The Great Disconnect.... The Propaganda Lie

I understand that posting and promoting ideas lead people to follow me in many ways. It is also a powerful tool and comes with rules on how to direct people and share with them, in my case it is about living a more self sufficient life at the level you want to.

Perhaps I am taking this more serous than I should? A man saved $300.00 dollars his first month dehydrating. He started using the food right away and stretched it out over a few months, while buying everything on sale at the peak freshness time he could get it at. With a few directions, my sound advice buy only what you will like and eat, and pick up Mary Bells book found in my recommended reads section. Tweek the recipes that fit your taste buds after you make it her way. He continues his approach and now is putting soups and casseroles up in Mason Jars for long term storage, easy one step meals, and for gifts.

There is a woman living in Houston that took clothes back and bought a dehydrator, started doing some of my recipes, and for the first time in 20 years slept the whole night without wakening up. Her sleep patterns have come back, as stress from feeling helpless herself went away and she found freedom. As she followed some of my recipes, her children liked the food so much that they jumped in and now it is a family event.

Another community member was brought back out of a long term depression when I inspired her to start gardening again this year. As she dug her garden, she had a sense that her lost loved one was there with her encouraging her to move forward with her life.

A second story row house owner in Baltimore Maryland, took her second story balcony that is 3x6 and has turned it into a urban garden. She produced enough tomatoes to can herself seven pints of stewed tomatoes. We know that seven pints isn't going to sustain her very long, but she mastered two skills. Now she has decided to sell her place and looking for a small house with a little bit of land.

Each one of these people have been disconnected, and through me, connected back to who they are. If I only helped these people I have done my job. This is about eating real food, getting close to your food source. Being independent with your own food and understanding how that food needs to be processed. 

People are miles away from their food today, I don't blame the people. I would be a fool to think like that, instead I blame the Government, big food, pharmaceutical, and advertising companies for their role.

Products that feature a family pulls at our idea of wholesome, close focused and caring. Words like Farm Fresh relate to the quality as if it were grown on a wholesome farm. Some people think meat is grown in soil, or it is all a product of the store or man made. Stop laughing at me, I am serous people really do think like this. They are so disconnected from their food that they are completely clueless.

I still use open sites as well as a scope, and I get up close and personal with my wild game food. I raise chickens and process them for food. They taste totally different than what you buy and eat. They are also a different breed other than "broilers". I have three coops, one is a retirement home, one is a laying coop, the last is for chickens that will be eaten for food.

All those pictures and photos of factory farmed food being from a healthy family owned farm are completely misleading. The pictures on packages, wording and commercials paint a obscure picture of how healthy their food is. In fact the very food you eat is sustaining you in the short term while adding pounds of chemicals into your body. In some cases the food you buy is "food like" and I can physically prove that to you. Buy Heirloom tomato seeds, grow a plant in a pot, harvest that fruit, and side by side do your own taste test with a store bought tomato.

Veggies that you eat look perfect and are HUGE due to GMO science, and your body is paying for it, look at how fat we are, look at how many products have corn syrup in them. Why is Juice called juice when it has only 3% concentrated juice? Why are people getting sicker, and for 2000 plus years we didn't have all these problems? What does real corn taste like?

I am not buying what their selling, and at some point I had to say no way, I have had enough. Today I ate a tomato that was organic seed and grown the same. My mind was happy, happy, happy...

So Your New To This and Your Looking Where To Begin?

Like Peddlers peddling all sorts of Elixirs for everything that is wrong with you, so are people blogging and giving the information they know or think to believe to be true.

Recently a community member said you didn't need to buy books, everything was on the internet for free.. So than I posted a photo of a home library with a quote from Cicero "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." I know there is a lot of bogus material out there, I know there is a lot of people not evening do what I am doing and sitting in their home just posting and not living the life they suggest they are living.

Here is the deal, I am a real person, with real idea's, that is living and sharing how to be more self sufficient as I desire to be. I am not going to tell you what level to live it on or where you need to be, that is up to you. If you just grow a tomato plant and that makes you happy, right on. If your sitting up in the middle of Canada's back country, off grid, in a Yurt  and your living your life they way you want, right on. My goal isn't to push any one more into being SS (self sufficient), my goal is to show you how you can do it if you want.

So am I going to do things wrong sometimes? Yes, although I strive to end my task to be fruitful and moving forward with my SS living, I make mistakes. When I make them, I admit that I made a mistake and try to move forward with a solution or take it as a lesson not to do what I did. Do you remember the anti-chicken rat traps I made? That was a flop and a costly mistake. Problem was I didn't think like a rat and so I solved the problem another way and now my coop is rat free.

