Home gardening offers ways to trim grocery costs [Survival Today, an on going thread]

Dallas News.com ^ | March 14th, 2008 | DEAN FOSDICK

[nw_arizona_granny]

Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick

Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.

At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."

Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.

A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."

[snipped]

She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.

"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Alaskan Sourdough Chocolate Cake
This is the way most cakes were baked in Alaska in the early days before baking powder became more common.

1 cup thick sourdough starter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Prepare a cup of thick sourdough starter the night before. Let sit in a warm spot overnight.

Cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in sourdough starter, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon and melted chocolate. Beat with rotary beater 2 minutes. Blend salt and baking soda together until smooth. Sprinkle over batter and fold in gently. Fold in flour until batter is smooth. Pour into 2 (8- or 9-inch) greased and floured pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. When done, cake will spring back when pressed lightly with fingers and will shrink slightly from sides of pan.

Cool and frost with your favorite frosting.

Just for you, Granny.

http://7thspace.com/tasty_recipes/115620/alaskan_sourdough_chocolate_cake.html

[nw_arizona_granny]

This message contains the following:

1. Children’s Hooded Jackets with Drawstrings Recalled by R&D International Due to Strangulation Hazard (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09047.html)

2. Target Recalls Dive Sticks Due to Impalement Hazard (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09048.html)

3. Brownie’s Third Lung Recalls Air Compressors Due to Drowning Hazard (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09049.html)
4. CPSC Public Calendar

[nw_arizona_granny]

Can I really give my opinion?

If you are storing a 6 months supply of food, I would not buy it at the local grocery and leave it in the plastic bags.

If you check the bulk food places, you will get fresher food and it is cheaper, in 20/25 pound bags.

I bought several times from Walton Feed, and loved every item.

http://www.waltonfeed.com

The oatmeal, flours, beans, were fresh and came in different American mills bags....

For me it was actually cheaper to buy from Walton’s, than it is in Kingman stores, and that was including the shipping.

If you bunch up on the heavy items, the freight gets cheaper, they have a UPS chart on the site that explains shipping, and for me, that was into my living room.

Walton’s is in Idaho, but they ship all over and even have a couple of trucks that deliver to the east coast for large orders, or they did.

The last couple years, I have not been able to cook much, so bought grocery items and am amazed at how much of it is not edible, in 3 or 4 months.

I bought the cheap Walton all-purpose flour and it worked in my bread machine, for years, then I tried all purpose from Walmart and it does not work for bread, it stinks and in 6 months will not be useable.

A few bay leaves, in the top of your containers, will help keep the bugs out.

Is it possible to find a used/old chest type freezer, just for the dried foods?

I would not stock up too much on spoilable foods, in a freezer, with all the storms and loss of electric power we have been having, but it would not hurt the flour, macaroni, beans etc, that is dry to defrost and even be frozen again.

I recently found 2 bags of the Walton raisins in my freezer and ate about half a gallon in a couple weeks, out of hand, LOL, if you asked me, I would have said that I only enjoyed chocolate covered raisins, but something in my system needed the minerals in them, I suspect.

I did not have all the spoiled cans, flours, anything with oil in it, before, but have wasted more money this year, throwing out things, then I have eaten.

I finally got my brother to put my bed up on cement blocks, so I could store boxes under it.

If you start in now, asking at the grocery store bakery for the 5 gallon plastic buckets, you can get a nice supply for very little money and even free.

You can store the bags of grains in them and a felt pen will mark them.

I tried the 10 gallon tote bins that Walmart and other stores sell and noticed that after a couple years the food had a strange plastic smell and the crackers were not edible, no they had not been in there that long.

Use the tote bins for clothes, tools, or bore a hole in the bottom and make a planter out of them.

People think I have too much junk in my front room and I should get rid of it...I smile and say, yes, I boxed up my books when I quit reading, and they grumble and I smile, as there are boxes of books, on top of the boxes of big cans, such as my dried buttermilk, dry onions, celery, mushrooms and coffee cans of brown sugar [heavenly, smells like pralines], oatmeal, etc, all from Waltons.

