelson Fine Art Gallery

his email address and phone number are below.
dicknelson@gmail.com or call the gallery 423-926-2931 or come in anytime.

Non Conformity

2010-01-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here's a voice from the past. Thought you girls might need to hear this.
Alan Watts speaking on non conformity and society's fear of the non conformist.

And now, for a bit of a RANT!

2010-01-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

January 2010

I'm listening now to a show on coast to coast with financial forecasts for 2010.
it's all bad.
LOL
you know, you have to wonder why all the slight of hand looking for the collapse in the "future" looking ahead for the collapse when it's pretty obvious that we are IN the collapse now.
it's a massive slight of hand trick. "look ahead, the collapse is there, no, there, look it's financial, it's housing...etc,"
no, the collapse is happening now, it is all around us. They distract us with gold and money when what is being taken over is food. I realize that now, food is dependent on oil. that is true for large corportate farms more so than anything. a small home garden can produce a lot of your own food.

what is collapsing exactly?
financials, yes.
oil, yes.
our civil liberties, absolutely.
but of all the things collapsing, what is the most overlooked and ultimately the most important?
your ability to feed and provide for yourself!
your ability to grow your own food, to obtain your own water supply, build your own shelter, etc...
no matter how far away we move from our reality as humans, the ultimate requirement is still the same.
Food and water! Without those two things you will absolutely die. Everything, every monetary system, every means of trade every business ultimately goes to obtaining those two things. Those two and as a third, shelter.
I am not a well educated or world wise person, perhaps however that makes me better suited to discuss this issue.
Stop what you are doing and think for a minute.
why, why are you working 40+ years at a job you hate?
why are you killing yourself physically and most importantly spirtually and mentally at a mind numbing task?
why?
to provide food, water, and shelter.
period.
All else is fluff.
It is a delusion, a trick, a mind warp to get you to trade your time and energy for pieces of paper to go and trade then for those very things.
Cut out the middle man!
For the love of God, stop playing the game.
that is why I try to get people to grow some, just some little bit, of their own food. Not because they will be self sufficient by growing a couple dozen tomatoes, not because they will topple the powers that be, but mainly because they will, in learning to do these simple things, be able to reclaim the rights to their lives.
WHOEVER FEEDS YOU OWNS YOU!
I cannot stress this enough.
go without food for awhile and see what I mean.
either the gov. will own you through their assistance, or, your fellow citizens will own you through their donations and help. Maybe a church will own you with their meals on wheels, maybe a person passing by you as you lay on a sidewalk cold and hungry. You can be the beneficiary of heartfelt pity.
congratulations.

what is the ultimate outcome?
I'll be damned if I know.
All I know is that you and your family will be far less yanked and whipped about if you are more self sufficient. You must, must, begin to re-think you lives, look at what is important to you, look at where what you buy comes from, who benefits from your labor, your spending. Then sit down as a family and decide if that is how you want to live. Decide if those recipients of your time and money are worth the years of labor that you have pretty much donated to them.

Why do we spend money on entertainment?
because one, we are curious creatures and entertainment satisfies something inside of us on a deep level, much like was satisfied by the "story tellers" of old. We love stories.
also, because without the interaction involved with producing for ourselves, we have time on our hands and big business is more than willing to sedate us with "their" stories of us. Their stories of what we are and how we are.
what does "money" buy you?
it buys survival!
you trade your time and creativity to some ethereal somebody in exchange for your damned survival that eons ago, you would have provided for YOURSELF!

I've listened to and read countless economic forecasts and analysis and the root of everything is taking away from YOU the ability to provide for YOURSELF.
Not only have they taken away your ability to feed yourself, but they had hypnotized and anesthetized you to where whatever free time you might have had to work on these things, you have fruitlessly spent on watching tv.
God help us.

People like Celente, Fitts, Jones, Puplova, etc..
tell us that change is coming. we just have to redirect the way we look at money and finance.
you know what, maybe money isn't what it's all about!!
maybe money is not the be all and end all of life.
it reminds me of the protestant break from Catholicism. It's just another way to view the same God. Maybe it's time we turned away from MONEY as God. Do you think?

It's Official, Corporations have Complete Control!

2010-01-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well girls, looks like with the supreme court's ruling yesterday that allows now unfettered corporate politician buying, we can pretty much say goodbye to the country as we have known it.
It was bad enough before, now....
the floodgates are wide open and Walmart, and GE and Halliburton can buy and own as many politicians as they can afford.
They have had a heavy hand in our politics for a time now, but now, they can just outright buy whichever official they want.
here are a couple videos of Keith Oberman talking about the ramifications of this ruling and what it could mean for average Americans.
Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida is trying to get some bills before congress to stop this madness, he has a petition to sign HERE. It's the least we can do, go sign the damned thing for crying out loud!

God help us.

Working On Art!

2010-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've been busy all day listing things on Etsy and trying to get the display on the right here, looking like I want it to.
After much tweeking, I've done about all I know how to do to it but I think the pictures look nice. If you click on one, it will take you to the listing on Etsy.
I'm hoping to get some more drawing done later today too. It's such a nice day, after over a week of frigid temps and snow, today feels like spring time!

Ordering Seeds from Fedco Seeds this year

2010-01-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, a friend (MidWestHerbalist) at the forum has posted a link to this great seed company along with some disturbing information about some of my favorite seed sellers.

FEDCO SEEDS

Here a link to the thread MidWestHerbalist started, I recommend that you read it and see the list for yourselves.

LINK TO THE THREAD AND LIST OF COMPANIES

I encourage you to check these folks out, they are just a wonderful sounding seed company and personally, I'll be ordering from them this year.
They are staunchly non GMO and support seed saving and sustainable agriculture.
They've also taken a stand against Monsanto's continuing drive to take over the world's entire food supply chain and for that alone, they will get my patronage.
Monsanto bought out Seminis Seed Company in 2005 and so now, seeds sold by many of my favorite seed companies, Like Johnny's Selected Seed, Nichols, Vermont Bean Seed, Jung and many others, buy their seed from Sementis which is now unfortunately owned by Monsanto. I was particularly saddened by this as I've been buying seed from a couple of those companies for years and will now look elsewhere for my seed.
So, do check out Fedco's site, the whole thing is full of information!
Take the time to download and read through their catalog as well as their "Seed School Curriculum Guide" It contains an amazing amount of seed saving information.

Please think about things like this, it is more important than you realize. Remember, whoever feeds you, owns you.

love,
mom

2010 Food Shortage Alert!!!

2010-01-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

ok girls, I hope you take this seriously and do the right things but, Eric at LATOC forum has posted a chilling article about the real situation concerning food production and how we are headed for some shortages (at the least) this year.
here's a link to the article.
2010 Food Crisis For Dummies

here are some excerpts from it.

If you read any economic, financial, or political analysis for 2010 that doesn’t mention the food shortage looming next year, throw it in the trash, as it is worthless. There is overwhelming, undeniable evidence that the world will run out of food next year. When this happens, the resulting triple digit food inflation will lead panicking central banks around the world to dump their foreign reserves to appreciate their currencies and lower the cost of food imports, causing the collapse of the dollar, the treasury market, derivative markets, and the global financial system. The US will experience economic disintegration.

The world is blissful unaware that the greatest economic/financial/political crisis ever is a few months away. While it is understandable that general public has no knowledge of what is headed their way, that same ignorance on the part of professional analysts, economists, and other highly paid financial "experts” is mind boggling, as it takes only the tiniest bit of research to realize something is going critically wrong in agricultural market.

make the necessary arrangements for food now so that you aren't caught unprepared.

I posted about using 2 lt. soda bottles to store beans and rice and things in. Save your bottles and start filling them up now before the doodie hits the fan. I know you both garden, so buy your seeds now as well. Try and get things acclimated to your areas and buy seed that you can harvest more seed from the plant too. Heirloom and non hybrid varieties. Buy hybrids for the abundance but also grow heirlooms for their sustainability.
Sugar is already going up so stock up now, especially if you will need if for making sweet pickles or jellies and jams. Anyway, read that article, I'm about half finished and it's really worth reading. Great analysis of the situation.

love,
mom

Finally I have an Etsy account!

2009-12-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

well, I started that account back in April but never had listed anything, I don't know why, but today I decided to go ahead and list some artwork. I put the url in the box at the top of this page, didn't know how to make it a link so you'd have to copy and paste it till I figure it out, but anyway, here it is.

paturner etsy store

I have two posted so far, listing makes me nervous as hell for some reason.
Anyway, if Israel doesn't attack Iran in the next little while, which it seems hell bent on doing, maybe I can sell some artwork.
LOL
kind of messed up if you ask me, compelled to draw these damned pictures about the end of the world all the while hoping and praying that it never happens but terrified that it will.
hope everyone had a merry Christmas and happy Holidays.
love you girls,
mom

Christmas Miracle

2009-12-24T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm telling you girls, get yourselves ready for economic trouble next year. Get stocked up, have cash, precious metals and food, on hand.

oh, check out this little cartoon! LOL!!
Thanks to Arraya at the LATOC forum for the link!

Cash Only Movement

2009-12-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hello again girls! Someone posted this article on the LATOC forum and I want you to read this and do it!
If the people of this country have any chance at all to force change it will be by using this simple and yet powerful tool! Cash.
Instead of using credit or debit cards or using the bank, just use cash to pay for your purchases. That's what we do here and you will be amazed at the amount to save over a year in fees and charges that you won't have to pay.
It's the only way to starve this greedy financial beast into submission.
here's a link to the article. USE CASH!

here's an snippet.

Big Banking is out of control. Many corporate financial institutions, considered too big to fail, received a share of a trillion dollars of taxpayer money. To thank us, they are hiking interest rates on existing credit card debt, lowering and cancelling small business credit lines, and imposing more and higher fees and penalties with impunity.

As taxpayers, workers, citizens and merchants we can fight back. Not with letters to the editor nor with calls to our government representatives. There is an easy, immediate and direct path toward banking and monetary reform that benefits people, not corporations, through everyday transactions in the marketplace.

Use cash.

I highly urge you to do this as often as you possibly can.
If your checks are direct deposited and you just can't get out of it, take out the cash you need and use it and not the ATM or credit card or debit.
Hell, cut up your damned credit cards if you haven't already.
If you don't think you could do without a credit card, sit down and tally up what you have paid in interest and fees to your credit cards over the past year and then figure out what you would rather have done with that money.
You know I love you and I want you girls to do well. Please give this a shot.
Writing congress doesn't help, nor calling them or standing around with signs. This, this is what will get their attentions.
The American people, if we act en masse, can change things and stop the pillaging of our country by the coddled billionaires that currently run the government.

love,
mom

Something For Christmas!

2009-12-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hey girls, remember watching this when you were little?
thought you'd get a kick out of seeing it again.

love,
mom

edited Jan. 15
drat, I guess they have taken down the Christmas videos, but go check out Hulu, they have a lot of great programs there, old Outer Limits and Twilight Zone! LOL

Storing Dry Goods

2009-12-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hey girls, I wanted to tell you about something I tried that worked out really well.
I had saved up all my 2ltr. soda bottles and rinsed them out and let them dry thoroughly. I've been using them to put rice, dried beans, sugar, salt, etc...in.
They are just perfect for storing these things. They are tough, easy to clean, and keep your foods safe and dry. Much better than freezer bags or anything. I had used qt. canning jars but I think I like these bottles even better.
If something happened and they got a hole poked in them, at least you wouldn't have to worry about there being any glass in the food. Also, they are light weight and if you keep them in a dark place like a closet or cupboard, they will last for years and years.
I put beans and peas and rice and sugar, anything I could funnel into them, use a black magic marker and write what is in the bottle and I put a date on it. Screw on the lid and you are good to go!!!
About your beans and rice. Always put them in the freezer for several days to a week before you bottle them up. That will kill any mealy bug eggs or anything like that.
You can later put the bottle in the freezer for a second treatment if you want to.
Some people do 2 freezer treatments 2 weeks apart so as to kill any eggs or larvae that may have survived the first freezing.
This method is about the best I've tried.
Another thing I like about using these bottles is that it helps a little bit to keep them out of the garbage cycle. Also, why pay money to buy other plastic containers for storage when you have already paid for these?
I started using these this summer and am really pleased with them.
Just wanted to tell you about it in case you are having trouble finding things for storage.

love you girls,
mom

p.s. they work good for storing flour and meal too. Get yourselves a funnel and get hopping!!

Girls, the Fix is In, Get Yourselves Ready

2009-12-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Girls, I didn't write this although I sure wish I had, but please read this carefully, it was posted in our forum by member Satori and I feel that it's important that you read and understand what this is trying to tell us. You have got to do things to protect yourselves. I know you guys are having a hard time financially but please do what you can now. I sincerely believe that worse times are coming and soon.

link to article

A Silent Coup d'état Has Already Happened in the U.S.
by Luis Mendoza

Sat Dec 05, 2009 at 10:45:31 PM PST

I call it silent, and not bloodless, since it has been anything but bloodless. To the contrary, the brutal efficiency of this Coup has resulted in countless casualties in the U.S. heartland.

It's sad to see so much confusion out there. People don't understand how's possible for Obama to appoint scores of Goldman Sachs (and other Wall Street bankers) to government positions. The same people responsible for creating ponzi schemes to steal trillions of dollars from the country's coffers (the taxpayers). How is it possible to keep the country in a perpetual state of war for the direct benefit of war profiteers?

If people reflect and take off their ideological blinders, it's possible to see that our entire government (Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary) has already been taken over by Oligarchs here in the U.S. And none of this happened by coincidence. And it's going to get worst. {Continue below}

* Luis Mendoza's diary :: ::
*

During the last several years there has been a relentless, calculated, and well-financed effort to undermine the U.S. Constitution, remove financial regulations that protected against fraud by large institutions, undermine the labor movement, and remove restrictions on media conglomeration, and antitrust regulation.

The best mathematicians, and scientists, and economists were recruited by Wall Street, including top students from elite universities, in order to help create extremely complex and elaborate financial instruments with the expressed purpose of spreading the tentacles of the Oligarchs in charge of the silent Coup into the farther reaches of the financial system "bloodstream", like a virus.

Collaterized mortgage securities, derivatives, credit default swaps, and many, many other schemes were created (or programmed) to transfer trillions of dollars to the Oligarchs, and at the same time, to discharge a mind-numbing electrical jolt, as it were, into the general population in order to keep us numbed and unaware of the thievery. One good source relating to this type of shock, is the book The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein.

The tragic events of 9/11 provided the excuse for the Oligarchs to accelerate the process towards the silent Coup they have been diligently working towards for many years.

Fear mongering was used to manipulate the populace into accepting draconian laws that undermined many constitutional protections. Phony wars were quickly started with the purpose of strengthening the military industrial complex, and embedding militarism into our society. For the first time in U.S. history we entered into a state of perpetual war. The reader needs to understand that this is extremely important for the Oligarchs, as it serves many purposes, including a massive transfer of wealth directly into the pockets of the war profiteers, and the acquisition of oil resources for energy conglomerates.

Many important events are taking place behind the scenes, not being reported by the media, and that's because the Oligarchs own the media. They use it as a propaganda tool in order to advance their interests.

At the same time electronic shackles are being perfected in order to keep the population subjugated, docile, and numb, while at the same time upping our exploitation and abuse. The recession pushes millions of people into financial chaos, which damages the credit scores of millions; this information goes into one of the chain links of the electronic shackles.

Social Networking, and other technologies rapidly accelerate throughout society, with tens of millions of people signing up and building veritable dossiers which can then be used against people, with the use of warrantless monitoring (Sprint fed customer GPS data to cops over 8 million times).

As more and more people use text messaging, and use electronic devices that emit signals that can be traced and tracked, the average citizen is turning into a dog-on-a-leash, unwittingly

In the meantime an avalanche of new business practices are coming together to serve as an increasingly oppressive tool against the average citizen. Pay one credit card late a couple of days, and not only the bank for that credit card will jack up your rates, but other financial institutions will as well. Buy a $2.00 coffee, and pay $35.00 in a "convenience fee". Now genetic test results are also being used by insurance companies, and employers (sometimes illegally) in order to deny people coverage, or employment.

