Economy, Terrorists, Social Unrest, Inflation....

[jaymealaska]

So, all these things are beginning to actually happen. The world is on fire right now and it's just the start - which is scary. I just don't see how the Islamic State will just fizzle out.. They've won the biggest swath of power and land for Islam since the 12th century. Their goal is to bring Israel and the US to its knees.

Our economy is fragile, our inflation is starting to rise but is not quite noticeable enough for the average folks that the FEDs can play it off as just something they're managing but it's no biggie. Think what'll happen if/when ISIS gives their sleeper cell terrorists orders or gets more terrorists across our boarder.

We have an invasion of illegal immigrant adults and children including deadly gang members being shipped across the US by our government to get lost in the system. Evidently here in Alaska, we've just received 120 illegals this month that will be getting jobs and government assistance.

If nothing is done, and everything stays on the trajectory it's currently on... We're going to be in HEAP LOADS of trouble 6-12 months from now ... I can't even imagine 2 years from now.

We're getting out of debt and have a plan to move and become mortgage free (with a house and land) as quickly as possible. We have food stored up and a freezer full of homegrown goodies. I've got my cow, which I see as a fantastic supply of meat and milk to feed the family, farm and for trade. At the moment we only have about 2-3 months worth of hay, but we'll be getting more soon.

Do you guys see any possible way for all these things to just fizzle out and have no effect on us? I just don't see it as being possible. Thoughts? How have you been preparing lately with the disease issues coming into the US, the terrorist plots, inflation, drought, beef and pork shortages, etc?

[merrymotheroffour]

My mother always said "prepare for the worse but hope for the best." We have a lifestyle that does that. Through the summers we plan and prepare for the winter and vise versa. When things fail, and they do, whether it is bad crops, bad government, or bad people, we pick ourselves up, dust of the really dirty parts and get back to work.
I don't need the satisfaction of being better, smarter, or stronger than anyone else, I just need to take heed in what needs to be done and do it. Our country, our way of life as Americans can change, but we the people....we'll be just fine.

[3cows]

My dad died in the late 80's, raised dirt poor, self-educated, lived close to the land-at least as close as mom would allow. I remember him voicing the same concerns that I have now to me when I was growing up, just on a smaller scale. Even then he cautioned me daily that inflation, communism and Russia (the Bear) was a danger to us (the eagle). He said the government had stolen far too much power from the people and was too big. He said that when government controls the food supply, the people will be controlled. I can see that coming now.

When mom made him move off the farm onto 20 acres, he still kept a milk cow, raised a calf and a pig for the freezer every year, had a garden and fruit trees, as we do now. When Mom quit canning food, he remodeled the kitchen took out the breakfast nook and built a walk in pantry and then bought cases of food to stock it.
I agree that a lot of things are happening, and it is unsettling. But I also remember that Dad felt the same way some 40+ years ago. Like Merry, we prepare for the worst, hope for the best and just keep going. Maybe in ten or twenty years my kids will log on to KFC looking for help as new family cow owners and post about how they are trying to get closer to the land because they feel the world is changing too fast...

[Debbie Lincoln]

Every generation seems to think "this is it...the end of our world as we know it". But today's happenings are pretty unsettling to be sure.
We have been preparing for the worst as well. Those close to the land have the best chance of survival. We are 60 miles from the nearest LARGE metropolitan settlement. I just hope that's far enough.

[karenp]

A friend of mine who has his master's degree in that sort of thing always quotes 3 days. Most people people will not be prepared after that, the stores will be empty, the looting will begin. Don't advertise what you have and be prepared to protect it.

[merrymotheroffour]

Aug 13, 2014 15:03:23 GMT -5 karenp said:

A friend of mine who has his master's degree in that sort of thing always quotes 3 days. Most people people will not be prepared after that, the stores will be empty, the looting will begin. Don't advertise what you have and be prepared to protect it.

That is so true! We had some self proclaimed "preppers" wanting us to join them and other "like minded people" in a day of supply preparing, tactic gathering,and political bashing to learn survival basics for the Apocalypse. I declined. To my astonishment, my DH said he wanted to go. When I asked him why, he answered "to see who we raid in case all h#** breaks loose." He's a big jokester, but has a valid point like you. Never advertise. And if you do...prepare to share.
I don't think too much of the end of the world, as it is far too depressing, but I do think in terms of teaching my children to survive in cases of natural or man made disaster. When we talk about stock piles, our own animals, & our own gardens- this too is within the context of normal. The question shouldn't be whether you will survive with it. The question should be whether you can survive without it. If your garden had no seeds, your stock piles no freezer or store, and your animals died or were stolen. That is the test you must submit when discussing where you or I will be. My kids know how to hunt & eat even the smallest animals/fish/birds. They know which weeds grow in our yard that are edible...not always good...but edible. And they know even in a drought our land is wet just a few feet down. Does this make me a "prepper"? I hope not...because then I'll have to start going to day camps with "like minded people". :-)

[sweetiepie]

I find it funny what people call preppers. I don't see my dad often but a couple weeks ago I snuck away and one of the comments he had was "So I heard you have become one of those preppers." I sat there with my mouth open for a while. Now my mom and dad use to have a milk cow, milk goats, garden, canned, butchered, still hunt etc. It is now more convenient for them to not do these things. He told me he was frugal back then because he couldn't afford not to be and I am a prepper because I don't need to be frugal.