They say the sealed cans of dried foods, are good for 5 to 10 years of dry storage.

But a Mormon friend gave me her 20 year old supply, and it was the old style of process, a gas was used, etc, and I was to feed it to the animals.

I hit a hard spell, was too sick to work and I started opening her cans, the wheat was fine, it would even sprout.

So were many items, a little baking soda cut the gas taste and I was able to use much of it for myself.

That is why I think it is wise to have part of your storage safe in the proper sealed cans of dry foods, but would never be able to afford it for every day use.

The difference in buying the 20 pound bags and the cans or grocery store supplies is amazing.

My brother works and has for years, on the forklifts in a food warehouse, a big name brand one.

When my sister heard that I had ordered 444 pounds of food from Walton’s, she got afraid that I was senile and called Ray to come and check me out.

Then I was still cooking, and he ate for 3 days, and went home with Walton’s address, and samples of all I had ordered.

He said that he had already, started noting that the foods often set there for years, before going to the store.

There is one huge stack that blocks his work and it had not moved or changed in 3 years.

I save all my coffee cans, any and all glass jars and even bought a few 5 gallon buckets from Walton’s, and wish I had ordered more of the small, not hard sealing containers that they had for sale. They were not expensive, a dollar or so, hold about 2 gallons and will stack, are a bright yellow, and are great for the cornmeal, flour etc.

I always add a layer of plastic wrap to the tops, before I put the lids on, for an extra seal.

Stack the boxes, under anything, behind the couch, and throw a cover over them, use it for books and magazines and folks will think of how useful it is to have a table behind the couch.

Just be sure to write on the boxes, what is in them.

Dr. Bill Wattenberg, says he buys a years supply at a time and when it is about 3 years old, he donates it to a Salvation Army, takes it off his taxes and orders fresh...

Yes, I believe him, as I know that there was a thanksgiving, in the 1930’s, that his father could get no work and he talks of the mission that fed them, and how he went back for years on Thanksgiving, to donate and help, to keep it alive.

My friend Don, the first of the year, decided that he had used up most of his Y2K supplies and he ordered a very large order from Walton’s, so large that it came on pallets and LOL, got unloaded in his front yard, but that was not a UPS shipment.

I was on the internet before Y2K, so watched how folks stocked up, I couldn’t, as I did not have the money, other than the fact that I have always stocked as much as I could.

After Y2K, it was interesting to listen to people talk about their use of the supplies, more of them were thankful to have stored food, as they got caught in the job losses of 2000.

But the fools, who did not like beans, did not know how to cook them and stored 400 and 800 pounds of them were very sad indeed and let it set and rot.

I have enough stored for a real emergency, if someone comes who can handle cooking, I don’t as I pass out, any time that the body wants to, so if it does not go in the microwave or crockpot, I don’t cook it.

I hope my babbling, was what you wanted or useful.

On the shelves, I would say no, not on open shelves, I feel like mine gets sun in the summer and I don’t like folks looking at what is there and counting cans.

There will be more wars over food, than there are over gold.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Laughing and thinking, “granny, you should have welcomed her to the thread, before climbing on your soapbox”.

Welcome, glad you stopped in.

[nw_arizona_granny]

I can send you my love, which I do without reservation.<<<

Thank you, that is a gift that I can return and enjoy knowing it exists.

[nw_arizona_granny]

reminds me of the Foxfire books I was introduced to in college. I’ve already told my husband a couple of your stories,<<<

Thank you, the Foxfire books were grand books.

Both stories were true, LOL, all one has to do, is have dogs that can tell you when something is amiss.

Snowball kept telling us something was wrong, Bill checked the entire animal population, they were fine, there were no foot prints of illegals...etc.

So he started circling the mobile, to see if there was an illegal that couldn’t make it to the house, as we had them come in in all conditions, even dead.

The amazing thing is, that the boy had not been bitten by a rattlesnake, as where he was, contained both diamond back/coontailed rattlers and sidewinder rattlers.

Our friends, were on their hands and knees, tracking the child from the canal, a mile or more away, one broken leaf at a time.

