Women Living Off Grid

I am trying sooooo hard not to be paranoid about the various ABC government agencies visiting my blog, I'm NOT doing anything wrong, and yet they continue to visit, I have ignored them for the most part, not posting anything about their visits, then I saw this on my tracker today, I almost missed it, it made me smile, then giggle...

...so why do you suppose someone from the Dept of Homeland Security would be doing a Google search for "WOMEN website for living off the grid"? What, they don't have anything better to do? Click to view full size.

Women are now a threat to national security?
Women living off grid are a threat to national security?
No wait, is it WOMEN with websites about living off grid that are a threat to national security?

It stands to reason that women who are willing to live off grid, poop in buckets, heat with wood and such are strong and a force to be reckoned with, here is a poem I found about strong women:

Strong women are those who know
the road ahead will be strewn with
obstacles, but they still choose to walk
it because it's the right one for them.
Strong women are those who make
mistakes, who admit to them, learn
from those failures, and then use
that knowledge.

Strong women are easily hurt, but
they still extend their hearts and
hands, knowing the risk and
accepting the pain when it comes.

Strong women are sometimes beat
down by life, but they still stand
back up and step forward again.

Strong women are afraid. They
face fear and move ahead to the
future, as uncertain as it can be.

Strong women are not those who
succeed the first time. They're the
ones who fail time and again, but
still keep trying until they succeed.

Strong women face the daily trials
of life, sometimes with a tear, but
always with their heads held high
as the new day dawns.

Brenda Hager

W:- Works for family to make them happy for whole life
O:-  Ordinary mind but extraordinary management
M:- Mother of child , role model for kids
A:-  Active, Attractive and intelligent in every field of world
N:-  Not only care taker but strength of whole family.

Here are some random pictures I found on the net showing strong women, be afraid, be very afraid...

This is by no means an exhaustive list of strong women, there are hundreds and thousands of famous, infamous and unknown strong women, I am proud, honored and humbled to add my picture to this list. :)

One of the strongest women I knew is my mother, today (June 21) was her birthday, she has been gone for many years now, but she instilled a great deal of strength in me, it's fitting that this happened today. Thanks Mom! Miss you much! 


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message. Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

Government Sponsored Healthcare

Here's something fun, government sponsored health care, our fearless leaders would like to force upon each of us, whether we went it or not, what ever happened to free choice? Even if we aren't forced to take it, it will most likely become unfair competition to the current insurance companies that could force the independent insurance companies to go out of business.

Here is one solution, how about we make it a rule that the members of congress who vote yes on this must give up their insurance and accept the government sponsored insurance? I think that is fair, how about you?

Go here to read about it and voice your opinion about this.

http://www.fleming.house.gov/



Wretha

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More Visits

Since I have come public with my story, I have received visits from multiple government agencies, including the department of homeland security, the FAA, USDA, department of energy (DOE), and the social security administration. I haven't even listed some of the other gov sites, but I don't believe the other ones are a problem (NASA, several state sites...)

EDIT
now the census bureau is visiting me, see the updated graphic

Some of you might think I'm being paranoid and picture me wearing a tinfoil hat, but after what has happened so far, I think I have a right to be concerned, WHY would any of these government agencies be visiting my site??? Here is a cut-n-paste from my tracker with all the information, the agency, where they came from (Mayberry, 2 of these came from your site...), the dates, times and such, and no, this time I am not obscuring the IP addresses. Click for a full size image.



I just don't know what to think about all of this, should I be afraid of MY government? Should I be fearful about a knock on my door? Why would the PTB be concerned about someone like me? I have done nothing wrong, I have exercised my RIGHT to free speech, I have been very quiet about my political views, preferring to post messages about my off grid life, does that make me an enemy of the state?

Wretha

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OK, Here Is The Whole Story

Wow, first I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has emailed me and shared this story on their blog, I am overwhelmed by the amount of support I have received from my internet family, I am truly touched.