[dunderi]

It makes you skilled.

There are a good many skills that my generation (Gen y, don't hold it against me) and the following children simply aren't being taught. Our parents didn't suffer through a world war, or a great depression. There has been no need to teach thrift, or maintenance, because everything is "cheaper" and "disposable"

among peers of my age group, I'm considered the strange one. Not just because I farm, but because I can foods, because I like to learn how things were done before electricity, and how to cook without emptying a packet of this and a jar of that over my store bought pre diced beef *yuk!*.
It's not that I romanticise the colonial or medieval times. disease was rife, work was hard, aircon and refrigerators didn't exist, let alone things like cars or tractors.
But the way the world is I almost expect things will collapse, and is rather not be one of the masses flailing like a fish out of water when it happens.
It helps that I have genuine interest I guess, beyond the common and much repeated blogs on making your own soap (from lye bought in a store, really what's the point in that info? ) or making your own vanilla from beans and vodka. ..
The Garden and the seed bank I do from habit almost. my dad does it, and his father before him. I'm always still learning, but I'd hate to ever rely on coles or woolworths for my green food. Bad enough buying fruit and flour there.

After seeing how people act at easter each year, when the stores close for two days together. .. It makes me wonder if your friend is correct with the estimation of 3 days. I think 48 hours. When we had the 2011 floods here, people massively panicked.

I cannot wait to buy a new place later this year, and get as far up in the hills as we can. There's so much about large population areas that I can't stand, the lack of skills and self sustainability high on the list.

[charlesh]

I like the "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst" quote. It is a good way of living regardless of what is on the news.

Can I see this fizzle out? Sure. I am finally getting old enough to say i have seen it before and, as Debbie said, it always seems like "this time" is it. Just in my life I have seen the chaos of the 60's called the beginning of the end (JFK, RFK, MLK, race riots, Vietnam, etc.). Watergate was it (Nixon would declare marshall law, put tanks on the streets, and suspend the constitution). Theoil embargo was it. Any time more than three natural disasters fell close together was the beginning of End Times. Saddam Hussein was going to keep on rolling into Saudi Arabia, Iran and then North Africa and set up a Caliphate in 1990. The collapse of currencies in Asia in '97 was going to tank the world economy. The first WTC bombing in '93 and of course 9/11 both were perceived as the beginning of the end by some. Remember Y2K? Recently we had the Great Recession. None of these preceded the end in the next 6-12 months and I hope current events do not either.

But here's the thing. Someday it will be the beginning of the end, or at least the beginning of a major paradigm shift in the world economy and her governments. There is no way of knowing what that will look like or when it will happen. And that, my dear friends, brings me back to what Merrymotheroffour said: hope (or pray!) for the best but prepare for the worst.

[Debbie Lincoln]

Aug 13, 2014 16:13:00 GMT -5 sweetiepie said:

I find it funny what people call preppers. I don't see my dad often but a couple weeks ago I snuck away and one of the comments he had was "So I heard you have become one of those preppers." I sat there with my mouth open for a while. Now my mom and dad use to have a milk cow, milk goats, garden, canned, butchered, still hunt etc. It is now more convenient for them to not do these things. He told me he was frugal back then because he couldn't afford not to be and I am a prepper because I don't need to be frugal.

You just hit the nail on the head. I can afford to buy everything I choose to raise, shoot, make for myself. But because I don't, I am labeled prepper. I prefer to think if myself as "independent".

[dunderi]

or worse, they call us crunchy, or hippie...

because we'd rather eat meat we knew personally.

I don't think I have enough weapons or stockpiled toilet paper to be an actual prepper.

Do like making my own wine & ales though, least if society does collapse I can always trade beer

[merrymotheroffour]

Aug 13, 2014 16:33:02 GMT -5 dunderi said:

or worse, they call us crunchy, or hippie...

Haha.
No, hippies definately smell different than peppers! I was called granola once and I don't even eat granola. So it's fair to say we all have preconcieved notions on what the other person is, therefore I have to remind myself not to throw the first stone when I live in a glass house. Plus, my aim sucks.

[DanMa]

Dunderi: At least your stores close on easter. And for 2 days yet! Ours do not. And we return to work the day after Xmas & Monday after Easter.

jaymealaska: Many years ago, I used to take the news to heart as perhaps you are doing. After living through decades of it, I take it all with a grain of salt. I do the best I can and try to enjoy what time I have on my farm without letting the affairs of the world disturb that. I do not get paid the big bucks to deal with the problems you listed. I am retired and prefer to remain that way.