Many of these things seem (and probably are) unrelated, but the bottom line is that as more and more "tools" are used to oppress the individual, and to keep her stressed out, and looking over her shoulder (the mortgage, and the barrage of fees from the bank, and the jacking up of interest rates, and the declining credit score), the less able will she be to have enough time to think and analyze what's really going on in society, and the exploitation she's being subjected to.

If one believes that this scenario is plausible, then a lot of the things we are experiencing today make sense.

If it is true that there was a massive looting of our entire financial system, in a normal society we should be seeing perhaps hundreds of Wall Street insiders' perp-walks on TV news, and reported on newspapers. Instead, not only there aren't scores of indictments, these same people continue to receive billions and billions of dollars in compensations.

And to top it off, they are planted within the halls of government by the current president.

To many people it is obvious that the rationale for the escalation of the war in Afghanistan does not make sense, and yet, the president is escalating the war.

The reason I believe that what we are experiencing today is unprecedented, and that there has been a fundamental change in the U.S., which I call a silent Coup, is because I don't see us coming out of this recession and getting back to things as usual. I don't think this time this is just part of the boom-and-bust cycle.

In fact, I'm convinced that it is likely that just when things start to look a little better, and that the economy is improving, and people start feeling a little hope that things will get better, there is going to be a massive and unprecedented collapse of the economy which will create panic, and will create shock in our citizenry, already reeling from the current economic depression.

This could create social disruptions, starting with the armed right-wing whack-jobs which have already been incited by the likes of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and the other corporatist tools.

We may see some localized riots, and some armed skirmishes between groups that have been incited by demagogues. Violent crimes, like robberies would also escalate quickly, as the economy goes into a tailspin.

Between the second economic collapse, social disruption, and any potential national security issues, the entire society would be in a state of shock, and confused.

It is within this chaos that the Oligarchs would make their final move. All these seemingly unrelated tools of the electronic leash would quickly be used to control people. You could see the military deployed in our streets to "keep the peace". Tens of thousands of private security contractors which have been trained during the current wars, could be used in our streets "to maintain order."

All the draconian laws that have emasculated many constitutional protections (warrantless wiretaps, the "Patriot Act") would be used to further subjugate people. It would be some kind of "Shock Doctrine" scenario.

As it is today, many people have been saying that both major political parties are just the face of the Oligarchs, of the corporatists. I do believe they are, but that there are many elements within that are trying to do the right thing, but have been marginalized.

But if this nightmarish scenario comes true, eventually we will be living under a neo-fascist State.

I call it neo-fascist because I don't believe it would be a blunt as previous fascist states, but the principle would be very similar.

You would have a pliant and subjugated citizenry working at a subsistence-level, afraid of uniting in protest (or creating alternate political parties, or creating strong unions).

The electronic leash would be held tighter, and people would live under a sense of being under siege.

Religious fundamentalism would quickly spread, helping the corporatist keep any remnants of progressive or liberal thought in check.

We would wake up one day under an true neo-fascistic Plutocracy: A political system governed by the wealthy people.

Let me finish by stating that these writings are mainly musings, and that I know many of these things sound outlandish. I'll be very happy if one day in the near future I say to myself "Gosh, talk about going off the deep end with all this conspiratorial stuff." I'll just shake my head about how wrong I was, and go on to continue living in a free, fair, and democratic society.

If one day I were to hear the president talk about how he came to the decision to remove Wall Street bankers from some key government positions, and then saw him appointing at least some true progressives to his government. Or if he really terminated the ongoing wars and brought the troops home (ready for real national security situations), then I may have some hope I can believe in.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong about my "musings." Right now, it looks like the fix is in.

Marketing To Children

2009-11-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

just watched this video. I hope that you girls will watch it.

I don't know about anyone else, but I found this the most insidious, evil, vile thing, I've ever seen.
I guess because I don't watch TV, I didn't know how bad this had become.

Power Hour Caller Mary

2009-11-20T10:25:00.001-08:00

I don't know if I'd posted this before, but back before the swine flu broke out, a lady named Mary called the Power Hour radio show and told the interviewer about this trucker that was transporting either vaccines or bio material.
It's pretty chilling in light of the swine flu now.

I hear often that this flu is mild and isn't a big deal, but that's not quite true.
News out of the Ukraine is frightening. This flu kills young healthy people like the 1918 Spanish flu did and according to autopsy reports from the Ukraine, the lungs are absolutely destroyed by the virus and are turned as black as charcoal.

Do your own research into this flu. Get enough food and money in your house to be able to sit out a quarantine. Just in case.

love,
mom

Where Are We Now?

2009-11-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I've posted but as anyone who actually knows me knows, I'm not the most regular person in the world!
We've had a really good gardening season this year, I was pretty busy with food preservation. The Excalibur Dehydrator has turned out to be one of the best things I've ever had for putting up food.
I'm totally sold on dehydration as a food preservation technique and recommend it to anyone wanting to put by food from a garden.
I dehydrated a quarter bushel of green beans and they ended up in a quart jar!
If you are strapped for space or don't think you can carry several hundred pounds of canned food to a bug-out location, dehydrated food is the way to go.
Even if you aren't prepping for the "End Times", I highly recommend drying your own harvests or excess foods bought in season.
I've also been trying to get more artwork done as well, working on my graphite drawings and trying to keep sane. (Epic Fail!) LOL

What's going on with the economy?
I don't have a damned clue. I've read and listened to many commentators and I honestly don't think that many of them have a clue either.
The talk on the radio is all about recovery and "green shoots" and the recession being over, but over for whom?
Not most people. Not regular people.
It may be over for the elites, that top 1%, but for you and me, nope, not over.

I still recommend that anyone that can, please save as much money as you can. If you have some precious metals hang onto them. I haven't been able to buy any metal since it went up. Besides, the absolute most important possession you can have is going to be cash and food.
You ideally will want enough cash on hand to pay a year's worth of bills. Rent, utilities, car payments etc...
That's just not going to be possible for most people but do the best you can.
your mortgage and things like car payments will remain the same even if the dollar collapses. If you have a $500.00 house payment, it should stay at $500.00 even if the dollar is worthless. So save some dollars.
You know, change has more actual value than paper money?
Change is at least worth the metal it's made out of so another thing you should have is a bucket of change!
Polish up your piggie band and start saving.
I was wanting to post a list of supplies for a family of 2 for one year and have had a heck of a time getting it together. There are so many variables and much depends on what people like to eat and what is available in their area and whether or not they will be gardening.
For just basic supplies, think flour and meal.
we want to get about 50-100 lbs.
sugar another 100 lbs.
rice 50 lbs
beans 50 lbs
salt 10 lbs and more if you use salt in pickling and brined foods.
we have a lot more than 10 lbs. Salt is cheap and won't go bad in storage. You can also use it to trade if it should come to that. Oh, and unless you have a salt mine in your backyard, it's not renewable.
I also like to have plenty of pasta onhand.
relatively inexpensive, easy to store and will keep a long time if stored properly.
Last night, I just put up about 18 lbs. of fettucinni in a couple big over sized plastic jugs.
we have about 50 lbs of dried pasta in buckets and jugs.

You'll want spices like pepper or cinnamon, things you use normally.

The best way to approach food stocking is to think of it this way.
We're not stocking up for the end of the world, because we aren't but, we're stocking up for the end of "our" world.
For instance, job loss, illness or injury, sudden unexpected loss of income for any reason could put you in a position where you could definitely use a break from grocery shopping.
With so many people being laid off from their jobs, think of what a God send it would be to have a year's supply of food at the ready and not have that to worry about.
People used to always have plenty of food stocked up.
They grew food in the summer, ate and preserved from what they produced and preserved enough to carry them through to the next harvest. We have become dangerously accustomed to being able to just run to the grocery store at the slightest whim, day or night, and be able to buy whatever we wanted as long as we could afford it.
I say dangerous because it is. It is terribly dangerous to have build our lives around just-in-time food delivery systems.

Another thing to add to your preps is some canned meats.
I like those little canned hams from the dollar store. I can slice and fry it and have some to eat with a meal and some left to add to soups or stews.
They are not terrible expensive.
Also, add some dried fruits and nuts and raisins to your food supplies. Remember, if you are trying to survive off of what you have stocked up, you also want high calorie foods.
Well, I'm going to go paint now, if I think of anything more for you girls I'll be back later. Now that gardening is done and I have more free time, I hope to be able to post more frequently and, if we get the camera fixed, to post some pictures for you.

be good girls,
love,
mom

Why there Won't be Forced Vaccinations

2009-08-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

On our forum, we have this discussion frequently about whether or not there will be forced vaccinations against the swine flu. It has been my contention that there won't be enough vaccine to go around and so vaccines won't be forced on the people. At least not in the beginning.
The governments are gearing up to protect vaccine and Tamiflu supplies, they are not gearing up to go door to door and vaccinate you at gun point.

follow this link.

Swine Flu Vaccine: Enough to Go Around?

from the article.

Government health officials said on Monday that the United States will have barely more than a third of the 120 million doses of swine flu they hoped would be available by mid-October,. That's far less than the 160 million doses they originally predicted in July.

This is far less than the amount needed. They are estimating now that there will be 45 million, enough for the primary target population which includes pregnant women, children under 4 and health care providers.

p.s. Lisa, saw your comment and will get a basic list up for you hopefully this afternoon.
I'm assuming you are prepping for 2 people right?
anyway, that's what we'll shoot for.

Interview with Dr. Henry Niman, Ph.D. on the Swine Flu

2009-08-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

here is a great radio interview with Dr. Henry Niman about the swine flu.
excellent information.

KBoo Radio FM

click the link above and then click on the media bar to play.

Practical Care for person suffering from Swine Flu

2009-08-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

This was posted in our forum by and emergency health care person and I think it is good practical information. I'm posting it here and you can copy and print it out. I'll be adding to it later.
Mush much thanks to Fishsurfer!

Btw, id just throw this out real quick. Since Respiratory failure is the most common cause of death, if you find yourself isolated and caring for someone because all hell has broken loose, you need to make sure and remember a few things.

-Dont let the person your caring for lie in bed, it will only help fluids build up on the lungs.
-Do make them cough and/or use spirometer devices (the little thing with the ball you try and hold in the air inside a clear tube at the hospital), get the fluids out of the lungs..its feeding the bacteria.
-Make them get up and walk around, even if they hate you for it.
-Make them sit up in bed to sleep or rest as much as possible (everyone used to do that in the old days every night)
-Provide supportive care for their fevers, dont let it get out of control but dont let it go away imho (the higher temps can help fight the lung infection somewhat), its probably better to have a rough few days followed by shedding than weeks of continuous pounding that may seem minor but bites you in the ass.
-Provide "chest pt" by pounding on the back and front of chest for at least a few minutes a couple of times a day, followed by purposeful coughing. The pounding loosens up the crap, you cough it out. Hard enough to make them bounce a bit, but dont leave massive bruises or break ribs for christs sake.
-Fluids, give them enough to make their urine at least yellow if not clear.

I would also add to this, if the weather permits and it's still warm enouugh, put a window fan in the sick room window blowing out. This will pull virus outside away from other rooms in the house and help cut down on chances of others catching the flu.

Also, go ahead and wash in hot water with bleach, some bed sheets. Line dry them in the sun and fold and wrap them in plastic. A new fresh trashbag works good for this. Store these bed linens to use during illness.

More from Fishsurfer.

Famous quote describing Pneumonia by Hippocrates:

"Peripneumonia, and pleuritic affections, are to be thus observed: If the fever be acute, and if there be pains on either side, or in both, and if expiration be if cough be present, and the sputa expectorated be of a blond or livid color, or likewise thin, frothy, and florid, or having any other character different from the common... When pneumonia is at its height, the case is beyond remedy if he is not purged, and it is bad if he has dyspnoea, and urine that is thin and acrid, and if sweats come out about the neck and head, for such sweats are bad, as proceeding from the suffocation, rales, and the violence of the disease which is obtaining the upper hand"

Actually a pretty damn accurate account, very astute observations. And thats exactly what your going to need to make in a world without access to medical care or drugs, good observations. Prevention...of illness in itself or worsening of the condition...is the name of the game. The body can do an awful lot of things to fight illness, and it will keep at it for as long as your fed, hydrated, and motivated enough to keep on living.

Pneumonia in a non-medical environment is a very exhaustive and lengthy fight. It could easily go on for months. Some weeks may be difficult, others may be easier. Regardless, if H1N1 hits hard this fall or even this summer (unlikely), be prepared for a battle. Hospitals will be overrun, the economy will be in the process of collapse, social unrest is likely, you will rely on family or they may rely on you. There will be no ambulance coming to get you, the EMT's and Medics will be at home themselves.

In Pneumonia, the normal exchange of gases in the alveoli (air sacs) are interupted by the presence of fluid, mucous, etc... There are many types of it, and underlying conditions greatly affect the outcomes.

Three types: Bacterial, Viral, and Atypical Bacteria (walking pneumonia).

There are many other underlying types as well, although a bit more uncommon, fungi etc...

Risk Factors:

Age: 65 or older
Flu or other respiratory illness
Chronic illness, such as heart or lung disease
Stroke (aspiration pneumonia due to difficult swallowing)
Weakened immune system caused by AIDS or chemotherapy treatment
Chronic bronchitis
Malnutrition
Pregnancy
Infants and very young children
Alcohol or drug abuse
Smoking
Chronic exposure to certain chemicals (eg, work in construction or agriculture)

Fever
Shakes and Chills
Green Yellow Mucous or Rust colored
Profuse sweating (diaphoresis)
Bluish nail color, lips, due to lack of oxygen...(hypoxia)
Altered mental status (related to massive infection including sepsis, oxygen levels, organ failure, or all of the above.

You see how it starts out? Fever, then shakes and chills, etc... Dont let it get passed shakes and chills and your fine. If you start letting fluids and secretions accumulate in the lungs, you could be in real trouble.

The biggest problem with this condition is accumulating fluid and mucous in the lungs, which can even get into pleural spaces surrounding the lungs, called effusions; then a spiraling inffective respiratory exchange and potentially sepsis sum total.

One of my favorite methods besides deep breathing to get fluid and mucous out of the lungs is to do some Chest Physical Therapy. It has some contraindications however, if the person is so ill they are at the point of bronchospams, sudden constriction of the muscles in the walls of the airways bronchioles (the two little branches leading to your lungs); then its a bad idea to start doing this (you should have been doing it well before this stage) doing so now may cause spasms and increase their severity. Let them rest and fight it off a bit more, continue doing deep breathing though, you can always do that.

The important thing to note though is that if you do this as mentioned in the begining of the thread, make sure you cough afterwards. There is a right way to cough, sit up on a chair. Take a deep breathe for about two seconds and exhale for about two seconds. Then make two sharp coughs, rinse and repeat.

How do you know its happening, beyond the fever, H1N1 condition, etc...?

If you have a stethoscope, you can listen for diminished lung sounds in the lower bases of the lungs. Listen every few hours, and over time you'll notice the trend quickly. Of course, if you own a stethoscope, you probably already know this. So what if you dont? Well, you should get a cheap one even, for under 20 bucks you can easily get a model suitable for basic listening needs of the lungs (and heart somewhat). But if you still dont buy one, then you can use percussion techniques, although its highly not as reliable as actually listening with a scope.

To do that, you basically take two fingers placed together, and tap on the spaces around the lungs, basically at the base of the rib cage (although your lungs go all the way up to your clavicle region and then some. Tap on it, listen for the tones it makes. If your a musician, you may be able to recognize what a hollow sound is, and what a more solid (fluid filled) sound is. Tap on a wall, where there is no stud its a hollow sound, where there is a stud, is somewhat muted and diminished. Same with the lungs. Remember what the person your helping sounds like, write it down, track it for a few hours to days and even weeks or months. It could be your first indication something is happening, beyond the obvious fever and malaise that occurs with the Flu.

