Nobody has said it yet, but the Coronavirus has turned into a TEOTWAWKI event. Not the kind of “end of the world we knew” event that we all expected, but still one nevertheless. No matter how many people end up getting sick and how many die, the current changes in the ways we do things are so severe, that many of these are likely to end up becoming a permanent part of our society.
Some of them will not necessarily be for the best. Our government, at all levels, has taken a huge amount of authority upon itself, much of which is of questionable legality. While I don’t think that there are many people who would argue the government’s right to quarantine, shutting down churches and other places of worship as “non-essential” comes directly against our First Amendment rights.
But the real question is whether or not the government is going to be willing to give up all that control that they’ve taken. Historically, governments which gain control over something are not quick to give that control up. What’s to make any of us think that they will do so in this case?
Nevertheless, for the moment, many of us are obeying various government mandates to stay home, with companies telling as many of their employees that can, to do so as well. So, as we all sit in our homes, trying to telecommute with noisy kids in the background and our spouses on the other side of the table, working on their computer, we need to start thinking ahead. There will be an end to all this and we will have to emerge from our caves to see the light of the sun once again.
But what sort of world will we emerge into? Experts are forecasting that anywhere from 20 to 34 percent of our workforce will be laid off during the course of this pandemic. If we come anywhere near the top end of those predictions, it will be huge; much worse than the Great Depression. Unfortunately, from the viewpoint of where we are today, a worldwide economic depression seems to be in all of our futures, starting even before the pandemic burns out.
So how can you and I prepare ourselves for that coming depression? There are actually many things that we can do, but the first of them is to restructure our finances. Specifically, get rid of, or at least cut down on unnecessary expenses, so that we are ready when the depression hits.
Car Payments
Many families are paying more for their two car payments, than they are for their mortgage payment. If you think about that for a minute, it really doesn’t make much sense.
But cars and light trucks have gone up incredibly in price, at least partially due to all the bells and whistles they put on a car these days.
In a financial collapse, the people who are hit the hardest are those which are in debt. Those car payments are some of the biggest debt you have. So, it only makes sense to attack it first.
Trading your cars in for something used, but still in good condition, can save you a lot of money from your monthly payments. If you’re fortunate to find a good deal, you might even be able to get rid of one of those payments, really saving yourself some money.
Related: Bug Out Vehicles – Why Most People Get it Wrong
Entertainment Expenses
The home computer has evolved into an entertainment center, or maybe the home entertainment center has evolved into a computer. Either way, many of us are spending a fair amount on cable service, plus an assortment of different movie websites. Netflix is no longer enough, producers have decided to divide and conquer, requiring us all to have multiple subscriptions in order to see all the movies we want to.
The obvious problem with this is that it can get rather expensive. Not only that, but it’s obviously an unnecessary expense. Now, I realize you might not agree with that, especially with your kids home from school. But at least find out how to cancel your subscriptions and have the information handy, so that if you have to, you can pull the plug on them.
Service Expenses
From mowing our lawns, through curbside pickup of our groceries, to having a mechanic repair our cars, we all pay others to do things for us. That’s fine, when you can afford it, helping others to have jobs.
But when the economy goes belly up, you’re going to need to save that money.
One of my favorite money saving techniques is that I’m a consummate do-it-yourselfer. I do everything from making gifts for my wife to making my own furniture, with car repairs somewhere in-between. The more you can do for yourself, the less you have to pay others to do. And in the midst of the next depression, you probably won’t be able to afford paying someone else to do it.
Related: How To Make Oil From Plants At Home
Coffee Habits
How much do you spend on coffee every month? Do you even know? How about every day? You should be able to figure that out.
That can add up to quite a bit over a month, especially if you’re buying the high-dollar made to order lattes and cappuccinos.
You can get just as good a cup of coffee, including all the assorted flavoring syrups, in your own kitchen. It might take a little experimentation to get it right, but you can probably even get a better cup of coffee than what you’re buying right now. And you can do it without paying seven bucks a cup.
Eating Out
Speaking of coffee, let’s expand on that idea. How much do you spend a month on eating out? If you happen to be the average American family, then that figure is somewhere between $250 and $300 per month. If you eat lunch out or from the cafeteria at work, that figure might be even higher.
There’s nothing wrong with eating out, just as long as it’s not in excess. How much is excess? That depends on how much you make. So for most of us, that figure is likely to be changing, sometime in the next few months. With that being the case, wouldn’t it be a good idea to start working on it now?
Don’t go overboard on take-out, just because you’re part of the lockdown going on. Take this time to experiment with some new recipes, so that you can keep your family happy, without having to eat out all the time.
Related: How To Make Survival Ration Bars At Home
Vices
Speaking of coffee again, there are those people who would call coffee an addiction.
This includes people who are at least emotionally addicted to having their two cups in the morning, before they are human enough to talk to anyone without biting their hand off.
Another word we can use for that is “vice”, a word normally associated with smoking, drinking, gambling, prostitution and drugs.
I’m not trying to accuse you of anything, but if you smoke or drink, this might be a good time to think of quitting. The cost of a few beers a day or a couple of packs of smokes may not seem like much, but it does add up. I’m sure you could find something better to do with the extra $150 to $350 a month than a two-pack-a-day habit can cost.
Unnecessary Monthly Payments
Creditors, especially the big credit card companies, have worked overtime to convince us all that the way to buy anything is on credit. That’s led us to having an average credit card debt of $6,028. While some of those purchases may have been necessities, I’d venture to guess that many are things we could have waited to buy, if we had a little more patience.
Either way, they are a problem or, more likely, they will be a problem when the economy collapses and we’re stuck holding that debt. As with any other debt, it will be one more (or several more) creditors calling and asking us when we’re going to pay our bills. If you’ve secured that debt with some sort of collateral, you might end up losing whatever you’ve put up to cover the debt.
Related: 3 Things That Happened Just Before The Crisis Of 2008 That Are Happening Again Right Now
Excessive Shopping
This one might cause some battles in your home, but how about cutting out unnecessary shopping? The trick here is to determine what really qualifies as unnecessary.
Women will say that all the “toys” that men buy are unnecessary and men will say that all the clothes their wives buy are. Either way, between the toys and the clothes, it can get really expensive.
Here’s something you can try, if you want to get a real handle on your shopping expenses. Make a deal with each other, that before you can buy something, you have to get the other to agree that it is necessary. If she wants a new pair of shoes, she’s got to convince her husband that she actually needs them. Likewise, if he wants to buy a tool, he’s got to convince her that he can’t do the pending repair or other project without it.
Quit Replacing Things
Long ago our society transitioned to being a disposable society. Other than some pretty major things, like cars and houses, we no longer repair anything.
We throw it away and replace it. In many cases, there’s no other option.
But we’ve gone far beyond that now, in that we don’t just replace things that are broken, we replace things that are just fine, for no other reason than because they are “old”.
Of course, our definition of old in many cases is highly subject to questioning, as last year’s cell phone model really isn’t old, just because the company has come out with a new one. Yet many of us will replace that phone, just to have the new one, “complaining” that our old one “Just doesn’t work right anymore”.
Smartphones aren’t the only thing we do this with. We also do it with eyeglasses, frying pans and even dishes. Once people had a mixed batch of dishes, because they kept using the remainder of a set, when some of them got broken. Today, we’ll throw away the rest of the set or donate it to charity, just so we can buy a new one.
There’s nothing wrong with using something that’s “old”, as long as it works. Why not try to see how long you can keep that cell phone or those glasses, rather than seeing how quickly you can replace them?
Avoid Gimmick Products
Our homes are filled with gimmicks and gadgets. Some are obvious, while others manage to slip under the radar. One of those is cleaning supplies. There’s really not much you can’t clean with Clorox in a spray bottle, but many of us have special cleaners for the bathtub, the kitchen, our appliances and even the toilet. Not so surprisingly, most of those “special” products are basically the same thing, in different packaging.
Figure out what you really need and stick with it. Don’t let Madison Avenue convince you that you need their latest product, just because it’s “New” and “Different”. It’s probably neither. All that’s new is the packaging and the advertising campaign.
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Done 10 plus.
Well, I grew up without electricity, or indoor plumbing.
So I might be able to remember what my parents knew, and how to exist with literally nothing!
We went to bed early, because my parents rationed the kerosene in the lamps. at 9 o’clock, my father would wind the alarm clock, standing in the doorway of the sitting room (where we sat and talked, or played cards, as there was no t.v. and radio was also rationed because it ran on a car battery, and was only turned on for the 6 o’clock news.) That was the signal for us all (7 kids) to get to bed.
So I think I know how to survive, although not in a big city, I would need to be in the country, where you can cut wood for fuel, plant a garden, hunt for rabbits or other animals, have a small barn for a cow and chickens (milk, butter, eggs, and once in a while an older chicken was sacrificed for Sunday dinner), and preserve every fruit or berry on God’s green earth that we could pick in the summer.( I remember my mother needed her Spring dose of dandelion greens to cleanse her liver after the winter.)
But rest assured, this pandemic is going to make many changes that lots of people do not foresee, there are going to be ricochet events that shut down many of the things we spoiled North Americans now consider as our right, and not our privilege.
Just wait until all the natural disasters start happening, (hurricanes, flooding, etc.), and there are no healthy people to help! Italy lost more than 100 medical people to the virus, dead… 100 medical people!!! 61 of them doctors!!!! Now that certainly cuts down on help sick people need.
And how about when the fires start this summer from lightning hits? And firefighters are hard to find because many of them are sick or have died from the virus.
Please don’t be complacent and think that it will be over in a month or two. It is at least 18 months before we get a vaccine, so until then, this vicious virus is going to plague us! It will be at least 2 years, and many businesses will be lost.
Other things are happening to the earth that we are now ignoring because of this pandemic. Last year, my 82 year old sister who still lives a very rural lifestyle, by herself, splitting wood for her stove, planting her own food etc. noticed that her potatoes had very thin skins on them. Now, as she prepares for planting this year’s crop, her potatoes are not sprouting as usual. Very skimpy and small shoots. 100 years ago, that was a disaster, no crops for a family to sustain them over the winter! She will be able to order potato seeds from a farm center 35 miles away, but her potatoes were the same ones our father grew for over 80 years, and he likely got them from his father. She is sad that she may lose her heritage potatoes.
Please stay safe, and try to have a plan for the upcoming events that are going to upset your life as you know it!!
Sorry about her potatoes; it would be a shame to lose them.
Just curious where you grew up and how old you are.
Chuck
I am far more optimistic than you. A significant percent of us got this thing and never even knew it. I believe in what they call herd immunity. When they get around to testing us who feel fine, we can rest easier. Others will still have to be very careful. I would prefer not to be shot up with anything and would prefer to get an antibody test to hopefully rule out the need to make that decision.
The joy of seeing things open up will lift everyone’s spirit and we will MAGA!
Gov: You mean Blooming Idiot really said that? After the horror of the pioneers, of colonists, and more, most of who died trying to figure out how to farm? Well, he’s definitely a student of history. All he needed to do was look at the Puritans and how so many starved because they didn’t even know how to fish, let alone farm. More, they were trying to set up a socialist colony a la Bible, and that went over about as well as it did n the Bible 🙂
I did write him about us gun-toting Native Americans, from American Indians, blacks (non-African Americans 🙂 Indian Americans, Asians and so on are toting guns because of asinine neonazi gun-haters. I guess we know what list his blind faith sheeple put me on.
Can’t help with the pumpkin, but you need to ask what the farm raises and try that. I like winter squash! This year, more calabacita, plus a bro sent some chilacoyote squash. AKA 7 year melon/candy melon, very sweet and if conditions in storage are right, will store up to 7 years. Calabacita if it has the heat will outgrow downy mildew and squash bugs. Mature, it looks like snall pumpkins but the rind is hard, woody, but the flesh makes good pies. does best in Texas 🙂
niio
That calabacita sounds really good. That is good advice. Seems silly, but I drive around the neighborhood to see what plants do well for landscaping, but if I wanted to plant a vegetable, my gut reaction would be to ask the stock clerk at Walmart instead of a farmer. There is so much wisdom that farmers and dedicated gardeners have. For example, one person here in WA told me they plant green beans and when the beans come up they know the soil has warmed up enough to plant the rest. You won’t get knowledge like that out of a book or on YouTube.
Gov: when the mesquite leafs out here, or up north when oak leaves are as big as cat ears. I do a lot of YouTube because there’s a lot of preppers teaching farming and livestock, and it’s good to learn new things. Some is bogus, or wouldn’t work here, but still fun.we plant green beans in late summer. It gets too hot too fast for them, but cowpeas are good for the summer. I got too used to PA’s cool summers and wish I could raise scarlet runner beans here, but they love your weather, not ours 🙂 niio
Saw calabacita today during my every third week Walmart trip. will have to read how to prepare it and pick some up next time. Didn’t look like I thought it would as it was part of the pumpkin conversation. LCC is a great influence. I tripled my food supplies (though that’s still not saying much.). Looked up the scarlet runner beans. I really like butter beans and limas so they would not be foreign to me. In addition, the plant is pretty enough to look less like a crop and more like an overgrown decorative vine. We are hitting the hardware store tomorrow. Will see if they have any seeds. Thanks again for the suggestion.
