I’ll tell you what, I may be extremely overworked but that OT pay sure does come in handy. I took a little of my extra pay today and spent $11 on a box of 00 buck shot for my 12 gauge and $15 on a box of ammo for my 30-06. I have had them both for 6 months and had no ammo for them. They are no longer clubs, they are now guns! Woohoo!

Why didn’t I buy ammo when I bought the guns you ask? Well, two reason: first is because I bought them at the same time at a pawn shop on my lunch break and didn’t have the time to go somewhere else to buy more; and second because I spent a little more than I had budgeted for the guns and couldn’t afford any ammo. Like my tag line says, no time and no money. That’s more than a catch phrase, that’s the reality I live.

I wish I could have bought more because I have a serious concern about ammo “becoming” scarce in the not too distant future. I think that would be a very good – albeit shady – way to sneak in gun control when so many are opposed to it. Plus, you never know if and when the economy is going to implode, and it would be nice to have plenty of ammo for protection as well as barter should the need arise. After seeing last week’s news about Spain outlawing transaction in cash that exceed 2500 euros, it makes me think that kind of action is getting closer and closer to home. I can see what is happening in Greece (if I look somewhere other than our major news outlets), and have read what Ferfal has said about the collapse in Argentina (in fact they just nationalized a foreign owned company last week). I already have enough invested in silver, so I won’t be buying more until I get more of my cash invested in ammo, medicine and food. Vman has told me that during the UN sanctions on Yugoslavia, gold and silver were almost useless, but if you had gas or ammo you could buy just about anything. The flip side to that is, if it takes another 10 years (or whatever) to end up in that scenario, silver could double in value and you could simply sell some of it and pocket the 100% return or purchase more resilience preps with it while still maintaining some of your silver investment. Just some food for thought.

Actions taken toward resilience 4/25/12:

• Sent resume to Heather (a contact with our onsite staffing company) yesterday [prepping for personal crisis resilience – the most likely kind according to the threat probability matrix]
• Bought ammo for 30-06 and 12 gauge today [obvious how this is prepping]
• Bought 60 quart igloo cooler with high efficiency rating for a great price – excellent for bug out; keep in trunk in case the store by work has a sale on meat. [cutting grocery costs means more money for preps; investing in food – a commodity]

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!)