Um, farming is hard work

Peter writes about how a bunch of folks underestimate just how hard subsistence farming really is.  "Green Acres" is funny because Oliver Wendell Douglas doesn't have the faintest idea how to farm, but it's just a TV show.  Reality is different.

Just how different is shown nicely by a very interesting young lady from China.  Li Ziqi has a farm where she grows pretty much everything she eats.  The Queen Of The World found her Youtube channel and I find it to be very relaxing to watch - the music is soothing and the videography is simply spectacular.  There's a reason that her videos have been viewed almost 3 billion times.

But if you watch you will see just how hard she works.  Her life looks rewarding, but she works increibly hard for it.  Folks thinking that they'll set up a couple acre farm for the End Times should really watch a few of her videos just to get a sense of what they are getting in for.

As I said, The Queen Of The World and I are big fans of Miss Li, but we're both a little old to start that sort of lifestyle.

Quote of the Day - Boogaloo Edition

Your humble host and The Queen Of The World were discussing the "Father's Day Ammo Sales" that are floating around (to her in-box).  It sort of went like this:

Me: I just got a bunch of .380.  Why do we need more?

The Queen Of The World: We need to order a thousand rounds because when the Boogaloo hits, we'll need it!

She's right, you know.  And she is the wind beneath my wings.  Of course, this isn't the first time we've had this discussion ....

What's your prepping strategy?

Big Country has an excellent post about inflation and how it is making food much more expensive.  He makes a really important point:

If you haven't started building a baseline food supply, you a dumb motherfucker.

Peter adds some important thoughts and tips, and concludes:

The more I read about food shortages and rising prices, the more serious I get about our backup food supplies. I hope you're doing the same. They're like a fire extinguisher, or a parachute, or a gun. You may never need one; but if you ever do, at that point it'll probably be far too late to go out and buy one.

The only thing I would add is that you need to know your goals.  Do you want to ride out a hurricane or tornado?  Do you want to ride out a 3 week series of blackout/brownout?  Do you want to ride out a solar flare that takes the power grid down for 6 months?  Do you want to ride out the collapse of Western Civilization?

Each of these has a very different time horizon.

The Queen Of The World and I have our own goals (not saying what; OPSEC is a virtue), but we've picked ONE of the choices above.  I think we're pretty well prepared for that, although water storage/purification is something that I think most people - and maybe us - skimp on.

But this is probably something you should think on.  Being prepared is a Very Good Thing Indeed but you really, really need to know the answer to the question: Prepared for what?

But you should really go real both Big Country's and Peter's posts.

It's September 10 all over again

 Co-blogger ASM826 posts about the last day that was normal.  Then Al Qaeda flew the jets into the buildings.
We were asleep that day, and had a rude awakening.  In a sense, it seems the same thing is happening now with Antifa and how people keep underestimating them.  Adam Piggott has a must-read post telling us to stop all that:

Every Antifa member that has been killed or unmasked in the past couple of weeks has been revealed as a convicted criminal, some with quite disturbing rap sheets. In other words, they have nothing to lose. They are highly trained to reach demonstrable objectives on the ground of their own choosing. These guys are not the cartoon idiots that we were encouraged to believe. They are far from it.

Most disturbing is his discussion of the local government authorities actively working to support Antifa, specifically in the courts.  This is quite disturbing.  Really disturbing.  It makes me glad that The Queen Of The World and I got out of Maryland.

Read the whole thing.  It feels like September 10, 2001 all over again.

Fall Out Boy - The Phoenix

Via #2 Son comes this plausibly appropriate-for-the-Zombie-Apocalypse music.  It seems it's what the young folk are listening to.



I'd sure like someone to do a song with these lyrics:

LORD, make me fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who would seek to destroy me.
Grant me victory over my foes
and those that wish harm to me and mine.
Let not my last thought be “ If only I had my gun ”.

And LORD if today is truly the day that You call me home,
let me die in a pile of empty brass,
Surrounded by the lifeless bodies of my enemies
and with blood and skin on the barrel of my empty pistol
where I beat the last one to death.

Amen

Blogroll updates

I had thought that it had been a year (!) since I updated the blogroll.  Yes, I suck.  I'd say that it's been an interesting year, but that's whining.  Nobody wants to hear that (well, I sure don't), so here are some great blogs you should go check out.

Lawrence Person's Battleswarm blog should be on your daily read list (at least while Google Reader yet draws breath).  He did a simply epic trolling of the leftie/feminist community (but I repeat myself) on April Fool's Day - so epic that the butt-hurt Progs got his article taken down.  Undetered, he posted about it ()name and shame, baby - name and shame).  That attracted dozens of comments, including butt hurt Progs in an echo trolling.

