Please Do Not Make This Political

[MrTom]

Prayers for all of your family Super Kirby! Your situation would be stressful enough without the added stress of high fuel costs.

 

[BadgerRidge]

Just raised the prices on a few items we sell because material costs have risen. Will have to raise labor soon too.

As for advice for the OP: I've always seen life as multi pronged in its problems, solutions, and where we need to be prepared. I'm not coming from a place that I've got it all figured out, but I think I understand and follow the most important things:

First Spiritually. My wife and I are being transformed by the work of Christ on the cross and the holy spirit and scriptures. (won't get political, but will touch on 'religious'). Faith is key to making it through hard times, make sure your faith is centered on the Living God, His word, and He can work miracles in your life. Find others who believe similarly and bond with them. You can get each other through.

Then after faith, its finances. You have to live on a budget, avoiding & saying 'no' to anymore debt, paying off debt, and saving/investing for tomorrow (and the bible does talk a lot about money) this takes displine and accountability. Which can be tough if you are yoked to another and they aren't disciplined or accountable:

Financial Peace is helpful to be ready for any sort of hard times: (Dave Ramsey): Guided Plans

Really I like Joe Sangl's take on money: Home - JosephSangl.com

Bottom line: Guiding what dollars you do get to where they best go and discipline/saying 'no' and doing without are required.

Then its growth and skills: this goes for growing your income earing potential, to preparing your family/home for hard times/to growing in the holy spirit. Some folks just are so comfortable they won't grow or try to learn anything new/different.

The sooner you start working purposefully on growing spiritually, financially, and skillfully you are on a path to be as successful as you can. You will find that all three blend into one another.

My .02 USD, not from someone who's arrived, but another fellow traveler on the path.

Tom

 

[SuperKirby]

Prayers for all of your family Super Kirby! Your situation would be stressful enough without the added stress of high fuel costs.

Thank you sir. I’ll take that for sure!

 

[vintovka]

Want to see panic, let the electricity go out for a week or cannot get to the grocery store during that time.

If you think about it maybe thats the intent??

 

[GM54-120]

You would not believe how much i can get for fresh Carolina Reaper peppers. Well over $20/lb and i will sell every one i take to a farmers market on a good day. Break them down into 5-6 pepper packs and sell them for even more $$$$ per lb. I normally get $7 for 100 grams and thats a bargain price vs specialty markets.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

If you think about it maybe thats the intent??

Intent of what? or who?

 

[CatamountRob]

You would not believe how much i can get for fresh Carolina Reaper peppers. Well over $20/lb and i will sell everyone i take to a farmers market on a good day. Break them down into 5-6 pepper packs and sell them for even more $$$$ per lb. I normally get $7 for 100 grams and thats a bargain price vs specialty markets.

Are they difficult to grow or just uncommon?

 

[GM54-120]

Not hard but since its the hottest pepper, it never fails someone just has to try them or buy them for someone else to try. Rocotos are much harder to grow here.

 

[mnoland30]

There is already a shortage of truck drivers, which is leading to shortages. Being a hunter gives you a huge advantage. I live about a mile from the river, so I figure with filters, we could get water until I could dig a well. But, if things really go south, living here in the city would be a serious problem because of the others who live in the city. Time to buy more molds, and stock up on lead.

 

[BadgerRidge]

Intent of what? or who?

I'd think that an answer to that would probably be deemed political....

 

[michiganmuzzy]

.

 

[Dbrown57]

In all honesty, how many folks under the age of 40 can get a fish or critter from being whole to cooking?

How many can take a piece of ground and have food come out of it?

The govt./service made me poor in the early 1970's. I went from a prestigious college to an E-1. I worked fulltime for the govt. and 2 part time jobs to survive with a wife and 2 kids. I survived and being poor taught me a lot.

I’d like to say I’m one of them. Il be 34 this year and have been processing all my own game since I was 12. Parents taught me well. I’d love to have a couple acres for a garden chickens, ducks and maybe a few goats. Hopefully soon.

 

[Bad Karma]

Went out and did a little foraging last night. I love fishing on the ice at night.
View attachment 20286View attachment 20287

I love warm water fishing. Even when you have to drill through the ice to do it!

 

[Wildrangeringreen]

SuperKirby, my oldest was a preemie, spent 2.5 months in NICU. As rough as it was for my wife and I, I could only imagine the difficulty endured by the families that had other children to care for as well. I'll pray for your family, and hopefully your twins can get home soon. That garden is a good idea, hopefully the older kids can help a little. Make sure you get at least some of your jars, lids and such now, they likely won't be in stock when you need 'em.

Being in MN, you still have another couple months of butchering weather, we just cut up a steer for ourselves a couple weeks ago. Took about 5 hours for three men to skin, gut, and halve the steer in the barnyard, let it hang for 2 weeks in the shed (50F highs to 10F lows), and then took 5 of us nearly 11 hours to cut it up (he was a 1800lbs monster lol).

Hang in there, man.

 

[one-shot]

Hit the yard and estate sales for jars, squeezo's and the old heavy pressure cookers . Us old farts are kicking the bucket. at an alarming rate. Don't forget a dehydrator for pocket food. dried apples/cashews and Colby cheese is real living. And the solve all product is a vacuum packer.

 

[SuperKirby]

Were pretty set for jars, lids, etc. and still pick up more every year. The farm has been in her family since 1870 so there's generations of all that stuff here. The kids are quite helpful with the garden so that helps as well. All in all its better than it could be. I should find a dehydrator though. I've never butchered a steer. That sounds like a ton of work. Instead I have the good fortune of my closest neighbor owning a meat processing business so I call him and he tells me when to have it there. Still pay for it but around here most places are booked out 8 months to a year so I get to skip the wait.

The twins are doing well. The big hurdle for them is feeds but they're slowly increasing. We're really hoping in the next 7-10 days they'll be able to come home but that's still more of a hope than anything. Until then it's down to the cities every day to see them and that's just what needs to happen.

 

[vintovka]

Intent of what? or who?

Of those who do not have our best interests at heart.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

.

 

[rangerod]

Enuff already.

 

[MTY]

On a happier note, at least for the dogs and cats, I was talked into going to Costco today. I stocked up on enough critter feed to keep them happy for a while.
The starts for the veggie garden are doing really well. I need to expand the deer fence, but the mud is more than I want to deal with. I did turn over the
raised beds with garden fork on Monday.
The question I keep stewing over is one about deer hunting. I looked at beef burger today, and it was about $7 per pound. I keep asking myself whether I should snipe the first tasty looking deer and cheat myself out of a couple months of walking around the woods, or should I forget about meat and just enjoy the hunt.
Maybe the best thing to do would be to set a $8.50 burger price limit and shoot the first thing I see if burger hits $8.51 per pound.