After having lived several months "behind the iron curtain" I have my own ideas of what might have been meant by the Russian bear being a threat to us and my ideas are very different after having spent time there than they were before I did so.

[DanMa]

Just want to add...ever since I witnessed an historic event overseas and (with the time difference) was able to see how it was reported on the new in the USA, I take everything I hear with a grain (sometimes a packet) of salt. What I witnessed in person was portrayed to give the TV audience a completely different impression. The US Constitution guarantees a free press; I do not confuse "free press" with "truthful press".

[eljay]

DanMa, your comments make me curious. I would welcome the story if you are willing and it would not cross any forum guidelines in terms of topic. I spent a month behind the iron curtain some 30 years ago and can still recall the feeling of oppression like it was yesterday. Listening to the news often has me thinking "Truth? What is truth?" Every country has their own version I suspect.

[cdmoi]

Aug 13, 2014 16:21:12 GMT -5 charlesh said:

But here's the thing. Someday it will be the beginning of the end, or at least the beginning of a major paradigm shift in the world economy and her governments. There is no way of knowing what that will look like or when it will happen. And that, my dear friends, brings me back to what Merrymotheroffour said: hope (or pray!) for the best but prepare for the worst.

This is so spot on, charlesh. And jaymealaska, I was so surprised to see this post this morning as my dh and I were JUST talking about this before parting ways...he to his office job, me to the farm to milk. Years ago when I started on this journey into the soil, I began to see things like never before, and that, as Richard Maybury says so often, real laws are to be FOUND, not made. God made the laws, we find them, and those are the laws you will see in all cultures across all history and can fall into two categories: Tort Law, your freedom stops at my nose, and Contract Law: Do what you say you would do. All the other "laws" we count in this nation, if they don't fall under one of those two categories, are made up laws that have no real footing or bearing, like the laws that govern raw milk sales. The thing about natural laws hard-wired into creation is that you will, eventually, run into them. Try stepping off a roof without a parachute and you'll find a natural law. But this journey has taught me that there are other laws just as valid and formidable as gravity--i.e., what you sow you reap. I tell people this all the time, say, in light of finances, and they "Yeah...I know, I know..." me, but they think of that as a PRINCIPLE, which they often equate to a "metaphor" in name only. But it IS a natural law, and we are spending what we don't have as a nation, and that will not, can not, sustain itself. I just heard yesterday on NPR that more than one European country had a ZERO domestic growth number, and that Germany, it's strongest economy, had, I think, only 1% growth. This way we live, this way we are doing things, is not sustainable.
moi

[merrymotheroffour]

Laws are made for dumb people. We are "saved" from car wrecks by seat belt laws, and we are not sickened by scrupulous raw milk sales. Darwin would be disappointed.
The problem with laws is they usually come about because of money. Insurance companies were tired of paying out big bucks, so seat belts are now mandatory. Raw milk is grade A dairy competition, so lobbyists are working hard to ban it. This is all under the guise that they are doing it for us.

I like Darwin's theory frankly. A few less of us from stupidity would probably up the natural IQ of the populace as a whole.
I am no smarter than the average bear, as I bought yet another freezer...on clearance (those darn red tags just pull me in like moths to a flame) and 3 years later must buy another freezer, due to the freezer breaking and oh ya...starting fire! My stupidity was believing the company made it safe enough to place in my basement...but after 7 years of replacing a stove, fridge, 2 freezers, 3 blenders, and 5...yes, 5 cheap a** coffee pots...I'm ready to learn to live smarter. The last microwave died 2 years ago. That , too, was a fire. And I will not buy another one. Ever. Smarter? Maybe. Cold coffee does suck, but at least it doesn't kill you. :-)

[grammagrace]

Coffee in pan on stove burner, burner on = hot coffee. As a family my children an some of my siblings are planning to keep the family farm as a place family can come to if need be. A place where we can raise food and be self sustaining. I have seen much that others commented on but I do believe things will get really bad in the life time of my grandchildren. At this time the youngest is 5. I hope to have a chance to teach them about gardening and raising animals. If I am wrong and "IT" does not happen, at least they will have a choice of real food or chemicals.

[cdmoi]

Not to derail the main topic, but merrymotheroffour@, ever use a french press??? Would NEVER go back to a drip maker. In the winter, we keep a teapot on the wood stove all the time, so making coffee is a matter of about 60 seconds, and is the. best. coffee. in. the. world.


Back to topic....
moi

[merrymotheroffour]

I do have a french press my dh bought. But it makes like 3 cups o' coffee. When it comes to coffee and being Norwegian, 3 cups is like eating a peanut as an elephant. I'd be boiling water all day!