The child had on footed PJ’s, so was leaving a faint trail.

It was maybe 9 or 10 at night when Bill found him, the whole search was worth it to him, as he did surprise the not often shockable me.....

They really did want me to make more wine, I will always wonder what it tasted like, as it had been sitting in the storage room, maybe 2 years, in 120 degree heat part of the time.

At that time the law on illegals from Mexico, was “don’t transport them”, so I asked the local doctor what I should do, if more came in, that were alive, but needed help...He said I could bring them to him, but he would have to call the Border Patrol, after he treated them and turn them in.

Then the men were men coming to work for $5.00 a day on the farms and ranches and they walked 40 miles, just to get as far as our place.

He said that if they had heat problems, to make them drink salt water, and if that failed, soak them in salt water.

The day came, when a man came in sick, said his friends were in the desert very sick and he would not drink the salt water, so I fixed a tub of salt water, in a laundry tub, and made him stand in it, he was sure that I was crazy, as that is what he kept saying over and over, as I cut off the sweet water.

You only get sick on too much cold water once, to know what it feels like ....it is bad, and for me it was an accident, but I had made the mistake of drinking iced water and that is a no no, in 120 degrees....cold [room temperature] coffee is the best in the heat. The experienced ones, can walk the 40 miles on a gallon, milk jug of coffee.

Bill, the local Sheriff and the Brand Inspector, went out and found the others, sick but not dead.

Doctor Kline, suggested that I feed my calves a bottle of salt water between the milk bottles and we found that we had less problems with scours, as we were buying 10 at a time and raising them till about 4 months old and selling them for feeder calves.

Mary is the one who taught me to give the calves Pepto Bismo, at the first sign of scours, and it works, I would mix it in the salt water bottle and they drank it, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons in a pint of water, with a teaspoon of salt.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Good idea, glad you stopped in and shared it.

You are always welcome here.

[ChocChipCookie]

Well, thanks for all the advice! I’ll check out Walton Feed, but honestly, the reason I haven’t seriously thought of buying 400 lbs. of beans, 400 lbs. of wheat berries, etc. (read those amounts over at survivalblog.com), is because I don’t know what the heck to do with that kind of stuff. My mom makes terrific beans in a pressure cooker, and I’m confident I could also make a decent batch of cooked beans, but 400 pounds of them?? I would need a cookbooks just with bean recipes! (And I’m sure there are several of those around!) I’m willing to learn how to use up massive amounts of things like wheat berries, etc., but right now, I’m just focusing on what I know.

One thing that will make “regular” food more affordable is the coupon system I’ve been using. (www.couponsense.com) Sometimes I save 75% and more on my groceries, and I’d be buying things my kids are familiar with, I know how to use, and can more easily figure out what I need. However, I think I’d like to combine store groceries with things from Walton Feed.

I don’t have much of a master plan right now, other than trying to buy things high in protein and things I know the kids (ages 9 and 7) would eat. I’d like to have a list of actual meals, what I need to make them, and then begin checking off the ingredients as I buy them.

I still have the “problem” of that spare bedroom. I really have no concept of what 6 months or a year’s worth of food looks like, but I want to use our space wisely. I’m thinking of nudging hubby into building the shelving to our own specs. Would be cheaper but maybe not as sturdy as the metal shelves. Once we’ve used up that space, I will absolutely start putting things anywhere I can. We’re going to put frosted window cling to the one window in the room and keep the door locked. We, too, want to keep this very low key and away from prying eyes.

After looking over just the beans at Walton Feed, what do I pick?? Are they dry beans in cans? Should I buy different varieties? Any suggestions on how to minimize the GAS this will cause, especially with my young son?? LOL Also, by buying things in such large amounts (35 lbs. of dried broccoli, for example), how do you keep from getting completely bored with it?

Also, how on earth do I judge the proportions when I buy in bulk? If I’m going to by 35 lbs. of broccoli, I’d better have a good plan of how I’m going to actually use it up. I don’t want to be one of those people who makes rash, ignorant purchases and then ends up throwing things away.

