My family and I were watching “Hungry in America” (or something like that) the other night, and it really brought home the importance of my blog. We need to have our act together before we actually need to. There was a family that lives in my neighborhood that was struggling to get food on the table. What if I had started prepping to be resilient 2 years ago? I could be helping to feed them fresh veggies and blackberries right now. What if I had started my blog two years ago and he had started taking these steps I’m now taking back then? He wouldn’t be struggling to eat right now, at least not struggling as much. Planting a garden after I lose my job and my family is hungry isn’t going to help much.

There was another family in which the mom was obese. Her story wasn’t that she couldn’t feed her kids (obviously), she was saying that she couldn’t afford to feed them proper nutrition because it was cost prohibitive on food stamps. Because of this her kids were always sick. One had been sick nonstop for some extended period of time. I personally think that eating less food that is nutrient dense is better for you than keeping your belly full of non-nutritious food. I also think someone that is obese should eat less so that there is more to spend on nutritious food for the kids. I also couldn’t help but be angry that it never occurred to her to do some foraging research to find out if there were any nutritious plants growing wild that she could eat, like dandelions. Hello lady! Dandelions grow everywhere and they are a vegetable!

I stayed po’d pretty much the whole time I watched the show because the premise was that the government has the resources and should be feeding the kids of this country. No kid should be going hungry, I agree. Not in the richest nation in the world. But the problem isn’t that kids are going hungry, it’s that as a society we are helpless without money. The “Permaculture Prime Directive” states (and rightly so) that we are to take responsibility for our own existence, and that of our children. Take care of the Earth, take care of people, and return the surplus – recycle the waste. Unfortunately everyone believes the only way to do that is to have a good job. We have been programmed to believe that the only resource is money – that everything we need we have to buy. There was a time when the purpose of money was to fill in the gaps, to provide us with the things we couldn’t provide for ourselves. Food is not one of those things.
That program really drove home the need to not only stay vigilant about getting my garden going successfully, but also to get others educated as well. You have to be able to feed yourself if you ever want to be free and have liberty. If someone else feeds you, or you depend on someone else in order to provide food for yourself and your family, you are their servant. You can not do things they disapprove of or they will take away the means by which you attain your food. That is not liberty, and that is not freedom; that is slavery (bondage).

I have used this quote before, but it is extremely appropriate here:
“If we wait for the governments, it’ll be too little, too late; if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little; but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.” – Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Town movement.

In no way, shape, or form do I have the time I need to dedicate to my garden, but I refuse to sit back and do nothing and just hope I will always have the finances I need to survive. I am prepping for my independence no matter how slow the progress or how small the steps. And I’m doing it in a way that is sustainable. This is my attempt at hugelkultur. I also have a soaker hose running through my garden to hopefully mitigate the effects of this summers drought. (cause you know it’s comin!)

I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION that the most important aspect of resilience is health, that includes both fitness and nutrition. Think about this, water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon, so a five gallon bucket or jug of water weighs almost 42 pounds. That’s a single day’s requirement for my family. How far could I carry that if I needed to transport it back to the house on foot? What about ten gallons? On the other hand I can be physically fit but nutritionally weak. Here is a “just off the top of my head” short list of some of the ways that good health leads to resilience and independence:

• Recover faster from physical labor
• Self defense
• Lessen dependence on sick care system – saves money, less need for meds
• Hike farther and faster if you break down somewhere
• Better chance at getting out of a burning house or building, or surviving a tornado or earthquake
• Body can endure injury better

Another thing about health is, the road to good health where nutrition is concerned is not found in the things we have been educated on for our entire lives. Just like everything else fed to us (ha! Get it??) by our gubment, there has been a money trail behind the information being disseminated.

My wife and I watched “Fat Head” over the weekend and it was yet another “aha” moment. I don’t think I mentioned it, but a couple of weeks ago I re-evaluated what I thought I knew about nutrition based on several things I have been reading and a couple of interviews that I heard. I came to the conclusion that we were not designed to eat so much grain (which is basically grass), but to eat the animals that eat the grass. I initially heard it from the Paleo diet perspective, but I am not going Paleo. Then I heard more about it from the Primal Blueprint perspective, which is more in line with my thinking than Paleo, but I am still not sold completely on it either. I am convinced, however, that certain fat is healthy for us and we are starving our bodies and brains without it, while other “healthy” fats are not. Corn oil was not even used for human consumption at the beginning of the 1900s, it was used for making paint!

After watching “Fat Head” on Sunday, I understand a bit more about the benefits of fat, particularly saturated fat. For instance, coconut oil is loaded with MCTs which feed the brain. So yesterday I bought some to use for frying and to put it in my coffee instead of cream. It is different, but I could get used to it. It is a good substitute for cream as it removes the bitterness of the coffee like cream does, but I still like some sweetness in my coffee, so I’ll need to figure that part out.

Since I have started restricting grain products, my insulin requirements have fallen significantly. I am still concerned with the amount of meat I take in though. Without grain based products, that pretty much leaves meat, fat, fruit and veggies. Most fat (which is now going to be my primary source of energy) has tied to protein, and I still think Dr Kelley (who cured himself of Pancreatic cancer) made some good points about our bodies response to an overload of protein. He said that our pancreas produces hormones and enzymes to deal with the food we eat, one is insulin which is for dealing with glucose (all carbs break down into glucose) and the other is an enzyme called pancreatin which breaks down protein. Pancreatin also breaks down cells that try to become cancerous so they can be removed them from the body. When we overload our body with too much protein, we don’t produce enough of the pancreatin to deal with mutating cells. So I am looking for snacks that aren’t loaded with protein but are more exciting and filling than veggies. Bring on the fat!

What I Did Yesterday to get Closer To My Goal:

• Worked on resume, updated format. [resilience: getting closer to being ready if something in my current income situation changes. Liberty: getting closer to a job that pays more with less time/possibly work from home and more control over how I spend
  my time]
• Replaced hose in backyard so my “soaker hose solution” will work. [Less time watering, more consistent watering so my tree and garden don’t die.]
• Watered and turned compost bin [Improve soil quality and sustainability]
• Bought coconut oil to Improve health