The kind of lung sounds you'll find in Pneumonia are loud low pitched bubbly gurgles, or high pitched low intensity sound that last beyond exhalation. You may also just hear diminished sounds in the begining. You can listen to them here:

http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11259/abnormal_breath_sounds.htm

Think of your lungs like a sponge. It has air exchange sacs all over it, trading away CO2 for Oxygen, grabbing Oxygen from air while discarding Nitrogen, CO2, etc... sending it to your Heart to be distributed through your bodies circulatory system before it comes back to the lungs. F'ng awesome interaction imho.

But, when liquids,mucous, and fluids settle on the base of the lungs, sides of the lungs, etc... it can create a cascade of interactions that eventually cause your condition to worsen, your fluids to increase, and your temperature to rise among many other things.

So, its important to move around, shift those fluids around a bit, shake the mucous around, let the unaffected portions of your lungs absorb some of the crap that has saturated the other part of your lungs because you were lying in bed for days. If you move around, sit up in bed often, and generally avoid a flat position thats unchanged, you can do a great deal to relieve your lungs and give yourself a fighting chance.

Equally important, if someone is so out of it, nearly delusional or non-compliant with your demands; at least rotate them in their bed. Much like they do at a nursing home for bed sores and other things, they also do it for patients with lung issues in an ICU or Pallative care facility. You can also do it when death is not imminent, and i would highly suggest it even when your healthy trying to recover without meds. Its always good to change positions, move around, change rooms your in (mental aid), or even take them outside for fresh air. Switch it up, keep them moving if possible. But recognize when someone just needs to rest. You dont want to over exert someone

The other thing to mention here is that with this strain of flu, the onset of symptoms and the time you have to use "Treatments" may be extremely extremely short.

You need a mercury thermometer. Old school bulb style. With a Flu strain, your fever will show up slowly over a day or two, if you take your temp twice a day at the very least during a Pandemic, you may catch the onset of illness before you actually would have noticed it. Get a thermometer!

Seriously though, treating Pneumonia is a bitch, you've got bacteria stuck inside your lungs, edema potentially occurring as a side effect, and no anti-biotics to treat the underlying causes of inflammation and fluid build up, the bacterial infection itself.

If you've got Pneumonia to the point your lungs are full of fluid, your in a world of hurt.

If you know of some good immune boosting treatments that are readily available outside of the hospital, then do it. If you have left over anti-biotics, give it a shot. Even if its meant for a dog, or an aquarium, whatever. Worst case scenario, humility and quality doesnt matter anymore. Something is probably going to be better than nothing. If its from the Amoxil family of drugs definately do take it.

I hope that this information is helpful. I'd like to thank Fishsurfer for the time he put into putting this information together for people to use.

Swine Flu, what to stock and what to do

2009-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you have swine flu in your area, here are a few things to think about.
One, you may decide to self quarantine or for some reason you could be placed under quarantine.
You will want to have food, water, medicines, (expecially prescription drugs) stocked up and on hand.
You'll want to have feminine hygine items and other toiletries.
Most often when it comes to those things, you will probably have enough on hand to last a while anyway. So, if you are strapped for cash and need to make your money count, take stock of what is already on hand before going to the store.
You'll want some bottled water.
Here's a tip about that. Save your soft drink bottles, rinse them out and fill them with water.
Soft drink bottles are excellent for water storage. You will need to figure a gal. a day per person in you home or group.

The reason water should be included in swine flu prepping is in the event that the grid goes down from absenteeism, you won't be caught without water.

As for stocking up food for this type of prepping you'll want to buy and stock things that you like to eat!
If you don't like beans, don't buy 50 lbs. of pinto beans!
For flu prepping, you'll want easy to prepare foods that require little or no cooking. This is in case you get sick and are too ill to cook.
Soups are a great item to stock for flu.
Buy also some Gatorade or other electrolyte type drinks or drink mixes. You'll need to stay hydrated if you become ill.
Put some Popsicles in the freezer. They can help you stay hydrated if you are sick.
Try and avoid dairy products while running a fever.

As for how many months to prep for, there are all kinds of estimates from 3-18 months.
I'd go with 3 months at this time and if you can get together 3 months of supplies you can add to it later if things go well.

Here's a sample list for you to use and add to or change depending on your needs.

for 2 people, if you are eating 3 meals a day that is 6 meals a day for 90 days, that comes to 540 meals.
add to that snacks and drinks and you get an idea of how much food you will want to have on hand.
Most importantly is to not get overwhelmed with the amount of food, just start right away and but some extra food and begin building your pantry.

You'll want to pay special attention to canned foods that can stay good without refrigeration.

canned soups or stews
crackers
oatmeal
Bottled water
Gatorade mix
Instant tea or coffee
sweetener
favorite comfort foods
(think about easy to eat food you'd give to someone if they were sick)
scrambled eggs are good too so you might want to make sure you have some eggs in the fridge
they will keep for quite a while under refrigeration.

If you are quarantined without illness in your home you food choices can be expanded but make sure you have sick-time foods.
Easy to eat, easy to get to, easy to prepare.

These are just a few main things to shoot for immediately.
Use your head, don't waste your money on things you hate to eat but also buy with an eye to ease of storage and shelf life. You want to get the most bang for your buck too.

There are some other things you'll want to get to make life easier if you are stuck in you house for awhile.

you'll need cash or funds for bills.
light bulbs
batteries for radio and flashlight
Lysol
Listerine
bleach
vinyl or latex gloves
N95 dust masks
paper towels
toilet tissue
soap
feminine items
toothpaste
vitamins
Tylenol
(don't take or give aspirin to a person running a fever, especially children, it can cause Rhys syndrome)

I'm going to add more to this this afternoon when I get all my ducks in a row.
I'll have something about caring for someone if they should get the flu and you are looking after them.

hope this helps get you started.

love,
mom a.k.a. Nanna

Hello Lisa!

2009-07-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Good morning Lisa, thanks for the comment!
about the soup mixes, here are some to start you off, they are from a post from last year.

Soup in a Jar

There are a lot of bean based mixes, which I like.
In any of these recipes can you substitute you own dehydrated vegetables for veggies called for in the recipe.
What I do sometimes is mix the beans together, then put my vegetables in another separate baggie. I wash the beans, put on stove with just water and bring to a boil, turn off the heat and cover and let sit for about an hour. You can pour off the water and add fresh water if you want to cut down on the gas from eating beans, it really seems to help.
then add your dried vegetables and cook according to the recipe.
Now last year, I made some soup mix that was mostly dried vegetables.
I'd put tomatoes, celery, onion, garlic, corn, okra, green beans and sometimes some dried tomatillos or other odds and ends. These could go in a big baggie or jar, then I mixed together powdered bullion, either chicken or beef, whichever you prever. I add crumbled dried herbs to it. I like basil but you can add other tasty herbs like parsley or oregano, rosemary, thyme. You get the idea.
I put these in their own little baggie as they would be added after the soup ingredients are tender.
You can also add a little bag of pasta too and add it when the boullion powder goes in.
It's really flexible. You can add left over chicken or beef to the soup too.
I have a jar of mixed dried beans that I add to the mixed vegetable sometimes. small beans like little peas or lentils. You don't have to precook and soak them like bigger beans.
I reallllllly like dehydrating.
You get more than twice or three times the food in the same space.
It' lightweight and easy to take on trips or to grab and run in an emergency.
here is a great website run by a very nice lady named Tammy.

dehydrate2store

she really knows about dehydrating and I highly recommend her videos.
She also is so sweet about answering emails.
thanks again Lisa for commenting. Hope that this was helpful and please don't hesitate to ask questions. I'm happy to help!
good luck.

pamela

Stock up on Seeds NOW

2009-07-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Good morning girls, I'm just in from the garden. Planted a second crop of green beans.
I was thinking about seeds this morning and wanted to impress on you girls the potential importance of going ahead now and getting your seed supplies laid up.
I'm going to the feed store after while and will go ahead and buy peas, beans and corn, and probably some spinach and other greens as well.
Here's my reasoning behind it.

If this fall, the flu comes through in a big bad way, I worry that the added load will collapse the economy.
I'm sure it is possible that it will all blow over and be ok but, just in case, it really wouldn't hurt anything to go ahead now while things are available and get yourselves some seeds.
If you have the money, I'd get whatever soil amendments you usually use too.
If the dollar collapses and we have hyperinflation, it is very possible that you wouldn't be able to afford seed next season even if you could find it somewhere.
so, go get some seeds!
store them in their paper envelopes in big jars or boxes or one of those plastic totes with snap on lids.
keep them cool and dry and in the dark, above all else, dry.
Don't store them on top of the fridge or close to a water heater or any electrical activity as far as that's concerned.
If you have a problem with insects or rodents, take those things into consideration when packing your seeds away.
If you use mason jars, try and pick a good dry day to pack them so as not to seal away moisture inside the jar with your seeds.
Just had this on my mind today and wanted to talk to you about it.
love,
mom

Pay Attention to this Flu

2009-07-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

Good morning girls. Sorry I haven't posted in a while but I've been busy as you know with the garden and putting up vegetables for this winter.
The garden has done very well and we've had an abundance of food!

I wanted to talk to you about the swine flu.
I don't know how much you have been reading about it or what you have seen or are seeing on the news where you live. Most likely you have heard that it is mostly a mild flu and been advised to not panic.
Well, that's somewhat right and somewhat wrong. It has been mild for the people it's been mild for and lethal to the ones that have died from it.
Don't be fooled into thinking that this is an illness that kills fat or unhealthy people only. It isn't. It is showing every indication of being much like the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. It is attacking people in your age group statistically more than people who are usually effected by the flu. i.e. babies and old people.
I have read and read and researched for weeks now, following this thing since it started and still, don't know how best to advise you.
Here's what I fear may be the real threat from this flu.
Economic collapse.
If this flu had come along back in the late 90's or even early 2000-01, I believe that our economy could have weathered the storm. However, this economy is hanging on by the finest of threads and severely increased absenteeism or quarantines and closures of businesses and schools could very well push us over the edge.
I want you girls to consider the food you have on hand in your homes.
Make certain you have 8-12 weeks supply of food and essentials. Include things like bleach and lysol, some Listerine and basic meds, vinyl or latex gloves and some dust masks like you can get at Lowe's or any hardware store. they'll say N95 on the package. Those are the recommended masks and aren't terribly expensive.
Have some extra things like light bulbs and toilet paper, batteries for flashlights, soap, paper towels and laundry detergent.
You want to think along the lines of, "If I want to stay here and not have to go out for a couple months, what would I need to have on hand."
You don't have to go crazy, (unless you just want to) but I think it sure wouldn't hurt to have what you'd need to just hang out in your house for a while if things get bad.
I'm trying to not ramble but I've so much I wanted to talk to you about!!!

At some point in the not too distant future, they are going to present us with a vaccine.
I doubt at this time that it will be mandatory as there will not be enough to go around.
60 to 100 million doses is what I'm seeing in the reports.
Front line health care workers, cops, firemen, critical infrastructure people will all be at the top of the list. Children and pregnant women also.

At this time it appears that they will have to triage the vaccine.
I want you girls to do some research while we have the luxury of time, into this vaccine and decide for yourselves if it were offered, would you take it.
Right now, personally I may not take it. I don't have much contact with the public as you know and wouldn't be at as great a risk. And if the flu gets really bad, and the vaccine provides some measure of protection, younger people should get it first. they are more likely to get the flu and be most harmed by it.
There are a many doctors comparing this flu to the 1918 pandemic. I found this documentary on the Spanish flu and you might like to watch it and get some background information of just how bad things can get.

watch the videos, and then read the piece below.
It was published in August of 2008. Before this flu had started.
It's about the 2005 exhumation of victims of the 1918 pandemic and how the anti bodies were isolated from them.

I sure hope these guys wear gloves!

In 2005, researchers from Mount Sinai and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., resurrected the 1918 virus from the bodies of people killed in the outbreak. The bodies, and the virus, had been preserved in the permanently frozen soil of Alaska.

When the investigators approached Crowe, whose lab had developed methods of making antibodies, to try to make antibodies to the 1918 flu, he was skeptical, but agreed to try.

The researchers collected blood samples from 32 survivors age 91-101 years and found that all reacted to the 1918 virus, suggesting that they still possessed antibodies to the virus.

Crowe’s team was then able to isolate exceedingly rare B cells – the immune cells that produce antibodies – from eight of those samples and grow them in culture. Seven of those samples produced antibodies to a 1918 virus protein, suggesting that their immune systems were waiting on standby for a long-awaited second outbreak.

“The B cells have been waiting for at least 60 years – if not 90 years – for that flu to come around again,” Crowe said. “That’s amazing…because it’s the longest memory anyone’s ever demonstrated.”

Don't make the mistake of thinking this flu is "No big thing."
It doesn't have to be as bad and 1918 to finish wrecking what is left of this economy, and believe me, that's all they are really worried about.

Peak Oil Doomers in the News!

2009-04-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hey, check it out! It's our forum! I believe that the lady is one of our forum members.

here's our site! Click the discuss tab at the top to go to our forum. Over 7000 members strong!
The discussion of fast crash vs slow crash is an ongoing debate among us.
I fear a fast crash, and hope for a slow one.

Texas and Georgia talk about Seceding

2009-04-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

Texas Wants to Secede

Georgia Wants to Secede

Well, what about that, I wonder who put the bee in their bonnet about secession?
Are they so freaked out about a black Pres. that they want to leave America?
Or is it like they say, they are pissed about the bailouts?
Who the hell isn't?
I don't take much of this too seriously as it seems staged to me.
Like a publicity stunt.
But if they did do something that stupid, how would they pay their bills without the US government sending them money for their budgets?
They wouldn't.
First thing they'd do of course is cut out all help for the poor. They hate giving money to poor people and what is funny as hell is that most poor people in the south that receive food stamps or welfare vote for Republicans! LOL
They hate Mexicans, and still don't like black people, they actually believe that if you work hard enough at your job you'll someday be rich!
Even poor people believe that people are poor because they're lazy or dumb. Or both.
They never seem to ask themselves, "Hey, how would it feel to be on the receiving end of my own hateful beliefs and attitudes?"
Well, tell you what, go ahead and declare yourselves independent and see what your states, run by boneheads just like you, do to you.

I'm figuring that as soon as they cut out all help for the poor and you'll have pictures on the news of hillbillies sneaking across the border into the northern states looking for help. How funny would that be!
The same people that holler and carry on about how the Mexicans are taking their jobs would be trying to cross the borders into Ohio or some other Yankee state, in the dead of night, then going house to house asking people if they need their lawns mowed. LOL
Of course we live in Tennessee and there would be loads of poor Tennesseans fleeing as well, myself included.

Yep, my guess is that within a week of seceding, or maybe less, the entire south would look a lot like Zimbabwe, or Nigeria, or Guinea, pick one.
They'll do away with those irksome civil rights laws and then Billy Joe Bob could concern himself with the monstrous race riots as they try to go back to the "Old South" way of doing things.
These people are crazier than a sackful of doorknobs! I know, I live here.
I love the south, and actually I love the people here but they can be swayed easier than just about any people I've seen anywhere if you can quote some Scripture to back up your idea.

It all sounds funny at first but think about this, Homeland Security has added extremist conservatives to the list of people to keep an eye on.
You have that, and then the behind the scenes puppet masters, prodding those folks, stoking the fires so to speak, trying to get them to DO something. And why? Why would that be?
What would happen if say, at some rally or bailout protest, violence broke out?
Why martial law, what else!

DHS is Watching Right wing Extremists

Oh well, if nothing else, the next few months will sure be interesting.

p.s. Listen to today's Survival Podcast, Jack went to one of the tea-bagging rallies and had some pretty interesting things to say about it.

Texas Wants Out!

2009-04-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

I just had to pop back in and post this!
What a Hoot!