Gov: LLC is our go-to guy for tons of good things and a deadly humor 🙂
One nickname of scarlet runner is Oregon Lima. Calabacita is the best summer squash I ever ate. It doesn’t get soggy when cooked. My grandmothers lived them, tho summers are to hot for them. They do not like it over 85 F, but like cool, damp places. If they get spider mites, wash them off with a hose to drown the mites. reareseeds.com carries stringless varieties for greenbeans. sustainable seeds carries only the old variety best for dry beans. niio
A very realistic assessment….I moved to a very rural area 10 years ago…I’m a city/suburban guy by origin but my wife and I have been learning on the fly…In fact my wife who is very handy has taught me much….Yes life as we knew it is about to drastically change…This is happening rapidly…Faster than we could imagine.We have been planting our own vegetables and storing food for quite some time…We have guns and ammo too if necessary to defend ourselves which we will. I don’t think anyone is totally prepared for what’s coming but we can do the best we can.Stay sane. Stay safe.
Rocky: women are usually in the forefront of aggie. If you look at all the foods American Indians raised, then you know it. Women owned the fields, orchards, nut groves, and they decided what to plant. It had to be practical, tasty, and pretty. Canna lily is a good example, and now is 2nd top for starch and also for flowers 🙂 Peppers had to be productive, sweet (when roasted), and brightly colored. Even potatoes had to look pretty. niio
WOW…you’re saying your sister has been growing the same potatoes from 80 seasons ? I’m surprised something hasn’t gotten into them before this. That’s a whole lot of cloning of the same variety.
We use some of ours year to year, but generally I’ll buy new seed potatoes every year to go with it.
Wow, thank you. All except your amygdala reflexing on that “vicious bug”… This was a planned and overly hyped scare, in order to get forced vaccinations into the mainstream, to create a snitch society, to redistribute wealth, tell the big enough lie and get people scared.
The depression and losings of business and such are going to be the by product that is a given. But, when one reads the prophecies of old, we can only smile and say, “Hurry up and come, Lord Jesus”…
We preppers were right all along. Now the whole world has toilet paper and jerky stored up.
She forgot to mix in her wood ash during fall/winter.
Sounds like a potassium deficiency to me.
Also check into using some Epsom salt.
She can try straw bale gardening too.
We had electricity but no running water or toilet. We raised 3 hogs every year, 2 for us and 1 to sell to recoup the cost of the feed. We had chickens like you. Steaks came from deer or bear meat. Rabbit was the most plentiful game we had, but squirrel, pheasant, grouse, raccoon and groundhogs in the summer were all welcome to feed us a meal. We had a large garden that furnished us tons of veggies and the 20 bushels of potatoes we needed for a year. Our dirt floor basement had a spring run across it where we dug a hole and sunk our 2 qt. container of milk to keep it fresh. Cooked and heated with coal stoves. I am 87 and we lived in NE Pa.
Great Article, and good suggestions. Only one item where I would beg to differ, to some extent: Don’t burn through available cash to get rid of a car payment. In other words, if you’re actually lucky enough to have savings that would cover most, or even all, of the outstanding balance you owe on your car, don’t burn through this cash now. To me, right now conserving cash is the best you can do. Now, I am not saying to use credit to avoid using cash, but I would definitely avoid using savings to get rid of a monthly payment at this time.
Conserve cash at all cost. Defer payments as long as possible (assuming you are not paying fees for the deferral).
Hi, Jan: But what about all the announcements that the cash will be worth 20% of what it’s worth now? I have seen a LOT of financial advisers and prophets say that the American Dollar will be close to worthless, just like it was in Germany before WWII!
Not at all sure about that, so I’m just asking your take on this! I can tell you I took out $500 of savings last week and bought silver coins! NOW, I’m not so sure how smart that was, but “what the hey”! Well, at least that base is +/- covered now, after adding those to the ones I already owned.
Smart to buy silver rounds instead of gold.
At least with silver you might get change back for that loaf of bread.
Gold is impractical. It s only for rich people to buy things.
Thank you. These are obvious measures that many (including myself) would not notice in “normal” times. They need to be cut anyway.
Very smart advice and great common sense tips!! Thanks for sharing!!
These are great suggestions. Already doing most of this. The item I could improve on is the cleaning supplies. I would appreciate hearing from people who have learned enough about these to narrow it down. Am not a cleaning supplie junky, but when one thing doesn’t conquer the mold in the grout in your tiles shower, that’s when you start buying this spray and that until you find something that works. Also if you have laminate flooring or ceramic stovetops, etc., you tend to buy products that won’t hurt the surface. So, any experts out there?
Wipe down showers after every use and won’t need to clean…..those stove tops, use Bar-Keepers Friend. It is in every grocery store and will not scratch the top and does better than the expensive stuff made for them. Then there is always vinegar and baking soda.
Thanks, Dee. I will scour it up and then try wiping down after each use. Also, I have plenty of vinegar, but was never impressed with it as a cleaning solution. BUT never tried it with baking soda. I don’t have one of those fancy stoves, just used it as an example, but do have the laminate flooring. Use non-ammonia Windex on them instead of Bona because it’s expensive. Appreciate the tips!
Bleach & water in a spray bottle from the Dollar Tree is the best thing for mold anywhere. It may not completely take the stain out, but it will stop the mold from growing. Always dry shower w/towel to prevent mold.
For your counter tops,ceramic stovetops, laminate flooring etc. Use Vinegar.& water.
Ceramic stovetops should respond well to plain old baking soda & a little water, rinse w/water
Thanks, Piccolo. Sounds a lot better than the stupid Mr. clean pen I tried. Best of all, I have everything already. Between your information and the baking soda paste and vinegar thing, it’s bound to sparkle.
Yes, LCC is humorous and unique in that he has telescopic vision- sees things both big picture and the details too. Very rare. Thank you for the seed recommendations. I am learning that, just like ingredients for cooking, it matters what you start with.
I have bright white kitchen cabinets with no handles. Of course they started to get a little soiled around the edges after a white. Various sprays did not help, but your suggestion and the suggestions of others prompted me to try a baking soda paste and it worked great! Thanks!
Grow and use soap-wart, on those counter tops, your floors, your clothes, you dishes, your body, your hair! It is such an unassuming precious looking perennial plant and smells nice too. dies back in fall and returns in early spring. Swish the flowers, stems and leaves in water and get tons of suds!!! Kids love doing this!
Never heard of this, but read about it after you suggested it. Makes a pretty ground over too. Have had Sweet William before which is of this family. Never knew about these properties though. Thank you!
30-40% vinegar. Cleans surfaces, washes windows, kills weeds.
With the 7 trillion with a capital T give away that the dims put together to fund everything under the sun except for relief for small businesses it appears, I am really concerned. It’s not like we have 7 trillion dollars in a file cabinet that Pelosi happened to find squirreled away in a closet some place. We don’t even have that much monopoly money printed up. It’s all make-believe money, electronic squiggles on a computer.
That has got to have a significant effect on the credit worthiness of the “dollar”. Are we going to have a Weimar Republic or Venezuela inflation boom? Of all the things that have emanated as a result of this phony “epidemic” the effect of this inflationary move is the one that concerns me the most.
I can see the dims in a couple of months blaming Trump for causing hyper-inflation and if he hadn’t signed the bill they would have called him heartless and uncaring for the hard pressed people that were forced out of work by government action. All of which has put a screeching halt to the economy which was humming along nicely.
The suggestions in the article were all solid and unless you are Daddy Warbucks, you should be practicing them already.
The Federal Reserve, which was a private bank until the end of March, was not Federal. Even now as part of the government, they have no Reserves. One of its Governors recently said the Fed has “unlimited cash” –which means they can print as much of it as they want. Just like Post-War Germany (twice), Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and others.
Provide aid to the low income people (those getting less than $50K a year but NOT on welfare) and they will spend it in the small businesses.
Helps both.
But aid to small businesses helps ONLY the business owner.
What good is keeping a business open when the customers have no money?
Reading this is refreshing! Actually, my family and I have always tried to implement these methods of practicality.
If I don’t pay someone for the service/good they offer, then they have no income to pay me for the service/good sale I depend on for my income. When everyone stops buying, that’s a depression and/or a stock market collapse. How do we save ourselves without hurting ourselves?
First off we need to abolish ALL stock markets and ‘investments’.
Be sole proprietors.
That way our economies are more resistant to ‘stock market’ issues.
Just post a public profit/loss statement in as many free public forums as you can.
We also must prevent people from getting rich.
That just makes for more problems if we don’t.
Rich,
I agree with most of what you have said in this article, probably because I was raised to never buy something you can’t afford, save for something you really want until you can afford it, buy the best you can get so that might mean saving up even more and waiting even longer and pay off your credit card bills each month. Treat them as charge cards, not credit cards, because in some areas of the country, you don’t want to carry anymore cash than necessary for emergencies. These days, you can get by with only $20 or $50 in your wallet on any given day, as long as you have a credit card in there, too.
The one item I have to take exception to is eyeglasses. If you are as blind as I am (at the last exam, the doctor said my uncorrected vision was 20/2800), you notice as soon as things start to get blurry, and it seems to go downhill rapidly after that. Frames can be reused, IF the lab still has the templates for lenses in your old frames, and IF the frames are still structurally sound, but the prescription lenses MUST be kept up to date. In fact, I usually end up getting new glasses, frames and lenses, because my frames will finally give out. But I will always try to get the frames fixed so that I have an extra pair of not-quite-perfct glasses handy in case I break the latest pair. Gasses that are several prescriptions old can get donated to The Lions’ Club but the most recent or two are kept in reserve, just in case, because “Mr. Murphy” is always waiting to pull his tricks on us.
One of the best comments I ever heard about Murphy’s Law was that “Murphy was bloody optimist!”
I agree. I always keep a couple of old glasses with the old prescription on hand with one in the glove compartment of the car. In a collision, wearers of prescription glasses almost always have their glasses go flying off their face. The landing might not always be a soft landing and there you are stumbling around like Mr. Magoo at a time when you really need to see.The old glasses may make you hold items you need to see, like the other driver’s license and insurance information. You can’t trust them to read you the correct numbers if you can’t see them. You may want to get the badge number of any cop might show up. You might need to find things in your car before it gets towed to the storage yard. A pair of glasses with a recent but not current prescription just might enable you to see enough to perform those vital tasks.
chuck: I try to get 2 pair at a time. One goes in the glove box, the other on me. When the ones I use start to wear out, they get switched with the other pair. And, you’re right, always keep the old ones a spares till they can be replaced. niio
I get my glasses at Zenni optical for about $15/pair. So I have a pair in the car, a pair in the truck and two pairs in my underwear drawer. If I have to use one, I buy another right away. My prescription has changed very little in 60 years.
If you can find a copy of the Tightwad Gazette by Amy Daycyzyn, please get it. I was lucky enough to find one at a thrift store, and there are tons of great ideas for saving money.
There are also several websites dedicated to saving money that you might want to browse through to get ideas.
I would hold off on sinking a lot of money into paying off credit debt until the economy is more stable. Make minimum payments on the big debts, maybe pay off a few smaller ones, but keep the bulk of your money for survival. The economy is bottoming out, and there are a lot of jobs lost now that won’t be coming back anytime soon. We won’t be seeing “normal” for years.
Also, learn to repair stuff to extend the usefulness and try to grow any sort of food… even seasoning herbs. Even one meal a week from what you grow or scavenge will be a help. This winter and next year look to be bad, economy wise.
Who could ever have guessed that the curse of growing up poor could ever turn into a blessing?I learned all those things before I was 10. Generation snowflake has no hope of survival. The richest in third world countries would risk their lives to have what the poorest in America have, and all we hear is whining about not having enough.
Tomk: Yeah, but we never knew we were poor. We moved to town and it was culture shock so few canned and many didn’t hunt. A lot of those who fished threw them back! niio
So true. I didn’t know we were poor till I was pretty well grown. I learned to sew really young so by 3rd grade I made all my skirts. No pattern. I often found something used and remade it into something new. We grew a garden and gleaned orchards paying for the fruit we picked. Sold some to cover expenses and canned and dried the rest.
I remember visiting friends even further out in the country. They had an old upright piano. The top was covered with oil lamps. On the wall behind the lamps was a mirror. I was amazed at how much light it reflected and multiplied back into that little living room.
Mom and I often walked the rural neighborhood looking for wild greens like lambs quarters. Often that was our supper when Dad was working nights. He was a full time college student, a full time employee, and he still found time for bed time stories if he was home. He was studying so he often shared from what he studied. Rocks and structures, star constellations, English from a text book, 5000 Basic Words in the English Language. I heard and practiced words I’ve never seen or heard since. Botany was fascinating. He knew the proper Latin and the common manes. Plant families were Interesting. A few I still remember. It helps in identifying wild edibles.
We always had an enclosed porch full of canned goods and big tins full of dried fruits. There were big containers for the things used in baking. All breads were homemade. Pancakes and thickened home canned fruits were often supper. Not much money but we never went hungry.
Hi Clergylady! I want to preserve eggs. I have previously coated them in lard and stored in salt for months with no refrigeration. They lost some of the white but were still edible! Have you ever stored them in lime added to water? Or in water glass? I wonder if it changes the taste of the egg? Thank you!
Amen! I’ve been to Africa twice. Those folks are truly poor. But…they know how to recycle. I once saw a kid riding a bicycle where the tires were actually mounted on hubcaps. That is innovation. Most millenials have no idea how to do anything.
Thanks, I just found one for $3.99 on eBay! Looking forward to reading it!
Well, I was going to wait until I was 67 to collect SS benefits but I guess I’ll start next year when I turn 62. Might as well get SOMETHING before there is NOTHING. Been paying into it since I was 15 and always limit out by October.
Bird in hand…………
In addition, the cost of living increase you will get every year between 62 and 67 closes the gap some between those two figures. Suggest you read, I think it was Left Coast Chuck’s response to what I wrote because he didn’t agree. He emphasized the most important point, that everyone’s situation is different and taking benefits at 62 may or may not be a good idea. It depends.