I can't believe how this has really taken on a life of its own, I realize that my first message about this government trouble was vague, that's mainly because I was shocked, a little frightened, and at a loss to know exactly how to react.

I sincerely apologize if my first message caused undue excitement with anyone, that was certainly not my intent, I just wanted to make sure that something got out about this, just in case...

Now that a day has gone by, and I can look at this with fresh eyes, my perspective has changed a bit on this matter. that along with all the support I have received here and elsewhere has made me feel a lot better. I wanted to wait until I found out a little more information about this issue before posting the full story here, but this has caused such a brouhaha all over the net, I wanted to go ahead and fill everyone in on what is going on.

First, I don't really think my blog is in danger of being shut down, at least I hope not, I just wanted to make sure at least part of this story got out there just in case the feds decided to pull the plug on my site (oops, what site???), I doubt that would really happen, but I didn't think I would be receiving that letter in the mail either, that along with the fact that the agency responsible for sending that letter HAS visited my blog on several occasions, I assume that it is probably related.

OK, now to the issue. Here is the deal, I have been buying cigarettes from Europe (European made for Europeans), I have been doing this for a year and a half. I typically order between X and X cartons at a time, the time before last, I ordered X (more than usual) cartons, mainly because it is getting more and more difficult to pay for these, the overseas companies have a hard time keeping credit card vendors and other payment methods for any length of time, I didn't understand until now what that is. Our wonderful government has requested that the merchant account (credit card payment places) not do business with these overseas cigarette sellers, so each time I have ordered cigarettes, I have had to pay with a different method, I have paid with my bank card, PayPal, AlertPay, bank transfers, each time I got my cigarettes with no problems.

EDIT
I chose to remove the exact number of cartons I order, I don't want to give "them" any more ammo to use against me than I have to.

So this time I had decided to order more cigarettes than usual to make sure I would still have plenty of cigarettes and not run out before my next order, in case the next order took longer than usual to come in, it could take anywhere from 2 weeks to a month to come in. Anyhoo, I ordered X cartons, I suspect that is when I was flagged by the gov, or it could have been when I was blogging about how to order cigarettes from overseas, maybe that is what drew the attention of homeland security and the border patrol. I am in no way selling, trading or bartering with these cigarettes, they are strictly for personal use. The latest order of cigarettes never arrived, but this letter did.

I received a letter from the border patrol/dept of homeland security stating that my cigarettes had been intercepted, Here is what the letter said, I highlighted key phrases that I find interesting:

U.S Customs and Border Protection

Informed Compliance Notice for Cigarettes Imported Through the Mail
6-18-2009

Dear Madan/Sir:

This is to notify you that the U.S.Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had interdicted a U.S. Mail package addressed to you that contains cigarettes. Please be advised that the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000 (Act), which was codified under Title 19, United States Code, Section 1681, et seq. (10 USC1681, et seq.), imposed strict requirements for the lawful importation of cigarettes. This shipment does not compl with these requirements. The cigarettes are desctibed as follows

Reference# CIG-4701-86046 Description: Cigarettes 1 Box(s)

Cigarettes imported in violation of this Act are subject to seizure and forfeiture under the provisions of Title 19, United States Code, Section 1681a. However CBP has decided to allow you the option of voluntarily abandoning the property to the Government after which it will be destroyed in accordance with Title 41, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 102-3 (41CFR 102-36). You can elect to do nothing in response to this notice. If you elect to do nothing, the cigarettes will be considered abandoned after 30 days and destroyed. Finally, you may elect to request that CBP commence seizure and forfeiture proceedings to allow you the opportunity to engage in a formal legal process to petition for the return of the property. Please be advised that no relief from seizure is vailable unless you prove the cigarettes were not imported in violation of the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000 and all other applicle laws.

Enclosed is an election of proceedings document. Please indicate your election, sign, date, and return the document to the address indicated on the document. Please note that future attempts to import cigarettes in violation of the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000 may result in personal penalties or criminal prosecution.