Free Texas! And If They Won’t Go, Give ‘Em A Kick… -- Mark Ames from Team eXiled on Vimeo.

There’s word out today on drudge that the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has thrown his support behind a bill that would declare sovereignty for the state of Texas.

I got it from Exiled Online!
check it out.

Starting Asparagus from Seed

2009-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

There is a kick ass gardening blog, I've got it linked in the blog list but wanted to comment on it here too.
here's the blog, the part about starting asparagus from seed.

Garden of Eaden

It is one of the best gardening blogs I've seen.
Simple instructions and Simon answers questions and seems like a cool guy.

I have been thinking a lot lately of things that I could plant for food that are perennial and would come back every year. Fruit trees, berry bushes, artichokes, asparagus...etc.
I love asparagus and wanted very much to start some from seed as it is way cheaper and you get a lot more plants that way.
I decided also to use hybrid seed for this project as it is not an annual that I'll be harvesting seed from year after year and I wanted the biggest bang for my asparagus buck so to speak.
I've planted the Mary Washington, and have some now, but the production from it is quite low and I wouldn't want to have to count on it in the event of an emergency situation.
So, I found some Atlas F1 hybrid asparagus seed on ebay that a professional grower was selling from his planting this year and had left over. Another cool guy, he sent me extra seeds to make sure I had 100 plants.
I'm going to end up with way more plants than I'll have room for so I will most likely sell the extras.
Asparagus, if you can grow it in you area, is a wonderful early spring vegetable that should be in your garden.
These will produce for 15-30 years so someone will be enjoying these years after I'm gone!
Simon talks in his post about direct sowing but I'll have to plant in pots as I don't have a free bed for them yet and will have to come up with more room somewhere. LOL
talk about putting the cart before the horse!
I'll plant the seeds, then when the little plants get up high enough, set them out in their permanent bed.
Since asparagus has a shallow root system, I'll use some of neighbor Dave's weed cloth and put it down on the ground and build a frame for the bed and fill the bed with good weed free dirt to give the plants the best possible start.
This is my plan.
I'll take some pics to post as the project progresses and let you see how it's going.
Anyway, hope you girls are thinking about gardening.
It builds character!

love,
mom

Frankenstein Art Project

2009-04-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

A Patchwork of Flesh
is doing the coolest art project. Coop, the blogger, is collecting ACEO cards of original portraits of Frankenstein to put together a collection and possibly get a gallery showing of them. I got my little Frankenstein done this evening and he's in an envelope ready to go to England!
Across the big pond!
Thank you Coop for asking me, I'm honored to participate in such a cool project!
Good luck to you!

Any artists, professional or hobbyists that might be interested, check out the link above and get busy!
The cards have to be 2.5x3.5 inches, that's the only requirement.
I love this idea, it's like planting seeds. LOL

Open Letter to Bank of America

2009-04-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

this got posted in our forum today and is such a good letter I wanted you guys to read it.

letter link

Oh I got my new color pencils I won on ebay. I got 66 pencils! only paid less than 20.00 for them too.
If you use prismacolor pencils, you'll know what a good deal that was!

also, here's the new Survival Podcast show.

also, CBC did a show about PO doomers and mentioned our site! woo hoo!
here's a link to the show.

CBC Show.

Bird Flu Caller on Power Hour

2009-04-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

hey girls, thought I'd post this right away as I want you to listen to what this lady is saying.
roccman at the LATOC forum posted it today and I thought it was one of the most chilling call ins I've ever heard on a radio show.

Happy Easter, Seed Bombs!

2009-04-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter girls!
hope you have a great day.
there's a blog that someone on our forum named mos6507 has, and it is just great!
here's a link to it.

doomstead diary

watch the videos about seed bombing. The general idea is you get some seeds, mix with potting soil, flatten out a wad of clay and embed the seeds and soil mixture into it, roll up the clay, cut into pieces and roll into balls. Take these balls and throw them into unsightly vacant lots or whatever and hopefully they will find places to grow and over time, change the look of an entire area. You could use all kinds of seeds too.
flowers, vegetables like greens or bush beans, tomatoes, maybe even tree seeds.

Both of you girls live in cities where there are lots of vacant lots and stuff and you could easily do this.
I'll go by Dollar Store and get some seeds.

anyway, it's beautiful here today, sun is out and it's going to be warm so I'll be outside most of the day playing in the dirt!
love you girls,
keep preppping, and check out those videos on mos6507's blog, they are very inspirational.
Here's another link to an interview with the man who started "The Farm" in Tennessee.
thanks Tropicalgirl for the link. Great article.

Albert Bates Interview

p.s. check this out! Mr. Nelson at the gallery wrote about me in his blog!!
how cool is that!

Nelson's Gallery Blog

Day Before Easter

2009-04-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Hey girls, hope you are having a good weekend, we are.
Went to the art gallery and took several pieces, all new!
The little girl and bunny picture is also on Redbubble where people can
buy prints if they want.
The garden is coming along great! cabbages, collards, chinese cabbage, green onions, lettuces! woo hoo!
Neighbor Dave is putting up a little hot house for use to use to put potted up tomato and pepper plants in. I'm flat out of room in the greenhouse and need space to put the plants. We hope to sell lots of them to help pay for this springs expansion.
Dave put in I think, 7 4x8 ft. beds all a foot deep plus we had another big area plowed for our home gardening activities. hehehe
here's a picture of the greenhouse with it's rain hex.
May have to take that off if it keeps raining!
remember to keep prepping, it's just makes good sense.

Path to Freedom Urban Farm

2009-03-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

Girls, or anyone else that stumbles across this blog, check out these folks here.
The Dervaes family in California, and what they have done on their 1/10th of an acre propterty.
They say they harvest 3 tons of food off that 1/10th acre!
that is amazing.

Path to Freedom

Forum member Wishful posted this link today in a thread where we're talking about how much land does it take to feed a person for 1 year.

How Much Land Does It Take to Feed One Person for One Year?

You'd think that would be an easy question to answer but it's not.
I've been out among the interwebs this morning looking for some (not terrible technical) data about it and have found about as many suggestions and ideas and people answering the question.
It would depend on where you live, what you want to eat, the quality of the land, growing techniques used etc...
There are a lot of claims but not a lot of research that I could find yet.
But I'm still looking.
I found this on a site and it looks interesting. here's the link. http://ask.metafilter.com/77287/How-much-land-does-a-person-need

Quote
These are from speech notes from a guy named Jason Bradford, to a Rotary group in northern California. I don't know where he got them. The presentation used to be online here, but the link is broken, so I don't know where it is now.

Each person needs --
vegan food -- 3000 sq. ft.
a few eggs/week -- 3,500 sq. ft.
one chicken/week -- 24,300 sq. ft.
one cow/year -- 67,300 sq. ft.
posted by salvia at 9:51 AM on November 28, 2007

if you take the above and average it out, it comes to 24,525 sq. ft. per person per year.
according to and online conversion doo-hicky, that comes to 0.563016 acre. Or a little over 1/2 acre per person.
If I figured right, that would give a person a well rounded diet for a year from half an acre.
Of course, you can't raise a cow on half an acre and have room to grow everything else, including food for the cow.
So, let's remove the Cow.
out cow out!
now, we're looking at 10266 sq. ft. per person per year or 0.235674 acre, about 1/4 acre per person per year.
Wow.

I wanted to start a discussion about this hoping that for people looking to buy property, it would give them a better idea of how much land to buy.
so far, we've been talking about just land for food.
We'd want to add to that room for a modest home, and area for energy production which actually could be the roof of the house, or windmills that have very small footprints, area for water tanks for rainwater harvesting, and of course housing for your chickens or goats perhaps or rabbits.
If you plan on using wood for cooking and heating you would also have to add land big enough to renew itself as you harvest firewood over time.
so if you want to go beef free, a family of 4 would have to find a place with 1 acre of land for food, plus, land for the home and other buildings, plus woodlot.

If someone could find better numbers please post it.
I'd like to get some discussion going on this so that people have a more realistic idea about requirements when they go land shopping.
or, help people figure out how much they could do with the property they already live on.

So think girls what you could do with your yards!
Anyway, I'll be back later or tomorrow sometime, have to go to the gallery and get some new pencils!

love you girls,
keep prepping.

Hey Girls!!

2009-03-30T15:52:00.001-07:00

Girls, check out the little doo-dad I put up. You can see my new pictures I'm working on.
I've been a busy old nanna lately. The greenhouse is growing like crazy and I've got lots of plants to pot up. Neighbor Dave has most of them already sold for us at his working place so I hope that the plants do extra good.
Hope you girls are working on your preps in whatever way you can.
I still hope to be able to get and Excalibur 3000, 9 drawer dehydrator!!
I have time though, won't be harvest time for months yet.

Hey, did you hear about the meteor that hit in the ocean off the Virginia coast? One of our forum members was out in his truck and saw it.

Link to article

here's an article about it.

Mysterious light in sky, loud explosion rattles nerves in Hampton Roads

05:21 PM EDT on Monday, March 30, 2009

13NEWS

(VIRGINIA BEACH) - Emergency crews fanned out across the city looking for whatever caused a loud explosion Sunday night.

By Monday afternoon, there were many theories about what happened.

Dr. Robert Hitt, director of the Chesapeake Planetarium, believes a basketball-sized meteor, traveling approx 100,000 mph, was responsible for the disturbance.

He says most meteors are about the size of a golf ball and burn up on entry, so it had to be larger than that to produce the sonic boom.

A report on Space.com says a falling Russian rocket was to blame. The Website cites Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. He says he checked the listing for debris expected to enter the lower atmosphere from their decaying orbits around this time period. He found that second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched last Thursday was to hit during a window that started at 8 p.m.

At around 9:45 911 dispatchers started receiving calls from people reporting a light in the sky followed by a loud boom.
Video: Unknown light and loud boom over Hampton Roads
Larger screen E-mail this clip

Some reported that the explosion caused their homes to shake. Several callers to WVEC reported their doors and windows rattled from the explosion.

Emergency crews could find no evidence of any kind of explosion, however. No injuries, fires or damage were reported.

Hitt said he has spoken with two amateur astronomers who were out observing the sky Sunday night and saw the object. He said the object moved so fast, neither of them had time to pick up a camera.

The National Weather Service had few answers.

Meteorologist Jennifer McNatt said the service had been in touch with the Navy, Air Force and NASA, but none of those organizations had any unusual activity to report.

Officials at Norfolk International Airport had received reports of the light and explosion but said nothing was out of the ordinary at the airport.

The National Weather Service did tell officials in Virginia Beach that the reports of the light and the bang were coming in from Maryland to North Carolina.

The National Weather Service released this statement at 11:17pm Sunday:
Share Your Experience

If you saw or heard the object, tell us about it.

If you took a picture of the object in the sky, please send it to pics@wvec.com

Read Craig's blog

"Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning...and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far...we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."

anyway, interwebs are getting spotty so I'll post this right quick.
be good. Call me!

Earth Hour Tonight

2009-03-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

hey, turn off your lights tonight for one hour.
It won't kill you! LOL
I think I'll do that this evening. Turn off the lights. I think I'll turn these off from 9 to 10.
I invite you all to join me in the dark!

It's 8:30 now, in half an hour I think I'll pull the main switch and see how dark and quite it gets here. LOL
I'll have the battery on this laptop so I can tell you what it's like here in the dark.
muhahahaha

ok it's about a quarter till 9 now.
I finally found the camera so maybe I can take some pictures of the dark.
pictures of the dark.
that's odd isn't it?
LOL

I've gone around and turned off some things already so it won't freak out the fuse box when I plug it back in.

Wow, it is so dark in here with everything turned off!
it's 9:04 now and I just went out and took some pictures of the building.
Hope they turn out nice.
You know, people used to have been able to see really well in the dark! I about fell over the lawnmower going out to take pictures!
well, I think I'll turn this laptop off now.
see you all in an hour.
Happy Earth Hour day!

Ok, it's after 11:30, I did extra. I fell asleep!
It was so dark and quiet and I had laid down to rest a bit and dozed off.
LOL
I guess that was as good a way as any to spend my earth hour. I took some pics and will post them here soon as I get them off the camera later.
I may lay back down and finish up my nap!
Happy Earth Hour!

Ok, hot off the camera, our place in the dark! LOL
Check out the orb activity in the second one too!

and here is one more. Look! Orbs!

Ok that's about it for me tonight, I learned a few things from Earth Hour.
It's nice in the dark and I wish my neighbor's outdoor light would go out.
Also, I have got to get rid of some clutter before I turn out all the lights in this place again, and....the best way to spend earth hour? Napping. LOL

Rainy Spring Day

2009-03-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

It's been rainy for a couple days now, going to turn off cold tonight so I'll have to protect some cabbages and collards that are set out in the garden.
We have had some stunningly beautiful days this spring. Warm and bright.
I've recently been working on some art pieces and just watching and waiting.
President Obama seems to be a sincere honest man trying to do what seems best but he's likely to fail. This mess just seems too big to be fixed.
This system needs to die.

It's like watching some poor brain dead soul being kept alive with machines because some family members can't let go, can't turn lose and let the relative or loved one die with some dignity.
Here, we've worked on gardens, got the neighbors onboard and growing food. I suspect that one thing will be what really ends up putting food on all our tables in the days, weeks and months ahead.
Good luck to you girls.
try hard.

the credit crisis explained

2009-02-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

A forum member posted this today and it does a great job of explaining what has happened to credit and the banks.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

food dehydration videos

2009-02-11T23:14:00.001-08:00

this was posted the other day over at the forum and I really want you guys to watch them. Again, I can't impress on you enough how important the subject of food is going to become this year.

Save your MONEY!!!

2009-01-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

PacificDreamer at LATOC forum posted this Wall Street Journal article this morning and it really got my dander up!!!

Here's the LINK.

Here's a little piece of it.

Usually, frugality is good for individuals and for the economy. Savings serve as a reservoir of capital that can be used to finance investment, which helps raise a nation's standard of living. But in a recession, increased saving -- or its flip side, decreased spending -- can exacerbate the economy's woes. It's what economists call the "paradox of thrift."

there's also an article in Yahoo News HERE.

Here's a bit of that one.

If shock over the housing and stock market's losses sends the savings rate all the way back to the 11.2 percent notched in 1982, after the United States had endured two painful back-to-back recessions, it will prolong the current downturn.

That would also illustrate what the influential British economist John Maynard Keynes called the 'paradox of thrift'.

This described how the personal virtue of saving for the future becomes a collective ill if everyone does it at the same time, causing domestic demand to collapse and hurting everyone's savings because this slows the entire economy.

Do you see and understand what's happening here?
The little guy is finally figuring out what's important.
They are finally becoming aware of their own financial power when as a group, the herd decides to go a way different form the shepherd!
The Powers That Be are terrified of us acting in unison like this.
Save your money girls, watch where you spend, shop locally, buy used from second hand shops or yard sales. And especially important, DO NOT charge on a card or borrow from a bank!
Save every penny ( I mean that literally too, coins, oddly enough actually have more physical value than paper money as they are worth the value of the metal that went into making them. Paper money has practically no value at all. )

One easy way to save, besides change, is to save all one dollar bills.
every time you buy something, if you use a five and get two ones and change back, or whatever, put the ones up somewhere.
You'd be pleasantly surprised at how fast those one pile up and it has the psychological advantage of looking like a lot of money too.
If you have some things you could sell now to raise cash get on it. Hurry.
Get as much physical money on hand as you can.
If you must use a bank, check into a local bank or credit union.
Don't do any business with any branch of Citi, or JP Morgan, any of those big money sucking bandit tax robbing monsters!
We the people are finally making a difference. Vote with your dollar.
Vote for yourself and save the damned thing.
Keep stocking food and basic supplies as always, try to buy from local places, stay out of WalMart and the big multi national places.
Ok, that's my rant for now, I love you girls and hope you will listen to me.

love,
mom

Why Israel is Really invading Gaza

2009-01-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

Link to Article

What's really going on in Gaza is a resource war.
Israel wants control of the Palestinian's Natural Gas Fields as the above article points out.
They will dismantle the government in Gaza making all contracts null and void and take control of those fields.
All this crap about fighting terrorists is just that, crap, just like 911 was an excuse to steal Iraq's oil.
I wish there would be more concerning this on the news here. Not going to happen though.

