When all else fails, dig a hole.
As a part time gardener, a thought occurs to me.
When you pile organic waste and food scraps together, at first you get a stinking heap of garbage which draws in flies and vermin, who if left unchallenged feast on the refuse, scattering it and leaving behind their own unwholesome waste in their passing. (This is where we stand now.)
But sometimes, through the tireless work of the smallest of creatures, breaking down the garbage one small bite after another over a long period of time you get compost. It’s not a quick process and often you have to stir the pile of waste up and turn it over to keep it working, but the end result can be a good thing. (This is what we now must do.)
Now compost by itself is fairly useless, but when forked into prepared ground you end up with rich and fertile soil. It is into this carefully prepared and fertile soil that a seed, if chosen carefully and nurtured with vigilance a healthy plant springs. Of course one must rip out the weeds and kill any pests that attempt to destroy the plant, but that’s all part of growing for the future. (This is what our long term goal should be.)
We didn’t get here over night and we won’t reinvigorate the once fertile soil of America without great sacrifice and long dark and toil filled days of thankless effort. But in the end, we can wear away at the garbage piled across this once great land until it is fertile and can support life once more.
We may none live to see this day, but perhaps those young ones around us will. Have faith and carry on. It’s not over yet.
Returning From Our Long Hiatus
Dear readers,
I don’t know if you noticed but, y’all, we’ve been gone so long. We will head back into our work on this site very soon. You know we miss you! We’ve just been so busy with things beyond our control.
If there is any review or topic that you want us to pursue, feel free to comment about it! We will check everything out. Dharmachick is our filter and editor. She will certainly be the one to bring it to our attention. We want to give a shout-out to a few previous commenters — thanks for the ideas! Continue Reading…
Did you know you can eat Maple Seeds?
Here’s a short, quick write up on the how of that subject.
http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Maple-Seeds
Mongo
A word on practicality
I have a lot on my mind these days. One of the foremost thoughts is that I’m bothered by my current situation and inability to invest in grandiose plans. That’s just something that I can’t do. So, I ask myself: What can I do?
The whole premise of this post is doing what one can do. In the very least, you want to be practical in your efforts to be as self-reliant as possible. Don’t go so big that you overwhelm yourself, then in the end, your efforts will have been wasted. Don’t break the bank, especially as in this economy we’re all struggling as hard as we can.
What can we do?
Something to think about…
A personal day of mourning and remembrance
While I am sick and was unable to attend the funeral, I didn’t want to infect everyone there, the family said goodbye to my aunt today. She had been sick for a long time and while her illness wasn’t a secret, it wasn’t something we would dwell upon so her passing was something of a surprise.
The older I get, the more people I lose. It’s depressing in its regularity, people who I thought of as ever-present in my life are winking out, one by one. I’ve lost both grandparents, several uncles, aunts, cousins, a child and come very close to losing immediate family members several times that it’s only through the hand of providence are they still here. Continue Reading…
Sharpening a knife without a stone.
How many ways can you sharpen a knife? Of course, there’s the conventional method with a purpose made sharpening stone, but here at OAT we never do anything the easy or expected way. That’s just too mundane. To really be treacherous, one must never allow themselves to do things the expected way.
Some of the unexpected tools for sharpening a knife are to be found in your kitchen. Some in your car, some in your pocket, and some in the yard. Each will do a serviceable job of bringing a dull knife back to a working edge with just a little work.
First, we go into the kitchen. The most likely candidate is a coffee cup. Continue Reading…
But for a spatula the world was lost!
Back to your regular program! Mongo’s Weekly Rant is here!
Lunch today was a grilled cheese sandwich. And while I was spreading butter onto slices of bread, I started thinking. Which for me is common, I often get contemplative when I’m hungry. Anyway, I started to wonder about just how complicated and involved the process of making something as simple as grilled cheese is.
I’m not even taking into account the use of an electric cook stove, the actual grilling could be done over a wood fire. What I’m talking about is the bread, the cheese, the butter and all of the things that have to be done by all the people who are involved in the food chain to get these items to us quickly enough that the foodstuffs are still fresh and edible. Continue Reading…
Prepper Blog Hop & The Able Prepper
It’s a gorgeous Spring day. I intend to unplug my boys from their Xbox and take them out. Mongo and Ghillie are resting from a hard night’s work of monkey labor. Until then, though, I have something for you.
I’m looking into the buzz about disabled preppers which covers a wide range of issues. This means disabled in any capacity, managing self-reliance, fully invested in preparedness, and/or being a disabled vet who served our country and firmly still believe in the rights of all people, as well as self-responsibility.
Continue Reading…
The Crew
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