One other point, though it doessn’t apply to most people. If you can take benefits at 62 and are able to invest some of it, that can close the gap even further.
Good article. Things will be different on the other end of this.
I grew up poor. Made most of my clothing for most of my life. Good thing I could make almost anything without a pattern. Even remake old clothing into new. Might be handy again.
High mountain desert country so there are medicinals and wild foods its not in a great volumn like greener country. I’ve grown some garden nearly every place I be lived. I grew up canning with my mother so I still do that.
No mortgage or car payments. That is a blessing but property taxes are a pain. Only incomes are social security and he has a small pension.
My big splurge this year was, going into the social distancing, I bought 10 sticks and 24 elbows of 4″ thin wall pvc pipe to work on for hydroponics. I also bought up a mixture of barrels to use to hold heat in a temporary greenhouse. My dream greenhouse Is a dugout walapini. I have old mobile home trusses to span it. Just need the plastic sheeting for both the temporary and the walapini. I have lots of seeds started toward a garden this year and a few future years. Much of it is heirloom I’ve live a life time with.
In my things still packed up from moving back to the land where I raised the last of the kids are many old fashioned kitchen tools. 2 ancient handcracked meat grinders, 1 modern handcracked meatgrinder with a sausage tip, a 1970s flour grinder, whisks, and old egg beaters I used in candle making for whipped wax decorations. A treadle sewing machine I’m working on restoring to usable condition and a bunch of electric machines. I have most of 8 more dozen empty canning jars. I started canning meats as I could last fall. A ham after thanksgiving company, a turkey cheap the day after Christmas, 10 lbs of ground beef x2. I now have two more hams in the refrigerator freezer that I need to can because nothing keeps long there. I have oil lamps and some oil but bulk kerosene isn’t available anywhere close now days. I have flashlights and a solar battery charger, a solar phone charger, a 100w solar system with accessories and a 2 deep cycle batteries for the greenhouse. And a 12v heater/ fan for the greenhouse.
The greenhouse and hydroponics setup is my keep busy set up during all this social distancing. That and more books on pandemic medicine, native foods and medicines. I also plan to build a new chicken coop.
I’d been saving and saving to get those things and it seemed like a good time to it. My last real day out in public was buying a very full truck of critter food and the last of the barrels to Lay on top of the pipe and fittings.
Since then I’ve been out to pick up my husband’s perscriptions and few groceries, tractor parts, and fill a lot of small propane bottles 2x. Trying to stay in as much as possible. We have food for a while. Hope to be gardening soon. Nights still often in the 20s or low 30s. Time to plant peas and cabbages.
It is wonderful amazing all that you do. Bet you sleep good at night too. All that security and all those skills. Just wonderful!
I didn’t know we were poor till I was pretty well grown. I learned to sew really young so by 3rd grade I made all my skirts. No pattern. I often found something used and remade it into something new. We grew a garden and gleaned orchards paying for the fruit we picked. Sold some to cover expenses and canned and dried the rest.
I remember visiting friends even further out in the country. They had an old upright piano. The top was covered with oil lamps. On the wall behind the lamps was a mirror. I was amazed at how much light it reflected and multiplied back into that little living room.
Mom and I often walked the rural neighborhood looking for wild greens like lambs quarters. Often that was our supper when Dad was working nights. He was a full time college student, a full time employee, and he still found time for bed time stories if he was home. He was studying so he often shared from what he studied. Rocks and structures, star constellations, English from a text book, 5000 Basic Words in the English Language. I heard and practiced words I’ve never seen or heard since. Botany was fascinating. He knew the proper Latin and the common manes. Plant families were Interesting. A few I still remember. It helps in identifying wild edibles.
We always had an enclosed porch full of canned goods and big tins full of dried fruits. There were big containers for the things used in baking. All breads were homemade. Pancakes and thickened home canned fruits were often supper. Not much money but we never went hungry.
Something I learned a while back is after we finished the turkey, put it in the pressure cooker a kettle with carrots, celery, onions and some bullion and cook it down into broth, the can it in quart jars. Same with roast chicken.When i get those 10 lb bags of quarters from Walmart, I skin and bone them and make broth from the backs and skin and bones and can it.
Tomk: turkey bone soup. Chicken, skinned, means chicharones here. Thighs can be boned, split and stuffed for imitation breasts.
Breast from a turkey is boned raw, frozen, then chopped for sausage. Get fat fro the store and chop some up in it to keep it from getting dry when cooked. niio
Hi Clergylady! I want to preserve eggs. I have previously coated them in lard and stored in salt for months with no refrigeration. They lost some of the white but were still edible! Have you ever stored them in lime added to water? Or in water glass? I wonder if it changes the taste of the egg? Thank you!
Personally I haven’t saved fresh eggs. Over a century ago my grandmother stored eggs in waterglass in here cool springhouse. She used those winter stored eggs for baking and was happy with them.
Thank you for your reply!
To preserve eggs they can be put into a bucket of lime water. However what I do nowadays is rub a thin layer of vaseline over each one, making sure the whole surface is coated, then store them in egg cartons in cool place. They’ll keep for months. (I put a small amount of vaseline on my hands, then roll the egg over and over in each hand. It’s easy, and the vaseline has the added benefit of softening my hands, too.
Agree with most, and are already doing them, coffee is a health food. Aside from all the medical that backs this, every husband knows that fist cup of the day is a lifesaver: His own of the lady is in a bad mood. With us, a cup at night helps us sleep better. And, we do not drink decaffeinated.
We have a one-up over most, tho, one of the few benefits of living close to the border with Mexico Coffee is a standard every place they can grow it. When we can, 20 kilo sacks of raw beans are a lot cheaper than that 3# can of custom people here buy. As a trade item, it’s still close to the top. niio
I wonder if raw coffee beans would survive in a walapini?
Either freeze or roast and freeze or can them whole. they’re a raw dried fruit and processing makes them keep better with no insect infestation–like spiders 🙂 Most folks buy them when the harvest starts. Right now the price is depressed because of corona, but it’ll start rising again soon. niio
I don’t use coffee but I want to have some to trade with. What kind of coffee should I get and how do I can it? Dry beans in jars or mylar bags?
Whole bean, any kind. As long as its sealed airtight, and usually is, it should last several years. Mylar is probably the easiest to store. You can vacuum pack beans at home, as well, if you use some dry ice in the bag an hour before vacuuming and sealing.
We like Tierramor, the organic organization, but there are several of them now. No chemicals and they raise coffee the old way. After harvest they allow the wild brush to grow back which protects the trees. Before harvest, its all chopped down for a mulch that feeds the trees.
They had a blight in Mexico, but it seems to be gone. Most organic growers prefer to plant seeds form the best trees, so they develop immunity.Right now, if you can find beans, buy bulk. The price is depressed on the world market. some growers are only getting pennies a kilogram. niio
Thank you for teaching me!
Hi Poppy’s Country Girl!
Normally I agree with LCC, but in this case I beg to differ.
Many people flat out refuse to drink instant coffee under any circumstances, and you are better off with coffee beans for long term storage…if any humidity gets into instant coffee it’s going to wind up a solid, funky-tasting cake in the bottom of the container. It’s still drinkable if you have nothing else, but just barely.
You can make little tea-bag like pouches for single cups of coffee. Each sachet makes one mug of decent coffee…Folgers used to sell ready made sachets, but they were expensive. Otoh, they were individually packaged in sealed foil, so they lasted for years.
If you do decide to get instant, try to get Trader Joe’s house brand instant… it’s the best one I’ve tried, and it’s packaged in reusable glass jars.
Hi Miss Kitty: One of the reasons I mentioned that the coffee was in paper packets like the sugar, salt and pepper was to emphasize that even after more than 10 years years the coffee inside was still crystals. Perhaps the C-rations were stored at the Marine Corps Supply Depot at Barstow, CA where if the humidity gets to 20% everyone is bitching about the high humidity. Maybe if they had been stored at Pascagoula, MS they would have been as hard as rocks.
I don’t know anyone who turned down a cup of instant during the 0000 to 0400 watch. In fact, it is rumored that Marines have been known to stick a packet of dry coffee in the side of their jaw like chewing tobacco in the Sandbox to stay alert on the 0000 to 0400 watch. I never mainlined it like that but then to the best of my knowledge there were no bad guys out in the boonies just waiting to wax me either when I was on watch, just Marines sneaking back on base after cinderella liberty had expired.
Thank you!
poppy: How is life away up there near the North Pole? I have a blueberry tomatillo (tastes about like a sour blueberry) that came up on its own. It doesn’t like full sun, tho, or the wind, but was in bloom even when it dipped into the 30s (they were about 4 inches tall). And, it got huge last year after the monsoons hit, almost 5 feet high and across in partial shade. this is one even Miz Kitty could grow and make them for Santy Claus when he and the elves come to her area to cool off in July 🙂 niio
Life is good. Most people here are wearing masks, and staying home. Not much resistance to speak of! The weather is warming a bit. The trees are blossoming,, daffodils are blooming, and tulips are next! I keep hoping my asparagus will pop through but not yet!
poppy: the spring blooms here are long done. Mesquite is leafed out and starting to bloom. Might make it to the low 90s in a few days. Bad winds, and I had to make a basket around two mountain guava. that Dorestt apple was [planted late last winter, and thinks it wants to throw out a hundred blooms. A very tough variety made for the lower desert. But, not to be this year. Asparagus, planted after the tree went in, is about 1 foot tall. this area can get two crops/year–if you can convince it to survive the summer. Summer blooms, now. Do you plant safflower and garbanzo beans? Both like to be seeded in like early peas. I need a more modern variety of safflower. this one is an original and too thorny. Do you plant ricegrass? It’s the desert variety of wildrice. It’s fall planted and a perennial, The grains are maybe half the size of domesticated rice, but the flavor is like wildrice. After harvest, ranchers let cattle in on it. niio
poppy country girl: Just a suggestion but instant coffee might be a better trade item. Kept sealed in the jars it comes in it will last for centuries. In the 50s we were eating C-rations that had been made during WWII. The coffee was in a paper packet just like the sugar, salt and pepper. The creamer was in some kind of lined packet. While it wasn’t the Starpeets special hand picked Tanganyikan grown just below the frost line coffee available today, coffee was coffee then. Every restaurant served the same brown water as every other restaurant. So that instant in the cardboard C-ration box in the paper packet in the C-ration envelope was at least ten years old when we ripped it open and dumped it into our canteen cups. It pretty much tasted like the brown water that was served everywhere that I ate.
I would see if sealing it up in a single drinking straw (better get ’em before the greenies get laws passed against plastic straws) made a decent cup of coffee and then after the EOTW, that is how I would trade. Each straw will make a single cup of coffee. I haven’t tried it yet. That’s on my to-do list. Unfortunately, the to-do list is 30 yards long.
I know you can buy instant coffee in single serve straw-like containers and it is pretty expensive that way. It may be that even a half straw will make a decent cuppa. You can add that to YOUR to-do list. I hope you can get to yours before I get to mine.
chuck: I was in in the 70s and got the same crud 🙂 hand grenades, too. the sergeants were always snapping about do not drop one! don’t let them bang together cause they might blow. niio
I was in the Army in the 70s and we were still getting C-rations from WWII. The coffee was still good after 30+ years.
70s-90s here at the mission. Donated foods often contained WWII stuff. Kids loved the canned cakes. Nearly everything’s was still quite edible. After Desert Storm the food banks approached churches especially ones with schools to give away excess food they were flooded with. We received 20 lb cans of coffee, cases of cooked bacon rolled in greasy strong paper, many #10 cans of fruit and vegetables and some meats. Great stuff.
i’m most lightly going to get bashed in the comments but i kind of agree with shutting churches. they are mass gatherings of people and could spread the corona. especially cuz most of the people who go to church here are over 60 so they could be more prone. Don’t bash me to hard just my opinion
While I heartily agree that folks should forego church for the duration, I do have objections to governments ORDERING churches to close. If it is the right thing to do moral suasion should be sufficient to convince the most obdurate preacher that it would be better for his flock if they prayed at home. Maybe someone in the congregation can show the preacher how to do a U-tube service so that folks could attend in spirit as opposed to in body.
I just have a basic objection to some jack _ _ _ in some far off city telling me how to live my life. There are far too many folks who think they have all the answers and want to tell everybody else how to live their live.
That said, you are certainly entitled to your opinion as I am mine. I will defend to the death your right to state your opinion, (however misguided it may be :>) )
“Moral suasion” doesn’t always work. Mostly I suppose because common sense isn’t so very common.
I quite agree, Clergylady that moral suasion doesn’t always work. It still isn’t against the law to be stupid in this country. That is an inalienable right. But it isn’t the goobermint’s job to protect folks against themselves. The goobermint’s job is to provide advice and protect other folks from your stupidity, Each of us is free to be as stupid as possible as long as we don’t inflict our stupidity on others.
I don’t think the guidelines go as far as they should. I think there are several things that folks can be doing to cut down on possible transmission that the goobermint is missing. That’s also part of the problem. The goobermint thinks it is all knowing. They write reams and reams of regulations to try to cover all aspects of some rule they would like to impose but they never can. I found that out doing taxes for AARP. With all the regulations the feds have written, folks still come up with situations that the feds never dreamed of.
For example with this epidemic. I feel that not only should one wear gloves (latex, plastic, nitrile, any smooth, thin gloves that can easily be washed) and some kind of mask and eye protection, with a washable hat and some kind of protective clothing or regular clothing that can easily be washed in hot soapy water. Upon arriving at home all of your outer gear should be removed before entering the house, placed in a special bag (the heavy duty plastic bags that the grocery stores used to charge for and are now handing out free will work) and go immediately into the washing machine with the machine set on hot and two rinse cycles. Yes, that includes the hat. Your glasses should be washed also. The gloves and mask should be disinfected.