Here's the article for you but you can check out the link above.

Hamas holding Natural gas discoveriss off coast of Gaza hostage in
Written by www.daily.pk
Sunday, 04 January 2009 02:08
Why It Rains: Hamas holding Israeli gas reserves hostage

British Gas, the company that signed an agreement to sell Gazan gas to the international market.
An unexpected energy windfall on Israel's doorstep promises to resolve Israel's energy security concerns for years to come. Unfortunately for Israel, it is the Palestinian Authority that controls the licensing of these reserves. So, as Operation Summer Rains washes away the administrative and political structures in the occupied territories, has Israel decided to use Hamas as an excuse to dismantle the PA and seize its energy assets
After the Iranian Revolution cut-off energy supplies in 1979, and the loss of Sinai's oil in 1982, Israel became dependent on expensive, long-distance energy imports. Towards the end of the 1990s, in an attempt to alleviate concerns over its energy security and reduce its dependency on imported oil, Israel decided to place a greater emphasis on natural gas. The architect of Israel's energy strategy at the time was Netanyahu's Minister of National Infrastructure, Ariel Sharon.

After Netanyahu's election defeat in 1999, Ehud Barak sought to take advantage of improved relations with Egypt to import some of Israel's gas from the Nile Delta 1. There was, however, political resistance to the deal from within both countries and, when relations with Egypt began to deteriorate with the start of the 2nd Intifada and Sharon's subsequent rise to power, the $3 billion deal was put on the back-burner. However, the possibility of avoiding dependence on such a politically contentious source arose in 2000 when several energy companies, including British Gas (BG), announced the discovery of significant deposits of natural gas off the Israeli coast 2.

Estimated at 100 billion cubic meters of proven reserves, these discoveries potentially offer enough gas to meet Israel's goal of supplying 25% of its energy needs for more than 20 years - even without further imports 3. The discovery has also raised realistic expectations of locating oil deposits beneath the gas fields.

Unfortunately for Israel, 60% of these reserves are in waters controlled by the Palestinian Authority, which has signed a 25-year contract with British Gas for further exploration in the area. Since this discovery, Israel has proceeded with the development of its reserves with the US-Israeli company Yam Tethys, but has been faced with an obvious dilemma over the Palestinian deposits 4. Keen to secure the gas for its domestic market but unwilling to submit its sensitive energy supplies (and their profits) into the hands of the Palestinians, Israel has for the past 6 years pursued a policy of non-commitment, stalling and obstruction.

Despite early endorsement of the British Gas plan to develop the PA reserves for the Israeli market, the intensification of tensions during the Intifada allowed Sharon to veto the Gaza deal on security grounds. With the exploitation of the Palestinian reserves halted and the Egyptian deal put on hold, Israel has used the Yam Tethys supply as a stopgap. However, as its hungry economy quickly bought up these reserves and prices began to rise Israel needed to act to guarantee its future supplies. After years of on-off negotiations between the two reluctant trade partners, in July 2005, Israel signed a 15-year contract for Egyptian gas 5.

However, following the signing of the deal it was revealed that - impatient with Israeli intransigence - Egypt, British Gas and the Palestinian Authority had also been secretly negotiating a deal to sidestep the problematic Israeli market. Within a month, the three parties announced their plan to extract Gazan gas, transport it to Egypt in an Egyptian controlled pipeline, and then ship it on in liquefied form to the international market 6.

The possibility that Israel could be permanently excluded from such a tempting energy windfall on their doorstep, and that the main beneficiaries would be Egypt and the Palestinians, has since prompted Olmert to reverse Sharon's veto and reopen negotiations with BG over the supply of Gazan gas to Israel. Despite the ongoing international isolation of Hamas, the BG deal was high on the agenda during Olmert's recent meeting with British Chancellor Gordon Brown 6.

Despite BG's commitments to Egypt and the PA, the company has announced that it is willing to enter into a deal with Israel. Within Israel, political legitimacy for the reversal has come from increasing criticisms of high prices caused by Egypt's effective monopoly of Israeli gas supply. Also, according to Haaretz, Israel is confident that it has enough influence to persuade Egypt to back out of the Gazan deal, with senior government sources asserting that: The gas off Gaza will come to Israel in the end. 6.

Until last week, Israel's confidence did not make any sense. The security situation that provoked Sharon's original veto of Gazan gas had not improved and it seems inconceivable that Israel would allow the PA, let alone Hamas, to reap the benefits of the Gazan gas fields. BG has made it clear that its Gazan gas will be developed soon, whether Israel likes it or not, but if Hamas is not to be the partner, then who is

The arrival of Summer Rains gives us a sour answer. If the ongoing attacks on Gaza succeed in destroying the Palestinian Authority as a viable political entity, all commercial contracts with the Authority, such as that with British Gas, will become worthless and will have to be renegotiated with the Israeli government. Perhaps the most valuable hostage that Hamas has in the current crisis then is not the 19-year old Israeli soldier, but the Palestinian gas reserves that Israel claims as its own, and may go to extreme lengths to rescue.

here is another article that talks about how Israel doesn't want Hamas to have the money from the reserves fearing that they would fund further military attacks against Israel. There are more links at the bottom of the article.
This is like trying to untangle a nest of snakes!

Article Link.

Ya'alon: British Gas natural gas deal in Gaza will finance terror
By Avi Bar-Eli

The public disagreements between former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon and the politicians running the country have reached a new level, and have put the spotlight on one of the most sensitive affairs in the Israeli economy: the negotiations with BG (British Gas) over the purchase of natural gas from the undersea field off the Gaza coast.

In an article written by Ya'alon that appeared Friday on the Web site of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), he accuses the Security Cabinet of not ordering military action in Gaza so that it would not damage the chances of reaching a deal with BG.

T
Advertisement
he Prime Minister's Office declined to respond to Ya'alon's comments.

The rights to the offshore gas field belong to BG (60 percent); the Lebanese construction and infrastructure company CCC (30 percent); and the investment fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent).

The Gaza Marine field was discovered in 2000 after years of gas and oil prospecting in the area, and the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas is worth an estimated $4 billion.

In a highly controversial move, then-prime minister Ehud Barak gave up Israel's rights to the natural gas field and gave them to the Palestinian Authority for free.

According to Ya'alon, the British government and Tony Blair pressured former prime ministers Barak and Ariel Sharon to agree to a deal, but Mossad head Meir Dagan objected to such an agreement, fearing the proceeds from selling the natural gas to Israel would not benefit the Palestinian public, but instead would finance more terror attacks against Israel.

The negotiations continued for years, due to both the problems of devising payment methods to prevent the transfer of the proceeds to terror organizations, as well as disagreements over the price of the gas.

More recently, the negotiations have been further delayed by a petition to the High Court of Justice by rival natural gas supplier Tethys Sea. Tethys Sea is asking the court to forbid an agreement between the state and BG without the publication of a tender.

Despite Sharon's refusal to agree to such a deal, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resurrected the negotiations with BG, and invested quite a lot of energy in trying to reach a deal over the purchase of the gas. This comes despite the increased terror threat from Gaza after the Hamas takeover, said Ya'alon.

"The prospect of an Israeli gas purchase may have played a role in influencing the Olmert cabinet to avoid ordering a major IDF ground operation in Gaza, even though there have been at least 1,000 rocket and mortar attacks against southern Israel since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007," he wrote.

He further warned that organizations associated with the international Islamist fundamentalist terror network would be highly motivated to attack British Gas' production facilities off the Gaza shore, and said he expected Hamas would increase its attempts to damage the Ashkelon power plant as the negotiations with BG advanced.

Ya'alon further claimed that since 2002, Israel has not held a serious, thorough discussion of the security implications of a natural gas deal with BG.

With his controversial statements, Ya'alon is continuing to make headlines.

"The British government seems to have pinned much of its Middle East policy on the successful outcome of British Gas negotiations with Israel. A September 18, 2007, report in the Arabic al-Quds newspaper noted that the British government views Gaza's natural gas reserves as central to 10 Downing Street's 'economic road map' for the Middle East. Tony Blair's position, first as prime minister and now as the very active Quartet envoy for Palestinian Economic Development, has been that the Palestinian Authority's share of the gas sale proceeds, which could reach well more than $1 billion, could serve as the economic fuel to jump-start the Palestinian economy and advance the peace process," wrote Ya'alon.

He further emphasizes that all the plans to bypass Hamas in Gaza are futile: "British officials have expressed confidence that the gas proceeds can bypass Hamas and benefit the Palestinian public by being deposited and monitored in international bank accounts. Israel also has proposed paying for the gas in goods and services. However, these assessments are mistaken. A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties, or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel - or all three."

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, an independent policy institution, was founded in 1976 by the late Prof. Daniel J. Elazar, and currently is headed by Israel's former UN ambassador, Dr. Dore Gold.

The JCPA states "it approaches its work without preconceptions to generate new ideas, which may prove vital in Israel's fight for survival."

"Israel must consider whether it can afford to be dependant on the Palestinians for such a critical energy asset as natural gas. If Israel becomes the Palestinians' main gas customer in a multi-year agreement, the PA or Palestinian terror groups could use the continued supply of gas as a lever to pressure Israel to make additional concessions and "gestures" as part of political negotiations. More significantly, the Palestinians could threaten to cut off the natural gas supply to Israel to prevent the IDF from responding to terror attacks and other threats emanating from Gaza or the West Bank," wrote Yaalon in his essay.

He concludes that while Israel needs additional energy resources, including natural gas reserves, "funneling $1 billion into local or international bank accounts on behalf of the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel bankrolling terror against itself."

Happy New Year !!!

2008-12-31T23:34:00.001-08:00

Well girls, here we are at a new year. It's 2:30 a.m. here now, I fell asleep earlier and missed the magic moment but it seems to be 2009 none-the-less.
It was good to see my youngest daughter and grandson over Christmas, especially the doom shopping!
We went to the Save-A-Lot and bought a car load of storable food for her pantry so I would shut up about it. LOL
Sometimes it is good to nag.
She bought pasta and canned food, beans, rice, all kinds of dried side dishes like chicken and spanish rice and pasta sides. She got raisins and oatmeal and sugar and cooking oil! The amount was impressive and I feel a lot better about her being so far away knowing she at least has a start on her food stocks.
I gave her some vegetables I had dehydrated from the garden too.

Now, if I can just get my eldest daughter stocked up, I'll finally be a little happier.
I sure wish they both lived closer to us here so I could keep an eye on them and help them more.

Something interesting happened this afternoon, neighbor came to the door and I looked out and there were all these guys in black leather with hair wandering around in the front of the building. It was a band that wanted to know could they take pics in front of the mill and garden for their cd cover. I asked what kind of music, they said rock, I said cool.
Here's a youtube video of theirs I found. Music could be darker, but that's ok, dude has good hair. LOL

Surviving Salem

Happy New Year girls!!

2008-12-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

this was posted by a forum member over at LATOC.

here's a link to the story that tells about it.

Link.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: “This song is an eloquent statement as to just how the City really views the public.”

Dimitri Orlov interview 5 Stages of Collapse

2008-12-20T13:18:00.000-08:00

Dimitri Orlov interview.

He's off on his assessment of our social conditions here. He thinks that troops should be used to provide security in urban areas.

Like Orlov says in this interview, you will need a few months supply of food to get through the troubled times and hopefully either get home here or find sources of food in your areas.
You will need to get,

dried beans, get some lentils as they are very good sprouted
rice
pasta
canned sauce
salt
pepper
dried fruits like apples or raisins
comfort foods like chocolate
pop corn
dried soup mixes
dried drink mix
flour
meal
grits
canned meats like little hams or canned chicken to add to soups

this is very basic and will be based of course on what you like to eat.
remember, you'll be living off this food quite possibly for several months to a year.
Look in your cupboards and see what you like to eat and go now, now, and buy some extra.
Do the best you can but you need to hurry.
Stop worrying about stupid Christmas presents and get yourselves secure.
Ok. That's it for right now.

love you girls,
mom

p.s. here's a little info I found on the benefits of sprouting food.
It's a great way to get live food into your system during dire times.

Top Ten Reasons To Sprout!

1. Only Pennies Per Serving
One tablespoon of seeds will fill a quart jar with several ounces of sprouts. A 4-ounce package will yield several pounds.

2. Simple and Easy
Take less than a minute per day to grow and prepare. They will grow nearly anywhere indoors, in any season. Sprouts require very little space and travel well. They are the ideal vegetables for campers, boaters and RV’ers. Complete, easy -to-follow instructions are provided in the sprouting kits, on the seed package labels and in the Handy Pantry’s book, Sprouting for Health in the new millennium.

3. Fresh and Ready Quickly
This “garden in your kitchen” grows very fast, in any kind of weather. No digging, planting, weeding, pests or chemicals involved. And there’s no long wait, as in seasonal outdoor gardens. Just 3 to 7 days to a bountiful, nutrition-packed harvest. When stored in your refrigerator, they will stay fresh for days- even weeks if rinsed properly.

4. Toxin-free Food
Sprouts are as sweet and pure as Nature intended food to be. The Handy Pantry supplies only natural, untreated seeds, with up to 99% rates of germination, grown especially for sprouting. Almost everything we carry is now organic.

5. Complete Foods
Sprouts are real health food. They are full of life- as you will see in how fast and luxuriously they grow. The right combination of sprouts contains everything needed for life and health. All their many nutritional elements are easily assimilated and readily available to your body. When home-grown, you know they are pure, and you can enjoy them at the peak of their perfection.

6. Tasty and Delicious
Bursting with flavor, you may be surprised how truly delectable they are. Enjoy them in salads, on sandwiches, stir-fried, steamed, or even baked in wholesome, home-made breads. You will find several recipe ideas in our book, Sprouting for Health in the 90’s.

7. Highly Nutritious
Several contain more protein than cooked meat-at a tiny fraction of the cost. The presence and balance of amino acids makes this protein more digestible. All sprouts are rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, and fiber. When exposed to light, several become rich in chlorophyll. For specific nutritional qualities of each, see Sprouting for Health in the 90’s.

8. Low in Calories / Fat
One fully-packed cup of alfalfa sprouts contains only 16 calories. These are simple sugars for quick energy. Sprouts contain no cholesterol and provide several essential fatty acids. Sprouts are the perfect weight-loss and body-purification food for the 90’s.

9. Help Detox your Body
Chlorophyll helps cleanse and oxygenate the blood. Enzymes aid in the digestion and assimilation of nutrients, and contribute to the body’s life force. Fiber aids elimination and their lecithin helps the body get rid of cholesterol. A raw food diet is one of the best ways to detox your body.

10. Build your Immune System
Antioxidants protect you from radiation and toxic chemicals. They help the body to cleanse, detox, rebuild and heal itself. Sprouts are rich in antioxidants and help protect you from the health scourge of the 90’s— toxic build-up. Antioxidant enzymes are especially important, because they are essential for the proper function of the immune system. Sprouts are one of the best sources for these important nutrients.

IEA talks about Peak Oil!

2008-12-17T07:42:00.000-08:00

George Manbiot interviews Fatih Birol of he IEA about Peak Oil.
This is a must see video. click here.

This was posted in the forum this morning and I wanted you girls to watch it. It is so important for you to be aware of what's going on concerning world energy supplies. You have no idea how this is going to change the world.

keep stocking food.

love,
mom

Winter, and The Great Depression 2, are closing in

2008-12-06T01:23:00.000-08:00

Here's the scene from the front door a few days ago. Winter is closing in.