Please be aware that numerous Internet web sites are dispensing inaccurate information regarding the legality of cigarette shimpents into the United States. For further information, visit our website at http://cbp.gov and do a search for "Importation of Cigarettes" to read CBO's public directive regarding this subject.

***************
end of letter

I tried going to their website and did the search they suggested, and NOTHING relevant comes up. When I look this up on the internet, I get conflicting information from the official gov sites. I don't know whether or not I should send in the form to contest this, they don't say what it is I have to do to prove that I'm not in violation, I can't even find that the stated violations are! What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

So far, what I have found indicates that it is legal to import cigarettes that are made in other countries (not made in the USA for import outside the USA, that has a whole different set of rules), I can import cigarettes for my own personal use, not for sale or resale which I am not doing, these are for personal use, but how do I prove that??? I can find lots of info relating to American citizens traveling outside the country and bringing back cigarettes purchased from duty free shops, but that is not what I am doing, there is a different set of rules/laws governing importing cigarettes for personal use, I just can't make heads or tails out of it.

I believe this is ultimately about money, taxes to be precise, every carton of cigarettes I purchase from another country is money that doesn't go into the government coffers, and that is something that upsets the powers that be.

This IS the same agency that has visited my blog, I have posted 2 messages about tobacco, the first was telling people how to buy cigarettes from Europe and save money, the other was about growing your own tobacco plants. I suspect that those two articles raised some flags with the powers that be, not only am I getting the benefits of not paying high prices and taxes for cigarettes, I am teaching other people how to do it. It is still possible that the visits from this government agency and the letter I received from the same agency are not related in any way, but I doubt that now.

I realize that not everyone is going to be sympathetic about the fact that this is about cigarettes, and I can appreciate that point of view, I do not smoke, this is for Mountain Man Bob, I wish he would quit, but as long as he chooses to do this, it's one of his very few vices, I will do everything I can to find the cheapest, legal way to buy these, and for now at least, buying them from Europe is the cheapest route, they cost about half what you would pay in the states. Before you make a judgment about what the item is about, remember that if the powers that be can stop me by using bullying scare techniques from LEGALLY purchasing a legal product for personal use, then eventually they can and will go after something you do care about, whether it be vitamins, herbs, alternative medicine, your choice of which doctor you want to go to, heirloom seeds, growing your own food (plants or animals), I could go on and on. This is about our individual freedoms that are being whittled away piece by piece under the guise of "we are doing this for your own good".

Oh, and one more thing, I am not trying to solicit money for this, now if you like my blog, feel free to donate or check out some of my sponsors, but that is not the purpose or motive of this post. I know that I mentioned in the first message that I don't have the money for a legal council, I assure you that was not a plea for funds, I doubt I would get enough to even begin to cover the costs of getting a lawyer and pursuing this. I would however, accept free legal advice or legal assistance on this matter.

Please feel free to spread this news around, the more people who are aware of what is going on, the better.

By the way, the cigarette company I am dealing with in all of this is treating me very well, they have gone above and beyond the call of duty on this issue and another issue I had on a previous order, if you are interested in knowing who this company is, email me and ask, and I'll give you the URL.


Wretha

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Yet Another Visit,.,

OK, am I being paranoid now? I received a visit (on my other off grid blog) from none other than the Department of Homeland Security, or it was US Customs and Border Protection, when I looked up the "visitor", it gave me both. Go here to see a laundry list of the other nameservers being hosted under this same domain, it's some scary stuff.
http://www.robtex.com/dns/cbp.dhs.gov.html



















I am completely at a loss about this visit, I am giving this visitor the benefit of the doubt that they are visiting for purely personal reasons (having nothing to do with their job) and I obscured the IP address, I still have a copy of the original image though containing the IP address.

