In the past couple years, it has been noticed by other groups as well as our group on Facebook, have succumb to very few people participating. Unless they are promoting their you tube channel in hopes of getting to a degree where they are getting income from it.
The consensus seems to be that we are in an economic boom, and that not as many people are worried about feeding the family on a homestead but can now afford to buy their food.
My hope is that while these times are good, folks are being like squirrels and stashing away their nuts for a rainy day, or getting that homestead ready and producing as much as time allows them to get done. Producing and preserving the harvest are important when times are plentiful. One should always have an eye to what may come around the corner.
In my life time each recession we have had seems to get a little worse than the one before, 2008 was the great recession and to my recollection the worse I had seen in my life. Now we know the Government isn't stashing any nuts away during this wonderful economy we are enjoying, in fact they are eating nuts for someone else's stash as well. If we aren't stashing our nuts in these good times we aren't prepared for when it comes, because the last one came and it came fast and it hit hard. Will the next one be overnight, or take place in an afternoon?
With the great recession things got tight for many people and many were losing their homes, cars, toys and what have you. My experience was as many operating homesteads no doubt were. Pretty much the same as normal. Yes, we saw prices rise and when they were too high, we didn’t buy it. Propane is a perfect example; the price ran well over the $3.00 per gallon mark at that point we decided we wouldn’t pay that price. We started cooking on our wood range and did so until the prices dropped back down.
And that move brought an upgrade to our homestead, a modern wood range to replace my great grandmothers’ range. My wife found it near impossible to keep up with the small wood box. So, we started looking for one with a large wood box, and I found they do make them.
I'm not a doomsayer, that isn't my intention. What I'm trying to do is help someone keep that dream alive and not forget it. The times change and we never know when things will turn. Times are never secure forever and tough times will come again. I want to see people who were trying in the last downturn continue to work toward the sustainable goal they were trying to achieve before things got good again. I'm happy things are good right now for so many. I'm happy you are getting ahead, but I fear you may have forgotten to work on the thing you so wanted before. Careful planning and keeping on with your original goal would not only be a good thing, but a very wise thing. We never know what it will be, if it isn't an economic down turn or collapse; could it be yet another dangerous virus like the latest corona virus that the news has been talking so much about? I pray it doesn't get that bad. But if it comes close to home what are your plans?
Another concern we should all be terrified about is who is really producing our food supply.
Smithfield Farms, the largest pork producing farm in the USA was sold to China. The hogs will still be raised here, shipped to China for slaughter and processing then shipped back to the U.S. This includes labels of Morrell, Eckrich, Krakus, Cudahy, Premium Hams, Cook's, Gwaltney. This is also going on with chicken. The chicken is raised here shipped there, then comes back here. Then when labeled all that is required is that it was raised in the U.S.A. Not that they were processed in China!!! All allowed by the FDA. The chicken is mostly sold to fast food restaurants and schools. One must understand that China isn’t very trustworthy as we have experienced in the past.
Star-Kist Tuna belongs to South Korea and has been in conflict with U.S. in regards to quality and safety, Korea refuses to produce any records. However, you still see it on grocery store shelves. Farm raised fish from China should be watched for, the package should say raised in China on it, but you may have to look hard to find it.
Green Giant frozen vegetables are from China, and so are most of Europe 's Best. The Garlic you purchase in a grocery store has an 80% chance of being produced in China unless it is clearly marked from USA or Canada. In Chins human waste can be used as a fertilizer to raise garlic. China is the largest producer of garlic in the world. Buy only locally produced honey, yes honey is shipped by the boat loads to the U.S., from China.
Most vitamins and supplements are produced in China and their claims to nutritional value has to be met by one pill in each bottle.
Watch out for statements saying "prepared for", "packed by" or "imported by". No one can seem to understand the lack of mandatory labeling, especially the produce. If the country where produce was grown isn’t labeled, you could ask an employee, but chances are they won’t have the answer for you.
To research the food, we are buying to find where it is produced or processed will take days, only to come to the same answer, “China.” The percentage of food we consume in America is being overtaken by China!
Yes, of course we have frozen fish from Indonesia, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. One must be cautioned buy what they feed their fish, because they are not regulated and this so-called healthy food becomes dangerous to eat.
This alone is all the reason we should have to continue our interest in the homestead. With the loss of farms in America being all to common we begin to depend on someone else to fill that gap. In depending on foreign countries to fill this huge food gap we are setting ourselves up for danger.
Always remember, who ever controls the food supply, controls the people!! Those countries could shut food shipments in a heartbeat for any reason, and send a big hole in our food supply. And we all know what happens when folks worry abut food and their family. A run on the store, riots, upheaval of all sorts.
Remember the FDA also has food recalls almost every day and is proof that our food supply can't be depended on. We have to look out for our own food safety as well as our family’s physical safety. We need to keep our own house in order, we have no control over the problems we see in the world around us. We can't change anything; I know at times we all feel helpless. But we are not helpless, we can take control of our lives, we can prepare ourselves significantly against the economic disasters or maybe even crop failures that may cause food shortages. What of an extended power failure or God forbid a terrorist attack on our power grid that could put our power out for months. The list of what could go wrong is larger than I could ever list here. A couple of things you can do is to limit your debt, and to minimize your dependence on the system. We do that by preparing ourselves for a bit of inconvenience.
I have mixed feelings about the big drop off in group activity, but like I said, I have no control over that and I won't get distressed. I will be sure to take time and be sure I am posting and working on the news page. But then again one can only write so much about their homestead, because as many of you know life on the homestead becomes pretty routine over the years. I did finally buy a new camera and I am working on getting to know it and hope to be sharing this seasons photos here and in our group.
Take some time and run through the news page and read the back posts, also take the time to look over our new pages on the garden and livestock, those pages are meant to be a help in those areas, again I will always tell you to get a book or research those subjects from the library as well as on line. And don’t forget to save those nuts.
The homestead is worth keeping, even in the good times.
God Bless
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