We've moved downstairs to try and stay warm now that cold weather is upon us.
It's so much easier to keep this one room warm and I've tried to fix it up better so it's not too bad at all. I feel like just drawing up and closing the door against the world right now anyway. The news is so troubling these days and I'm afraid that the reality is actually worse than the news lets on.
I hope you guys have been listening to me and have stocked up on food and bought seeds for next year. You need so much more but if you will do those things it will help you tremendously as things get worse in the first half of the coming year.
Try and put up a bit of cash as well and shoot for a minimum of 6 months supply of basic foods.
So many things are lining up in the background right now that will hit us later. Like the price of oil. It's cheap right now and will probably get cheaper but for God's sake don't count on it staying like this for long. Use this time and the money you are saving on gas to buy food and put up some cash.
The food is going to be the most important thing you can have, that and a safe water source.
I know you girls get tired of me harping on this but it would put my mind at ease if I knew that you had plenty of food to get by on.

Oh, you girls, if you are still using credit cards you really need to read this article. Casaubon's Book.

The credit card is the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being jobs, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst noted.

“In other words, we expect available consumer liquidity in the form of credit-card lines to decline by 45 percent.”

Credit card companies are pulling over 2 trillion in credit. That means that most people will see the available credit on their cards decline drastically. Where one day you may have $2000 in credit, it could become $1200 or less. I don't know if you would be immediately billed for the balance over the new limit or not but it seems like you would be. Say for instance you have $1500 in charges and your new amount was lowered to $1200, would you have to pay the $300 right away?
This is one of those background things I mentioned before. Add to this the fact that now 10% of the population is on food stamps and one in 10 mortgages are delinquent and you begin to see how deep this disaster goes.

Jeff Farias

2008-11-26T15:10:00.000-08:00

I like to watch Jeff Farias in the evenings from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time.

Palin Turkey Unblurred

2008-11-25T21:50:00.001-08:00

Here it is, with Keith Oberman no less!!

The Gleaners

2008-11-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

Girls, this is something you should check into doing where you live.
See if farmers allow gleaning after their harvests.

Thousands glean fields in Denver

That tens of thousands of people came to a Weld County farm on Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks could be one of the most palpable signs of a depressed economy.

The Miller family, which owns 600 acres of farmland outside Platteville, decided to hold a free food day because they had tens of thousands of pounds of extra produce at the end of their fall festival. Any day now, a deep freeze would ruin it, so the family let people come to the farm today to collect what they could haul.

They expected between 5,000 and 10,000 — but instead found themselves inundated with cars and people with buckets and wagons and barrels ready to harvest whatever was available. They estimated the crowd at more than 40,000 people.

"Overwhelmed is putting it mildly," said farm owner Chris Miller. "People obviously need food."

Cars snaked around the cornfields starting at 8:30 a.m., and at one point, Miller said, she had 30 acres of farmland turned into a parking lot. Traffic was backed up to Interstate 25 and police officials ticketed people who had abandoned their cars along highways 66 and 119 for the food frenzy.

Sandra Justice brought her mother and her son and collected about 12 bags of fresh produce. She said the activity brought some levity in a downtrodden time.

"Everybody is so depressed about the economy and everywhere you look the weather is going bad and the economy is going bad," said Justice, who works at a technology company in Fort Collins. "This was a pure party. Everybody having a great time getting something for free."

Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com

Sarah Palin Turkey Pardoner

2008-11-20T19:13:00.000-08:00

Guys, you have got to watch this surreal Kafkaesque video.
I mean this is a hoot and a half.
Check out the dude in the background killing the turkeys!!
Could be the sound of Palin's God awful voice was what was killing the birds and Sling Blade was just putting them out of their misery. LOL

Soon as the uncensored video becomes available, I'll post it.
You know,there's just something "Friday the 13th" funny about that woman.

An example of the Magnitude of the Problem

2008-11-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

Forum member atomicat posted a link to this youtube video illustrating the foreclosure problem where he lives in Detroit.
This is before the auto makers go out of business, and before the winter cold saps the last available money from many of the families that live there.

I Smell a Rat!

2008-11-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

You know, like millions and millions of people I was really happy to see Obama get to be Pres. However, over the past couple days, I'm beginning to think that what we've done is elected the first black Republican.
Not only is he thinking of appointing Hillary as Sec. of State, but hell, the Republicans are in favor of it. And you know why that is? She's a Republican.
Makes sense to me anyway.
Check this out. Newsday.

Here's a snippet.

GOP applauds Hillary as potential secretary of state

Hillary Clinton would be "a very good selection" as secretary of state, the Senate's second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyle of Arizona, said in an interview with Fox News Sunday morning. "It seems to me she's got the experience. She's got the temperament for it. I think she would be well received around the world," Kyl said.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (R, N.D.) told Fox he didn't think she would have trouble winning confirmation. "She's worked across the aisle, has good bipartisan relationships" and "would have instant credibility around the world," he added. The U.S. has "a lot of relationships to repair and a lot of work to do, so I think she'd be a fine choice."

I wanted more than almost anything to be done once and for all with the Bushes and the Clintons. But no, no, they're like some sort of spreading rash. They just keep popping up and spreading irritation wherever they go.
Good grief.

Oh, and I heard on the radio that, that old war criminal Henry Kissinger, supports Hillary for Sec. of State.
All I can tell you girls is to prep like crazy!!!

Dried Soup Mix Recipes

2008-11-15T18:53:00.001-08:00

Ok girls, here you go.
With some tweeking, (or not) theses are handy to have on hand and would be a great addition to any doomer pantry.
These recipes were originally for Christmas presents but I have put mine in smaller plastic zip lock bags and then put several of them in gallon plastic jars. What I've been doing is dehydrating my vegetables and putting them in the soup mixes instead of counting on having fresh carrots and onions and celery etc.
If you do that, for instance in the Chicken Noodle Soup recipe below, keep your pasta separate and cook the vegetables till rehydrated and tender, then add the pasta and finish cooking.

SOUP-MIX-IN-A-JAR RECIPES

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP MIX
Stir together the following ingredients, and store them in an airtight jar:
1 cup fine dry egg noodles
1 ½ tbs. chicken flavored bullion granules
½ tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/8 tsp. each celery seed and garlic powder
1 bay leaf

Attach to Jar:
Add entire contents of jar and 8 cups water to a large pot. Slice in 2 carrots, 1 stalk of celery, and 1/4 cup minced onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Allow this to simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add in 3 cups of cooked diced chicken, or even left over turkey, and heat an additional 5 minutes. Mmmmm...It's so good!!!!

SOUP MIX IN A JAR
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup dehydrated onion flakes
½ cup split peas
½ cup ABC, small shell, or ring macaroni (any small shape pasta will do)
1/4 cup barley
½ cup lentils
1/3 cup non-instant white rice
tricolor spiral pasta

Use a canning funnel or any funnel that has about a 2-inch neck. This will make it easier to fill the jars with the ingredients. Be sure to use a wide-mouth, 1-quart canning jar. Layer ingredients in the order given: bouillon, onion flakes, split peas, small shape pasta, barley, lentils, rice, and enough tricolor spiral pasta to fill jar.

Attach to Jar:
Soup Mix in a Jar
In large kettle, brown 1 pound ground beef or stew beef cut into bite-size pieces in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or rolls and a tossed salad. ENJOY!!

CALICO BEAN SOUP MIX
1/3 cup yellow split peas
1/3 cup green split peas
1/3 cup dried lima beans
1/3 cup dried pinto beans
1/3 cup dry kidney beans
1/3 cup dried great Northern beans
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine yellow split peas, green split peas, limas, pinto beans, kidney beans, great Northern beans, onion, bouillon granules, cumin and garlic powder. Pour into jar until ready to use.

Attach to jar:
Calico Bean Soup Mix
8 cups water
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 pounds smoked ham hocks

Bring Bean Soup Mix and water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit 1 hour. Return pot to heat, stir in carrots and celery. Stir in ham hocks, bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, until beans are tender, skimming fat as necessary. Remove ham hocks from soup. Remove meat from bone, chop and return to soup. Heat through and serve.

COUNTRY SOUP IN A JAR
½ cup barley
½ cup dried split peas
½ cup uncooked rice
½ cup dry lentils
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon lemon pepper
2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
½ cup uncooked alphabet pasta
1 cup uncooked twist macaroni

In a wide mouth 1 quart jar, layer the barley, peas, rice and lentils. Then layer around the edges the onion, parsley, salt, lemon pepper, bouillon and the alphabet pasta. Fill the rest of the jar with the twist macaroni. Seal.

Attach to Jar:
Country Soup Mix
Add contents of jar to 3 quarts of water
2 stalks of chopped celery
2 sliced carrots
1 cup of shredded cabbage (optional)
2 cups diced tomatoes.
Over medium low heat, cover and simmer about 1 hour, or until vegetables are tender.

FRIENDSHIP SOUP MIX IN A JAR
½ cup dry split peas
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup pearl barley
½ cup dry lentils
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons Italian-style seasoning
½ cup uncooked long grain rice
½ cup uncooked alphabet pasta
2 bay leaves

In a 1 ½ pint jar, layer the split peas, bouillon, barley, lentils, onion, Italian-style seasoning, rice, and bay leaves. Place the macaroni in a square of plastic wrap and put in the jar. Seal tightly.

Attach to Jar:
Friendship Soup In A Jar
Soup Mix
1 pound ground beef
3 quarts water
1 can (28 ounce) diced tomatoes-undrained
1 can (6 ounce) tomato paste
pepper and garlic to taste

Remove macaroni from top of jar and set aside. In a large pot over medium heat, brown beef with pepper and garlic; drain any excess fat. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and soup mix. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the reserved macaroni, cover and simmer 15-20 minutes more or until the macaroni, peas, lentils and barley are tender.

LAYERED PATCHWORK SOUP MIX
½ cup barley
½ cup dried split peas
½ cup uncooked white rice
½ cup dry lentils
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dried sage

In a wide mouth pint jar layer the barley, split peas and lentils. In a small plastic bag combine the parsley flakes, minced garlic, pepper, salt, garlic powder, herb seasoning and sage.

Attach to Jar:
Layered Patchwork Soup Mix
Empty jar into a colander, rinse and pick over beans. 2. Place beans in a large stockpot and cover with 10 cups water. Stir in 1 chopped medium onion, and the seasoning packet. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Check after 30 minutes and add additional water if necessary.

LOVE SOUP MIX IN A JAR
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup dried minced onion
½ cup dried split peas
½ cup uncooked twist macaroni
1/4 cup barley
½ cup dry lentils
1/3 cup long-grain white rice
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

Use a canning funnel or any funnel that has about a 2-inch neck. This will make it easier to fill the jars with the ingredients. Be sure to use a wide-mouth, 1-quart canning jar. Layer ingredients in the order given: bouillon, onion flakes, split peas, small shape pasta, barley, lentils, rice, and enough tricolor spiral pasta to fill jar.

Attach to Jar:
Love Soup
In large kettle, brown 1 pound ground beef or stew beef cut into bite-size pieces in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or rolls and a tossed salad.

POTATO SOUP TO GO MIX
1 3/4 cups instant potato flakes
1 ½ cup dry powdered milk
2 tbs. chicken bullion granules
2 tsp. parsley
1 ½ tsp. dried onion flakes
1 ½ tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/8 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp ground white pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir until mixed. Store in a 1 quart, airtight jar.

Attach to Jar:
Potato Soup to Go
Put ½ cup mix into a bowl. Add 1 cup boiling water. Stir and enjoy!!

TURKEY NOODLE SOUP MIX
1 cup uncooked fine egg noodles
1 ½ Tbsp. chicken-flavored bouillon
½ tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. dried whole thyme
1/8 tsp. celery seeds
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients in a jar.

Attach this to the Jar
Turkey Noodle Soup
1 jar Turkey Noodle Soup Mix
8 cups water
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/4 cup minced onion
3 cups cooked diced turkey

Combine the Turkey Noodle Soup Mix and the water in a large stockpot. Add the carrots, celery, and onion and bring to a boil. Cover the soup and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Stir in the turkey and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

CHRISTMAS SOUP MIX
½ cup split peas
1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup pearl barley
½ cup lentils
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 cup raw long-grain white rice

In a 1 ½ -pint jar, layer the ingredients in the order listed. Seal the jar tightly.

Attach to Jar:
Christmas Soup
In a large soup pot, brown 1 pound of ground beef or 1 pound cubed chicken breast; drain. Add 3 quarts of water, a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes with their liquid and the soup mix. Bring the mixture to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 1 hour.

TRAILBLAZER BEAN SOUP MIX
Serves: 6
1 c. pinto beans
1 c. black beans
1 c. kidney beans
1 c. yellow split peas
1 c. black-eyed peas
1 c. lentils
1 c. green split peas
1 c. Great Northern beans

In a pint jar, layer 2 Tb. of each legume in order listed, until jar is full. Screw on lid.

Attach to Jar:
Trailblazer Bean Soup
1 pt. bean soup mix
7 c. water
1 ham hock
1 garlic clove, minced
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 tsp. chili powder
1-2 tsp. salt
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2 carrots, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped

Place all ingredients in a slow cooker pot. Cover and cook on medium for 7 hours or until beans are tender.
(May cook soup in a stock-pot on the stove. Cover and simmer until done.) Remove meat from ham hock and return to soup. Before serving, add 3 T. lemon juice. Top soup with sour cream or grated cheese.

15 BEAN SOUP MIX
1 pound dried black beans
1 pound dried red beans
1 pound dried kidney beans
1 pound dried navy beans
1 pound dried great northern beans
1 pound dried baby lima beans
1 pound dried large lima beans
1 pound dried pinto beans
1 pound dried green split peas
1 pound dried yellow split peas
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 pound dried red lentils
1 pound dried green lentils
1 pound dried brown lentils
1 pound dried cranberry beans

Combine beans in a very large bowl. Pour 2 cups into a large Mason-type jar.

Attach to Jar:
15 Bean Soup
15 bean soup mix
1 smoked Ham Hock
2 cans (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes
1 medium onion
2 ribs celery--chopped
1 clove garlic--minced
1 bay leaf--minced
6 cups water
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin

Cover bean mix with water and soak overnight. Drain beans and place in a stockpot. Add ham hock, tomatoes, onion, celery, garlic, bay leaf and 6 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce to medium-low, cover, and simmer 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients; continue to simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender. Serve warm.

PASTA SOUP MIX IN A JAR
½ Cup Macaroni - small shells, etc.
1/4 Cup Lentils - dry
1/4 Cup Mushrooms - dried, chopped
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese - grated
1 Tbsp. Onion Flakes
1 Tbsp. Chicken Soup Base
1 teas. Parsley
½ teas. Oregano
1 Dash Garlic Powder Granules

Mix all ingredients together in a one pint canning jar, and store with tightly sealed lid, until needed.

Attach to Jar:
Basic Pasta Soup
Combine contents of jar with 3 cups water, in a 2 quart saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer 40 minutes or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. Makes 4 servings.

HOLIDAY BEAN SOUP MIX
1 Lb. Dried Black Beans
1 Lb. Dried Red Beans
1 Lb. Dried Kidney Beans
1 Lb. Dried Navy Beans
1 Lb. Dried Great Northern Beans
1 Lb. Dried Baby Lima Beans
1 Lb. Dried Large Lima Beans
1 Lb. Dried Pinto Beans
1 Lb. Dried Green Split Peas
1 Lb. Dried Yellow Split Peas
1 Lb. Dried Black-Eye Peas
1 Lb. Lb. Dried Green Lentils
1 Lb. Dried Brown Lentils

Combine beans in a very large bowl. Pour two cups of bean mix into quart jars. You could also layer the beans in the jar for prettier effect. Just put a little of each of the beans in until you fill it to the top.