So, that’s where I am tonight with trying to do my very best to insure my family isn’t one of those going to the grocery store one of these days to find empty shelves.

[ChocChipCookie]

Re: those #10 cans

Let’s say I buy a single #10 can of applesauce. We open it one day, eat maybe a cup or so of it, and then what??? If we’re dealing with unreliable electricity, I’m stuck with trying to eat an entire #10 can of applesauce within a couple of days so it won’t go to waste. Even if electricity is no problem, I would soon run out of room in my fridge with the contents of several #10 cans in addition to milk, butter, produce, etc. Am I missing something here?

[nw_arizona_granny]

They are required by their church to have a store of food for a year and enough money for six months. They are full of faith and very practical. Great folks. There are a lot of Mormon folks in Clovis, California, just east of Fresno.<<<

Yes, they are special.

I had never met one, until I moved to Arizona.

And have been blessed to have known several.

15 years after we left Wellton, Catherine would phone me and ask me “do you need for me to send the missionaries?”.

Her cure for all that ailed us.

LOL, which still makes me laugh.

Very early one morning, on his way to work, Bill saw an elderly couple, standing by their car, stopped to see if they needed help and they said they were just admiring the orange grove, they were farmers from Iowa, so Bill told them if they wanted more information, go see his wife, she would have the answer.

LOL, they came to see me, a disaster, as we had 5 kids under 6 years old, they needed a home and we took them and a 70 year old man, who came with his own cow, hogs and dog, LOL, as his kids rooked him out of his couple acres and he had no place to go.

Grandpa Ira did bring his own camp trailer for sleeping, but that was all he used it for, it was tiny.

We had a one bedroom mobile, put the kids in the bedroom and slept on the floor in the living room.

Then it was get Bill off to work, get Kendra up and to the bus and then deal with Ira and the other 4 little ones.

And I have 2 Mormon Missionaries from Iowa at the front door.

They had been sent to Wellton, as they had not dealt well with loosing their farm [or the sale of it?, as I recall it was lost], so the Bishop, thought a change of scene would be good and they knew no one in Wellton, except me and I was not a member, so was fair game.

They would come early in the morning, each dress a three year old twin, and brush their hair, join in for breakfast, give me a lesson, and off they would go.

We were lucky right then and had a freezer full of beef and plenty of milk, so I was able to share and they were wonderful folks, lost in a strange town.

I look back on that year and can only recall standing in the kitchen, milking and feeding animals and people.

The public nurse had come to check Ira, the day after the kids came, so she checked them out too, as their mother had mental problems.

I told her how I planned on feeding them and she told me that I was just going to make them sick.

She was right.

You don’t take kids who are almost starving, and feed them all the good food that goes with lots of milk, eggs, meat, and baking.

We had to feed them on tiny saucers, as a plate of food scared them...they would steal food and hide it in the closet, just in case that I also quit feeding them.

The baby, was my grandchild, who had been there, when the other 4 came, at 9 months old, she liked to eat and got a larger plate than the 6 year old.

If you have the room, fostering children is worth it, I still remember having been in a foster home, while my mother was in the hospital, it was a good home.

Later the younger kids were in a bad foster home and it was awful for them, 60 years later, they still talk of it with fear.

I marvel at folks, who have never lived as I did.

It was just turning the pages of life.

Bill built an 8 foot fence, to keep the kids away from the animals, made a play area in the front of the mobile, with no gate.

We had a couple of bulls that were a year or so old, and would be dangerous to a small child, so he built a pen with no gates, used pallets, hog wire and topped it off with barbed wire, it was escape proof and child proof.

And there came a day, that the 3 year old twins went missing.

When I found them, they had managed to go under the hog wire and climb up the pallet slats, and were unable to move.

LOL, They could not escape and the bulls would lick their faces and hair, if they tried to pull away from the tongues, then they got barbed wire sticking in their back.

God, was giving them a lesson, for if they had gotten in the pen, who knows if they would have been trampled or not, so I always thought that he told the bulls “Now you can kiss them, but not too hard.”

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you, that may be the same recipe that I had.

Rings a couple bells.

