The Demise of the Countryside

Today we attended the Basic Training Graduation for a friend of PD#1.  He has been in Civil Air Patrol with her the past two years, and they have attended several encampments/activities together. So we joined his family and girlfriend at the base to celebrate this great milestone in his young life.

On the way back home, we drove a different route through the countryside.  The number of derelict and abandoned homes were astonishing.  I counted 12 along a 5 mile stretch!  I was shocked.  This has all happened in the past year, because people were living in these houses last year.  It concerns me. I began wondering if it was economic issues or if the county officials somehow had a hand it.  These were all smaller homes lived in by lower income, predominantly Hispanic families in the past.  Has there been some ordinance passed about the square footage of a house? The number of people living in one house?  Historically, in the counties here people have been more free than living in the city, but all these abandoned homes have me worried.  I am going to keep my eyes open, to see if there is an increase in my area.

I have always made it a priority to notice abandoned homes, primarily for usable resources (ie., windmills, fruit trees, water, wells) and a back up location to head to in an emergency.  But this is entirely different. These homes are out in the country, but have really close neighbors and none of them have tried to be self sufficient in anyway, no gardening or livestock.  It still bothers me, as I sit here typing this post.

I miss the America of my youth. Was I blind? Did I not see or not yet understand what was coming? I remember the gas lines of the 1970s, but I don't remember the problems with the government being so bad, the nation on the verge of economic collapse.  Am I wrong? Did it exist even then?

I am also concerned over the possible consequences these families have faced? Where did they go?

End of an Era

After much thought, we have decided to get rid of a large portion of our goat herd.  Due to over grazing, the drought, cost of feed, and not enough money to cross fence properly it was time.  We managed to sell about 20 of our goats for almost $2,000.  We have taken some of this money and purchased our first bee hive and 3lbs of bees and a queen.  I will be taking beekeeping classes before our hive arrives, and attending local meetings.  We believe that this will help our land heal, while providing a few necessary resources we were lacking on the property.  We have maintained a couple of goats to provide meat this year, plus a milking doe. We can keep these three in a pen, which will allow us to finally plant a large garden, and make the most use of our property.

My FIL will be over soon with his tractor to disc up a couple of acres for our garden and wheat field. Cannot wait!

The weather so far this year has been cold, and February has not hit us yet.  Waiting for it to arrive this weekend, though not very cold.  We need it colder to butcher the hogs, and the chickens.  Plus, I need to purchase more broiler chicks. PH has split a lot of wood, and the stack is growing high!  Very happy to see this, and feel truly blessed by the gift of all these downed trees.

The coyotes are out in abundance lately.  Drives the dogs crazy!

I passed the test and am now a Ham Radio Operator! Yeah me!  I had purchased a handheld ham radio last year, and have been studying.  Praise God I passed!  It was way easier than I thought.  We also recently purchased a Uniden CB Radio to round out our communication desk.  It has a better range than I thought.

Many people in our homesteading group are getting better prepared, though honestly I feel it is a total waste of money to try and re-create grid electricity.  I tend to prepare for a total off grid, minimal electrical needs.  I have kerosene lamps, battery operated lamps (recharged while driving the car), propane cookstove, wood stove, wood grill, smoker and fire pit.  I have been working on the process for years, trying to refine it.  Still have the wood heated water heater on PH's list.  He is truly stoked about that one! LOL

We continue to harvest the wild edibles around us.  PH and the kids recently filled the pick up truck bed with wild melons for the pigs.  They love them.  We also harvested mustang grapes, prickly pear fruit, nopales, abandoned orange trees on abandoned homesteads.  There are many around here, which is kind of sad, but I do love abandoned houses for some reason.

Goals for 2015:

to obtain ham license - done
to purchase bee hive - done
to purchase Bison Pump for well
to can 1000 quarts of food by end of year
to purchase 100 gallons of fuel for storage
to purchase 55 gallons of kerosene
to attend 5 more births towards my midwife training
to continue herbal medical training
to plant and harvest wheat

That is about all I can think of right now.  Everyone keep up the prepping, time is short, keep up the fight.