All the items that enter the home should be wiped down with some disinfectant before being brought into the home. I even spritz the two newspapers we get, the outside pages because the inside pages aren’t touched by human hands.
Yes, limit social contacts. Keep six feet from others, even if they are masked. Leave your shoes outside or make sure you wash down the outsides, including the soles and laces with a strong germicide. My sneakers have never been this clean since I put them on new.
But for some pompous wonk whose intelligence I seriously question to tell me I have to do it rankles me no end. What are they gong to do, put me in jail if I don’t? They are letting real criminals out early, what so they have room for folks who go out without a mask?
Don’t make idle threats. They aren’t going to do anything to folks who don’t obey because they can hardly handle the workload with real felons. So don’t come across like there is some meaningful downside other than getting deathly ill.
Sorry for the rant. The overreaction by officialdom to this is so weird that it makes me wonder if I really am paranoid or there is some sinister ideation at work here.
chuck: goobermint? Mint flavored Jimmy Carter? 🙂 Good post! niio
I was thinking it might be a new flavor of M&Ms. ???
Just got this. Lol.
ClergyLady: My grandmother used to say about the pandemic-rats, why did God make more horses’ asses than horses? Common sense was never common. niio
I would only comment that it should be suggested, not commanded. We are supposed to be a somewhat free society. If they want to go, let them. We are all still going to the grocery stores after all.
The right to assemble is a very important one, BUT for the past several months assembly has been deadly. The right to worship is also an important freedom, but right now how we do that has to be different.
Here in Skagit county WA, about 4-6 weeks ago a church decided to go ahead and hold a choir practice. They didn’t hug or shake hands. They didn’t sit next to each other. Still, singing out at each other, quite a few got sick and 2 died. And that was just within that group. The county numbers went up so they may have infectd others. God gave us brains and expects us to use them.
This illness is no worse than typical flu. I am however sorry for your loss. How many of us will die by government decree with this lockdown/martial law? The head if the CDC now say ls he miscalculated and instead of 2,000,000 deaths we we see 60,000. How many will die when unemployment reaches 50%. Be well either way.
When we realize that frequently just plain ordinary seasonal flu sometimes kills up to 30,000 people in one season in this country and further acknowledge that the figures we see being quoted are inflated by the influence of receiving federal money for the more cases reported, it certainly looks to me as if this is really no more than a more seasonal flu that caught the immunology folks by surprise because they haven’t seen it before. But historically, flu has mutated several times since we started tracking the different mutations. I am reading a book by a well-known (in immunology circles, I have never heard of him before) immunologist and he lists several different years in which immunologists were surprised by a change in the strain of influenza that appeared in the last 50 years.
It is actually a scary book when he talks about some of the experiments that are taking place and the lack of agreement about how such experiments should be handled. It is his theory that the greatest threat to mankind is not atomic warfare but pandemic. All that said, I think this particular epidemic is being blown all out of proportion and I it causes me to wonder just why that is so.
Election year.
Tomk: Every two years, a new pandemic. A new panic. Unless a dem is in charge, then no matter how many die, the Party must go on. If the chicoms can’t come up with one, we have victims of Ebola being rushed to the country. niio
That was a choice they made. Perhaps they could have used the phone or computer to practice or practiced solo at home. They made a poor choice and paid for that poor choice. That is still our right to make poor choices and pay for them. Now where in the Constitution is there a mandate for the government to intercede in our personal lives and made choices for us. That was the whole purpose of the exercise so the people would be free to live their lives as they chose. I am certain that other member of the choir who also exercised their right of free choice were likewise infected and probably went home and infected their families. Sometimes our families are deeply affected by our poor choices in life but it still is not the government’s job to protect us from bad personal choices. What hubris some government employee or official must have to think that they know what is better for us than we do ourselves. When they are living perfect lives, perhaps then they might be in such a position but until their own lives are perfect, leave us to our own imperfections.
Well, Left Coast, I read your response, twice, and guess that I do agree. Government over-reach is worse than this virus. If this were 1918 and millions were dropping like flies, would you still hold this view?
Well, Govtgirl, if this were 1918 and folks were dropping like flies in a DDT fog, yes, I would still think it not the government’s province to ORDER folks not to go to church; not go go to parks and the beach; not to go shopping.
I think it is government’s job to advise people of the dangers inherent in such actions and that their actions may well make them sick and because people didn’t follow guidelines there may not be medical facilities to handle them. They may well wind up in the national guard armory tended to by national guardsmen whose only training is battlefield first aid until the medic arrives which is pretty damned sketchy.
Don’t mistake me for some regular church goer. I try my best to observe the precept called the golden rule. The last time I was in a church was for my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration. They were married in 1936. The last time before that was when I was married in 1958. That said, I fully realize that many folks draw comfort in times of stress from attendance at church. If they feel it more important to seek solace in church service and feel that comfort outweighs the danger presented to them and their families who is the politician who says they are wrong and they can’t go to church? If they feel that a divine presence will protect them while in church who is the politician to say they are wrong?
I personally think it is irresponsible for the head of the church to hold services for groups of people in this day and age with all the electronic means of communication at our disposal. If they just absolutely have to have singing they certainly can show individual shots of the best members of the choir singing in their homes. I’m not much of an electronics technician. My abilities end at: The mike has to be plugged in to work. Oh, and the amp needs to be plugged in and turned on too.
In addition, there are so many holes in the advice that is being given and so many people unprotected who are providing necessary services that I think the politicians and bureaucrats would better spend their time studying better ways to protect people and announcing those rather than dwelling for hour on end how many folks are sick and how many are dying. The city of LA is spending a tremendous amount of effort on testing. Tens of thousands of dollars are spent every day checking people to see if they are sick. Believe me, you will know when you are sick. It’s like a broken leg. When you have a broken leg, you know you have a broken leg. There is no doubt in your mind about it.
If folks are following the advice to stay home as much as possible and to take precautionary measures when they must go out, then who cares how many cases the pols have identified? That is okay for some bean counters buried some place in some office building to concern themselves with but no need for the mayor of LA and the gubinator of Kallyforniiya to go on TV for hours at a stretch blathering about what THEY are doing and how wonderful all the public employees are.I think everyone recognizes how heroic the front line folks are, especially considering how totally unprepared these wonderful bureaucrats and politicians were for a new epidemic. Epidemiologists have been warning anyone who will listen for years that epidemics are a serious world wide threat. A virulent new disease in darkest Africa can be spread to over 300 cities in the US with one flight from Africa to New York or Washington DC.
Well, I have ranted on long enough. I enjoy reading your posts. Especially the ones where you say your agree with me.
I still think you are right. Freedom is too precious and a lot of us are forgetting that too often. Thanks for the reminder.
Spot on Chuck!! At beat the government should advise and stay the hell out of the way. Peace to you and yours.
Gov: I agree with chuck. In 1918, people voluntarily stayed away from meeting in large groups. The first wave of the Spanish Flu hit hard and like lightning. No one had a chance to prepare. We had that chance but the pandemic-rats ignored it. Every panic means they have a better chance of reelection. this is the same party that slaughtered 58,000 Americans for the right to buy and sell humans like cattle, and still do. Where a dollar is concerned, they have no humanity. niio
AR, while you’re right, for a lot of people church is their only social outlet. And, while people are dying of corona, there was no move to close churches in flu season, which kills a whole lot more people. this is nazis attacking Christianity. The pandemic-rats haven’t stopped holding meetings for political gain. niio
Friend attends a Cowboy Church. They had the parking lot set up and she said around 100 cars there for church. Everyone stayed in their car.
Another friends church posted a video of the sermon.
Creativity and staying safe.
I watch the video each week for now.
There you go. That’s the way the thinking clergyman conducts service. He doesn’t require folks to jam together in pews. They make electronics called sound systems. They also make portable electric megaphones which are fairly cheap. I donated one to the gun club because they didn’t have a sound system. The range master had to yell for a cease fire and I thought that was a poor system. The board thought they had been doing it that way for 40 years why the sudden change? Well, of course, because there are more lawyers out of work now than there used to be for one thing. Boy they work great. It was like the range master was standing right beside you yelling in your ear.
Should work for the most hell fire preacher in the country.
I hadn’t thought about drive-in service where everyone stays in their vehicle. That’s a great idea.
See, that’s the kind of idea the politicians and bureaucrats should be coming up with rather than “You vill not go to kirch!” Sieg Heil!
sabel same here i don’t by stuff i don’t need except in rare cases as a present or if we can afford it.
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
I whole-heatedly agree. Was brought up that way. Still, sometimes I look at those people who live beyond their means and wonder. They get to live in a fancy house, dress nicely, go on vacations and from the outside, anyway, it looks as if they get away with it. Meanwhile, we’re all saying, “Now do I need that or do I just want it?”. Sometimes I wonder who’s the smart one.
About 20 yrs ago, my wife and I got stuck in Newark over night and had to take the shuttle to Holiday Inn. I sat next to a guy who had a pasted on smile and just looked in agony, so I asked him how was doing. He told me was miserable. He was trapped in a job he hated, he hated his life, he was making a couple hundred grand a year but felt like he was in some kind of bad dream. I told him my wife and I made $36k between us. We go camping every weekend, we go for walks every night after work and we couldn’t be happier. You don’t need tons of money to be happy. He said “If my wife and kids didn’t have their over the top lifestyle, they’d leave him, so he was trapped in a life he hated. I look back now and then and feel sorry for that poor rich man. As I look back on my wife’s funeral yesterday and all the many dear friends she had who were heartbroken that they couldn’t attend, and the wonderful family she raised before I met her and all the joyous times we had doing poor people things, I wouldn’t trade it for the luxuries that poor rich man had. Tough times, but worth every minute.
That’s beautiful! You were rich in the most important ways!! What were some of your favorite fun activities?
Glad you have good memories.
My late husband and I choose to live on little. But it freed us to build Indian Mission churches across the southwest, 22.5 years I ran a K-12 school through the church. Many of our students lived with us. We raised our 6, plus many other children. I’m still Grandma to many adults who are now becoming grandparents. A happy rewarding life. We bought underwear and shoes. Everything else I made or we dressed from used used clothing along with the reservation congregations. When it was in style I made patch work skirts for the girls. Somehow we always had the necessities. A home full of love and smiles.
Thank you for making the world a better place. I wish you and yours continued happiness and great health.
Thanks, Tomk. The green-eyed monster doesn’t get me too often, but I appreciate your reminder to be grateful for the happy life I have.
tomk: You just explained why dude ranches, the old-style ones, are so popular, and people go to prepper camps. Drill sergeants are lambs compared to the secundo, the foreman. 4 AM, shouting and cussing at people to get up, get moving, “You got 15 minutes to get your lazy a**es fed and get them nags saddled. We work here, not lay about waiting for the maid to serve queer-zine in bed.” I worked on a horse ranch that took in a few ‘guests’ every month. People pay a fortune to get cussed out and abused like working folks. They don’t call the secundo the ramrod for nothing. niio
I was ramrod for a landscape company years ago, had about 2 dozen employees, this actually long ago when Americans actually took pride in manual labor. The boss’s office had a big glass window overlooking the yard, he’d give me the work orders and a pep talk and tell me, ‘now get out there and yell and cuss and get all those lazy so and sos to work!’ I promise, I can out yell and out cuss the great R Lee Ermey. I’m still friends with a couple of those guys and they have never stopped teasing me.
Jefe Mike: Remember about the gentle, loving drill sergeant. It’s not yelling and cussing, it’s fatherly motivation 🙂 Why all the yelling? I was told by Dad, we want you to come home and suffer with the rest of us.
An employee is never better than his boss. a boss is never better than his crew. Motivation!
niio
Always have a back up for cash –I save my SS check. When I saved 10,000, I saved it till I got another 5,000.
I then paid the 10,000 on the mortgage (because I couldn’t find a little down-sizer to buy and sell our current home) and when I get another 10,000, I’ll pay 5,000 on mortgage. The poster is correct in not spending all your savings, for as soon as you do—BAM!!! something breaks!!
One gimmick you may want to avoid is Conolidine 1 that I discovered on this website, unless you want to be bombarded with a relentless amount of emails that they won’t honor your request to stop, Does the product work? I have no idea, as I never received it.
Hi Barry,
Thank you so much for your comment.
I am sorry to hear your order did not arrive yet. I have just sent you an email asking for your order details, so that I can look into it and help.
I am looking forward to your reply to my email, so that we can take care of this as soon as possible.
God bless,
Claude
Tomk…that was the rule I grew up with and raised my kids with.
I have 2 comments:
1. I believe the true nature of money is that it disappears. So it is a good idea to try to pay a bill off because some perfectly good use for the money will come up and it will be gone and you’ll still have that bill hanging over your head.
2. Re. The comment concerning taking social security at 62 rather than 67. I worked for SSA for 38 years. A good way to consider whether to take it or wait is this: add up the amount you would collect between age 62 and age 67. Pretend it is in a huge stack of $1 bills. Now subtract what you would draw at age 62 from the full amt you would draw at 67. Then divide that into the total you could get for those 5 years between 62 and 67. This is the number of months you would be ahead of the game. Usually that tall stack of $1 bills won’t run out until age 72. So you are ahead for all those years. It is only then that you are shorted so much per month. And, because of yearly raises you drew even more between 62 and 67 than you figured. The only person who should even consider waiting is a single person with little or no other resources because SSA is all they’re ever going to have coming in. I hope this is clear.