I noted the post number and LOL, sent me a copy to Yahoo mail box...LOL, sent it to my sister too, maybe she will make it for me...

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

as we were buying 10 at a time and raising them till about 4 months old and selling them for feeder calves.

Heh, my husband's grandfather (who lived to 100) had a ranch up in the Sierra Nevada foothills and he raised feeder calves up to yearlings or so. He always dreamed of moving back up there, but he had had a heart attack and his kids were scared of him being all alone up there, so they made him move back to town. The stories of being at the ranch are all legendary in the family. Poor grandpa, he just wanted to be in the country. He didn't like the city at all. He was like you in that way. Darn I miss him, he was a darling man.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

You might want to ask some questions here:

Pinching Your Pennies Forums

The site is frequented by Mormon ladies, who are required by their church to keep a year's worth of food on hand. The forums might be of some value to you. Just ignore the theology if that's not your cup of tea.

Let us know what you find out! I need to go read the site too, come to think about it.

[nw_arizona_granny]

After looking over just the beans at Walton Feed, what do I pick?? Are they dry beans in cans? Should I buy different varieties? Any suggestions on how to minimize the GAS this will cause, especially with my young son?? LOL Also, by buying things in such large amounts (35 lbs. of dried broccoli, for example), how do you keep from getting completely bored with it?<<<

I am getting too tired, so will have to go to short answers now.

You do not need 400 pounds of beans.

First at waltons on the catalog page when you open it, you will find a link to “read my labels”, go and read them, all beans are not the same food values and do not have the same minerals in them....yes, I had to learn that too.

I can’t remember how many gallon containers I got out of 25 pounds, am guessing that there is about 2 cups of dry beans in a pound sack of beans.

I ordered several types of beans, based on food value, also lentils, that I was luke warm on liking and found out that I love them, LOL.

When I cook beans, I put all kinds of spices in them, lots of different kinds, bacon, or and a half teaspoon of soda.

Recently I read to put ginger in them for gas, to the pressure cooker, maybe a table spoon of dry ginger.

Better yet, grow some common peppermint, that is good for gas, iced peppermint tea is good and of course hot too.

You can get Angle Iron for the posts of the bookcase, maybe even from a salvage yard, if you ask, or? LOL, we always got it some place, drill holes in it and screw in wood shelves, long screws and solid wood.

Your wheat berries, flour of course, but better than that, use like rice or barley, takes longer to cook, but makes a good cereal/for breakfast, or an excellent salad, with your broccoli and other good things that might fall into it.

I learned from a Mormon friend with 5 small kids, to always put a pound of mixed vegetables in the pot of boiling water, then bring it to a boil, add macaroni and cook till done, then it is ready for macaroni salad or even to have a sauce.

The kids do not know that they are getting extra vegetables and LOL, after a while, non-vegetable macaroni salads, seem weak and not all there.

Yes, use the coupon plan for short term storage and work in the long term storage items.

You need a storage plan, I posted several from the Mormon sites through out the thread, but more towards the front of the thread. You will need to browse, as there is quite a lot of them over a period of time. There are recipes with them, from the storage lists.

To get an idea of where you are going, figure out what you are buying now, the important basics, that will give you an idea of what you will need each week.

For only a 6 month supply, I would buy the bags of beans, you will get many times more beans for the money and they will be so fresh, that you will get years more storage out of them, before they look like what you buy in the store.

Onions , celery, buttermilk, I did buy in cans and a few other things for long storage, such as soup bases, etc.

Buy the box of macaroni and noodles, far cheaper than the cans.

The first year that I had to quit driving, I had NO ONE to take me shopping and I lived out of Walton’s and ate better than ever before for less money.

All we had/still have were mini marts at the gas stations, that I could safely drive to and not much food there for living on.

When I told Walton’t that they were my daily food supply, I could mail my order and have it here in a week, before Y2K, on the big orders, they were months behind and may well be now, as I know some of the other companies were sold out of the big cans for several weeks a few months ago, during the rice shortage, they simply could not get the stock.

