We made our bed...

ill it be 'Purple' or Grandma's Feather Bed?

Sustainable living thought challenge...

I looked up Sustainable to be sure I understand what it means...first off it's an adjective..and it means: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.

Is your lifestyle sustainable? I been asking myself this question a lot lately in view of current events...What if suddenly your source of income is shut off, or suddenly the wheels of services stop moving there is no gas, no electricity, no water coming out of your faucet?  What would you do? 

Sunflowers seeds are edible!

We all need to have a contingency plan. Even if that plan is "go to my brother's home" Maybe you have family with land where food can be grown you can pool your strengths...Im not talking about one day without electricity or even a week but a lonnnng time until we could come together and make our "grid" sustainable.

Considering we don't have our homes taken away by the armed goons...some of us may survive...Lately I've become a doomsday thinker because I saw how quickly goods disappeared here in only 2 weeks time, and  how quickly the Law n Order attack people who are out there trying to get something....what if they were protesting because there is no food?  My point  is the reaction we will get no matter what our reason for being out is gonna be violence.  They (the cops, the army, the Trump Humps) will drive us down and beat us dead. 

If you don't know the plants around you now while it's possible maybe educate yourself!   Buy a book about edible plants?  This is low bush blueberry...if  you know where to find it, if there is no freezer to preserve it how can you save this to eat another day? Preserves need pectin or sugar, you don't have any?  No flour to make a cobbler...now what? If you don't have a canning set I'd buy one.  I need to buy a new stock of jars and lids and Im trying to learn about fermenting.  I have one sour kraut  crock but I want a bigger one. Not planning to make kraut but you can ferment tomato, snow peas, zucchini, and other vegs.  

I want to find a good book on Canning too.  I'd like to find one from say about 1920.  I also want a cast iron Dutch Oven JIC I have to cook over fire outside!! I have some cast iron but not enough so Im going to get some extra's to have on hand.  I have an old enamel canning pot with  the rack and the tongs, and I know how to can.  I don't know for every veg but all I need to know is the ones I can grow.  Teflon is not going to cut it!

 ...there is animals in the woods, Honestly could you kill a animal?  I could not. But I would try to stop anyone who tries to kill one on my property.  But I know that most people of that persuasion their plan involves using their guns to take what they want.  None of their other toys will be working, no ATV's no big pick up trucks, they will be on foot or bikes.  Just think about it? If there is only off grid power sources very few of us have this in place and wont in our life time thanks to a capitalist system that is not for creating sustainable living.  That reminds me I need some bicycle tubes.  

Having water at hand is important cause it's heavy to carry!  How far could you carry a 5 gallon bucket of water?  I can learn from this deer...because I know its a hot evening she just bedded down in my field in the low spot where some water stays,,,it has cool damp moss.  She is staying cool.  Also dragon fly and frog are always out there and I saw a field mouse run away the other day out of the tall grass...so take cues from animals. 

I think many of the tiny home dwellers have good back up systems in place they could survive if they can find a source of food...I have my bit of land here I could forage on and I have wood for cooking and heat... I can collect rain water in a bigger container, and I need to grow more food LOTS more...oh man this is gonna be way harder that I thought.  And I will eventually starve to death! My dogs know which mushrooms to eat I see them finding mushrooms and eating them all the time...but I've taken note of what kind they are, 

 

These geese could  become food?  But there is not enough Geese to go around...Just look what happened to the toilet paper?  

So for my future I want to concentrate on building a more sustainable life for myself so when the Z.A. comes I'm ready for it.  Even with growing your own food if you don't grow enough to preserve some for non growing seasons  you're still screwed.  My granny used to grow a big garden every year and she canned all summer as it came in.  She still had many of the old ways in use at her home.



The other day one of the cucumber I picked had a worm in it, so growing my own food may be impossible!!  I watch this You Tuber from Australia. His channel is called Sustainable Me.  He and his wife recently did a challenge to eat solely off what they have grown on their land and provide for themselves for 21 days! And they did...the main disadvantage  was they had not preserved enough food...such as canned veg, tomato, and fruits.  They forgot to grow for today what they will eat tomorrow. 

UP against critters...this youngster was in the yard with his Mother they were after the bird feeder..

My climate is harsh and my soil is poor not really good for growing anything its very acidic but the main problem I have is predation by critters. I had a larger garden area, but ended up doing away with it because the critters ate and destroyed my efforts...before it could produce, or they take the veg or fruit before it's ready for me to take...So I see the weak spots in my ability to sustain myself on my homestead...and the harsh summer I will probably die due to the heat, so I would have to travel to the coast or by a lake and live off fish and whatever I could find there I guess. 

not even enough for one day of survival...