Attach To Jar:
Holiday Bean Soup
Beans from Jar
1 Smoked Ham Hock
2 Cans ( 14.5 Oz each ) Stewed Tomatoes
1 Medium Onion Chopped
1 Clove Garlic Minced or 1/4 teas. Watkins Liquid Garlic Spice
1 Watkins Bay Leaf
6 Cups Water
1/4 Cup Fresh Parsley
1 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
2 teas. Salt
1 teas. Chili Powder
1 teas. Cumin Seed
Cover beans with water and soak overnight. Drain beans and place in a stockpot. Add ham hock, tomatoes, onion, garlic, bay leaf and 6 cups of water, and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cover & simmer 1 hour or until beans are tender. Remove bay leaf before serving. Serve warm. Makes 11 cups of soup.

PALOUSE SOUP MIX
You can make Palouse Soup or a Minestrone variation with this mix.
2-1/2 cups green split peas (16 oz)
2-1/2 cups lentils (16 oz)
2-1/2 cups pearl barley (16 oz)
2 cups alphabet macaroni or brown rice
1 cup dried onion flakes (2 3/8-oz. pkgs)
½ cups celery flakes (1 3/8-oz. pkg.)
½ cups parsley flakes (1 1/4-oz. pkg.)
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Store in a jar with a tight- fitting lid. Stir before using. Makes 10 cups of mix.

Attach to Jar:
Combine 1 cup of soup mix with 4 cups of water or seasoned stock in large pan. Add 1 cup of cooked chopped meat, if desired. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover pan. Simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes, or until peas are tender. Add ½ teaspoon salt if desired.

MINESTRONE VARIATION:
Combine 1 cup of soup mix with a 16-oz. can of stewed tomatoes, 2 to 3 cups water or stock, 1 chopped carrot, 1 to 2 chopped potatoes, and ½ teaspoon basil. (Optional: 1 clove minced garlic). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover pan. Simmer 45 to 60 minutes or until peas are tender. Add ½ teaspoon salt, if desired.

FRENCH MARKET SOUP IN A JAR
1 pound dried navy beans
1 pound dried pinto beans
1 pound dried great Northern beans
1 pound split peas
1 pound yellow split peas
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
1 pound lentils
1 pound dried baby lima beans
1 pound dried lima beans
1 pound dried soybeans
1 pound pearl barley
1 pound dried red beans

In a very large container, combine navy beans, pinto beans, great Northern beans, split peas, yellow split peas, black-eyed peas, lentils, baby limas, limas, soybeans, barley and red beans; mix well. Divide evenly into 14 lidded jars.

Attach to each Jar:
French Market Soup
2 quarts water
1 ham hock
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Soak 2 cups French Market Bean Mix in water to cover, 8 hours or overnight. In a large soup pot, bring 2 quarts water and ham hock to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Remove ham hock. Stir in soaked beans, salt, pepper, diced tomatoes and green chiles, onion and garlic. Bring to a boil again, skimming foam off the top. Reduce heat, cover and simmer about 1 hour, until beans are tender.

MUSHROOM-BARLEY SOUP MIX
½ C dried barley
1/4 C dried mushroom slices
2 T dried onions, minced
1/4 C dried carrot slices
2 T dried parsley flakes
2 T dried dill
2 bay leaves
2 beef bouillon cubes, or 2 tsp. bouillon granules

Combine ingredients in a plastic bag, glass jar, or any tightly sealed container. Store in a dark, cool place.

Attach to Jar:
Mushroom-Barley Soup
Add to 1 quart boiling water and simmer until barley is tender. Remove bay leaves before serving. Can add meat of your choice. Serves 4

MINESTRONE
4 beef bouillon cubes, or 4 tsp. bouillon granules
½ C dried onion, chopped
½ tsp. dried garlic, minced
½ C dried navy beans
½ tsp. dried oregano
2 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
1 C dried tomatoes, sliced or chopped
1 C dried celery slices
1 C dried carrot slices
2 C dried green beans
2 T dried green pepper
1 tsp. salt

Combine or layer ingredients in jar.

Attach to Jar:
Minestrone
Add to 4 quarts boiling water and simmer over low heat 2 to 3 hours, until beans are tender. Remove bay leaves and peppercorns before serving. Add meat if you desire. Serves 8 to 10.

CHICKEN SOUP WITH BOW NOODLES
approx 3 ½ cup Bow Noodles (farfalle)
1/4 cup Mushrooms -- dried, chopped (opt.)
2 Tbs Minced Onion -- dried
3 Tbs Chicken Bouillon granules -- instant
1 Tbs Parsley flakes
1 teaspoon Thyme
6 -7 whole cloves

You can do this two ways. You can layer the bow noodles with the spices in between (except for whole cloves). Or you can put the noodles in the jar with the spices tied up in a baggie.

Attach to Jar:
Chicken Soup with Bow Noodles
Bring 8 cups water to boil in a large pot. Add contents of jars EXCEPT whole cloves. Push whole cloves into a small onion and drop into soup. Simmer until noodles are done appro 8- 12 minutes. The cloves gives this soup a WONDERFUL flavor!!

TORTILLA SOUP MIX IN A JAR
1 cup converted long grain rice
2 to 2-1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips
1 (5 oz.) can chicken

Seasonings: Mix the following and place in a thin zipper sandwich bag.
2 T. chicken bouillon granules
2 t. lemonade powder with sugar
1 t. lemon pepper
1 t. dried cilantro leaves
½ t. garlic powder
½ t. ground cumin
½ t. salt
1/4 cup dried minced onions

In a quart jar place the ingredients in this order:
Place rice in jar first.
Place seasoning packet into jar next. Gently flatten bag so it is visible from all sides of jar.
Fill jar with tortilla chips.
Put lid on jar.
Attach can of chicken to top of jar.
.
Attach to jar:
Tortilla Soup
Carefully empty tortilla chips from jar into a dish. Set aside. Remove seasoning packet. Set aside Place rice in large pan. Add 10 cups water and 1 (10 oz.) can diced tomatoes and green chilies and seasonings from packet. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Add tortilla chips. Cover and simmer 5 more minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 12 cups soup.

SPLIT PEA SOUP MIX
2-1/2 cups green split peas (16 oz. pkg.)
2-1/2 cups lentils (16 oz. pkg.)
2-1/2 cups pearl barley (16 oz. pkg.)
2 cups alphabet macaroni (8 oz. pkg.)
1 cup dried onion flakes
½ cup celery flakes
½ cup parsley flakes
1-1/2 teaspoons thyme
1-1/2 teaspoons white pepper

Store in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Stir before using. Or layer in pint or quart jars.
Makes 10 cups of mix.

Attach to Jar: Combine 1 cup of soup mix with 4 cups of water or seasoned stock in large pan. Add 1 cup of cooked chopped meat, if desired. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cover pan. Simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes, or until peas are tender. Add ½ teaspoon of salt if desired.

LENTIL SOUP MIX
1 cup split peas, divided
½ cup lentils
½ cup red lentils

This recipe calls for 1 cup split peas and 1 cup lentils. Divide that quantity among several colors if you can find them. If not, just use green split peas and brown lentils.

Seasoning Packet:
1 Tb. dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. dried minced garlic
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. sage
½ tsp. garlic powder

Place ½ cup split peas into a wide mouth pint jar. Top with ½ cup lentils. Follow with remaining ½ cup of split peas and remaining lentils. Mix seasoning ingredients in small bowl. Place in sandwich bag and tie seasoning into a corner of bag with a piece of ribbon.

Attach seasoning packet along with this recipe to jar:
Lentil Soup
Empty jar into a colander, pick over peas and rinse well. Place in large pan with 7 cups water. Add 1 chopped medium onion, and seasoning. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally. For a thicker soup, remove cover for last 15 minutes.

For variation: Add 1 lb. chopped ham.

BEEF BARLEY SOUP KIT
1 pint jar or 2-cup container
3/4 cup medium pearl barley, separated
½ cup dried lentils
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1/4 cup dried minced onions
1/4 cup instant beef bouillon
2 tablespoons dried celery flakes
½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried minced garlic

Layer soup kit ingredients in jar in order listed, using half of barley first and then the rest at the top. Close jar securely with lid.

Attach to jar:
Beef Barley Soup
2 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut in ½- to 3/4-inch pieces or 2 pounds lean hamburger
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Beef Barley Soup Kit
10 cups water

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium heat and brown the meat. Pour off drippings. Add the contents of soup kit jar and water to Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover tightly and simmer 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours or until beef is fork tender. Discard bay leaves. Makes 8 servings.

Earthquake PSA for my westcoast daughter

2008-11-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

hey, I found this and thought you should watch it if you haven't seen it already. I hope you never need it.

Earthquake PSA

Peter Schiff, Financial Nostradaumus

2008-11-15T06:24:00.000-08:00

I first heard Peter Schiff about 3 years ago on Jim Puplava's Financial Sense broadcast and have listened to him ever since.
The video below is a compilation of his tv appearances 2006-7 and shows just how scary right he was about things. It also shows that many of the business and financial talking heads you see on tv are paid shills. Wonder who's laughing now though?

And here, watch this. This little guy talks about some serious doom.

From Capella at LATOC

2008-11-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

This fascinating story was in the forum and I thought it was something you girls should read. It's by Capella at LATOC.
Get with it girls, time is passing quickly and next year is going to be rough for so many people.

Just a little anecdote from my time in Nova Scotia that I would like to share with you:

I was staying on a small organic farm which was run by Shambala Buddhists and just down the road from Dorje Denma Ling, a Shambala Meditation Centre. While I am not into Buddhism myself (and remain highly sceptical of any form of religion or rather religious institution), I very much enjoyed the company of those people and was impressed with their wisdom and insight. At one night I was invited to a party at the Dorje Denma Ling staff house and we had the wildest and most interesting discussions about oil, food and the world in general.

Someone mentioned what is said to have been the last words of Chögyam Trungpa, founder and former leader of the Shambala movement. "We have to grow our own food." At least that is the "official version". This could have been dismissed as the last sentiments of a dying man (who drank himself to death, BTW, a fact that followers of the Shambala teachings normally forget to mention). It is what he whispered after that, to weak for many people to hear, what turned those words into a dark and scary prophecy: "We have to feed the refugees."

This seriously have me the goose bumps when I first heard this and still replays like a strange, warning mantra over and over again: "We have to grow our own food. We have to feed the refugees."

Daughters, you need Bug Out Bags!

2008-11-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what to write to you girls this morning and I realized that I haven't talked to you about stocking a bug out bag for emergencies.
Think of a BOB (bug out bag) as what you would want to grab and run with in the event of a disaster like a hurricane or earthquake or if you have to leave your home because of civil unrest close to home.

Here are a couple youtube videos about BOBs.

this one is funny but good ideas nonetheless.

Ok, hopefully you girls watched those and you will begin to quickly, quickly assemble your BOBs.
I'll write more about this later.
Oh, I'm going to put a can of seeds in mine, for sprouting or, for planting. Just in case. hehehe

The Crash of 1929

2008-11-09T17:39:00.000-08:00

Girls, you really should take and hour and watch this documentary about the stock market crash back in 1929.
It was posted in the "Life After the Oil Crash" forum by Dimmie. The link will take you the Breaking News page and you should check it when you have time to keep up with what's going on. Matt Savinar who runs the site, updates Breaking News everyday so there's always something interesting and important to read.

But back to the documentary.

The similarities between the situation then and now is amazing.
There are differences I noticed too. Back then it seemed as if more people were directly involved in the Markets. Grandpa was. He and grandma had worked at Goodyear rubber company in Ohio and were living a good life till they lost everything and had to move to Tennessee to live in great grandma and grandpa's boarding house.

Now, people seem to be in the markets in a round about way.
Their 401k plans and pension plans have been invested in the stock market. That's my understanding of it so far anyway. Their money was invested in financial instruments that were actually people's mortgages that had been mixed and bundled together and many of those were bad loans. I wish I knew more about all this, it is very twisted and so confusing.
All I can tell you is I hope you girls have a little cash stuck back to help in the coming year.
It would be good to have some silver too if you can take physical possession, not paper gold or silver, but the real deal, in you little hands.
You can find it on eBay, or maybe at a local coin shop or possibly a bank. It's getting harder to get physical metals and that's what makes the falling price of metals look so suspect. Even though the price is falling, it's getting very very hard to find, so you'll end up paying over $20.00 and ounce for silver Eagles even though the spot price is around $10.00 right now.

Anyway, stock food first!!! Staples especially! What you want to shoot for is like I said before, a year's supply and barring that, at the very least you need enough to get you to the next gardening season, and buy you some time to get past the worst of it and make other plans.

IOUSA

2008-11-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

Good morning girls, I found a 30 min, condensed version of I.O.U.S.A. the documentary about our national debt.
Make sure you watch it, maybe we'll get the full version soon.
Here's the site where I found it and where you can comment, (like I did. hehehehe)

IOUSA

The more I thought about it and watched the video, the more pissed off I got. They failed to mention the BILLIONS in unclaimed social security money collected every year mostly from undocumented workers.
Those folks, have in the past, made up SS# to get jobs and of course never collected on that money. What a robbery, what a scam, to steal the money we have paid in and then turn around and act like the boomers are the root of all economic evil in this country.
Anyway girls, watch the video and tell me what you think.

The Worm Guy

2008-11-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

Girls, I've been meaning for ages to show you this video. You know, you can't just keep gardening in the same spot forever without adding nutrients back to the soil and earthworms are a great way to do that.
Check this out.

Food Calculator

2008-11-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Good morning daughters, a forum member, Lamont put this link at the forum and it is a great tool for planning your food storage needs. Click on the food calculator link below and enter the number of people in you group or family that you are prepping for, then come back here and finish reading this post! LOL

Food Calculator

Now, when you read the amount of food you'll need for one year, don't freak out!
LOL
It does look like a lot but remember your gardens! Your gardens, even small ones will pick up the slack for some of the food listed there.
You should however shoot for the amount of food on the list in the event of garden failure. This list will be a great starting point for you.
Remember, this is just a guide. If there are things on the list you know you won't eat, (and I know there are) then substitute things you do like.
I would put popcorn on the list. Raisins and prunes or dates, nuts, canned meat like hams or tuna or salmon etc...
This calculator originates from the LDS church and I believe that they are vegetarians.
I'm not certain and someone correct me if that is in error. But if you add canned meats, stews, chili, etc, to the list that will help.
Meats and soups and stews containing meat are more dense with proteins and calories which is what you really want to count.
Although salt is listed, spices and herbs are also not on this list, you'll want to make sure you have things like garlic, pepper, cinnamon, basil, oregano, or whatever herbs and seasoning you use on a regular basis, added to your storage. Imagine having to eat beans and rice with nothing but salt for an entire year!
But this calculator is a great place to begin addressing that food stockpile issue.
Oh, and get on it! Food prices are set to increase by AT LEAST 7% over the coming year. Check out the article here. Food Prices to Spike. I copied and pasted it here for you but the above link will take you to the reuters article.

Steep food price increases on way: experts
Thu Nov 6, 2008 4:50pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. food prices will rise by at least 7 percent in 2009 because of higher feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle, said a group of food-industry economists on Thursday.

It would be the third year in a row that food prices rose faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate. Food inflation is the highest since 1990.

"The sizable increase in the cost of producing food has not been fully passed on to the consumer," said private consultant Bill Lapp. He foresaw food inflation of 7 percent-9 percent in 2009.

During a teleconference, economists from the National Chicken Council and the consultancy Farm Econ said food inflation could be 7 percent-8 percent. The teleconference was arranged by a group of major foodmakers.

Wholesale prices for items used by foodmakers have climbed more rapidly than grocery and restaurant prices, so higher consumer prices are in store, said Lapp.

Although grain prices have declined since summer, this year's corn, wheat and soybean crops are forecast to fetch prices at the farm gate that are double their 2005 levels. Corn and soybeans are major ingredients in feed rations.

"We've been losing money for more than a year," said Bill Roenigk, economist for the Chicken Council, who said producers intend to cut production by as much as 12 percent. "We need to recover these feed costs."

Thomas Elam, head of Farm Econ, said poultry, hog and cattle producers would cut production in coming months because of feed costs, meaning less meat on the retail market but at higher prices.