I shouldn't feel strange about this, I'm doing nothing wrong or illegal, in fact, I'm doing what most people SHOULD be aiming toward, I'm shrinking my "carbon footprint", I'm using less of everything, I'm at virtually zero pollution... I stay close to home, I haven't purchased anything that would raise a red flag with any government agencies, I am trying to teach other people (if they are interested) how to live like we do, closer to the Earth... heck, I even filed my taxes even though I didn't have enough "income" to have to pay in, and what I did claim, was barter and I could have skipped putting that down as they would have had no way of knowing about it, but I went ahead and claimed it. Our current POTUS should be happy with what I am doing, I did some research on our current POTUS, and found this speech, Keynote Address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention | July 27, 2004, this is an interesting excerpt from that speech:

That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody's son. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will he counted - or at least, most of the time

Let's hope he holds these same beliefs now that he holds the highest office.


I don't like feeling like I'm a criminal, or worse, when I have done nothing wrong, everything I do is 100% legal. Being a Conservative does not make me a criminal or threat to this nation.

I have more I'd like to say, but now I'm concerned about opening a can of worms and making myself an even bigger (potential) target.

So I don't know what to think about all of this, am I being paranoid?

<<<>>>

I think I didn't make myself clear in my message, I don't think the government is "spying" on me, they have come to my site in the open, they haven't tried to disguise their visits. I fully realize that if they wanted to spy on me without my knowledge, they are fully capable of doing so, whether or not they are "spying" on me, this isn't what I'm concerned about.

Think about this, what if a car from the homeland security was parked outside your house and were openly looking at your house, I feel like most people would be disturbed by that, even though they have done nothing wrong, it would still make you wonder why they were there.

In the current political situation, with people being classified as potential domestic terrorists, their only crime is being a Conservative, Christian who listens to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk shows, yeah I am a bit concerned when the Department of Homeland Security visits my site, am I on this list of potential domestic terrorists now?

Wretha

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I Feel Honored- I Think...

I'm not sure exactly what to think, someone from Lockheed looking at my site, actually this is from my other site, the technical off grid site that isn't really up and running yet, it's almost ready to go. They might have visited here too, I just didn't catch it in time so I don't know for sure if they did visit here or not, everything from that date has already rolled off the tracker page. If they know about that blog, then they know about this one too.

My Dad retired from Lockheed in Fort Worth, TX, he built F-16s, of course the majority of time he worked there, it was General Dynamics, aka GD. We were (and still are) pretty proud of what he did, working on the machinery that protects us and our allies.

So, I have to wonder about this one, someone on their lunch break, a bored employee working their way around the internet and found my blog? Or was this possibly an official visit? Lockheed isn't exactly the government, but their contracts are with the government, so they are definitely in uncle big bro's pocket. Can't imagine what they would want with my site, I hope it was just an employee wanting to learn about living off grid and used a company computer to do their surfing.

Perhaps I'm just making much ado about nothing, but the visit DID happen, I have proof, I just don't know in what capacity.



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

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The Rise Of Tyranny and the FDA - video part 2

Here is the second part to that video, download it here

http://frtv.org/images/shows/videos/1726.wmv

Here is the link to the website http://frtv.org/show,189.html


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

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The Rise Of Tyranny and the FDA

Alma, see the link for the book at the bottom of the article.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is an interesting little video about the FDA and the power they have. What I have seen is these big pharma companies and the FDA do not want to heal or cure us, we are their customers, if they heal/cure us, then they will make less money, possibly go out of business. It's in their best financial interest to keep us sick, they want to TREAT us, not cure us, as long as they treat us, they make money, period. That's why they do their utmost best to try to block any real cures including natural cures or treatments, think I'm kidding? Just try to make a website and make claims about natural CURES, the FDA will come in and shut you down.

I don't know how long this will remain in YouTube, if and when this gets pulled from YouTube, I'll remove the video, but the link to download the video directly from the website should work. This is part one, part two should be available in a few days. Also, I am embedding this video right after I uploaded it, so as of this minute, the video is not processed, I'm hoping that it will show by tomorrow.

Oh well, it turns out that YouTube only allows 10 minute videos, I could embed the direct video, the problem is when I do that, it automatically starts the video, even if I tell it not to, and I find that annoying, so I will not do that to you, click on the direct link below and download it. watch it, it's worth watching.