[stands]

[*clap*] [*clap*] [*clap*] [*clap*] 

Plus, Lawrence has asked three times if I'd blogroll him. Did I mention the "I suck" part. (If anyone else has emailed asking me to add them, ping me again because I promise to try to suck less).

Nothing About Everything is from frequent commenter Goober.  Despite his nom de blog, he is a bit of a polymath - Boats, cigars and whiskey, and the science of organic farming:

Like the E. Coli that was recently found in the farmed produce from one German organic farm that recently made the news for sickening hundreds of people and killing 29.  We now have one German “organic” farm that is responsible for the deaths of more people than the much-maligned Gulf oil spill, Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the Fukushima Nuclear disaster combined, but you won’t hear about that in the news, I’m sure.  

You know how many people have been proven to have been killed by the dangerous chemicals used in non-organic farming?  Zero.  Zippo.  Zilch.  Nada.  (Unless you count industrial accidents either at the place of manufacture or the farm, itself).  

You can have your organic limes.  When I drink my Tequila, I savor the wonderful pesticide aftertaste.  You can savor the bacteria-ifested cowshit all over your limes if you want, but count me out.

He is clearly and Enemy Of The State™, and I'll save him a seat on the bench at the Camps.  We can talk about whiskey, and science and stuff.

Livin The Dream is trapped behind enemy lines in the People's Republic of Maryland.  Next time I'm up there we'll need to get together with T-Bolt to talk about 'splody stuff, fishing, and heavy-duty house remodeling:

The house was built in 1910 and we remolded the entire first floor new hard wood, ceramic tile,  granite fire place surround and wainscoting I will miss that old house but not the amount of work that needed to be done to the rest of it somehow I lost the pictures of the bathroom that I built it was truly unique with a walk around shower wall so my 95 year old grand mother could just use her walker and walk in.

Or cooking - venison goulash and cornbread, yum indeed.  Another polymath.  We seem to collect 'em here in our little corner of Mr. Gore's most excellent Information Superhighway.

In the knock me over with a feather category, I find that Kathy Jackson has blogrolled me.  For the two of you who have been trying to get your money out of Cypriot banks or something and haven't run across her Cornered Cat site, she's well worth spending a week or two going through her archives.  If you are a man and want to get your wife/girlfriend into shooting, Kathy's place should be your first stop.

Simon Grey writes on politics and society from the reactionary-libertarian perspective.  I've linked to his posts repeatedly which if you're a frequent reader is hopefully all you need to know.  I don't always agree with him but he seems to be another sigma from the mean higher in intelligence than I am.  Go, read.

Den Of The Wolfman posts on guns and prepping.  I expect that come TEOTWAWKI, he'll be the guy living in style:

I'm trying a new experiment. One of the things that I work towards on a regular basis is bringing all my various skills close to home. A big part of my prep plan is SHIP (SHelter In Place) rather than SHOW (SHelter Out in Wild) now that we have a young'un. And a big part of that plan is having food sources within walking distance.

I can grow a garden- I learned that last summer, and I'll be growing it a bit this year, and see what I can eke out of it. As it stands, we are still eating last summer's zuchinni, which I froze as it came ready. Meat is a little trickier- that'll be a barter situation at best, right now. And bread...

Oh, bread! I don't know if this is clear, but I love baking bread. Normally I'm a lousy baker, because I'm not real good at following recipes, but bread is a different story. Its a little bit alive, a little bit flexible, and a whole lot of satisfying. My new pet is a yeast culture.

So there you go - great blogs.  I still suck, but in future I shall endeavour to suck less.

Australian Prime Minister predicts end of the world

Seems the Mayans were right, at least the ones who lived in Australia.



Not sure why the speech is repeated in the video, but it's pretty dang funny.

If you buy a claironet, you own a claironet ....

You don't necessarily know how to play it.  Al Fin looks at rich people's "Survival Houses", and waxes skeptical:

The problem with many of the country club survivalists is that they are not likely to have the level of common sense and practical skills which allow them to compensate for their expensive technology -- when it inevitably breaks down.

Once the design engineers and construction contractors are gone, it is up to the owner to keep all those expensive gadgets from breaking down and leaving him vulnerable to the elements and the unfriendlies. Gold, food, and practical trade goods might attract competent helpers, of course. But the smart survivalist will try to make his survival plans in conjunction with a competent community of widely skilled, practical minded persons -- and not try to go it alone, no matter how much money he can put into the project.

This applies to gun owners too, natch.

And how is it that I haven't had a TEOTWAWKI tag until now?