I read about it on one of the lists and signed up for the news letter, so I could stay up to date, I didn’t ask Walton when they were shipping, and I think Don got his just before the rice shortage.

Broccoli salad, creamed broccoli, broccoli stir-fry, and no soup will taste right to me, if it does not have a cabbage family and tomatoes in it.

but then I did not order the dried broccoli, it is not high on my list of foods, but it should be, as they are saying it is very good for you.

I have been to a grocery store with empty shelves, and you never forget the sight.

About 1978, there was a big trucker strike, we had only one large Safeway grocery and a couple mom and pop markets in the town, then 10 to 20 thousand people.

In a couple days Safeway [a huge store], was bare shelved and what the manager could haul from Las Vegas 115 mile one way, he would allow you to buy one of, so more people could be supplied.

No choice, just what he got, a case of this and that, he did his best and no one starved....and I am never completely going to be without foods.

Don’t get hyper, first work on the stuff you know you will use.

Then look at variety and filling other food needs.

Add in jars of spices, or for me it was by the pound, as they will help many tasteless meals.

Fennel is the other herb that I use in my beans, for gas and cause I have done it for so many years that I just do it without thinking.

If I missed a question, please send it again...tomorrow is another day.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Re: those #10 cans

Let’s say I buy a single #10 can of applesauce. We open it one day, eat maybe a cup or so of it, and then what??? If we’re dealing with unreliable electricity, I’m stuck with trying to eat an entire #10 can of applesauce within a couple of days so it won’t go to waste. Even if electricity is no problem, I would soon run out of room in my fridge with the contents of several #10 cans in addition to milk, butter, produce, etc. Am I missing something here?<<<

Yes, you missed the word dehydrated.

As far as I know, and I could be wrong, but the items in cans at waltons are dehydrated, you open them take out what you need, put the plastic lid that comes with the can back on and set it on the shelf.

Then the remainder should be used in a timely manner, say with in a couple months.

I have cooked the dehydrated applesauce and also the diced apples from Montai’s old food and found with spices, it was good.

Dehydrated foods have a long storage life, even after being opened.

That is why they are a good buy, you don’t worry about them when they are sealed and have no trouble in using them up once opened, in a variety of time, in different ways.

I have not worked out the prices per ounce of dried vs wet, bet it is not that far off, if you pour the water off a can of regular vegetables and soak the dried vegs before weighing them.

The milk is opened and then set on the shelf as it is used, it is dry milk.

My cheese powder, I did put in the refrigerator, as I knew that I would only use it when I did not have regular cheese and it keeps for years, sitting there all sealed tight on the shelf.

Do not store these things in the cabinet above the stove, LOL, put dishes there and food in a far away one.

[nw_arizona_granny]

He always dreamed of moving back up there, but he had had a heart attack and his kids were scared of him being all alone up there, so they made him move back to town.<<<

I wish I had known him.

My friend Mary died in her own bed at 75.

Seemed old at the time, but as she said, I will learn.

I don’t know why people think we have to die in a home or?

We will die once, at this age, God already has our score, he is not going to call us home, until it is time and all the new fangled ways will not stop the last call.

I went through that last year, my sister and others thought the ‘Food on Wheels for seniors”, would mean that I would eat better.

The next thing I know, there is a case worker here, telling me that I need to live in an apartment in town.

I said that “I would rather be dead”.

The next visitor was the State man, to see if I was senile.

I counted backwards by 7 or some such, and he checked my medicines, declared that I was not on meds for senility and that he had more questions.

LOL, one was did I go through the great depression of the 1930’s, “yes”, then he says, “I took special classes on dealing with depression survivors, they always save every thing they can get their hands on to save”, declared his case closed, but warned me that the fools at the senior center might keep after me to move to town, like a good liberal is trained to think, can’t have the old gals, keeping alive and living on choice land, that we could buy.

LOL, the nice man did tell me that I qualified to go to the old Miners home, if that sounded better to me, to let him know and he would get me in.

If I ever go to a home, let it be the old miners home, they will still be talking about the dreams they once had, and the jackpots they almost located.

Yes, we all have ore samples, rich in gold, that we never found the source of.