Here is the direct link for download. http://frtv.org/images/shows/videos/1725.wmv
Here is the link to the website http://frtv.org/show,188.html you might want to check out some of their other programs, very good information!

Here is another interesting link:
http://www.stopfdacensorship.org/ Stop FDA Censorship

Here is a link to the book The Rise of Tyranny, written by Jonathan W. Emord, it's worth checking out.



To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
http://www.earthpowernews.com/

Wretha

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Uncle dot Gov Is Watching Me

I had a bit of a surprise today, I was looking at my tracker and lo and behold, I see that I had a visit from a .gov site. I do get those every now and again, but this one was special, this one is the US Department of Energy. I don't know why they would be interested in my site, I hope it's a good thing, maybe they want to know how we are saving so much energy... or maybe they wonder why we aren't using any of their energy...

It's almost a scary thought to have such a big entity looking at my little blog, I wonder what they wanted?

It doesn't show HOW they found my site, no search engine, no referrer, no keywords. I can see that they have a fast connection, but it seems they need to upgrade their computers, who still uses 800x600 resolution, they are also using an older version of IE, and Windows XP (though personally I prefer XP over Vista).

Has anyone else had a visit from the Dept of Energy on their blogs or website? If you, the person who came from the DOE, are reading this, would you mind commenting and let me know what brought you here? Perhaps it's a disgruntled government employee looking to learn how to get and live off grid. :)


To read all of my messages on Off-Grid.net, click here:
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To read all of my messages on Earth Power News, click here:
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Wretha

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More About The Gov Stockpiling Foods

OK, here we go again, it seems that the story about the government buying up large stocks of foods is growing, here is a story from WorldNetDaily:

Are feds stockpiling survival food?

'These circumstances certainly raise red flags'

12:00 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A Wall Street Journal columnist has advised people to "start stockpiling food" and an ABC News Report says "there are worrying signs appearing in the United States where some … locals are beginning to hoard supplies." Now there's concern that the U.S. government may be competing with consumers for stocks of storable food.

"We're told that the feds bought the entire container of canned butter when it hit the California docks. (Something's up!)," said officials at Best Prices Storable Foods in an advisory to customers.

Spokesman Bruce Hopkins told WND he also has had trouble obtaining No. 10 cans of various products from one of the world's larger suppliers of food stores, Oregon Freeze Dry.

He said a company official told him on the telephone when he discussed the status of his order that it was because the government had purchased massive quantities of products, leaving none for other customers.

That, however, was denied by Oregon Freeze Dry. In a website statement, the company confirmed it cannot assure supplying some items to customers.

"We regret to inform you Oregon Freeze Dry cannot satisfy all Mountain House #10 can orders and we have removed #10 cans from our website temporarily," the company tells frustrated customers. "The reason for this is sales of #10 cans have continued to increase. OFD is allocating as much production capacity as possible to this market segment, but we must maintain capacity for our other market segments as well."

The company statement continues, "We want to clarify inaccurate information we’ve seen on the Internet. This situation is not due to sales to the government domestically or in Iraq. We do sell products to this market, but we also sell other market segments … The reason for this decision is solely due to an unprecedented sales spike in #10 cans sales.

"We expect this situation to be necessary for several months although this isn’t a guarantee. We will update this information as soon as we know more. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience. We sincerely hope you will continue to be Mountain House customers in the future," the company statement said.

But Hopkins wasn't backing away from his concerns.

"The government just came in and said they're buying it. They did pay for it," he told WND about the summertime shipment of long-term storage butter. "They took it and no one else could have it.

"We don't know why. The feds then went to freeze dried companies, and bought most of their canned stock," he said.

A spokeswoman for Oregon Freeze Dry, sales manager Melanie Cornutt, told WND that the increasing demand for food that can be stored has been on the rise since Hurricane Katrina devastated large sections of the Gulf Coast, cutting off ordinary supply routes.

"We are currently out of stock on our cans. We are not selling any of our cans," she confirmed.

She then raised the issue of government purchases herself.