I’ve seen too many people wait to take social security and then they die after collecting only a fraction of what they contributed.
Had disbursements been limited to folks who had actually contributed to the system, there would have been plenty of money in the system. Politicians seeking to buy votes have expanded the eligibility to receive funds far beyond just those who have contributed to the system.
When instituted the life expectancy of the average working man wasn’t 65 years it was something less than that, so the actuarial tables showed the government always being ahead. Even women’s life expectancy back in 33 or 34 was just barely 65 years, if that. Two things have happened. One is that folks are living longer these days. The life expectancy is well past 65 or 67 for both men and women. Then the eligibility has been broadened to cover too many folks who have not contributed to the system. One only needs 10 quarters of paid work to qualify for lifetime disability payments of over 800 per month. Ten quarters is two and a half years. So for example, a woman I know has worked part time for the past four years at age 22 she is entitled to lifetime disability social security. She also then is entitled to Medical which means that she gets totally free medical care here in Kallyforniya. She gets reduced utility rates and free cell phone. She gets and EBT card and every time there is a hand out she is qualified for that handout. She and her mother are both “single” mothers and so they get payments for their taxpayer supported kids who also qualify for those bennies until they are 18 or if in school until 25. She has two other sisters who presently will join the unwed mother category. With all of them living in the same house, although it is crowded, they can live quite nicely. She drives an almost new car.
This is far afield from the theme of the main article but we got off on taking out social security and I wanted to point out why in some measure social security is probably going to be non-existent for my grandkids and yours.
In 11964, when I signed up for SS(back then, you signed up when you entered the work force, not when you were born), the guy behind the desk told me “This is a savings account for when you get old and can’t work anymore. It will be there in your name for you to live on”. I look at the system today and can’t figure out what he was talking about. But then when I talk to younger people, they tell me “It never was that way”. The same is true with the freedoms we’ve lost. “It never was that way” At least not in their lifetime. So they have no idea of what we’re talking about or why we’re ready to fight to bring back the America a lot of us went war to defend. It never existed for them, and the ones who spit on us and called us war criminals and baby killers are the ones now running the education and communication systems.
When I signed up for social security in 1950 the cards still had in big red letters, “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES.”
Ha ha ha! Fooled you! We lied again.
I still have those cards. One is pretty badly dinged up having been dunked in a pool one time.
Tomk: I got my SS number when I joined the workforce. A lot of people don’t bother, tho it’s the law, till they have to send the kids to school, if they do before age 13. niio
GovtGirl: It’s an actuarial exercise. I did basically the same thing. I figured out how much I would get a month at 65 and how much I would get a month at 70. I multiplied the amount by 60 months. I then took the added difference between 70 monthly and 65 monthly (I was in one of the last years that could retire at “full” retirement at 65) I did the math for 62 vs. 65 and it was a no-go. I worked on 65 and 70. I had to make it to 76, I think it was now. That was over 20 years ago that I did the calculations. After 76 I was golden. I then considered my parents’ health and their longevity. Both of them lived into their mid 80s. My health was very good at 65 so I figured the Vegas line would bet on mid 80s for me. I also considered my wife’s health and longevity because she might outlive me and need the additional monthly income by my drawing social security at 70 vs. 65. If she outlived me it was even better. So I delayed until 70 to draw SS. It is different for everyone. Someone in poor health or with a family history of poor longevity should take SS sooner rather than later. One can’t just consider the difference in monthly payments, Longevity is a significant part of the equation. You also need to consider the health and longevity of your spouse.
California used to have a credit for property tax paid by renters on their rental property. It was for low income folks and it was gradually reduced the higher your income until it phased out at a certain level. It was shocking how many elderly women there were whose husbands who were older than the women is usually the norm, had retired perhaps 20 years ago and the widow was living on her husband’s social security based on wages paid in the 40s, 50s and early 60s before the runaway inflation we had for the late 70s and early 80s. Some of the monthly amounts of their social security checks was so low I wondered how they managed to live in coastal California. I think the maximum amount of the money the state paid was 400+ dollars and in too many cases that actually was more than the widow’s monthly social security check.
So Chuckstr 59, please do the math that GovtGirl and I outlined. Also consider your present health and the health of your parents, at they time they died or if they are still living, their age and health status currently. If you are married, do the same evaluation for your wife.
While I will not give such important financial advice without knowing all the data, I would urge you to seriously look at the difference in retirement at 62 and whatever the present retirement age is for “full” retirement. I think it is 66.5 or 67.2 or some such. Since I started drawing SS I haven’t kept close track. In a number of cases there is significant disadvantage in the 62 retirement. You can figure it out. It doesn’t take an actuarial degree to do the math. Don’t get involved in present value of future income and all that folderol and don’t figure some imaginary income from investing the additional money. That is an exercise for someone who smokes opium. Only figure on real in-hand dollars. SS admin can give you what you will receive at what age based on your earnings. I believe they should be sending you at least a yearly statement. That started after started drawing SS, so I had to give them a call to find out. Only took me about 180 minutes on hold so not too bad.
You are right, it depends on a person’s situation. A lot of people decide to wait nowadays. One thing people need to know, though, is that it is not just a certain figure at 62 then one at 65 or 70. The potential check goes up incrementally, a little bit every month so if you’ve had it with work at, say, 69, the cut is a lot less and you should revisit the decision by getting the new numbers. I took mine at 62 because we had our only child late in life and needed money to send him to college. It would be nice to have more now, but it was the right decision.
The problem is what you outlined, it is like pulling teeth just to get the basic numbers. When I worked for the agency we laid it all out for a person so they could look at it a number of different ways and make an informed decision that was best for their situation.
I worked with a guy who had cancer when he was in his early sixties. It went into remission, and he came back to work. I asked him, why don’t you retire at 62 and enjoy what’s left of your life? He said “I can’t afford to retire until I’m 65”. So he worked for the next three years and we had a little send off for him on his last day. Monday morning we came in and the boss told us. “Frank passed away Saturday night”. So there’s that to consider.
In 2009, My wife and I were both laid off and couldn’t find another job so were forced to retire at 62. We had prepared and were fine with our $1900/month. But now I need to figure out how to live on $1008/month. So there’s also that to consider. I would say my brother has the answer. He retired at 65 and is still driving truck at 71 and putting away every penny of his social security. Some people just enjoy working all their lives.
Yes, as I tried in my own foggy way to say, each case needs to be evaluated for each individual. Then there is always Murphy’s law. However, you must act like a real actuary. You have to weigh the cash difference and take a cold hard look at your familial longevity history. You have to consider your wife’s history too if you are married. If she outlives you, after the first year, she will be in the single not head of household tax bracket which is the second highest tax bracket after married filing separately. The deductions take a dramatic drop if she is single. The tax-free portion of social security takes a dramatic drop. Income that when the two of you were alive wouldn’t even qualify for filing a tax return suddenly jumps into the taxable side of the equation. That’s when a ROTH IRA becomes so important. She can tap your ROTH IRA tax free, whereas if she is tapping your regular IRA or 401K, that same amount of income becomes taxable and affects whether her social security check is partially taxable.
While you may certainly consider an anomaly such as your co-worker dropping dead unexpectedly, what you really need to do is to look at it as an actuary would do and as they do in Vegas: you play the long odds. You might get hit by a truck tomorrow, but you can’t figure that into your long range income plans. You just might be the deal that shifts the odds and you live to be 100. You will be much better off in that case if you delayed to 70 than if you retired at 62.
Social security benefit increases are always figured as a percentage. You are better off getting 3% of $1500 than you are getting 3% of $1200.
My wife has lived considerably longer than any other member of her family. She is still in reasonably good health. Her heart and lungs are clear and she has no other systemic problems. Some of her blood work a few years ago was a little over norms so the doctor ordered an MRI to see if there was any demonstrable pathology. She said of the report, “I wish my MRI exam looked this good.” She was in grade school when my kids were getting out of college.
The actuary would say that my wife will probably outlive me by some number of years. Maybe not. She might get hit by a truck tomorrow. But for planning purposes you have to look at the most likely scenario. I have been reading a lot of books about the medical field since this foolishness started. Apparently among docs the saying is “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”
Same hold for planning your retirement income. Think what is probable, not the bizarre. You have to plan for who you and your wife are, not what bizarre misfortune happened to someone you know.
After age 70 you can keep all of your social security if you are earning wages. If you make $100K a year, you still get to keep your total social security tax free. Doesn’t seem exactly fair, but you can’t devise a system that is fair to everyone no way, no how. Every politician who has tried has failed miserably. You wind up with something like the tax code, a mishmash of regulations so complicated that if anyone ever tells you he knows the tax code backwards and forwards, you will know that he is a damned liar.
Excellent article. Many good points and suggestions, however one statement significantly bothered me: “Historically, governments which gain control over something are not quick to give that control up. What’s to make any of us think that they will do so in this case.” We are losing individual liberties at an alarming rate. Now I get why some of this is happening, but there are alarming instances of over reach. One needs only to surf the reliable news outlets of the internet, not CNN, MSNBC, or other far left outlets. I could write here, every instance of over reach, but I trust the people who post here are already well aware of it. If this current environment is temporary, fine, but if excessive use of power is not relinquished upon our eventual move out of this crisis, we are going to have a very huge problem. With over 80 plus million guns in this country, plus many people being pushed to the brink with this health , as well as economic crisis, the atmosphere is ripe for civil strife. People have been very patient with all this, but there is a limit. By virtue of my employment in a necessary industry, I have had the opportunity to speak with a lot of people on this issue and while cooperation is understood, many will not sit back and allow this country to turn into an authoritarian society and I can assure you, these people have the means to back up their statements. Just something to ponder. Yes, cooperation as much as possible to get the country through this, but keep a close eye on your national, state and local officials. No joke and no paranoia, just straight fact.
Well said, Roger. I too share your concerns as evidenced by my posts. I’m glad to see there are at least two of us suffering from the same paranoia.
I completely agree and I am concerned for our civil liberties. I do not want or like the government telling me I cannot do certain normal things. I could get on a big ole soapbox here…and I will try not to but I do wonder at the “more” that is going on behind the scenes that we will never know about…
I am extremely concerned for our basic civil liberties, for our food sources, for our energy sources, for our right to bear arms and buy ammo, for the small business owners who suddenly got shoved out of business, for our right to gather to fight any oppression of government…etc…
And…this is coming from a sometimes liberal person (pls don’t beat me up over that!) who is mostly a centrist…and maybe not anymore.
I think SHTF has already hit the fan in regards to our rights.
I think we all have to be very aware and vigilant right now…and in the next ten years…
I cannot help but feel certain forces are at work to continue to try to monopolize our resources and force us into a type of monopoly slavery for our food, power, safety, etc.
Okay, enough ranting for one day!!!
As I recall, “The Weight of the poor”, Written by Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven, back in the sixties, called for exactly this type of scenario to overload the government, collapse society and rebuild in the image of what is now the “Green New Deal”. It’s taken a long time, but we’re standing on the edge of it now. Karl Marx said that America would be the toughest nut to crack, because “Americans love their freedom too much”. Decades of indoctrination have brought us to a point of “Fundamental Change”. Let’s hope there are enough of us left who are ready to defend America rather than just complain about what’s happening.
left coast i kind of agree, about showing the preachers how to do an online conference to worship. and as for my opinion it’s probably because in europe wher i live religion is much less important than in america.
AR15: Perhaps your ready acceptance of authoritarian statements from government is influenced by your European heritage. Many of our ancestors came here because they couldn’t accept the European way of government and were either forcibly sent to the New World or left just one step ahed of arrest for being ” a troublemaker” or read the writing on the wall and decided it was time to set out for a land that at least paid lip service to individual freedom. The folks that were happy with the way things were had no reason to leave. My Germanic forefathers came here from Prussia to avoid being forced into the army and then rented out to other countries as mercenaries. Then they got drafted into the army for the War of Secession. Talk about irony! My Irish ancestors came here to escape oppression in their country by their English overlords who were glad to see the troublemakers leave.
left coast i don’t much care for governments either. i just think that churches like schools are mass gatherings and could spread the corona. it has nothing to do with accepting governement authority.
AR: American motto has always been, give me liberty or give me death. No, people shouldn’t gather in groups, but we tend to rebel against totalitarians. America took in hundreds of fleeing Nazis at the end of the war. Men like soros came in and took control of the DNC Party. The dems favored Hitler before the war, and many Nazis simply went underground. Joe Kennedy and others like him hoped to their dying day to see America a Nazi nation. You lose one liberty, the rest slowly fall like dominoes. Like Hitler and the disabled, they will find any excuse they can to get their way. Right now, crops are being plowed under and animals killed because they cannot be taken to market. They’re trying to get us into a Wiemar Republic situation where people starved to death. DNC doesn’t are. Remember, they caused a war that killed 58,000 deaths on the issue of slavery. peace.
left coast just because i live in europe doesn’t mean i accept government authority. my ancestors made the choice to stay here not me.
Gov: Damp baking soda is a great soft scrub. It gets into hard, dry places like the bathtub ring. Vinegar eats at the baking soda and boils it out. niio
red thancks for the useful info xd.
Thanks, red!
Tomk- It is awful losing somebody and then having to deal with the loss of their income too. Your frugality will help, but only so far. If a reverse mortgage is a possibility, try to resist as often the money goes and the fees are high so you end up with nothing and no equity too. If that is a possibility and you decide to go that way, shop around because some are much better than others. The only other common solutions are to get a job if you can or consider taking in a roommate or renting out a room which carries some risk. Good luck in coping with this.
