Planning and goals, mean nothing without the work put in to achieve them. Even the religious texts tell you to have faith in God, but God is looking for soldiers.
I never understood the efforts that are required to live the life I now live; until I many years into it. You see, living in the country is not only completely different from city life but it even different from living a farm life. I don't care if you have a 1 acre homestead or a 1000 acre farm. You live your life in constant preparation, constant damage control and your efforts are just the beginning. Speaking from my own perspective here. A large majority of our preparations are based on the weather, the quality of what we put into our operations, and a massive dependency on the efforts WE put in. This means doing things half-assed, is going to give you the same end result. Not to mention some of the outcomes of other people's behaviors. In my personal case, I seem to have come full circle to the very ancestors I came from. In my ancestral research to date, my family was farmers. Although I did not grow up that way, that way of life chose me to return to. I don't have the long lineage to look back to for "old ways, or traditions." I have had to adapt to what I could learn from the family I married into, whatever lessons I could find online and good ole trial and error.
This life, for me, began by living in the country, growing a garden, preserving food, and raising chickens. Although my Dad has gardened for as long as I can remember...I truly didn't understand or know what do to with any of this life, when I started out. I was the typical clueless town kid. I really think that I was destined to this way of life. My grade school best friend, lived on a hog farm. I wanted to spend every possible moment at her house. It intrigued me even then. I know she wanted off the farm, but I wanted on one. I got away from it for several years, but when I moved to Missouri...I knew where I wanted to go with my life. My goals of the very life I now live, were in place...I just didn't have a clue what was involved. Now, I do know and although it is a lot of hard work and stress; I don't want to live any other way!
The preparations and planning truly never end. I have said before that we plan for 6 months, to be able to live for the remaining 6 months. This is true to the core. I know many that can't plan for 6 days let alone 6 months. That is their thing, not mine. So, I will focus on what I know. 6 months of planning is not only utter chaos, but it's also difficult. On our farm, we have to plan for so much. There is the hay we will need to feed all the livestock, from the start of hay season until we can turn out on pasture the following year. There is the feed and minerals we will need for the same time frames. When the prices are sky high, that adds in a level of uncertainty for the financial planning. We have to plan for our own food too. Living very rural means that you will risk power outages, extended times of snow/ice preventing travel, flooding that could prevent travel, and now the extreme cost in food for us is adding insult to injury too. You plan for illness, pets, next year's gardening, ongoing food preservation in the event of long term power outages - freezers are great until there is no power. Then you start looking into what happens to other areas when there is no power - no power means the electric pumps for water don't work, there is no lights, no appliances to cook, no heat. So, keeping batteries, candles, matches/lighters, extra water, extra propane, extra wood, foil pans to cook on grills/fire, having cast iron, knowing how to cook on each of these alternative sources and no internet, not to mention even the simplest of things - something to do when you have no power. I keep lots of board games, decks of cards, and always have a ton of books. The thing is, reading by candle light is difficult.
Keeping a back up supply is difficult and more costly now, than ever. Having back ups for back ups, has become the go to theory. I preserve everything possible from my gardens. However, I have no issue keeping canned goods from a store too. One thing I have had to learn, is to look at what I use in a day, week, month, and year. This is a challenge when you are just getting started. For example, I know I use 150 - 200 lbs. of flour on an average year, 150 lbs. of sugar, 20 lbs of baking soda, 50 lbs of epsom salt...to name a few. I know I preserve, on average of 800 jars of food every year. That means I have to keep that many jars, and that many flats. The flats are the piece that go on the top of the jar, that seals to keep the food fresh. The rings that twist on, can be reused, because I do not store my jars with the rings on. So I don't need as many of them. We typically butcher a steer once a year, that allows our family the beef we need. We have butchered 3 hogs a year to feed our family, and average about 100 lbs of chicken. This is a typical year for a family of 4-6. By the time we are ready to start butchering, we are typically the same as out of all of it. It takes about a year to feed a steer and have it ready to butcher. So, if we started feeding a steer right now, Next fall, we could butcher it to have for NEXT year. That is all part of the planning. One thing you have to always factor in on a farm, is the unexpected. This year is a great example. The drought this year has caused a hay shortage not just on our farm, but most local farms. So, it's not only been a smaller crop for us, but purchasing hay has become beyond difficult. Since so many others have faced the same issue, what little bit there is to buy, is stupid high...like pushing $200 per bale. These are the same bales we were buying for $50 - 6 months ago. My gardens have been hindered too. To keep them alive, and be able to get what we need from them, meant having to water them daily for about 3 months. This drove up the water bill, but that was still cheaper than having to buy everything from a store. It just took a lot more work. We finally did get some rain, but this week alone is going to be pushing 100 degrees and that will drain the moisture out of the soil very rapidly. Just as many of the crops begin to really produce, it appears we will be fighting mother nature again. The constant conversations of shortages has me very edgy. I've heard talk about grain shortages, rice shortages, and sugar shortages. So, I'm going to dive into the grain side. I know I have already heard many claim that they don't care about the grain side, because it won't effect them. Well, I beg to differ. Grain shortages mean - anything made with corn, wheat, soybeans, and even cotton...will effect EVERYONE. Think about what these grains go into: bread, cereals, corn bread, soda, cookies, snacks, nearly ALL processed foods, nearly ALL pet foods. Clothing that contains cotton, will continue to go up. Anyone that eats rice, you better have a well preserved back up there too. The large majority of everything we consume, will be increasing even more by fall. Folks, we are 8 weeks from Fall!!