"We do sell to the government [but] it is not the reason [for company sales limits]," she said.

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency told WND whatever government agency is buying in a surge it isn't them. They reported a stockpile of about six million meals which has not changed significantly in an extended period.

But Hopkins said it was his opinion the government is purchasing huge quantities of food for stockpiles, and Americans will have to surmise why.

"We don't have shelters that [are being] stocked with food. We're not doing this for the public. My only conclusion is that they're stocking up for themselves," he said of government officials.

Blogger Holly Deyo issued an alert this week announcing, "Unprecedented demand cleans out major storable food supplier through 2009."

"It came to our attention today, that the world's largest producer of storable foods, Mountain House, is currently out of stock of ALL #10 cans of freeze dried foods, not just the Turkey Tetrazzini. They will NOT have product now through 2009," she said.

"This information was learned by a Mountain House dealer who shared it with me this morning. In personally talking with the company immediately after, Mountain House verified the information is true. Customer service stated, 'I'm surprised they don't have this posted on the website yet.' She said they have such a backlog of orders, Mountain House will not be taking any #10 can food requests through the remainder of this year and all of the next.

"Mountain House claims this situation is due to a backlog of orders, which may very well be true, but who is purchasing all of their food? This is a massive global corporation.

"One idea: the military. Tensions are ramping up with Iran and news segments debate whether or not we will implement a preemptive strike in conjunction with Israel," she wrote.

Hopkins raised some of the same concerns, suggesting a military conflict could cause oil supplies to plummet, triggering a huge increase in the cost of food – when it would be available – because of the transportation issues.

The ABC report from just a few weeks ago quoted Jim Rawles, a former U.S. intelligence officer who runs a survival blog, saying food shortages soon could become a matter of survival in the U.S.

"I think that families should be prepared for times of crisis, whether it's a man-made disaster or a natural disaster, and I think it's wise and prudent to stock up on food," he told ABC.

"If you get into a situation where fuel supplies are disrupted or even if the power grid were to go down for short periods of time, people can work around that," he said. "But you can't work around a lack of food – people starve, people panic and you end up with chaos in the streets."

At his California ranch, the location of which is kept secret, he said, "We have more than a three-year supply of food here."

In the Wall Street Journal, columnist Brett Arends warned, "Maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

"No, this is not a drill," he wrote.

His concern was about various food shortages around the globe, and the fact that in a global market, prices in the U.S. reflect difficulties in other parts of the world quickly.

Professor Lawrence F. Roberge, a biologist who has worked with a number of universities and has taught online courses, told WND he's been following the growing concern over food supplies.

He also confirmed to WND reports of the government purchasing vast quantities of long-term storable foods.

He said that naturally would be kept secret to avoid panicking the public, such as when word leaks out to customers that a bank may be insolvent, and depositors frantically try to retrieve their cash.

"[These] circumstances certainly raise red flags," he said.

Hmmm, insteressing...(interesting+stressing)

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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7 Comments

Mayberry said...

Good God. I really feel like my pants are down around my ankles... We are in trouble deep......

July 24, 2008 8:37 PM

Wretha said...

Well, one can only hope that they have good intentions...

Wretha

July 24, 2008 9:06 PM

The Scavenger said...

Wretha, this is just another reason we better have our preps in place and adding to them daily. The Gov. scares the hell out of me anyhow and now they are buying up all our food! Better get those fall crops planted and can all that you can from your gardens now. I have been buying extra at the farmers market too. Big brother know's something bad is gonna happen and soon, they are right. Thanks for the info.

Chris

July 24, 2008 11:00 PM

riverwalker said...

I think the government is doing lots of things they don't want the citizens of the US to know about.

RW

July 24, 2008 11:59 PM

Wretha said...

Scavenger, Riverwalker,

All I have to say is "yup".

Wretha

July 25, 2008 12:21 AM

Rook said...

Wretha,
What a great post. We can't trust the goverment. Look at what it got our indian brothers. I will be using my canner for all I can. Keep Bob working on the cabin and securing it.