Menu prices are restaurants up 4.3 percent so far this year, the largest increase since 1990, said Hudson Riehle of the National Restaurant Association. He said one-third of each sales dollar goes to food purchases.

Agriculture Department forecasts also say pricey meats will drive food inflation in 2008.

Americans spend more than $1 trillion a year on groceries, snacks, carry-out foods and restaurant meals. Farmers get 20 cents of the food dollar. The rest goes to processing, labor, transportation and distribution.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Another thing to watch for during the coming holiday season, super sales!!!!
Retail sales are falling off a cliff and you could be able to buy many of the things you need this season on sale!
Hope you girls are being good and doing the right thing, I'm sure you are.
Love,
mom

Eating Their Own

2008-11-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

I honestly feel sorry for Sarah Palin.

An Amazing Night

2008-11-05T06:02:00.000-08:00

Well girls, looks like we got ourselves a new president.
I know you girls voted and I'm proud of you and proud of our country.
Last night, when I watched all those people in Grant Park and in gatherings around the country, I remembered why I have always loved this country.
Having grown up in Georgia with whites only dry cleaners, and water fountains and schools, it meant a lot to me to see us do the right thing finally.
When I saw all those happy black faces with tears streaming, I was so proud for them and for all of us. I had happy tears too and believe maybe that old way of thinking is finally blessedly dead.
Thank God.
There are still hard times ahead of us but at least now we can face them with a spirit of hopefulness and not be afraid.

love,
mom

This is a Bad, Bad Idea

2008-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

"i have issues" at the LATOC forum posted this story today.

Prayer at the Golden Bull

We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion's Market,' or God's control over the economic systems. While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.

Just found some video of the prayer at the golden calf event.

The original story comes from Wonkette.

You know, sometimes you just don't have words to describe how stupid something is, this is one of those times. Those jackasses have really done it now. Now we'll have to wander in the wilderness for 40 freakin' years!
And doesn't praying for money seem a bit uncool anyway?
At any rate, I hope you girls are doing the right thing and stocking your pantries and laying back some cash for emergencies.
Here's a list you might find helpful. I found this at our forum and it is from a blog that someone who survived the Argentine collapse had put together. This might be a good list for you girls to work from. Or anyone else that happens across this blog. If it's not on the list, add garden seeds to it.

be safe,
love,
mom

100 Items to Disappear First

1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy...target of thieves; maintenance etc.)
2. Water Filters/Purifiers
3. Portable Toilets
4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 - 12 months to become dried, for home uses.
5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpile ANY!)
6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.
7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.
8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.
9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar
10. Rice - Beans - Wheat
11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)
12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)
13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY - note - food grade if for drinking.
14. Mini Heater head (Propane) (Without this item, propane won't heat a room.)
15. Grain Grinder (Non-electric)
16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.
17. Survival Guide Book.
18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)
19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.
20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)
21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
22. Vitamins
23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)
24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.
25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)
26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)
27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)
28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)
29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).
30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels
31. Milk - Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)
32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)
33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)
34. Coleman's Pump Repair Kit
35. Tuna Fish (in oil)
36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)
37. First aid kits
38. Batteries (all sizes...buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)
39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)
41. Flour, yeast & salt
42. Matches. {"Strike Anywhere" preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first
43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators
44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)
45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, "No. 76 Dietz" Lanterns
47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience; Historic Times)
48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels)
49. Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
51. Fishing supplies/tools
52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams
53. Duct Tape
54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes
55. Candles
56. Laundry Detergent (liquid)
57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags
58. Garden tools & supplies
59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies
60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)
63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel
64. Bicycles...Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc
65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats
66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)
67. Board Games, Cards, Dice
68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer
69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets
70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)
71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)
72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)
74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)
75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase
76. Reading glasses
77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)
78. "Survival-in-a-Can"
79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens
80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog
81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)
82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky
83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts
84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)
85. Lumber (all types)
86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)
87. Cots & Inflatable mattress's
88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.
89. Lantern Hangers
90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts
91. Teas
92. Coffee
93. Cigarettes
94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)
95. Paraffin wax
96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.
97. Chewing gum/candies
98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)
99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
100. Goats/chickens

From a Sarajevo War Survivor:
Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war - death of parents and
friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing cold, fear, sniper attacks.

1. Stockpiling helps. but you never no how long trouble will last, so locate
near renewable food sources.
2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden.
3. After awhile, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war
quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold's.
4. If you had to go without one utility, lose electricity - it's the easiest to
do without (unless you're in a very nice climate with no need for heat.)
5. Canned foods are awesome, especially if their contents are tasty without
heating. One of the best things to stockpile is canned gravy - it makes a lot of
the dry unappetizing things you find to eat in war somewhat edible. Only needs
enough heat to "warm", not to cook. It's cheap too, especially if you buy it in
bulk.
6. Bring some books - escapist ones like romance or mysteries become more
valuable as the war continues. Sure, it's great to have a lot of survival
guides, but you'll figure most of that out on your own anyway - trust me, you'll
have a lot of time on your hands.
7. The feeling that you're human can fade pretty fast. I can't tell you how many
people I knew who would have traded a much needed meal for just a little bit of
toothpaste, rouge, soap or cologne. Not much point in fighting if you have to
lose your humanity. These things are morale-builders like nothing else.
8. Slow burning candles and matches, matches, matches

Daughter of Slave Casts Vote for Obama

2008-10-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

I gotta tell you that this story touched me deeply. I'm still so moved just thinking about it.
Check it out.
Amanda Jones.

Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country's first black presidential nominee.

Girls, I really want you to read that article and think about what that means. It is enormously
wondrous and special in a rare and blessed way.

Fellow Seed Saver's Blog

2008-10-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

Concha's Cauldron is a friend from LATOC who is starting a seed swapping site and with some help from all you seed savers out there it will be a great opportunity to learn a little about seeds and expand your seed collection.

the great robbery

2008-10-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Link

the link above will take you to a radio broadcast mp3

here's a link to the site.
KPFA FM

Pretty much girls, we're in a mess.
I hope you are buying a little food along as you can and storing up on things.
It's going to be so important to you as time goes by.
If you get a gov. stimulus check, DO NOT buy worthless Christmas crap with it!
Buy food, or things to help you get by. Or save it as cash, or, pay off debt.
This is the best advice I can think to give you. Oh, and get some garden seeds put up too.
I'll have more later, I'm working on getting seeds from this year's garden packaged up and will be sending you some soon.

love,
mom

Gas Supplies

2008-10-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, one more for today, slow_dazzle, at LATOC posted this youtube video of Matt Simmons speaking at the recent ASPO (Association for the study of Peak Oil) conference.
You guys should watch this.

also, go here and read about Ghawar going into depletion. Here's a little bit of the article.

Running Dry

No country is more important to oil markets than Saudi Arabia. The kingdom produced roughly 9.2 million barrels of crude a day in 2006, and accounted for 19 percent of world oil exports. Many analysts expect it to supply a quarter of the world’s added production over the next few years. And as the only producer with significant excess capacity, it has played a crucial role in alleviating temporary supply disruptions, increasing daily production by 3.1 million barrels during the first Gulf War, for example, when oil production in Iraq and Kuwait dropped by 5.3 million barrels.

Are They Trying to Incite the People?

2008-10-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Something a bit frightening has been bubbling up in the news recently, and that is the tone of potentially violent rhetoric coming from the presidential campaign.

Some of us at LATOC forum are wondering if this is perhaps purposeful? An effort to cause the elections to have to be suspended because of violence? It's a thought.

ok one more thing and I'll leave you alone.

http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2008-1011-2.asx

Time is Short

2008-10-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10504

a forum member posted the above link to an article that I think you girls should read, and anyone else who happens across this dark corner of the web.
Here is the article. I want you girls to get your acts together, tomorrow, if trading is halted and the banks closed, could be the beginning of some bad times.
You need cash, you need food in your house. Fill you gas tanks. Next week may turn into a mess so be ready.

I love you girls,
mom

FEMA sources confirm coming martial law

By Wayne Madsen

Global Research, October 9, 2008
Wayne Madsen Report

WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.

On April 3, 2008, WMR reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario:

WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the document.

The document is being called the "C & R" document because it reportedly states that if the United States defaults on loans and debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are propping up the United States government financially, and the United States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that will have disastrous results for the United States and the world. "Conflict" is the "C word" in the document.

The other scenario is that the federal government will be forced to drastically raise taxes in order to pay off debts to foreign countries to the point that the American people will react with a popular revolution against the government. "Revolution" is the document’s "R word.

Dow is Falling

2008-10-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

good morning girls, I wanted to leave this for you to watch, maybe get and idea about what is going on. I don't know if the bailout will work or not, maybe it will slow things down a bit and buy some time. If you can, get some cash to have on hand just in case. Try and have some food in your homes and keep abreast of the news. Know when it's time to go home and stay put, or bug out. Maybe it won't come to that, I sure hope it doesn't.

a good explaination for the credit crisis. go here, click on full episode.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

sixty minutes video.

Stay Calm But Have Some Cash

2008-10-05T05:51:00.000-07:00

Ok girls, I've read now on a couple different forums about how they plan to close the banks Monday or one day next week so they can re-do the banking system.
I want you to go and get some cash soon as possible, if you have money in the bank take enough out to get you by for a week. If nothing happens next week, no harm done, you can put it back in the bank.
This coming week could get bad, I want you to stay calm and don't panic. Protect yourselves.
I'll be back later with more as if I find out anything.
Remember, your mom loves you.

added, please go here and watch this video, it thoroughly explains the money system.
Zeitgeist-Addendum

also, watch this short piece from Amy Goodman.

Emergency Post

2008-10-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

I want to thank akliberty at LATOC forum for posting a link to this video.
Evidently, before the first vote, some members of congress were threatened to force them to vote yes on the bailout bill. They were told that if they voted no, that the market would fall thousands of points and that martial law would be declared in America.

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/vidLink.php?b=1222992417&e=1222993617&n=1 http:

please click on the above link and listen to congress, this is vitally important.

Hurry

2008-10-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

"Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head,
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."

from Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Coleridge.

I used that quote in the forum this morning and think it pretty well describes the way many people are beginning to feel. Like something bad is coming up behind us. Something is.

Seems that the Senate has voted in the bill and it will be voted on by the House tomorrow I think.
The news on Bloomberg is saying that when the market declined 777 pts. the other day that all those millions of people that had emailed, faxed and phoned their representatives suddenly changed their minds and now are all screaming for the passage of the bill.
That's a big pile of bull shit.
Don't fall for it.

I'm listening to news now and some Senator was saying that even if this bill passes, the economy will still be in bad shape. So what's the point? Power, it's a power grab.
I did a picture called the Bilderberger Kings Rev. 9:11

Jan. 2008

Think about it.

Had to go downstairs last night to sleep as the temp is 39 and cold upstairs.
I'm upstairs now though, to reload the dehydrator, drying peppers and some onions for dried vegetable soup mix for this winter. If you haven't bought some extra groceries for the coming hard times, hurry.

Web Bot Predictions 2008 2009

2008-09-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this and found it more than interesting.

Web Bot Predictions for 2008 / 2009
By: John Kehne
www.December212012.com

Since its conception in the late 1990’s, the Web Bot Project has made a number of very accurate and insightful predictions regarding coming events. Originally designed to track stock market trends, the Web Bot uses a system of spiders that crawl the Internet looking for patterns of behavior, trends and chatter pertaining to coming events. This tool is believed to be able to forecast the future by tapping into the collective unconscious of society.

One of the first accurate predictions from the Web Bot program took place in June of 2001. The program predicted that a life-altering event would take place within the next 60-90 days. An occurrence of such proportion that it's effects would be felt worldwide. The program based its prediction on "web chatter" and regrettably, the prediction proved accurate when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11/2001.

Throughout its short existence, the Web Bot has accurately predicted many other natural and man made disasters such as the 2001 anthrax attack on Washington DC, the East Coast power outage in 2003 and the earthquake which lead to the December 26 2004 tsunami. It is even credited with predicting hurricane Katrina and the devastating events that followed. In addition, the Web Bot has foretold of a global devastating event expected to take place in late December 2012.

Even more remarkable is a series of predictions made back in late 2006 about the coming events of late 2008 through mid 2009. Although these predictions may or may not pan out to be completely accurate, it is interesting to evaluate each one based on its own merit and relationship to the times in which we live. The following is a breakdown of these predictions.

- September 22-27 2008 are seen as precursor dates to a significant event expected to take place on October 7 2008.
Closely watch events during September 22 through 27 2008 for hints as to what to expect on October 7 2008. Although the predictions are not specific, the event is expected to be as significant as the events of 9/11.

- October 7 2008 to February 19 2008 will be filled with emotional intensity
The Web Bot has never picked up any event lasting this long. In comparison, the events of 9/11 lasted about 10 days. This event will be four months of high emotion.

- In October Global emotional release event begins – largely economic.
The rest of the world will begin to seriously question the stability and reliability of the U.S. dollar.

- Catastrophic collapse of the dollar is possible – as the language is active around that concept.
The Web Bot foresee consumer society confidence collapsing by mid November 2008. This could be a direct result of the recent government bailout and failure of several large financial institutions in the U.S. along with the devalued U.S. dollar and the increased cost of living.

- Global economic collapse possible in Fall 2008 cascading off the U.S. woes.
Think of the U.S. economy as a lit fuse that was lit over the early part of 2008. The rest of the world has no choice but to react to the declining U.S. dollar and the enormous amount of debt that the U.S. has accumulated and put upon itself.

- May be a global replay of what the 1932 bond crash in the Great Depression was.

- Tensions build in cities, encounters scarcity.
As the cost of food, fuel and other necessities of life continue to rise so does peoples level of stress. As the holidays approach, individuals find themselves taking extreme actions that they would have never considered in the past.

- The populace of the US impacted by a condition like posttraumatic stress. It will be something like “time shocked” or “time stunned”.
Just as you wrap you head around one big change or traumatic event, another will come along which will be bigger and harder to absorb.

- Mood of the population improves: People have a renewed sense of optimism that the corporate/elite can and will be replaced in the elections but the ‘us against them’ grows.
This appears to be directly related to the upcoming presidential elections. People will briefly experience a renewed optimism and confidence in the promises made by the new president, but the mood will quickly change when they realize that it is business as usual in Washington.

- Possibly early elections, or at least calls for that because of anger.
This seems to relate to Israel and the possibility of early presidential elections necessary to curtail the increased threats from Iran.

- In late 2008 the rest of the world’s currencies are ‘touched off’ by the dollar and U.S. decline.
The continuing instability of the U.S. economy and financial systems will prove to be a catalyst for global unrest and uncertainty.

- The Web Bot foresee a West Coast/Vancouver area large-scale earthquake around December 12, 2008.
Many have seen signs of this coming for quite some time. This may not be the “Big One”, but it will prove to be significant and very devastating to the area.

- There will be a 2009 winter/spring natural disaster, which caused people to become angry about government response.
With the dramatic increase in natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and more, the government’s inability to respond to the immediate needs of the people will prove to be devastating for many.

- The Web Bot foresee that the winter in the Northeast will be very cold, causing some schools to close, and then later to reopen as shelters for people who can't heat their homes.
Language suggests that the shortages will be caused by a lack of supplies, cost of fuel, or both.

- Global Coastal Event likely in early to mid 2009
The Web Bot sees a permanent loss of low-lying territory globally and foresees that one continent in particular will get hit badly, but it does not say which one. Places to avoid: anything at sea level (Bangladesh/Florida/ etc).

It would appear that many of these Web Bot predictions seem to focus on the economy both in the U.S. and around the world, and the underlying threat of these predictions is being felt right now. With the recent multi-billion dollar government bailout of many financial institutions, the U.S. has entered into an economic disaster that is sure to destabilize the financial future and well being of many.

Prepare yourself for what is coming. The Web Bot tells us that for the remainder of 2008, bad will only get worse.