So, what advice do I have for you on your first step? Decide to do it or not. If you decide to take it on (any level), remember a few things. Your going to have to get dirty and do some work. Your going to have to read, and a lot of it. Your going to have to understand, and not be afraid of failing, face it your going to make mistakes. The amount of tears that have made mud puddles in front of my knees are uncountable. You just have to roll with it and make your way through it. Remember what I said a few years ago? Making a mistake means that at least your trying to do something to change the out come of how your living your life right now.

Now make a plan and write it down, Danielle has a list that says "make a list for this" no kidding, but look write it down and hang it somewhere and look at it for a couple days.
1. What is your end goal?
2. At what level do you want to live SS
3. Are you willing to make small investments and gather materials from where ever to make stuff?
4. Are you willing to ignore the silly comments your family/friends might make?
5. Why do you want to change?
6. Can you see yourself working hard earning your way through hard work?
7. At what level are you willing to give things of comfort up, in exchange for less but more rewarding?

When you read these over and over, hang them by the can if you want, talk to yourself about them.

If you asked me some years ago about my proudest moment, and I have owned land and property before. But what I was most proud of, I would have told you it was buying my land. Today that question has a very different answer. Today I am proud of yesterday because I made a choice and I decided to stick with it through injures, tears, sweat, failures, property disputes, risk, and accomplishment. My land has shaped me as much as I have shaped it. It has given back to me what I have given to it.

When you step forward, I will suggest a book for you to start from. Why? Time tested methods of doing the task the way they explain it. It will teach you many different aspects of living more SS. Once you thumb through it a few times, start writing down some things you want to change, now you can begin.
 

                                                               

How To Make And Grow Your Own Mushroom Logs, More Self Sufficient Ideas

I know many of you have been waiting for me to complete this video this spring. So it is now completed, and I also want to share a good reliable source for you to purchase your spores from.

This self sufficient task was so easy to do and gives years of rewards. If your in need of getting your hands on some white oak logs, be sure to ask your friends that own land, or find a saw mill near by. A logging company would be happy to sell you or give you some branches from a white oak tree they have harvested for wood. People really get interested when you start to explain to them what your doing with the logs.

Remember to place the log in a shaded area, where there isn't a lot of wind. If you need to build a wind break, do so. Also remember to place your logs just above the ground on some other logs or an old pallet.

If you start this spring, you will get a few in the fall, but expect full production to start next spring.

If you don't have the means to get your hands on the wood, but you want to try it out on the cheap. Try purchasing one of these, for the cost of this single purchase, it will pay for itself the first time it grows Mushrooms for you. Just follow the simple instructions included and you will be little more self sufficient. Its a real fun project to share with others..

Potato Basket, The Hows And The Dos, Grow-Up Not Down

If you have been a visitor of my youtube videos, than you will know that I did a potato basket video year before last. The original one had over 41k hits, featured on several gardening shows as well. Although my video presents and how to is corning, I am getting better.

The idea was taught to me by my Mother back in the 1970s, I still use the process today. Its a great space saver, interesting, and a neat conversation piece. I rememer Mom used 2 types of potatos back in the day. With the internet and seed trading programs, I plant several types. The video explains how to do it, but I accidentally left out some information that I will cover in a new video to be done very soon.

I use only indeterminate types of potatoes because they keep blooming all summer long and keep producing in the basket. Determinate blooms once and like tomatoes produce the fruit after that. Planting indeterminate in any containers is the way to go for this method. You can, like I do, use any potato seed in the baskets you want, but I wanted to be sure you understood the types that work the best.

Seeds Are Selling Out Early This Year, Better Get Yours Today!

Did you ever think that seed sources would be running out of seeds?

I have always thought. What if this was the year that the chit hit the fan? So like always, I bought my seeds early this year. However, there are a couple GMO seeds I was interested in and tried to order them to find out they are sold out for the year already?

Sold Out Seeds


Since my last order of 34,500k seeds this year, that price has risen by $10.00 in less than a month. If you think the cost is going to go down, don't hold your breath.

The world population will rise to over 7 billion this year, and food prices will triple in the next ten years. If you shop at the store, I do shop for sale items that I can't grow myself, you have seen prices this year alone rise by 6% and the quantity is being reduced by manufacturers without raising the prices to high.

Am I suggesting a panic here? No, I am suggesting that you invest in understanding how to keep your own seeds. This simple book will help you understand how to manage your seed keeping. I do keep many of my own seeds from year to year, and allow some plants to die out to collect seeds. If your not sure how to process and store your own seeds, this is the book for you. After you read the book, understand the knowledge, you can sell the book for a few dollars less than you bought it for. That is being self sufficient!

Kindle Readers, A New Gardening Book By Jason Akers

The self sufficient gardener, Jason Akers has completed his ebook, The Process Oriented Gardener.