Rook

July 25, 2008 7:00 AM

lornkanaga said...

Okay. You've got me worried now. I just ordered from my two fav food suppliers and may order elsewhere as well.

I *told* my sweetie we needed more ammo. ;-)

(Loads of long-term-storage food suppliers are going to make big bucks thanks to this and similar articles!)

July 28, 2008 9:47 AM

Lot's O' Stuff

Busy Day

Today was a busy day, I went into town with a friend, I needed to pay my internet bill, I went ahead and paid for 2 months so I don't have to worry about it in a few weeks. I do wish my internet provider would accept on line payments, or even credit card or bank card payments over the phone, but they don't, they only accept snail mail or carry in payments, and since they are a good 30+ miles (one way), it's not likely I will be there in time each month to pay, and paying bills by mail is just a pain. Enough complaining. :)

Glasses & Hair Clippers

While I was in town, I purchased something I have been needing for some time, reading glasses. I noticed a couple of years ago, it was getting more and more difficult to read fine print, up until now, I have just been forcing myself to see what I needed to see, I would strain to read medicine bottles and such, well, now it's just about impossible to read those things, I can't force my eyes to focus enough to be able to see what I need to, so at the store, I tried on the different strengths, I think they only had 4 or 5, when I looked at the test print to decide which ones you need, I could read every line without glasses, so I looked around to find something with small enough print to test. I found the appropriate small print and tried on glasses. It turns out I only need the weakest one, WOO HOO, I'm not totally blind! (didn't really think I was...). I picked out the frames I like and found a pair for Bob too, he is also having trouble reading fine print, we both have to use a magnifier to read most small things, I didn't know which strength to choose, so I chose the weakest for him hoping it would be ok, I picked out the manliest looking frames, he looks pretty good in them! It turns out that he could have used a stronger pair, but for $5,00, it's not worth going back, and they do some good for him.

I also got something else that will come in very handy, it's something every mountain woman needs to tame her mountain man, a set of Wahl clippers, it includes an assortment of guards, a comb, scissors and oil. It's been so long since he has had a haircut that I think I'll have to make a name badge for him so everyone will know who he is, no one will recognize him! :)

Garden

I discovered something new about an ordinary plant that most people put in their garden, radish seed pods. I had a few left over radish seeds, not enough to plant very many seeds, I pulled most of the mature radishes, but chose to leave a couple that had gotten too big to be edible, I allowed them to go to seed, the idea was to produce more seeds to plant. The plant got about 2 or 3 feet tall, had some pretty but small white flowers on it, a week later, there were these seed pods popping up like candelabras all over the stems. The seed pods looked like succulent green beans, I decided to break one open to check out the inside. It was exactly like a succulent green bean, so I tasted one, it really tasted good, it was crisp, crunchy, juicy and tasty. I wasn't sure if these were really ok to eat, I do know that some plants are toxic except for the parts that are ok to eat, potatoes come to mind... anyhoo, I Googled radish seed pods and found that they are very edible, in fact it turns out the whole radish plant is edible, leaves and all, and some radishes are grown just for their seed pods. They can be eaten raw, or sauteed, and in Asian cooking, they are stir fried. I cooked some today, I picked a bunch, added them to the few green beans and immature pea pods I had, I sauteed them in butter, salted them, added some water, covered and let them steam/cook for about 10 minutes. They turned out pretty good, they stay crispy longer than green beans, and I found out that you need to remove the tip, that part stays tough no matter what. I have decided that I like them raw best, I will probably just take them with me and eat them as a raw, crunchy snack, I can't wait for someone to ask, what are you eating???

Now I just have to allow some of the seed pods to mature so I can have more seeds to grow more seed pods... or maybe I can find some seeds still in the store.

I went out after dinner and planted more beans, onions, broccoli, chives and carrots. Gotta have more plants coming for summer and fall.