I want to change that...my whole point is this: As a nation we fight about things that in the long run we can't eat...meanwhile our farms grow industrial products, our yards are full of pretty flowers, garden centers have 5 times more flowers than food seedlings for you to buy...we don't have enough single family housing, (40 acres and a mule) for individuals and families to have a sustainable life, and  we have lost much of our skill set for survival. 

If it's every man for himself, most of us will not survive.   Last month as you recall I got nervous! So I took like a months food budget and purchased canned goods...and I put it away.  Now my next idea is Seeds .. IN fact due to seasonal marketing I challenge you to even find seeds in a store near you..You will probably go in for seeds and find Halloween Masks!! Well hopefully it will be make a good scare crow. 

BOO

All this fighting and bickering about statues and only a handful of people have a sustainable lifestyle?...I was such a flower child I honestly thought we would be sustainable by now but look at us, we fight over ideology while people die of hunger, and disease...and this little "pause" in production showed me we would have enough to last for ONLY 2 weeks if the wheel stops moving. One sector of the population is prepared to take what you have at gunpoint... So I would say buy a bigger gun? I dunno the answer to that problem...but A good sling shot is a pretty good weapon. Rocks are much more plentiful than bullets!! 

Silent Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall?

We spent TRILLIONS on weapons, while farmers were overthrown by BIG AG. Their lands erode and go barren and if you don't have all the chemical to spray on it nothing will grow.  OUR farmers who keep getting the bail outs...they can not and DO not grow food...feeding the world--------> not exactly!!....feeding the Corporate machine....positively. 

small family grown hay field

They grow GMO corn and soybean a little wheat, some other grains...but  their entire operation depends on the grid....Electricity, Gas, and computer run Machinery...they are growing ethanol, ingredients for processed food, feed for cattle, hog, chicken, sheep, to be slaughtered for McDonald's, Walmart, Burger King, and so on.   Do you know it's all animated?  Even the planters, sprayers, combines drive themselves using Ag Leader technology.  So the farmers are only middle men in this Big Ag Corporate take over of our Agriculture system in this country. They tell them what to grow and how to grow it, and it is not food. 

  If  you want to know sustainable think...Amish. This is in a museum...but we may need to put these back in action.

I watch a Youtube  farmer in Iowa... his farm is a multimillion dollar operation, but when he planted a little garden by the side of his house it DIED not one plant grew.  He is a 3rd generation farmer on that same farm since late 1890's and he could not grow a little garden...They have no knowledge of how to really grow what we need...I think he was shocked when he realized he can't even grow a little food garden.  


Lucky we still have a few mills still in operation,
Idaho grows potatoes but not without animation.  It would take longer than we have to get those potatoes from field to farmers market using the old ways...it could be done but we have to do it together.  All that sugar beet they grow in MT, ND, etc what you think they do with that?  You guessed it Animal Feed...so all our framers with exceptions of small organic operations, are growing food for Animals, it's not growing food for us to eat.  Cattle, pig, sheep, and chicken raising on a big level should be stopped period.  You want steak---- grow it yourself!
nearby peach orchard depends on migrant labor to pick the peaches

As we have turned our Country into a fascist controlled Industrial society we have given away our survival methodology and knowledge.  Out of 95 species of corn on this planet how many are non GMO or not OWNED by a private company?? Mexico had the good sense to say no to Monsanto and their GMO. Only 5% is non GMO world wide.  5%.   I ordered my winter garden seeds from Parks, they say all their seeds are NON GMO...I wonder if that's true? 
old enamel pots and feed sack fabric...

 The pandemic is only a taste of what we could go through as our Capitalist system begins and continues to fail us. I was having a conversation with a conservative, and he kept talking about socialism and how bad it is, and I said OK, just send me  your stimulus check no problem...and you can sign over your SS Retirement to me too...and be sure you pull your kids of those socialists public schools, and don't visit that socialist public library or let those Socialists paid Cops, Firemen, EMS, and ARMY people be around you....and don't you dare visit a National Park, that's Socialism. Never mind signing up for unemployment if you lose your job that's accepting a socialist handouts! Kinda shut him down pretty quick. Even Trump is paid by Socialist money....lol 

IF we can't come together as a society (call it what you will)  and help each other we will not survive, the old will need help from the young, the young will need the wisdom of the old, there should be no left or right....just US...we need to preserve the knowledge and the skills from every direction, from all cultures and all types of people....if we don't then what?

Survival depends on how we respond to the needs...will people just go looney and grab what they can or will they try to come together and each be a part of the hive? Not much of the old ways still exist but if we have to go back to square one, how far back is that?  Before electric lights...

...so ironic.....  we're doomed, and maybe we all agree on that!!

(This was Written July 24th)