Product Description
The Process Oriented Gardener is all about gardening the efficient, responsible and sustainable way-by looking at gardening as a process. A process is full of inputs and by reducing these inputs and providing them for ourselves we can reduce the cost and the "toll" of gardening. A process includes steps that allow us to do better work faster. By following the steps I lay out you will do things the ways that are easiest and best. And a process concludes with outputs. In the garden this is the harvest. Learn how to best utilize your harvest.

Check it out, it could help you grow more food efficiently, with less effort, and cheaper. We all love that, cheap and better!!

The Grain Mill, A Rare Insider Look, Part 1 of 3, A Social Media House, Bartering Hub

To cover this topic properly, I decided that one post isn't going to cover the information needed to understand how a Milling Company works. I am not sure if 3 parts will be enough, but I do know 2 won't be enough.

I am no stranger to a feed store, feed supply store or even a milling company. The first thing that needs to be talked about is the difference between those three, and I am going to cut straight to a Milling Company. A Mill is a place that takes in grain and makes feed for animals or food for humans, they often make their own feeds and set different protein levels, and sell name brand feed along with their own. They also mix grains for feed for farmers, the farmer is the chef, they just cook it. Whatever you want, they will do it, and recipes are guarded like top secret documents.

As a child, a social event to look forward to just about this time of year, was the gathering at the local mill to get the low down on the new stuff, and who is doing what, who has the newest equipment, who is trying which seed, who is planting the newest seed as a test market, who has free seed sponsors, and how folks were doing in general since little to no contact had been made since fall.

This would be an all day event, free coffee, folks would park in a corn field and walk over, it would be a time we would spend with other folks since falls harvest. During summer, there were fairs to do, and farming was a cut throat business. My tractor is Red and better than your green one, my hogs being showed by my kid has this blood line, and the little squabbles went on and on. But those were during the times we were working the fields and showing off our hard work.

When fall came, we put all that aside to get the harvest in, helping each other without past issues. However I don't remember locals taking it to far, because we all knew that we depended on each other in the fall. I was young, and listened a while until I was bored and joined my friends to run around.

Bobby, my step father is a different kind of man. He can't read, nor write further than his name, and he doesn't care to. But he brings to the table a whole different set of skills. He knows how to grow food, hunt it, and raise hogs.

Bobby only allowed 1600 pounds of a ton load to be known by the mill, the other 600 pounds were taped in triple wrapped feed sacks and hauled in by us and dumped into the mixer. Than it was moved to be pelleted with water and high pressure. Once it was done, we would stack it on the truck and wait till Dad was ready to go.

The Milling Company was also a bartering house for goods to be exchanged either way. We often Hunted Ginseng for the plants roots, dry them and get cash for the amount of grams it weighed. They also took in grain and offered stock/store goods in exchange. I remember getting those hard candy sticks, the striped ones, 10/1.00, all sorts of flavors.

Everyone, Everything Has A Beginning, My Start On Video, Encouragement

Stashed somewhere in pixel form are some photos of when I bought the place and what it looked like. But those are where ever they are, and if I had time, I'd post them.

I want start out by saying, if your taking the plunge and starting a garden, a self sufficient project, started hunting, fishing, gathering, or decided you just want the best for you and your family. Feel not alone my friend, I have been there. In the beginning, I started with basics, clearing land, removing stumps, boulders, removing brush and a lot of cleaning up.

Soon it became an addiction, reading one thing and how to do it, so many opinions and ways to approach it. It wasn't long before I became confused, and then the frustration started... What I needed to do is take on one perspective, one project, understand what I was doing and needed to do.

So let me assist you a little further than just my blog. This is the first tool you need to understand a whole bunch of stuff. This book was kept with me in a trash bag outside, everywhere in the house, I read it or the information that I needed at the time over and over.

This was my self sufficient bible, and still is as a reference. I have not been hired to promote this book at all, and speak of it only as the best tool/investment I made to help me understand the life style I wanted to live and how to do it.

This book covers from medical herbs, plant identification, sewing, arts and crafts, how to garden, soil prep, root cellar, and the list just keeps going on and on. Though mine has seen better days, its still together and one of my favorite reads.

It also has soap making, and other neat ways to make things to sell and make money. With so many on-line selling sites, or your own website, like mine, you can have financial independence if you want to.

I decided to share with you the second year of my adventure caught on video tape. Keep in mind, you have tons of work ahead of you, but don't let that define you, you take it by the horns and define it yourself. Trust me when I say that, soon a time will come in your life change that you will be so proud of all the hard work your doing. I still remember that day when I looked into the freezer and everything in it was grown, gathered, hunted, and put up by me. It was a milestone I will never forget....