If you’re not stocked up, please do it ASAP. Complaints are coming out from farmers who have to plow under crops and are talking of killing chickens, egg layers and broilers. they cannot get feed and cannot take them to market.
And Smithfield and Tyson among others are closing some big meat processing plants so it looks like a shortage of meat is coming.
A relative of mine told me that Smithfield is owned by the Chinese. I don’t know if that is true or not but he usually is careful with his pronouncements. I haven’t had time to check to see if that statement is accurate.
Smithfield owned by Chinese. Smithfield is purportedly the largest processor of pork in the country. The epidemic came from China. I know, I’m a tin hat paranoid seeing conspiracy everywhere.
Let me add to the nut job conspiracy theory. A company texted me that they arranged for a supply of face masks. They don’t ordinarily carry face masks as their main line of business. They were pretty cheap coming in with shipping at $24.00 for 20 masks. After I ordered some for my wife and me and for some relatives the thought crossed my mind: What better way to insure that the epidemic continues unabated than to ship infected face masks to the U.S.? This is according to some watchers a bat experiment that went haywire at the Wuhan Virology Lab. If it was a manufactured virus it would be simple to modify it so that it remained dormant until placed in service and heated to 98.6 degrees.
When caught China apologizes profusely and claims it was the work of a gangster element who will be tracked down and punished severely. They might even parade some “criminals” in front of TV cameras to prove they have caught the criminals.
In the meantime they are willing to send “medical workers” to the U.S. to assist in treating the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have become sick from the infected masks. No, I did not read that in some preppier novel.
And, no, I am not smoking m.j. nor have I imbibed any alcohol. This whole thing has had me pondering what really is happening and this is one scenario that doesn’t sound too far-fetched. Who is the biggest threat to China’s expansion in the South China Sea? The Philippines? Viet Nam? Thailand? Australia? If China is to become the new world leader who has to be knocked out of first place? If you guessed the Yew Ess of A, you get the cigar.
Okay, enough off-the-wall conspiracy theories. But just in case, keep your powder dry.
chuck: the chicoms own Smithfield. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield_Foods
thanks for the tip. No more smithfield in this house.
If you have space, buy a canner, and older cow, and feed her for several weeks, then slaughter. niio
Smallpox blankets to the natives. There is some evidence that it was done deliberately. Even if it was not deliberate initially, the effects of doing so had to be noted and the continued practice then was with deadly intentions. This may be what happened in China. Perhaps it did start accidentally and perhaps a few cases started to show up abroad. Hey, here’s our chance. A few hugs in Paris and more vectors sent out. That was definitely deliberate.
Gov: It happened in colonial times to mine. The English were forced to back off a war, and handed out blankets and clothes–which by law were to be burned. We lost over half out population. And, whites living with us died, too. Most times, it was by accident, but this was deliberate.
Wuhan was an epicenter for Christians and Muslims. there are 2 plague labs there, and china has been on th watch list for making bio-weapons. Most new varieties of flu start there. Word is (meaning they think 🙂 bird flu came from there to Cuba, then north. Hong Kong flu, as well. Bio-terrorism has an ancient history well back before Rome. Look in the bible and you see what happened to the Philistines in David’s day with the black plague. niio
Mike: Texas with a shortage of meat? Scary. If you can, buy a canner, an old brood cow, and feed her well, the slaughter after 6 weeks. Most feeder calves around here come from Texas or Mexico. Mexico is now closed, so a lot of ready to slaughter beef isn’t getting in.
Red, I completely agree…even though I plan on moving soon (I hope) I have started a good handful of veggies in the garden and have heirloom seeds that I will save for next year since I don’t believe I will be here come harvest time. I recently bought an additional 50 lb bag of flour, more beans, more rice and cornmeal.
Started pinto and Lima plants from sprouting a handful of beans in wet paper towels, 100% success rate so far, knock on wood. Will plant those but try to keep two to move with me. I keep telling friends and family to stock up and so far only two folks have listened…and they are only stocked for maybe 3 months.
I do believe powers that be are trying to get us into a food monopoly and run the small independent farms out of business. And force the average American to buy thru the monopoly resources…dangerous times ahead food wise.
Gov: Always. Dems allowed Monsanto to patent plant genomes. States are suing each other over who owns the genome of wild rice, and so on. How are you preserving the flour, rice, and meal? And, I goofed. Got in too much of a hurry to head for home (close to 100 mile round trip to shop 3 places), and did not stop at TS for corn, again. The seedlings are getting tall, but it’s iffy if they’ll make corn if the maize mosaic comes back. niio
Gov: Mike Kinkaid, YouTube, WA. State but he’s from Phoenix, went navy and stayed up there. He has a nursery but also does a lot of stuff you might like.His wife has a YouTube channel Farm Wife, on things pertaining to very small farms.
Limas and scarlet runners do well there. Runners like cool weather. Here, if well-sheltered outside, they can survive winter. It can get down to 25 F, but usually stays above freezing in ground near the house.
ClergyLady is an expert gardener in Zone 6. Miss Kitty is an expert in container growing, and convinced me to try it down here. IvyMike has a lot of very good posts and you already found some great folks sown south.
When you move, remember ants. Most desert ants are fire ants. they’re harvesters, and will raid seed beds and fruit. Smaller ones will attack fruit, but usually only when overripe. 1 cup cornmeal of corn flour will knock back populations badly. They eat it and then drink, and swell up. For ants if you need to get rid of the colony, 1 heaping tablespoon borax in a cup of sugar, stir well and put it as close to the main entrance as you can. then run. Lizards are Mother’s little helpers. they eat a lot of problem insects. Ants will kill off anything that hurts the nest. Cockroaches, scorpions, and spiders you do not want around, if you kill the bugs, then dump on the mound and hit it with a stick–then run!, the ants think the bugs are attacking and will kill every one they find. Horned toads eat fire ants. Zinc and iron are usually so low in the desert they need to be supplemented to plants and animals. Buy sulfur pellets to moderate sweet soil and make drainage better to get rid of soil salts and caliche. Cotton root rot is a problem for all plants but those native to drier areas. Poter improved tomatoes were bred in Texas for drier, hotter areas. Forever Yong farms in Arizona specializes in Creole garlic, which does best in warm winter areas. Sonora garlic is good, as well, but nothing keeps as well in warm storage like Creole. When you get situated, look for potato onions, i’itoi, and so on. In Texas you should be able to raise Indian turnips, Psoralea esculenta, ricegrass, and so on that are perennials and most will not recognize as food. niio!
Lol! Hardly any expert in any kind of gardening…you and Clergylady and Fr. Bob have forgotten more than I will ever know!
That being said, there are many excellent YouTube videos and websites specializing in all sorts of gardening techniques. For anyone interested in gardening who is limited by space, access, physical ability, money… whatever… container gardening provides an option. Total self sufficiency may not be an attainable goal for some, but each time we learn a new skill or practice on refining one, we have taken responsibility for our continuing survival and our personal freedoms. It may well come to the point where the if you want fresh produce or real meat and dairy you’ll have to grow your own, or be prepared to offer skills or goods in exchange.
If you are not able to grow or otherwise produce the bulk of your own food, looking into long term storage is essential. Don’t depend on brand new skills or any one source of food for your survival…if you fail, you will die.
Miz Kitty: Bah, you give good advice and have a sharp Yankee mind. What you have to say talked me into trying containers again. I even put the lemon grass in one.
Most of the peas are done, and there’s plenty for a few meals and seed. This variety, tohono green, can be fall planted here. There’s sweet corn to plant, got to start the fall tomatoes and chilis soon. I had to take date palm frond to make a wind break for the mountain guavas. The wind are hot and dry, and the leaves curling up where they’re not protected by mulch.
Hey, come down here! I’m making adobe blocks and need some-buddy strong to stack them for me 🙂 niio
Thank you for this comment. I have gone to YouTube for car repairs, dog training, computer repairs, fire starting, etc., but it never occurred to me to consult it for gardening. I hate to say it, but could some of Mike Bloomberg’s arrogant and ignorant “could teach anybody to be a farmer” attitude have crept in? And why when I have failed with every effort? For years we attempted to grow a pumpkin when our son was small and every year ending up going to Herrick’s farm. A simple gourd!!!
It is a gourd, isn’t it?
Anyhow, I really appreciate the generosity you and all the others at this site including the article writers. Thanks.
Thank you for taking the time to write this out for me. Will check out Mike and his Farm Wife. Will save this in my Survival Keep file. Also saw I can leaf back through prior articles and can absorb some I missed. Very kind of you.
Thank you Govtgirl. My wife’s older daughter is a realtor and she said avoid reverse mortgages like the plague and is looking into a living trust. Her nephew works with mortgages and said he would look into a reverse mortgage. The four kids in their forties and fifties and their spouses are all financial wizards compared to me, so I’ll just stay out of the way and let them handle it.
Just ran across this and thought it was apropos to the discussion on this particular line of discussion:
As Milton Friedman said, “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”
This was in an article discussing airline bailout by the government with the government taking a stockholder interest in the bailed out company.
OMG! ! ! Can you say Venezuela? Even I didn’t realize that was in the terms of the 7 trillion goody package put together by Pinhead Pelosi and Shit-for-brains Schiff.
Sorry for the vulgarity. I should strive to do better but sometimes my evil twin just takes over and I go lowbrow.
Stock up Things are going to get worse. This brouhaha over this “plague” is just the tip of the camel’s nose under the edge of the tent. You, of course are free to think I am some kind of tin hat, paranoid nut job and I certainly hope that you are correct in your analysis. I hate to sound like Henny Penny but — wow, words just fail me.
Left Coast Chuck- Can’t get on board with this one. The Dems didn’t want them to take a piece of the airline companies.
I think it was the right thing to do. That is our money and I expect some collateral to back up the loan. At some point it will all be bought back.
Gov: Halliburton is dem property. Monsanto, as well. They have their fingers in every pie. Hillary the Beast owned a lot of med stock, then sold it just before they talked socialized medicine. The stock crashed and she bought her’s back for pennies on the dollar. Pelosi’s family is invested with Star Kist foods, and so on.
Mom had her income checked decades ago, after my stepfather passed away. An accountant, a cousin of hers, said had we been able to invest SS, she would have had some 680,000. this included what my stepfather, a trucker, had paid in + employer payments + interest. It’s sickening how we’re robbed. FDR wanted SS privatized by 1967. niio
chuck: As said, what are they hiding now? Pelois and her pimp, Schumer, are back in action. niio
I see the reports. This looks to be developing a food short year. I have enough for the two of us for awhile and about to get the land ready for planting. I have pipes and fittings to try hydroponics. We live careful. I’m 73 and he’s 81. When one is gone the property taxes will be very hard to meet. Just a simple fact.
Clergylady, hang in there and stay strong!
(Maybe with things going the way they are, your property taxes will go down…)
P.s. I love reading your comments!!!
My wife and I had a property tax reduction in Idaho because of low income. Now that she’s gone, I’m even more low income, so don’t expect to pay much at all next year. You should go to the courthouse and see if the have such a program in your state.
My county will freeze tax increases but not give a break if you’re low oncome.
Dang taxes will kill us all. I’m wishing you and your husband great health and happiness.
Perhaps check on a senior discount for your property taxes. Many counties offer senior discounts. Sending positive energy your way.
ClergyLady: Had a talk with the loan officer today about my mortgage. They’re cutting the interest rate. When he asked if I had contacted the county about a reduction in taxes. that floored me. No, but I am ASAP. I’ll be 63 this summer and am disabled. Does your county have any program like that? If you ever need a place, we have a spare bedroom. niio
well it’s pretty clear there is going to be at the very least an economick deppretion everyone should get rid of as much det and stuff to be reddy as well as stocking up on food and maybe even getting chickens.
AR: I wish I could get some chickens and turkeys, as well. I’ve been trying to find a canner, an old brood cow, for 2 years. One rancher might have something next winter.. If I can, I’ll head to Pennsylvania this fall. One sister spoke to a farmer there about buying a whole pig, and having him butcher it for me. Got to get another freezer, first, tho 🙂 niio
Thanks CAGal.
All I know to do is just do all I can and leave the rest to God. My neighbor lives in an old mobile home rent free. But he does the repairs on the place. Has pulled and replaced the well Pump. I just pay for parts. Last week he started fixing up the husbands tractor. I’ve paid for an innertube, new hydraulic hoses for the front end loader, a filter, a bucket of hydraulic fluid and 10 gal of diesel.
It keeping him and a grown son busy and I expect it won’t be long he will be digging the root cellar and walapini I’ve been talking about for a couple if years.
They spent Easter Sunday playing with the little grandchildren they are raising. The 17 year old granddaughter living there had started vocational classes when this distancing started. Had to laugh. When she first started she hated staying in town and couldn’t wait to get home. Now she can’t wait to get back into class and back to the dorm.
Mostly we’re home. I’ve gone out to pay for parts with my debit card and my husband sits in the truck. He’s getting more and more unsteady on his feet. Alzheimers- memory getting worse. Thank God he’s gotten even sweeter. I’ve seen several wonderful folks become violent as the Alzheimer’s progresses. He drives me nuts continually wanting to know if he can help. I let him as often as possible. Figure it’s good for him.
Snow due here the next couple of days. I need to set a few plant inside a shed for a few days. Cabbages, blackberries and blueberries will stay out. Probably the two new seedless blue concord grapes can stay out now as well. I’ve had plants out starting to harden off. Nights in the 20s just a little lower than we’ve been experiencing anyway.
