Replies

>>>Most hits come back to local media articles that show MSM doesn’t have a clue what middle America is thinking or talking about.<<<

You know, I do that same search procedure from time to time and every time, I end up just shaking my head at how out of touch they are. But then I remember that they were trained to look at the 5 W’s plus How (Who, What, Where, Why, When). Sustainable living does not lend itself to ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk’ extremes that they really need to sell their news.

Only when many are starving the large numbers and the stark contrast be evident enough for them to really start to examine how survivalists are successful.

A few months ago they were reporting that canning supply sales were way up - 11% ahead of 2007 - Now this year for the first 3 months it is already 30% ahead of 2008 and we aren’t even close to the peak of the canning season.

If we only had someone in the WH with the moxie to lay it out for people and to instruct the Cooperative Extension Service to immediately start scheduling programs on growing, preserving and preparing food, as well as other skills, instead of having First Lady play in the dirt a bit for photo ops, people would be much better served. We have a couple of generations who have never needed to grow anything but a few flowers, and then only if the gardener or landscaper didn’t do it for them.

My philosophy has always been to treat my unprepared neighbors when they are hurting like from an ice or snow storm where the power goes off. I take my Jeep, load it up, Generator on the back, a couple of 22 quart stainless steel pots of soup and a couple of dozen loaves of homemade bread and 3 5 gallon water jugs. While I recharge their freezer, I plug my inverter in and let them watch the TV (you would be amazed the withdrawal from that) and ladle out soup for them. (I carry a kerosene stove to heat it again if they cook with electricity. I even cut the trees or branches across their driveways using an electric chain saw and the inverter while they eat and watch TV while the freezer runs to keep their food from spoiling. When they try to pay me, I always tell them that the fee is for them to prepare themselves too and go out and help someone else when they need it. It is amazing how many almost insist I just take the money so they won’t have to uphold the part of the bargain I am calling for.

I really think that those efforts on my part have improved the preparedness undertakings of many of them - plus, they are much more reliable now as helpers if I need them for an emergency if TSHTF in a big way. I would have no qualms about sharing with them IF they participated in helping with the production or preservation.

Even the mailman (who I had pulled out of snow drifts a couple of times and who knows how much I garden, asks me questions about where he can get this or that... a couple of weeks ago, he asked if I knew anywhere he could get some spaghetti squash seeds - I told him to wait a minute - came in the house and put some in a seed envelop for him... He was ecstatic. In return, if I have anything that might get wet or stolen from the mailbox, he now comes truckin to the house and puts it on my front porch. All for some spaghetti squash seeds...

Keep your posts coming - we all benefit from them.

Best thing about your post is the mailman thing. My wife is a postal carrier. Her route is rural and in the winter she struggles. I work nights and sleep during the day. There have been so many times that my wife has needed help on her route during the winter months but she hasn't called me. Stuck in a drift or a gully it doesn't matter, the woman will never call me. Granny can appreciate this but she's most Blackfoot Indian and always seems to find a way out of a bad situation. My six is covered.

I applaud your efforts to help your neighbors. I do a similar thing but not quite as extensive as you. I help those who appreciate it and are actually in need. During actual snow or other weather emergencies, I usually lead the way. We live in the sticks and have some folks from the city that live down here that actually sometimes need help.

One thing I might add, if the Schumer ever does hit the fan, I have one neighbor that I can count on. He has a garden almost as good as mine. He has the means to defend himself and his family. We have an agreement that if and when it comes down to it, we both have each others back.

“Pass it on” seems to be catching on in a big way around here. I hear it all the time at the check out in stores. Just the other day, I handed two pennies to the young gent in front of me. After thanking me profusely, he told me twice that he would, “pass it on.” TWO PENNIES!!

Last weekend, we were at HD picking up a grill. It was too tall to fit under our pickup top. So here we are, two old duffers, trying to take the cover off to make it fit. Several people came along, offering hints and commiserating with us, when a couple stopped and asked which way we were headed. Sure enough, they were going in the same direction, so they offered to take it home for us in their open back pickup. When we thanked them profusely, their reply was.”pass it on.” This concept just needs to take hold all over the country.

Seventy plus years ago, our rural carrier would bring groceries to us, take anybody anywhere along his route that we needed to go. Unfortunately, todays mindset of suing people for any inconvenience or infringement of rights has stopped this practice. I, too, was a rural carrier years ago and an elderly lady's daughter asked me to bring her mother's mail into the house for her when she came home from the hospital. I was more than glad to do this, but after a few days another younger neighbor complained, stating that I would have to deliver every-ones mail to their door if I did this for the elderly neighbor. Imagine!!!