You grandpa’s country is about where Dr. Bill Wattenberg was raised and lives now, he loves it.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

The next visitor was the State man, to see if I was senile.

I counted backwards by 7 or some such, and he checked my medicines, declared that I was not on meds for senility and that he had more questions.

LOL, one was did I go through the great depression of the 1930’s, “yes”, then he says, “I took special classes on dealing with depression survivors, they always save every thing they can get their hands on to save”, declared his case closed, but warned me that the fools at the senior center might keep after me to move to town, like a good liberal is trained to think, can’t have the old gals, keeping alive and living on choice land, that we could buy.

LOL, the nice man did tell me that I qualified to go to the old Miners home, if that sounded better to me, to let him know and he would get me in.

I'd like to shake that guy's hand. I'm glad you got a man (case worker?) who had some common sense and common decency. LOL, neither of which is very common, is it? A man who remembers that people have dignity, dreams, and hopes, and that government is not the answer to everything. It warms my heart to have a guy like that working for the State of Arizona. I love that state and I love to hear good things about it.

Do you know grandpa lived for 35 more years after living at the ranch? He was 67 when he had the heart attack and never had another one. So moving him down here was probably for nothing, after all. Too bad. But then grandma was happier in town, she liked the bright lights and fast cars, LOL. What dear people. I'm sorry you lost Bill, he sounded like a great fellow.

I have a life-threatening disease at the age of 55 and I hope to live long enough to see my grandchildren. My son is only 18 so that means I have to work hard to stay alive. I'm on dialysis three days a week so that's when I've been reading through this thread. I would like to start an index for it so people can find stuff. Maybe I can put the index on my FR home page under my name. We'll see... it's hard to type with one hand, the other has to stay immobile during the procedure. My dialysis time is now down to 3 hours instead of 3.5, so that was a nice thing to hear.

Hope your arms are better today. Is the barometer falling, or is dampness on the way? That might be what's causing your discomfort, I hope that's all it is.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Here are some pictures of my mountain home and the mobile home park it's in:

 

 

My dog thinking of some mischief:

Here's a view down into the valley from the other side of the mobile home park:

The pictures are small because you said you were on dialup. If you wanted to see the full size, you can go here:

My photostream on flickr

I never knew I was a country girl. I lived in cities all my life but really I enjoy simple things - genealogy, reading, crafts, decorating, cooking, playing with the dog, etc. So now I know I don't need the big city, I get a kick out of watching the birds and hearing the coyotes and seeing the mule deer down by the orange orchards and the big wild boars and raccoons near the road. And watching the Harris Ranch calves grow up wandering around the foothills. I can't wait to move back!!

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/money/10-money-lessons-great-depression

10 Money Lessons From the Great Depression
By Jeffrey Strain

The U.S. may not technically be in a recession. After all, the U.S. Commerce Department says the economy grew at a 0.6% pace in the first quarter.

But most people look at things more like legendary investor Warren Buffett, who defined a recession as when “people are doing less well than they were three months, six months or eight months earlier.”

continued.

[nw_arizona_granny]

I am sorry that you have health problems, you don’t need them and they are no fun.

You shall certainly be in my prayers.

You are younger than my kids, today, it seems like most people are. [That does not mean that I am old.!!]

Bad health is no fun, and I did not plan for it, for myself, there was another world or two that I planned to conquer after I retired.

Little did I realize that my world would be as long as my connection to the oxygen generator and that is about 40 foot.

Emphysema does that to you, when added to other problems.

There are too many days that I can barely lift my arms and so I do what I can when I can, which is less all the time.

An index of this would be wonderful, I was keeping a general index on paper and lost the first half, when it fell behind the desk and there is no way to get it out, without a major operation.

Yes, I got off lucky, with the Man from the State, if it had been another liberal broad, I would have been in trouble.

My mobile is old and falling apart, but the land is an extra special, view lot, there are new homes going in on the adjoining lots, so I expect more troubles at any time.

I bought this place over 30 years ago, already set up, Bill fell in love with Kingman, I did not and will not, it is just not the place for me.