I got a free folding cafeteria table. Good heavy frame table top not much but will do for this season. When leveled it will hold part of the hydroponic setup. The table top when open is 12’x 4′. I May use the 1’x 12′ of seats on each side for containers.price was free from Craigslist. Neighbor and a grown son where we picked it up loaded it the truck on the way to go get tractor parts.
The first few tomato plants are ready to plant in buckets or large pots. I pinched the growing tips off because they are stretching up too tall. This will encourage more branching and stronger growth. The next batch is just getting the first true leaves. They need a few weeks more to get bigger before planting out.
I have sweet potatoes in water. The ones I have are finally starting to sprout. Very very slow this year. They are usually easier to raise and more productive than the other potatoes.
We been cutting expenses and paid off a few smaller bills recently to get rid of payments. If we can grow some food it will help. I hope to get more canned. Greens I’ll plan to air dry in the shade. They take little room to store and are easy to use. Just add a bit of boiling water and season to taste. I’ll grow pinto beans. The earlier beans are great as green beans then let the later ones grow and dry for beans to store and seed for next year. They are a bush bean.
You have been very busy! Good for you!
Are you in NM or AZ that it gets so cold at night still?
I really admire your can-do attitude! Wishing you the best!
NM. Predicted 21° tonight.
Yikes! That is indeed cold! Stay warm!
ClergyLady: I’m complaining it’s down in the upper 40s here, but the cole types plants are liking it. the corn got about 4 inches high and stopped. Same problem with sweet potatoes in water. they’re drawing roots, but no greens yet. All but one fig cutting seems to have kicked the bucket. One very small fig lost its leaves, so it’s in a large pot out of the wind. I picked a mess of raab from the collards this morning. Most will go in the freezer. niio
My wife and I had a property tax reduction in Idaho because of low income. Now that she’s gone, I’m even more low income, so don’t expect to pay much at all next year. You should go to the courthouse and see if the have such a program in your state.
Clergy lady, maybe you can help me. I live in an area with a lot of deer. When I first moved here, I asked the Nearby Neighbors online thread if my six foot fence would protect a vegetable garden from the deer. They though that was hysterically funny. So, I am wondering, if I built a box out of 1x12s and filled it with soil and only planted potatoes, carrots, yams, would that work?
I am certainly no farmer nor a fauna forage expert, but I believe the deer will eat the tops of the plants. Now, I don’t know if deer favor potato leaves, carrot tops or yam tops, but they do like fresh greenery and each of those provide that. With the tops gone, the plants won’t grow. Red and Ivy Mike can correct me on that if I am wrong.
If you are putting them in raised beds, consider building chicken wire covers over the plantsYou can use flexible boards that you bend in a hoop over the beds and fasten chicken wire to the hoops to protect your crops. Ivy Mike and Red or Clergy Lady can chime in if that is an impractical solution. That can be practical if you are growing veggies for your own use. Not practical if you are planting 40 acres for your use and sale.
I used 1/2 in pvc. Bend it around a barrel and tie the bottom with tie wire so it won’t spring back. Cover it with chicken wire for the summer and plastic before the first frost.
chuck: very good ideas! niio
Gov: Sweet potatoes are grazed in much of the world before harvest. Deer will eat anything, even toxic plants when hungry. they can handle a lot of nasty. Best bet, get a dog. I saw pix in the Pennsylvania F-&-G of white tails hung up on a 20 foot tall fence. Look up Ruth Stout on deer. She had to fence in her sweetcorm and added a net of fishing line over it. one crashed through and got tangled, but got out and she said it was the last one. American Indians built ripgut fences around fields. Even their hogs couldn’t get thru that, and all they are is long branches that lean against each other. No deer at all. niio
(Heavy sigh). Okay, will try a little container gardening on the deck. Have a gate at the top of the stairs. If they climb the steps and jump the gate, I guess it’s time for the .308. : )
Gov: I have a cousin who lived in a gated community in the woods. People put out corn for the deer! A rich diet means twins and triplets, but no hunting is allowed. She and her hubby were getting bad off (when Obama was in). He was laid off and she only had a p/t job. I was a guard there and said what about all these deer? It’s sickening to have to call the police every night to shoot one that was hit by a car. No hunting allowed! but how she wished. So? You have a garage, right? The deer are pretty tame. Lure one in with some corn and bread, and make a silencer for the gun. I got some steaks and smoked bologna a few weeks later. No name, of course 🙂 Just sayin’. niio
Tomk-you are 100% correct. And I’m sure you will agree that an armed populace is a very important piece of our security. It is a shame that so many of our politicians do not understand this, or more likely, they do fully understand it and are threatened by it.
They understand and they are threatened by it.
Govtgirt: It should work work. If it were 2 ft taller I’d plant anything in there.
I live in a small, rural, unincorporated village. We have deer and elk nearby but so many dogs near by that the deer and elk haven’t been a problem.
Well, thank you Left Coast Chuck, Tomk and Clergylady. I do think they’ll need some protection. All anybody has around here is lapdogs and you could almost hear the hoots and hollers over the computer when I asked that around here. Never had much of a green thumb, but gardening is so basic a skill, I’ve got to take a stab at it. Appreciate your help.
Gov: I have a dachshund. the only time he got ‘treed’ was by a doe defending her fawn, and I’m ten+ times his size and out get treed, too 🙂 Deer hate noise. A small dog is better than none, and most were bred as ratters and rabbit dogs. the instinct is usually still there.More, the demand in them to defend their homes. an aunt used to raise chihuahuas. They kills farm rats, ran off stray cats, killed a copperhead once, and bloodied a few people who broke into their house. They were bred to keep out rodents and intruders, and do a good job, tho not like a dachshund. If I could, I’d get a techichi, too. But, they can jump a 6 foot fence 🙂 niio
I know dogs are very good safety features. Ours, however, have always been lovers who would rather lick than even bark at something. The last was a very sweet golden. We really miss Ronald.
Yes. I’ll have to check on reduced property taxes. That would certainly help.
I lost my husband of 33 years in 2002. Remarried in 2010. Husband was 61 when he died. Drew disability for about 2 years and was getting ready to switch over to retirement social security at 62. He died 10 months before turning 62 but they were already processing the paperwork.
When I was 65 I got sick. Dr wasn’t going to release me to go back to work so I filed for social security. All those low-income years we counted almost 100% of my income as his. My social security was going to be just $300 a month. An employee there happened to mention that if I were past 60 when I remarried I still might draw death benefits. That’s what I do. It was as if my husband had waited to age 71 to draw. It was $1008 a month 10 years ago. Its up to a whopping $1045 now. If I’m widowed again I’ll draw the current husbands full amount since its a little larger. Don’t forget they take back the last check unless you can beat them to a hardship exemption. Have to be quick. Then there is that whopping $250 death benefit. You do have to file for it. I wasn’t fast enough to save the monthly check when my husband died. I lived 60 miles away and didn’t have a vehicle or a phone at the time. For the most part if you need help the employees are helpful.
we are going to renovate all the barns on the propertyN, and make a swiming pool we have all the time in the world
Are you going to make the barns into getaway rentals, like a rural vacation spot?
we are going to turn one in to a party room cuz it’s near the future pool and the other one wil be storage
i don’t know what hapened but all the comments after april 14 didn’t appear for me so i didn’t see any of ur replies so i posted my comment 3 times cuz i thought there was a problem cuz i couldn’t see it either. the last time i posted it i saw all the replies but now they have vanished again again. it’s probably something i’m doing wrong cuz i have not commented here since mid 2018 so i’m probably doing something wrong with the comments. problem is that i don’t know what i’m doing wrong.
guys i’ve got a question. what kind of live stock do all of you have for if shtf
sorry all but i can’t see anybody comments after april 14 could some one ask claude about it and try to tell me on an other next article that comes out i don’t know if i’m doing something wrong or if the comments don’t work.
red we don’t have any live stock either
we grow melons here they tast amasing
hey red thancks for telling me about the contact page the other day cuz claude said he would use my ideas.
nah we are going to make one in to a party room and jim with my drum kit in it to. that barn has a door that leads straight to the place wher we are going to put a pool. pool party for ever lol. other barn wil probably be storage or stuff for future farm animals.
Awesome. Party like it’s 1965.
Gov: What are you talking about? You weren’t born till maybe 1995! (stay young but stay wise 🙂 niio
Llike many on this site, I saw 1965, but there are some, maybe A R 15?, who didn’t. Thanks anyhow.
Gov: Ever watch Oh, God, with George Burns? 🙂 When we joke about someone being much younger than they are, it means they’re sharp, ready for anything. Stay young in heart. niio
Lovely movie. Always liked him. Reminds me of my cigar-smoking grandpa who was sharp until he died at 94. My mother was the same (minus the cigars.). Great grandfather woke up one morning and said, “I don’t feel so great. Smoked a cigar, went back to bed and died peacefully at 104.”. I hope to be like them and have begun flossing more regularly in case the choppers have to go the long haul. You have a great sense of humor and kind spirit so I wish the same for you and all our supportive friends here at AskaPrepper.
we are going to turn one barn in to a party room with a jim in it at the back. other barn idk but probably storage or for animals.
We live in the Tucson area on 1.1 acres. Do you have any information on being more self-sufficient here? Most everything I find is geared towards 4 season living.
FINALLY!! You are the first to admit it will be 18 months to 2 years before a vaccine is available. Too many are claiming it is just around the corner. Sure it is. If you want to be a guinea pig. Not me. Too many bad side effects from early rush experimental drugs.
As far as what is coming, there is one really dark cloud out there on the horizon we better be prepping for. We have a number of congressmen wanting to make China pay. This is as well as a number of European states also. If severe sanctions are place on China, I for one do not expect the Chinese to lay down and take it. I think they will come out swinging. I don’t know what they will do, but I feel we all better plan on being as self sufficient as possible when it happens.
China will do what China has to do. Obama is no longer in the White House. We don’t have to give every bully our lunch money, then go cower in a corner in fear that it wasn’t enough and they’re going to retaliate. America will survive anything China or anybody else decides to throw at us. Remember. America was founded when a bunch of untrained, undisciplined farmers defeated the most powerful army in the world. Now we have the most powerful army in the world.And we have a leader who is not going to give anybody his lunch money and run and hide in a corner. No drawing a red line in the sand and running away from it.The biggest thing we have to fear from China is a Joe Biden Presidency.
lmao the comments were stuck on april 14 for me so sorry if i posted the same comment 3 times lmao . i didn’t see 1965 i saw 2006 at the earliest lol
AR: Livestock; Me, none. But, one neighbor has a herd of range cattle and a few hundred goats. Some people have poultry, but buy the feed. the area supports ranches, so hay is common but not grain. At least one family is feeding mesquite to their poultry. Animals can eat mesquite leaves, as well, but need to be trained to them. There are plenty of horses, and many who own them are part of the county posse, trained by the police for search and rescue. I think two more families are raising rabbits old-style, letting them run free but keeping them close to home with water and greens. they only get a litter a year, but it costs nothing here to raise them that way. Bees, a lot of people own hives but have to keep them outside of town. Other things, people feed wild quail to keep them close, more turkeys are in the brush,more rabbits, people are taking abandoned dogs to the pound now, so there are more rabbits and fewer coyotes, which feed on stray cats and dogs. niio
Without any effort, I can see I only have three areas to cut. We have been living frugally for the most part for many years, and as a child my family only had the basics.
You are right, Mary. Most of us who come here are pretty frugal. I have found only two areas in which to save. First is food. My eyes were opened a few years back when I made my first trip to Winco and found out I had been paying far too much for food at the nearby Publix supermarket. No Winco where I live now, but My local Safeway is about $1 more on many items so drive to Walmart to save. Also checked out grocery outlets.
The only other way I save is once a year I revisit all of what I call fixed expenses. I changed car insurance from MetLife to Farmers and my car ins was cut in half. Ditto with the homeowners ins. We have green bins here for yard waste. It is $11.50 per month. Cancelled that service in September and will start up again in May when we do yard clean up and mow again so saved over $80. Last place I lived there was an option for a smaller garbage can or service every other week instead of weekly so took advantage of that. Revised phone services, etc. it’s time for me to do this again and will probably find a utility bill or something. Also I have made use of those blank check offers from bank to clean up an expense like from a car repair or hospital balance that I had financed. So, even if there is no daily Starbucks to cut out, sometimes there are places to save. Any suggestions you have?
Yard wastes? Can I have them? Green grass and weeds are like manure but not so weedy. They’ll turn clay into topsoil almost as fast as all those coffee grounds we get at Starbucks. We recycle everything we can, and anything that had food in it, plastic, goes in the dish water after the dishes are done, allowed to drain, and then put in bags. Here, it dries fast. Most bugs and rodents do not like the smell of dish liquid. By the end of the year and free dumping, we have 4-6 garbage bags of plastic trash. niio
Now you’re just shaming me. Yes, I learned in grade school how dirt is made, but just can’t get into the compost thing. I live in town. There are covenants in my neighborhood that prohibit having much of anything other than a dog or cat. We do have lots of wild deer, rabbits and even quail and coyotes that you have to look out for if you have a small pet. We have garbage service. I haul big things like if we cut down some bushes to the dump. Dump fee is $10, usually. I think one of the people on my street takes their garbage to the dump instead of paying for the garbage fee.
Gov: We’re not allowed chickens, thanks to a few complaints to the county about roosters. But, more people are raising them and now turkeys. Lots of rabbits around. some people raise theirs old-style, letting them run but keep them fed with treats. they get one kindling a year, but it’s free rabbits. Someone is raising pigeons, as well. A cousin in PA was in tears. Her husband was laid-off, she was only working p/t, and they were going to lose their house. I said, this is a gated community. A lot of people feed the deer, tho it’s illegal. why not take one? Nope, no hunting in the community. But, I said,they’re about tame. A little corn in the garage, close the door. You know how to use a rifle. Make a silencer. Just make sure anything you’re not going to use goes miles away for the bears. A week later, she was happy. With a big cut in the grocery bill, they made payments on the house. And, no one ever found out. niio
Glad it worked out for your cousin.
