*Illogical Logic*
By Relic

Well, now... How are you making out with your survival plans? If the economy "tanks," and you are job-hunting again, do you have a reserve fund to take care of your family for six to 12 months? No? Well, neither do we!

Yes, I know. I have social insecurity, but its not enough to live on - if it lasts, that is. Rumors are floating that a "reduction in income to those avaricious oldsters" is in the cards. That's where survival plans come in.

My daughter is on our land (ours and the bank's) this weekend, cutting down small trees by hand. She has a bow-saw and a hatchet to work with :) But she needs to get space cleared to at least put in a small row-crop garden, with the produce planned to be sold in farmer's markets this summer.

She's not quite alone up there. She took her large dog with her. I've got the other two here with me as I write this. She will keep in touch (sort of) by telephoning when she goes down the hill 20 miles to the county seat to pick up our septic permit.

Talk about sneaky government! The cost for construction permits doubled on April 1st. And they keep telling us "housing is down." I wonder why.

We have great plans for the future. I know. I keep thinking about the old song, "Autumn Leaves." You know, "when the days dwindle down to a prescious few." At nearly 75 (middle age:) I've no idea how long I have, but I'll just keep on going. That's what survivalism is all about.


"Teamworks" It's quite a book by Barbara Sher and Anne Gottlieb. The subtitle is "Building Support Groups That Guarantee Succes." And that's for sure true. To survive you do need a support group on your side. You help them and they help you.

It's amazing, the amount you can achieve, just bouncing ideas off of each other. But you can also accomplish some very physical things. Why do you think "barn raising" and "quilting bees" were such an important part of our ancestors' lives? If you can help with someone's havest (of any kind,) you can probably get "gleaning" rights.

Do you even know what gleaning is? It's following after the harvest and gathering the fruits that have been left behind. And it can take a lot of forms. A wrecking crew tears down a building. You help out by carrying away usable building materials. That's gleaning! While you're helping yourself, you're also helping yourself. No free lunch, you know!


A bit of interesting information in "From the Ground Up" by Glenn Simmons (circa 1976)

"Providing we have an adequate supply of water, take 100 acres of land, put 20 families on that land, five acres per family, so they could eke out an existence, live a pleasant, happy way of life and be mostly self-sufficient or put one man on this 100 acres, one family, and put the other 19 on welfare."

No, he isn't advocating socialism or communism, just pointing out once again (as he does frequently in his two-volume set), that you can not only provide for your family's needs but actually generate an income from selling or bartering you excess foodstuffs!

It's a great set. Mr. Simmons was 70 years old when I knew him, so I'm not sure where or how it would be possible to get another copy of this set!


What hobbies do you have that can engender a little additional income? My daughter, in addition to gardening, canning, gourmet cooking and being an herbalist, is a top-notch leather artist. i.e. she carves designs on leather.

Me? Well, I'm a writer and editor with a small business of my own. But I am also an herbalist, a tailor and a teacher. (I can teach anyone any age how to read, write and spell) Oops... A child has to be at least big enough to teach how to handle a pencil and be able to talk :)

Do we have a lot of money? Nope. We spent what we had finding our road South. Now, we're back at the beginning. But, like you, we'll be just fine. We have true friends to help us and advise us. You know, like in "Teamworks!"

Oops, gotta go.. Packing, you know.


Relic


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