Musings From the Farm

The first thing I want to say is Thank You. Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes. I am recuperating very well, and the best part of all is that I don't feel nauseated, run down and sick all of the time anymore. Hallelujah! I expect to make a full recovery very soon and be back to work around the homestead. Today, even though I am very slow and feel drained fairly quickly, I have been puttering around a little and enjoying every minute of it. The garden continues to produce in spite of it's continued neglect. We threw out about a gallon and a half of jalapeno peppers I had picked a while back, but was just unable to process and preserve. We sure hated to do it, but sometimes some things just can't be helped.

Today's harvest

Turnips

Kale

Swiss Chard

Broccoli

Carrots

Mangel beets

Potatoes

There are things all over the world that give us all cause for great alarm. And there are things right under our noses that give us all cause for reflection and great joy.

I am blessed with friends that I can talk to about the things of the world, and what else we can do to prepare for the future. I got to talk to two of them today. Our conversations covered many topics from gardening, to an adequate water supply if the collapse comes, to aging parents, to keeping our preparations private from our everyday worldly connections. I always come away from these conversations with something more to think about. What else can we do to be more prepared? What else can we do to ease the hardships of life when things get difficult and stressful and every task you under take is geared solely for survival? Yesterday we ordered laundry wringers to go on our galvanized tubs. I think that would make life easier when the time comes.

We've dried up the goats, so now we are buying milk. The small, local store sells it for $6.00 a gallon. Six dollars a gallon!! Like Frank said, we can buy 50 pounds of feed for the cost of two gallons of milk. We think we might have located someone at church who has a Jersey that just calved. Maybe we can arrange to buy milk from them until two of our does kid in February. I know the milk would be better for us, and we could still get some cream for butter in the process.

  











A while back I made up a couple of batches of casseroles in small foil pans and froze them. They are always nice to have on hand in case the need arises, like taking them to someone who is ill or lost a loved one. Well, this time, they turned out great......for us. Since coming home from the hospital, it has been very convenient to have something we only needed to heat up in the oven. It's good food, homemade and something we like. We started off with a breakfast casserole since it is fairly bland. Then enjoyed the green bean casserole. There was also a small Apple Cake in there that just hit the spot.

I will still have to give my body time to adjust to digesting my food without the aid of a gallbladder regulating the addition of bile to my intestines. I've heard all kinds of interesting stories and have read a fair amount about it. I have been drinking quite a bit of kefir throughout this whole process and continue to do so as part of my healing routine. I think it will help to keep things a little more balanced than they otherwise would be.

Times are changing along with the seasons. What used to be good, old fashioned common courtesy and kindness sometimes appears to be all but extinct. There are folks that try to find a reason to excuse anything to make their opponent look bad, whether it is politics, racial violence, differing religious opinions or that it is perfectly okay to go out in public and share known, highly contagious Ebola virus with anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity. Just when you think it can't get any worse....it does. Allies across the world are realigning into new financial and militaristic pacts that are changing the way the world will do business in the future. The leadership of our country continues to get weaker and weaker until it appears to be all but nonexistent. Where will it take us? What shape will we be in when we arrive? There is no way to know. Just continue to do all you can to prepare you and yours. And if the time never arrives, and you don't need the preps you have prepared, Hallelujah! But if it does, you will forever be grateful that you took the time and the ridiculing to do something about it. 

Until next time - Fern