I had thought about your suggestion, but realized you left out something:
Step 1. Clean out garage. : )
Gov: Bleach removed blood stains. with all the dairy farms around, it’s cheap by the bucket.
Any um, remains, haul them to a strip mine for the bears to enjoy. And, the bears get a lot of free food from um, the needy. It is a liberal state. niio
My nearest little town the Mayer has said he’s defying the stay at home orders and opening the city back up. Calling county workers to come in and hopes all the small businesses will reopen. Local police said they will not cite businesses that do reopen. Ant citations will be up to the state police. They have a state police office there but just two officers stationed for that office. Have to see how it goes. Some business owners need to have income but are hesitant to open yet or to possibly by cited and fined. Current governors stay at home orders expire May 10 but she’s already extended those orders twice. Schools are close for this school year and most kids have online classes.
I understand the mayor’s desperation. The town is nearly a ghost town now. In the 1950s they were the carrot capital, shipping carrots everywhere. Then the first uranium mines began opening and paid much more than agriculture jobs. Boom and bust times with the mining but we started buying cheaper uranium from foreign sources and it all closed down in 1981. The railroad closed the train depot there. Trains had hauled a lot of ore. They gypsum plant closed when the depot was closed. All that is left is a s mall town with a hospital a couple of grocery stores and local services and restaurants and a big Wal-Mart superstore out by the interstate. I think Wal-Mart and the grocery store keep the town alive. There is nothing else to the south for 100 miles. To the north there is nothing. To the east its over 70 miles to another real town. West its 80 miles to another town. There are three reservations close by and a lot of scattered rural folks and several old Spanish Land Grant communities and we all buy most of what we need there.
I do go to the large city east of us for my feed for chickens and rabbits and tractor parts, but those are occasional trips. We have feed ahead for most of this year. I may bust open the bag of scratch grains and plant some. Every year some grow where we feed the chickens. Alone the edge of the community water ditch there is alfalfa that has come up. I cut that for all my critters. They get some fresh and in winter the rabbits get an occasional bowl of dried leaves. They eat it but not with the same relish as fresh stems. I also keep fresh grass growing in pans at the kitchen window. The chicken especially enjoy that. I may try some clover in pans this winter. The rabbits would enjoy that more and chickens will pretty much eat anything green and love fruit and vegetable scraps.
thumbs up won’t let me hit it, sorry. thanks for the post! niio
Clergylady, Your life sounds like it has a lot of positives, but it is sad to see a town waste away. People need to be able to work. I realize that even if we could open everything up all at once tomorrow, not everyone would get their job back because things are depressed right now. Am I am angry about that $600.00 a week unemployment. Some people will stay unemployed for a while even if they can have a job because they need the money to catch up. Especially since a lot of the younger people have been indoctrinated in the schools and think the world owes them a living. I just hope everyone is so bored that they will be glad to go to work again.
In one of the Scandinavian countries a major newspaper did a series of articles a few years back about a composite character they called Lazy Larry. Lazy Larry had free shelter, free food and free medical and a stipend of some kind from the government. People got angry enough that they pulled back some from the nanny state and it really improved the country. We, however, are going in the wrong direction.
We are heading down a very wrong path on many different levels. Communism and socialism have become quite ingrained into our younger generations. That covers everything from expectations of a nanny state in an entitled attitude, the willingness to loose freedoms in exchange for a false sense of security, the anti Jew/Israel and anti Christian bias, the lack of a solid work ethic. Rather than fix our educational system its been more popular to build a magnet school, another special school and just leave our poor and our minority kids behind.
I know what I’m talking about here. When my older son was in high school he came home almost in tears he was so up set. There was a mostly white high school in the little town near us and on a reservation east of us an Indian high school. He’d spent the day helping one of his teachers box up old textbooks and deliver the 20 year old books to the Indian school. His school had just gotten new ones. When he realised that was the new textbooks for the Indian school he was angry and hurt. Things did get better but it took another 20 some years. But in jobs, standards of medical care et it is only a little improved.
There was a beautiful modern hospital built on a reservation about 2 miles from where I live. That was the 1970s. It was just being finished up when we first moved here in 1977. It wasn’t opened at all for several years. Then just a day clinic, then the emergency rooms and finally 23 beds. The surgical suits have never been used. The nursery and delivery rooms sit unused. It was never funded. For many years I seriously told people I’d take my family to a veterinarian before I go to that hospital or emergency room. The emergency care was eventually improved as was the opened areas of service. My late husband and current husband have both been taken to that emergency room and received excellent care. But all surgeries and deliveries or specialised care have to be transferred an hour or more elsewhere. Its still an under funded hospital. By treaty all education and medical care are provided by the Federal government.
The inner city kids often get the same priority of care as reservation kids.
The nation’s largest reservation begins just a bit west west of the little town I live near. 1/3 still don’t have electricity or running water. Most still had no hope of phone service when I first moved here. Cell service now covers the majority of it. When we moved here the average income on that reservation was $600 per month. It stayed that way into the 1990s when the tribe began fighting for more job opportunities. Their men helped build a big power plant, worked in uranium and coal mining, they started a farming co-op that helps feed a lot of the people. Even though the reservation is in New Mexico, Utah, and part of Arizona they had no hospital on the reservation until the tribe opened a small one. There is an Indian hospital in Gallup, New Mexico not sure about in nearby towns in the other states. It is being used as a covid 19 treatment site. The virus is still in its upward swing there. As it is in New Mexico. Have to see how that plays out.
Ask Red how well the “Great Father” in WDC has looked out for the good of Native people.
Govtgirt: I like the idea of Lazy Larry.
ClergyLady, Henry Ford liked to tell socialists that is you think the government will take care of all your needs, you need only look to the American Indian to see how well.
For those who like the idea of socialized medicine, here’s somewhere closer to home: Prisons have always been in socialized medicine. niio
Gov: We’re not allowed chickens, thanks to a few complaints to the county about roosters. But, more people are raising them and now turkeys. Lots of rabbits around. some people raise theirs old-style, letting them run but keep them fed with treats. they get one kindling a year, but it’s free rabbits. Someone is raising pigeons, as well. A cousin in PA was in tears. Her husband was laid-off, she was only working p/t, and they were going to lose their house. I said, this is a gated community. A lot of people feed the deer, tho it’s illegal. why not take one? Nope, no hunting in the community. But, I said,they’re about tame. A little corn in the garage, close the door. You know how to use a rifle. Make a silencer. Just make sure anything you’re not going to use goes miles away for the bears. A week later, she was happy. With a big cut in the grocery bill, they made payments on the house. And, no one ever found out. niio
Gov: By age 17, traditionally, a girl is prepping for college and boys are either working and/or getting ready to go in the military. A lot of girls are going military to pay for college. By 18, a boy is either already gone, or told to get out. Some still hold the old tradition sending boys at age 12 to live with married uncles. The psychology is an uncle is more like an older brother, while Dad becomes the enemy. doing this, fathers and sons stay friends. I wanted to send my stepson tohis uncle, who had asked about him. His mother, aka moocher, refused. where is he now? Prison. His sisters, one is a computer programmer, linguist, and herbal doctor. The other a lieutenant in Navy. There were a lot of factors that led to the boy’s incarceration. A violent, abusive father, and his mother didn’t care but harped constantly the boy had to take care of her. PA is infamous for mothers like that. niio
That’s an interesting way to help older boys. The Me generation did not do a good job raising kids.
I heard a radio show the other day. They were talking about military topics and trying to gear it toward kids. It seemed odd at first. You never hear things like that even on the Conservative stations I listen to. Then, I realized that, of course, with all the anti-military attitude, that is exactly what should be broadcast.
My son is 30 now. when he was in high school, instead of teaching the classics they read unibrow’s poetry and had them compare the work of two obscure Russian female poets.
The military recruiters were not allowed to come into the school and give presentations to seniors.
It’s a wonders we don’t have more kids who get into trouble. Hope it eventually works out for stepson. My last boss had a son who was incarcerated. She said he wasn’t getting out any time soon as had done something really bad. He was doing what he could to turn himself around. Huge heartache for her.
Gov: It worked for thousands of years all around the world.
My stepson someday will marry and give me my revenge. He swears up and down he’s not going to raise his kids by spanking them. His older sister said the same. After I could stop laughing at them, I sent them both a poster of a cute little girl holding a war ax:
IT TAKES A CHILD TO RAZE A VILLAGE. How very true. We call our kids werepuppies for a good reason, the little spoiled monsters. One whiff of sugar and they tend to go freaky. the older daughter found this out with her first kid. The next ones were still spoiled,but kept under a little more control. Their sister said she thinks she wants to get ‘fixed’ rather than take a chance on producing more social misfits. Yeah, she’s the liberal of the family 🙂
Most kids are told constantly, act respectable. You come from respectable people. Respect comes before love, and we respect you and love you. And kids are respected. The only reason I survived childhood was because very often, I had to think what would my parents and the other elders say? Did I have fun? Want to see all my scars? Did my kids have fun? See all my white hair? 🙂
I got hate from the stepkids’ mother for aiming them at the military. The youngest, only 5, was sworn in as the youngest female military recruit by the local armory. Today, she’s a loonie (lieutenant) in Navy. niio
I’m a latina physician who is a Republican and Protestant. I voted for Trump and hate what is happening to our country now. However, I disagree with those who state this was a hoax. I can DEFINITELY assure you it wasn’t. Sheltering In helped the states that did it quickly and had less population density. My hospital system had to deal with SARS-Cov-2 and it can kill very efficiently and quickly. The majority of people do very well and due to the high transmission rate the total death rate will be a lot less than 6 %. That being said, my little (tough, don’t tell me what to do) town had 100 dead while the affluent, educated university town across the highway had only 19 dead. Numbers don’t lie.
M.D.: Numbers don’t like. Nor does history. while I agree with you, we also need to get back to work or suffer badly. We get hit every 2 years by a new plague. We survive. But, unless the nation gets back to some semblance of normal, we will go like the Weimar Republic. All it takes is one wannabe tyrant to declare a state of emergency and take over. niio
M.D. Thank you for writing this. They say that today people watch the news for affirmation of their own beliefs and I am one of them. My thinking is different from yours, but what you say is undeniably true. At the same time I am angry at government over-reach, left wing ulterior motives for foot-dragging and the fact that so many of our representatives have never built a business and seem to think a handout is just as good as a job, better since the people are beholden to them. Is it possible that the Shelbyville near you was right, but that now is the time that all but a few hotspots should resume life with certain precautions in place?
I don’t like it but, I’ve got to give it to the deep state. In six weeks they were able to instill martial law, steal trillions from the US tax payers, close 60% of all small business, make us wear masks as part of a ritual, change our way of life and all without firing one bullet. Brilliant.
You are right, Nyquil762. And they are not about to give our rights back. We have to either throw the bums out of office or take them to court for starters.
Agreed! I say we do both????
The government has no right to quarantine.
Seems like the quaranteen stuff never ends. I spent weeks sick. Hoped to see things change and get freeier. Hasn’t happened. Most places businesses opened, opened and many shut again. Most place now demand mask wearing. Many churches Re still closed. No freedom in all that.
Recent bad weather has damaged crops in the Midwest. Add that to the pile of Reasons.
Entertainment Expenses–another way to cut your movie, etc. watching expense is to check out your library. Most of them are free or have a small fee for membership and they generally have a large collection of DVDs…not to mention books, computer service, audio books, etc.
Thrift stores sometimes have CDs and DVDs for as little as fifty cents. Libraries around here sell used books for as little as ten cents.
When I go to the city where there are second hand stores I look for books. My neighbor that drives us to the city always looks for dvds. Last time there I bought 3 books, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 print tee shirt, and 2 woven belts. Looked at boots but didn’t…not crazy about buying. used footwear. Bought a pressure cooker for neighbors wife. He bought some thungs for the 3 little grand kids they are raising.
The local library doesn’t have much to choose from. Must have a very small budget.
ClergyLady: Library is the same, here, mostly for little kids.
If you do buy footwear, put them in a plastic bag and put in a few tablespoons of rubbing alcohol. That kills most anything that might have come from the last owner.
When will your boy and family be home? niio
By the looks of things they may not get home. Her paper work will be out of time soon. If he comes home alone he will have a hard time going back then paying hundreds of dollars to redo the physical and visa et.
ClergyLady: I’ll give it to the prayer chain today. Corona is causing a lot of problems for nations. niio
Thank you
Netflix has become the deep state’s paymaster! Clinton’s, Obama’s, and now the Sussex’s in their new role as Hollywood moguls.
clergylady – I loved your description of growing up and not knowing you were poor. My family didn’t have money for luxuries – but I never knew I was “poor” until I got older and “educated”. I discovered we made just above what was called the “poverty line” – but always had a roof over our heads, healthy food and clothing. (2nd hand maybe – but still had it) My parents are still alive and still live on a farm. They still heat the house with a wood burning stove – and still eat what they raise or grow. I love going out there – because my mom will always make me something to eat – and it’s always healthy and basic. (meat, potatoes and homemade cookie for desert. They don’t have all the luxuries that most Americans crave – and they don’t seem to need them. It gives me a lot of confidence that the answer to SHTF is “go back to the old ways” of doing things. We can survive this.