Solar Panels & Filling In The Cracks

Let's see, Bob got the solar panels back up, he made a frame that tilts to face the sun better, right now it has to be tilted manually, eventually he will have an actuator on it to make it turn automatically. It allows us to catch the early morning and the late afternoon sun, I don't know what that actually gives us percentage wise, but it is an improvement, it's really great!

The other thing Bob has been doing is caulking and foaming up all the cracks, anywhere where bugs can get in, it's made such an improvement, especially in the evening when all the bugs are active and trying to get in.

Food

I finally got my canned meats in from the Internet Grocer, they accidentally sent it to my billing address instead of my mailing address, I had to wait for them to send a label to my Dad's house so he could drop it off at the UPS place. I finally got it yesterday, I was able to try it today. The first thing I noticed was the cans were bigger than I thought they would be, I had ordered the variety pack of meats (it has one each or beef chunks, ground beef, pork, chicken, turkey, butter and 2 cans of cheese), I ordered the small cans, I expected the cans to be the size of large tuna cans at best, well they were much larger, 14 ounces. I opened the beef chunks, and WOW, it is really beef CHUNKS, in very tasty, thick meat juice, not too salty either. Good texture and good taste! I had boiled some egg noodles, I added a packet of beef gravy and the can of beef chunks. It was a real hit at dinner tonight! :) I think the small cans will be perfect for Bob and I.

I can't wait to try the other meats, if they are as good as the beef chunks, I know where I will be buying most of my meats from now on. I'm not one for doom and gloom, but I read an article at Internet Grocer, this one is a bit scary, it turns out that the federal government purchased ALL, the ENTIRE STOCK of dehydrated foods at Mountain House, makes you wonder what is going on...

I am going to try to talk the country store into carrying the canned meats, I know it would be a big seller out here, it's quite a distance to go into town, and having access to good canned meats that aren't like the processed garbage that is sold by other companies would be a good thing for everyone out here.

That's about all for now. :)


Wretha

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8 Comments

seth said...

those beef chunks were good, weren't they.....the ground beef was just as good. will let you know on the others.

July 12, 2008 8:00 AM

Mayberry said...

Holy cow! That Mountain House news is good to know, and kinda scary! I posted on this today, with a link to your site and the story, hope you don't mind, but this word needs to be spread!

July 12, 2008 12:05 PM

tjbbpgob said...

Wretha, the feds. probably bought up Mountain House so they could give it away to foriegn countries. I wish M.H.could do like Barrett and just not deal with them feds. anymore.

July 12, 2008 5:55 PM

Wretha said...

Seth

Yeah, it was very good! I think we will try the turkey next, got a box of stuffing.... mmmmmmm...

Mayberry

I don't mind people linking to my blog, share the love!

tjbbpgob

Yeah, what you said. ;)

Wretha

July 12, 2008 10:28 PM

seth said...

I found a place to get inexpensive eyeglasses. If you have your prescription, you can order new ones from these guys. zennioptical.com

July 13, 2008 7:07 PM

Rook said...

I don't know what is going on. I tried to pull up the story tonight and it was a dead link. Maybe the fed's don't want people to know....

Working on the moat..


Rook

July 13, 2008 8:44 PM

lornkanaga said...

Wretha,

Have you read "The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book" by Mike Oehler? I just read it--fantastic ideas, and inexpensive to implement. Apparently this guy has fairly fresh produce year round from his sunken greenhouse, and he lives near the Canadian border. If you're interested, I'll shoot you a link to his website so you can check it out.

Glad to hear the canned meats from the Internet Grocer were good. How was the cheese, or haven't you tried it yet?

TheMajor'sLady

July 16, 2008 5:52 PM

Wretha said...

TheMajor'sLady

Thanks for the heads up on the book, I think I found the website, very interesting, I think our location would be very doable for an underground or partially underground house, we live on a mountain side, the biggest problem would be the rocks/boulders.

Haven't tried the cheese yet, the only thing we have tried so far is the beef chunks, and it was VERY GOOD! I'll post updates as I open up new cans. :)

Wretha

July 16, 2008 8:09 PM