Here on my farm, I plan, organize, prepare and plan some more! If I have learned nothing else in life, I have learned you better have more back up plans than you can imagine!! What happens if you lose your job, lose an income, or your pension suddenly decreases or you no longer get it at all? Do you have a plan? Listening to the number of people that have paid into pension plans, retire and find out that those pension plans were stolen, or they were backed by commercial bonds; and suddenly those pensions are decreased to 25% of what you were previously receiving and the rest of your money is gone...scares me, I don't have a pension to worry about! Do you have money or precious metals to live on in the event of your pension being gone or decreased, or your income is suddenly gone, or you can't get your money out of a bank? Sadly, these scenarios are now realities. Would I prepared if one of these events happened here? That answer is no. I have watched our own incomes decrease dramatically, while the prices of everything continue to rise. My own budget went from "do-able" to oh shit...in the past 30 months. I have busted tail to try to get as much paid off as possible, but that has hit a wall too. It now takes nearly even penny just to makes ends meet. I have seen a $200 grocery budget that would cover our needs for 2 months, jump to nearly $700 for a 6 week supply. I have seen fuel receipts go from $200 monthly to now nearly $500 monthly...and we don't do anything besides off the farm jobs. We have seen our income decrease nearly by nearly $800 per month, the past year, due to inflation, cost of fuel, and increased cost of our farm. It gets a little intimidating at times to see the reality of what is happening in our country.
One thing that I have trouble making sense of, is the complete disconnect from reality that so many are behaving like. I have heard so many excuses for ignoring what's happening, ignoring what needs to be done, or doing things compulsively. I guess, in a way I get it...but at the same time, I don't. We have to live our lives, I get that. What I don't get, is the inability to stop consuming so much. Seriously, our economy is in the tank, yet people are living off credit. Our current credit debt in this country is over a trillion dollars. Why?!?!?! So people can one up each other? So people can sky high vacations? So people can drive over priced cars? So people can have homes priced 5 times what they are actually worth? So people can have some stupidly priced phone with a brand name? Yes, I understand that having a home, a vehicle and even a cell phone are necessary today. What I don't get is need to be so far in debt, they will never be able to their way out. I don't understand the need to clutter our homes with a bunch of crap that will either never be used, or will be used a handful of times and forgotten about. I don't see a need to have the highest priced items, just because it's brand name or because someone else has it. I know we are all programmed to believe that the latest and greatest is necessary...but that is a big ole lie! What's wrong with an older vehicle? What's wrong with a home that is used or a little smaller? What is wrong with using financial common sense?
I guess common sense isn't so common anymore. I can remember stories my grandmother's shared with me when I was younger. They talked about multiple generations living under one roof to help. This helped with not only the costs, but also the chores. They shared stories of growing up after the Great Depression, when they would wash off tin foil, rinse out Ziploc bags, made all their foods from scratch, when they would do everything they could to pinch 2 pennies together, and make the most of it. I can remember them talking about making their own clothes, hanging clothes on the line, they would condense any travel to minimize the expenses. They worked their fingers to the bone, to take care of their family's needs...but as the old phrase goes, "they didn't have a pot to piss in, or the window to throw it out of." You know what? Even though they worked hard, they had it all figured out. They took care of their family, they helped their neighbors, they helped their congregations, and their communities. When someone was in need, they took care of each other. Their morals, their values and their priorities were stronger than most of what we could imagine today.
I think it's time we circled our proverbial wagons again. Look past the distractions and lies, and see what is important. Instead of walking past or scowling at that homeless person; buy them a sandwich or give them $5. Instead of being selfishly absorbed in all the latest and greatest, challenge yourself to live on half your income. Stop using your credit cards or loans for everything. Pay cash, for everything. If you don't have the cash, save your money until you do. I know, there are emergencies...but not having $9 for a Starbucks, is not an emergency. Get yourself a fireproof/waterproof small safe, and start socking $20 a pay period in it. Do not touch that money. Take another $20 per pay period and get yourself some canned foods - vegetables, soups, canned meats. Set them aside for a back up. If you want a vacation, take one that is a little cheaper...find a way to save some money. Keep your vehicles maintained, and they will last a long time. It's cheaper to fix an older vehicle that to buy a new one! Keep your cell phones for as long as possible! You don't need a new one if the old one still works. Learn some kind of usable skills. Cooking, baking, welding, electrical, carpentry, etc. Our country is seriously lacking people with skilled trades!!!
